The Elder Scrolls mobile game, The Elder Scrolls: Castles, is set to launch on 10th September.

The Elder Scrolls: Castles - which was quietly released into early access in September 2023 - is now open for pre-registration on both Apple and Android.

From the same "award-winning team" behind Fallout Shelter, The Elder Scrolls: Castles lets you reign supreme over your very own castle and dynasty within The Elder Scrolls universe.

Read more

Secret Level is a gaming-inspired anthology series coming to Prime Video on December 15. The upcoming Amazon title is from the same team behind Netflix's Love, Death and Robots. From the teaser released during Gamescom, this new project will be continuing the Blur Studio specialty for creating masterful animated works for an adult audience. The creative team was looking to inspire "nerd joy" with Love, Death and Robots and from the first glimpse, Secret Level seems like a natural progression of that goal.

Each of the 15 stories in the show are inspired by a different game. The official list of inspirations is: Armored Core, Concord, Crossfire, Dungeons & Dragons, Exodus, Honor of Kings, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, PAC-MAN, various PlayStation Studios games, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40,000.

Games feel like a natural inspiration for this type of animation showcase. The cinematics in some contemporary AAA titles have all the polish and emotion of standalone films. Plus, game-inspired television series have been reaching new levels of success in recent years thanks to projects like Fallout, The Last of Us and Arcane.

Tarsier Studios, creators of the first two Little Nightmares games, is back with another creepy adventure — and its “partially disemboweled talking pig” teaser video looks like it set the proper tone. Announced at Gamescom Opening Night, Reanimal takes two children on an adventure across land and sea as they work together to rescue their missing friends on an island filled with horrifying creatures.

The developer helmed the first two Little Nightmares installments before Supermassive Games took over for part III. The new game promises to up the ante with “a more terrifying journey than ever before.”

The horror-adventure game stars a brother and sister in an “unsettling tale” who “go through hell to rescue their missing friends.” The protagonists are described as broken but resilient, facing fragments of their troubled past in the guise of gruesome beasts. It will somehow explore themes of hope and redemption as they navigate the chilling environment.

Tarsier Studios / THQ Nordic

The game lets you play single-player or co-op (local and online). In an illustration of the creators’ understanding of the horror genre, it uses a shared, directed camera “to maximize claustrophobia and tension.”

Reanimal doesn’t yet have a launch date other than “coming soon,” but we know it will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. You can check out the announcement trailer below.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set in 1937, in the space between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, and it’s being developed by MachineGames, the studio behind the most recent Wolfenstein installments. So, of course the game’s main enemies are Nazis, and obviously it has a robust range of Nazi-punching mechanics. What makes The Great Circle intriguing, even after just a 30-minute hands-off preview, is its lighthearted interpretation of classic Indiana Jones tropes, leaning into the series’ humorous tone and adding twists like open-handed Nazi slapping to Indy’s repertoire.

When it comes to combat, Indiana has a whip, a revolver and his fists (or palms). His whip appears to be the most useful tool on his belt, allowing him to swing across gaps, activate levers, and pull in enemies nice and close for a one-two punch. Hitting a Nazi with the whip briefly incapacitates them while they’re reeled in, setting up an advantageous close-quarters melee situation. Hand-to-hand combat requires precise timing in order to land knockout combos or finishing moves, and on top of throwing punches and slaps, Indy is able to block and defensively parry. In fistfights, the game’s first-person perspective crops in extra tight, filling the screen with punchable Nazi surfaces and enhancing the tension behind each blow and dodge. He can also pick up objects and hit enemies with them, and in pre-recorded gameplay footage, it all looks supremely satisfying.

MachineGames

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just an action game, though. Many of its encounters can be approached with stealth mechanics, where players sneak past guards and perform silent takedowns without fisticuffs or gunfire at all. The revolver is really a last-ditch option in each scenario, game director Jerk Gustafsson and creative director Axel Torvenius said. Otherwise, puzzles are a pivotal component of gameplay.

Indiana is joined on his adventures by Gina, an Italian journalist who’s searching for her sister, and together they encounter a variety of logic and spatial puzzles. Some are quick, like finding an alternative entrance to a sealed room, and others are more involved, requiring a few minutes of focus to fully understand.

The preview focused on Giza, Egypt, showcasing bustling outdoor marketplaces, a depressing Nazi meeting room and a vibrant temple hidden beneath the sands of the Great Sphinx. Here, Indy and Gina had to catch the sunlight with a series of ancient mirrors, lining them up one by one until the beam bounced to the proper place. This particular puzzle room seemed straightforward and slightly clever (though maybe that’s just because The Mummy is one of my favorite childhood movies), but there are apparently more challenging riddles in the game, too. The most complex puzzles are hidden, requiring some light exploration in various regions, and they’re not necessary in order to complete the main storyline. These bonus riddles are just some of the many secrets to find around the game’s world.

MachineGames

“I don’t really like too difficult puzzles myself,” Gustafsson said. “I like to just enjoy the experience and not be so challenged by them. That said, we do have a mix [of puzzle difficulties] because I like a lot of variation. It’s not like we have some unique puzzle mechanic that goes across the entire game. We tried to create every puzzle in a different, unique way.”

There are also difficulty options for the puzzles overall, allowing players to choose how complex they’ll be throughout the entire game.

Indiana has a notebook that fills up with evidence, objectives and photos that he takes while investigating various relics around the globe. The camera is an essential tool in The Great Circle, and each snapped pic can unlock new clues and trails to follow. Indy also carries a lighter, which functions as a flashlight and can set stationary torches ablaze. His play style is customizable, with dozens of upgrades available as the game progresses. One potential upgrade is True Grit, an ability that allows him to recover from a fatal blow by crawling toward and grabbing his fedora within a certain amount of time. You know, classic Indiana Jones stuff.

MachineGames

I’ve seen some angry chatter online from people who don’t like the first-person perspective in The Great Circle, citing a desire to actually see Indiana as he does all this cool stuff, just like in the movies. I don’t think these people have much to worry about — not only are there plenty of cutscenes featuring Troy Baker’s utterly impressive 1980s Harrison Ford impression, but parts of the game are in third-person after all.

“When it comes to a character like Indiana Jones, I want to play the character and I want to be the character, I want to look through and explore the world through his eyes,” Gustafsson said. “To me that’s a very important part of what we do here. For me, it was a very easy choice. But also, we do mix in some third-person elements here. We have very much come back to our own history with games like Riddick and The Darkness where we also did this mix between first-person and third-person perspective. We do that for this game, too. Everything is not first-person, even though the core experience is in first-person.”

Torvenius added, “There’s a great opportunity here as well for us because we do have a large section of the game that is mystery, it’s solving puzzles, being up front and close to ancient relics and ruins and scriptures. So it adds an intimacy to the adventure to some aspect, that you can get really up and close and can really inspect things, which is actually pretty nice how it plays out in the game.”

MachineGames

Even in first-person scenes, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle looks, sounds and feels right so far. Baker’s Indiana Jones is nearly indistinguishable from the early film versions, his voice drawling and gravelly with a sarcastic bite. There’s a dry humor built into his interactions, as is fitting. In one scene, he’s introducing himself to a woman who has an intricately designed eye patch; she seems to be indigenous to the jungle they’re sitting in.

“I’m an archaeologist,” Indiana says.

“Another one,” she replies, clearly unimpressed.

It’s a quick moment from a short preview, but it sets a solid tone for the game as a whole: dry, lighthearted, and a little punch-drunk in between all the actual punching. Or you could say, a bit slap-happy amid all the slapping. Either way, these Nazis won't know what hit them.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC on December 9. It'll be available on Game Pass Ultimate, and it's also coming to PlayStation 5 in spring 2025.

We've got our first big announcement of Gamescom: Borderlands is back. Borderlands 4 is the next entry in the franchise from Gearbox Software and 2K Games. It's due to arrive in 2025.

There's no gameplay in the announcement video released today. While that's a touch disappointing, it isn't much of a surprise for a teaser trailer or for a release that is still likely at least a year away. (And that's assuming no delays.) But the Borderlands games are known for their polished first-person shooter experience, particularly in co-op, and for their sharp sense of humor. Hopefully both of those traits will be returning in full force with the new game.

What doesn't seem to be returning is the cartoony art style that was a hallmark of the previous three titles. The teaser looks more like it's advertising a prestige television science fiction series rather than the zany Borderlands world. But it's early days yet and the studio will surely be sharing more updates as the game progresses through development.

Gearbox was likely hoping to springboard this announcement off a wave of renewed interest in the series after the blockbuster movie adaptation this summer. But since that project was a disastrous disappointment, hopefully a new game will give fans of the series something fresh to be excited about.

Streaming posted another banner month in July, reaching multiple new milestones in the latest issue of The Gauge report from Nielsen. The big headline is that streaming was responsible for 41.4 percent of all TV viewing during the month. That's the highest share in the report's brief history for any viewing category, meaning streaming topped past performances for both broadcast and cable TV. The result follows on the heels of the previous record set by streaming in June.

The other big success story in the July report is for YouTube. The popular video platform hosted 10 percent of monthly TV usage, marking the first time a single streaming service has reached a double-digit share. Multiple other streaming sites hit their own personal bests for viewing share in July: Disney+ jumped up to a 2.1 percent viewing share and The Roku Channel hit 1.6 percent.

There are a couple takeaways from the range of record-setting performances in July. For starters, The Gauge only tracks viewing that happens on a TV screen, meaning no mobile or laptop viewing is included. Last month's results show how much streaming video's presence has expanded beyond just smartphones and tablets to challenge and surpass the options of traditional broadcast and cable TV.

Another notable factoid from Nielsen is that 10 different titles on streaming platforms surpassed 1 billion minutes of viewing in the first full week of July — another record. Seven different streaming companies had programs on that list, and they cover a broad spectrum of genres and audiences. The lineup was led by Netflix's action flick Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which secured 2.05 billion minutes of viewership between July 1 and July 7. TV series Suits (available on Peacock and Netflix) came second with just shy of 1.5 billion minutes viewed. House of the Dragon on Max, Your Honor on Netflix/Paramount+ and The Bear on Hulu rounded out the top five, each with more than 1.2 billion minutes viewed during that week. In other words, the next breakout hit for streaming could happen on any platform.

Once upon a time in the tail-end of the last century, there was something called the Y2K bug. This bit of computer code was supposed to herald a global robot apocalypse at the stroke of midnight when 1999 became the year 2000 because of, uh, clock dates or something. Anyways, nothing happened. Or did it?

That’s the premise behind A24’s new horror comedy, the appropriately-named Y2K. The film imagines a New Year’s Eve of 1999 in which the computers really did turn on humanity. It’s written and directed by SNL alum Kyle Mooney, who made the fantastic and underrated Brigsby Bear.

As you can see from the trailer, it’s a 1990s teen party comedy, like Can’t Hardly Wait, but also an apocalyptic horror film. This particular hodgepodge brings to mind This is the End, in which Seth Rogen and other celebrities fight off a demonic horde.

However, instead of a demonic horde, these teens will be fighting for their lives against VCRs, old-school computers and, of course, murderous Tamagotchis. Also, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst is somehow involved. The cast is composed primarily of unknown teenagers, but the adults are played by Tim Heidecker, Alicia Silverstone and Mooney himself. The movie hits theaters on December 6.

Waymo’s self-driving cars no longer honk when near each other, Waymo’s Director of Product and Operations Vishay Nihalani said yesterday when he appeared on software engineer Sophia Tung’s livestream. The vehicles were spotted honking at each other a few weeks ago, prompting Waymo to issue a software patch.

As reported by NBC Bay Area, residents living near the parking lot full of Waymo taxis reported that despite the patch going live, the taxis still honked at each other. Tung, who lived near the idling taxis, set up her live stream to capture the cacophony of honking vehicles.

No good stream is complete without a soundtrack, and Tung’s stream included lo-fi music in the vein of the ubiquitous “LoFi Girl" on YouTube. The title, “Self Driving Taxi Depot Shenanigans To Relax/Study To,” was an obvious tribute to the LoFi Girl channel. (And yes, she had permission to use the music.) Despite a fix being pushed out, the stream captured the cars continuing to honk at 4AM this past Saturday.

Nihalani joined the stream to speak to Tung about the ongoing honking. According to the director, the cars’ honking was an intentional feature for taxis cruising on public roads to avoid collisions, but honking at each other while idling in the parking lot was never intentional. The taxis have now all been updated to solve the issue.

The Waymo service is available for those living in San Francisco, Phoenix, and 79 square miles of Los Angeles, stretching from Santa Monica to Downtown. In May, the company announced that its taxis were making 50,000 paid trips per week. Back in San Francisco, though, you can still tune in to Tung’s chill livestream of a parking lot — just without the honking.

Lucasfilm has decided not to renew The Acolyte for a second season, according to Deadline and Variety. Fans won't get to see how the show was supposed to end and won't get to know how the plotlines its creator, Leslye Headland (Russian Doll), teased at the end of the first season would unravel. Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar called The Acolyte "Star Wars at its best" in his review, discussed how unique its premise was, and drew parallels between the series and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 

Deadline says the show had a strong start and garnered 4.8 million views in the first day it became available for streaming, reaching 11.1 million views after five days. However, viewership fell in the coming weeks, and its finale was reportedly the poorest performing finale for a Star Wars series. 

The Acolyte was a mystery-thriller story featuring a former Jedi trainee played by Amandla Stenberg, who's suspected of committing a series of crimes. Her former Jedi Master played by Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) now has to find her to get to the bottom of things. Manny Jacinto, who played the smuggler Qimir, gained a lot of attention online due to this shirtless scenes. It was revealed in the later episodes that he plays a bigger role in the story, and viewers were even supposed to learn his real name in the next season. 

The show is still available to watch on Disney+ for those who don't mind not getting closure for its story. 

The next entry in the Pacific Rim franchise could be an origin story for the universe, set before the events of the 2013 film by Guillermo del Toro. According to Variety, the franchise's producer Legendary Entertainment has signed a first-look TV deal with Eric Heisserer. One of the first projects he's developing with Carmen Lewis, his co-founder for his production company called Chronology, is a prequel series for Pacific Rim. Heisserer won several awards for his screenplay for Arrival, the Denis Villeneuve-directed sci-fi movie starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. He also wrote the script for the Netflix post-apocalyptic movie Bird Box, which starred Sandra Bullock. 

It sounds like the project is still in its very early stages, so we'll have to wait for its storyline and projected release date if it does get the green light. Seeing as it's supposed to be the Pacific Rim origin story, though, we may get to see the first kaijus emerging from the interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. We may also get to see how the first Jaegers, or the gigantic mechas controlled by human pilots to fight the alien monsters, were designed and created. 

The original Pacific Rim movie was followed by Pacific Rim Uprising, its 2018 sequel film that starred John Boyega and was directed by Steven S. DeKnight. If the series pushes through, it'll follow Pacific Rim: The Black, an anime series that streamed on Netflix in 2021 and 2021, which serves as the continuation of the two films.

Non-subscribers who open the Apple Music app on a new iPhone or iPad typically see an offer for a free month of the service. The trial was once three times as long, but Apple quietly shortened it in early 2022. But now through September 23, anyone new to Apple's music streaming service will get to try it out for free for three months. The deal only applies to first-time subscribers; if you've never succumbed to the music app's temptation, now is as good a time as any to check it out. Just keep in mind that the service will automatically renew for $11 per month after the trial ends. Be sure to cancel if you don't want to pay. 

Apple Music has a lot to offer. It's currently our top recommendation in our guide to the best music streaming services. We like its approach to recommendations, balancing a good amount of editorial playlists and stations with algorithmic suggestions. Every song is available at CD-quality or better and lossless streaming doesn't cost extra. 

For computer-picked listening, there's a "Discovery Station" that helps you find new music by playing songs you've never streamed before, both from artists you know and others the algorithm thinks you'll like. And, in my experience, saying, "Hey Siri, play me some Apple Music," produces pretty good mix of stuff I like that's novel enough to be interesting, but not so familiar I'm sick of hearing it. 

There are a few caveats to note about the service: It's really made for Apple devices, though its available on Android devices too. You won't find podcasts on Apple Music. And, aside from this deal, there's no free version of Apple Music. Pay your $11 monthly or listen elsewhere. 

As for the deal, we'll restate that it's only for new subscribers — previous subscribers and even those who've had access to Apple Music through a Family plan aren't eligible. You also have to sign up using the Apple Music app on an iPhone, Mac or iPad running the latest software. An Apple ID is also required. You can read all terms of the deal here. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Zoom just announced that webinar calls can now support up to one million simultaneous participants. This is happening after various political groups used the video conferencing platform to raise money for Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign, often by hosting calls with hundreds of thousands of people.

The company now offers various tiers to accommodate large events. Customers can choose from webinars that feature max capacities of 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K, and, of course, 1M attendees. These are single-use webinar packages that come with support from Zoom’s Event Services team to ensure a “professional, engaging experience” for all.

“Now event organizers have the flexibility and power to host truly interactive experiences on an unprecedented scale and the ability to purchase large single-use webinars,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom.

Despite being recently used for political fundraising, Zoom envisions a future in which these large-scale virtual events are common across the enterprise, entertainment and public sectors. The company says, for instance, that celebrities and entertainers can use these webinar capabilities to host fan meet-and-greets and other kinds of virtual events.

These events, however, don’t come cheap. Booking a one-time webinar for a million people will set you back a cool $100,000. That’s actually a good deal, as a webinar for 10,000 people costs $9,000, which is almost a dollar per person.

Before this change, Zoom only offered official support for up to 100,000 attendees. However, reporting by Bloomberg indicates that the company recently changed course so as to accommodate the aforementioned fundraising events.

This all started in July when an organization called Win with Black Women held a Zoom call with more than 40,000 attendees in which they raised $1.5 million for the Harris campaign. This was followed by White Dudes for Harris, with 190,000 attendees, and White Women for Harris, with 164,000 attendees.

This could be a lucrative new revenue source for Zoom. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that its stock sold for $560 per share before dropping to around $60 per share. This rapid decline was expected, as the world moved on from virtual meetings and started going outside again.

It’s that time of year again. Gamescom is nearly upon us. For the uninitiated, Gamescom is a huge gaming trade show held annually in Germany. This year, Microsoft has announced a major Xbox presence throughout the event. All told, four streams will highlight upcoming Xbox games.

The first is the opening night livestream. This stream isn’t Xbox-centric, but we’re expecting some relevant news during the keynote. The event kicks off on August 20 at 2PM ET and it will be available via the Gamescom YouTube page and the official Twitch page. The event’s website will also host a stream or, you know, just click play directly below this sentence.

After that, there will be three streams from Xbox, each focusing on a unique slate of upcoming games. You can watch all of them via the Xbox YouTube page or the official Twitch page. The company hasn’t said how long each stream will last, but it’ll be popping up individual trailers after the fact.

The first one goes down on August 21 at 9AM ET. Xbox has announced an array of games that’ll get covered here. These include Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the upcoming expansion Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Atomfall and the long-awaited Starfield DLC.

The next stream starts on August 22 at 9AM ET. This one will spotlight Star Wars Outlaws, which actually hits store shelves at the end of the month. The stream will also feature trailers or information for Towerborne, Little Nightmares 3 and Fallout 76: Milepost Zero, among others.

August 23 at 9AM ET brings the final stream. This is likely to be the most exciting one for many Xbox fans. There will be news about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Tails of Iron 2 and a whole lot more.

That’s it! Four streams. If the idea of remembering when and where to watch all of these events gives you the anxious sweats, just keep this page open. Beyond that, we’ll have separate posts for all of the big news from Gamescom.

Gamescom kicked off last night with its annual Opening Night Live showcase, bringing a range of game announcements, release dates and gameplay reveals for a range of upcoming titles.

Xbox and Take-Two dominated the Geoff Keighley-hosted presentation, which was livestreamed from Koelnmesse in Cologne. If you missed the full two-hour showcase, here are the main highlights:

GamesIndustry.biz will be reporting from Gamescom all week. You can keep up with our coverage right here.

Read more

The Sunday Times has published its first Gaming Rich List 2024, which includes the top 30 richest game developers and players in the UK.

Playrix founders Igor and Dmitry Bukhman topped the list, who have earned an estimated £12.54 billion. They also ranked at No.27 on The Sunday Times Rich List 2024.

Improbable co-founder and CEO Herman Narula came in second with £780 million, followed by King co-founder and former CEO Riccardo Zacconi at £410 million.

Read more

Enlarge / Still of Procreate CEO James Cuda from a video posted to X. (credit: Procreate)

On Sunday, Procreate announced that it will not incorporate generative AI into its popular iPad illustration app. The decision comes in response to an ongoing backlash from some parts of the art community, which has raised concerns about the ethical implications and potential consequences of AI use in creative industries.

"Generative AI is ripping the humanity out of things," Procreate wrote on its website. "Built on a foundation of theft, the technology is steering us toward a barren future."

In a video posted on X, Procreate CEO James Cuda laid out his company's stance, saying, "We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products. I don’t like what’s happening to the industry, and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists."

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

If good intentions created good laws, there would be no need for congressional debate.

I have no doubt the authors of this bill genuinely want to protect children, but the bill they've written promises to be a Pandora's box of unintended consequences.

The Kids Online Safety Act, known as KOSA, would impose an unprecedented duty of care on internet platforms to mitigate certain harms associated with mental health, such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.

While proponents of the bill claim that the bill is not designed to regulate content, imposing a duty of care on internet platforms associated with mental health can only lead to one outcome: the stifling of First Amendment–protected speech.

Today's children live in a world far different from the one I grew up in and I'm the first in line to tell kids to go outside and "touch grass."

With the internet, today's children have the world at their fingertips. That can be a good thing—just about any question can be answered by finding a scholarly article or how-to video with a simple search.

While doctors' and therapists' offices close at night and on weekends, support groups are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for people who share similar concerns or have had the same health problems. People can connect, share information, and help each other more easily than ever before. That is the beauty of technological progress.

But the world can also be an ugly place. Like any other tool, the internet can be misused, and parents must be vigilant in protecting their kids online.

It is perhaps understandable that those in the Senate might seek a government solution to protect children from any harms that may result from spending too much time on the internet. But before we impose a drastic, first-of-its-kind legal duty on online platforms, we should ensure that the positive aspects of the internet are preserved. That means we have to ensure that First Amendment rights are protected and that these platforms are provided with clear rules so that they can comply with the law.

Unfortunately, this bill fails to do that in almost every respect.

As currently written, the bill is far too vague, and many of its key provisions are completely undefined.

The bill effectively empowers the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate content that might affect mental health, yet KOSA does not explicitly define the term "mental health disorder." Instead, it references the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders…or "the most current successor edition."

Written that way, not only would someone looking at the law not know what the definition is, but even more concerning, the definition could change without any input from Congress whatsoever.

The scope of one of the most expansive pieces of federal tech legislation could drastically change overnight, and Congress may not even realize it until after it already happened. None of the people's representatives should be comfortable with a definition that effectively delegates Congress's legislative authority to an unaccountable third party.

Second, the bill would impose an unprecedented duty of care on internet platforms to mitigate certain harms, such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. But the legislation does not define what is considered harmful to minors, and everyone will have a different belief as to what causes harm, much less how online platforms should go about protecting minors from that harm.

The sponsors of this bill will tell you that they have no desire to regulate content. But the requirement that platforms mitigate undefined harms belies the bill's effect to regulate online content. Imposing a "duty of care" on online platforms to mitigate harms associated with mental health can only lead to one outcome: the stifling of constitutionally protected speech.

For example, if an online service uses infinite scrolling to promote Shakespeare's works, or algebra problems, or the history of the Roman Empire, would any lawmaker consider that harmful?

I doubt it. And that is because website design does not cause harm. It is content, not design, that this bill will regulate.

Last year, Harvard Medical School's magazine published a story entitled "Climate Anxiety; The Existential Threat Posed by Climate Change is Deeply Troubling to Many Young People." That article mentioned that among a "cohort of more than 10,000 people between the ages of 16 and 25, 60 percent described themselves as very worried about the climate and nearly half said the anxiety affects their daily functioning."

The world's most well-known climate activist, Greta Thunberg, famously suffers from climate anxiety. Should platforms stop her from seeing climate-related content because of that?

Under this bill, Greta Thunberg would have been considered a minor and she could have been deprived from engaging online in the debates that made her famous.

Anxiety and eating disorders are two of the undefined harms that this bill expects internet platforms to prevent and mitigate. Are those sites going to allow discussion and debate about the climate? Are they even going to allow discussion about a person's story overcoming an eating disorder? No. Instead, they are going to censor themselves, and users, rather than risk liability.

Would pictures of thin models be tolerated, lest it result in eating disorders for people who see them? What about violent images from war? Should we silence discussions about gun rights because it might cause some people anxiety?

What of online discussion of sexuality? Would pro-gay or anti-gay discussion cause anxiety in teenagers?

What about pro-life messaging? Could pro-life discussions cause anxiety in teenage mothers considering abortion?

In truth, this bill opens the door to nearly limitless content regulation, as people can and will argue that almost any piece of content could contribute to some form of mental health disorder.

In addition, financial concerns may cause online forums to eliminate anxiety-inducing content for all users, regardless of age, if the expense of policing teenage users is prohibitive.

This bill does not merely regulate the internet; it threatens to silence important and diverse discussions that are essential to a free society.

And who is empowered to help make these decisions? That task is entrusted to a newly established speech police. This bill would create a Kids Online Safety Council to help the government decide what constitutes harm to minors and what platforms should have to do to address that harm. These are the types of decisions that should be made by parents and families, not unelected bureaucrats serving as a Censorship Committee.

Those are not the only deficiencies of this bill. The bill seeks to protect minors from beer and gambling ads on certain online platforms, such as Facebook or Hulu. But if those same minors watch the Super Bowl or the PGA tour on TV, they would see those exact same ads.

Does that make any sense? Should we prevent online platforms from showing kids the same content they can and do see on TV every day? Should sports viewership be effectively relegated to the pre-internet age?

And even if it were possible to shield minors from every piece of content that might cause anxiety, depression, or eating disorders, that is still not enough to comply with the KOSA. That is because KOSA requires websites to treat differently individuals that the platform knows or should know are minors.

That means that media platforms who earnestly try to comply with the law could be punished because the government thinks it "should" have known a user was a minor.

This bill, then, does not just apply to minors. A should-have-known standard means that KOSA is an internet-wide regulation, which effectively means that the only way to comply with the law is for platforms to verify ages.

So adults and minors alike better get comfortable with providing a form of ID every time they go online. This knowledge standard destroys the notion of internet privacy.

I've raised several questions about this bill. But no one, not even the sponsors of the legislation, can answer those questions honestly, because they do not know the answer. They do not know how overzealous regulators or state attorneys general will enforce the provisions in this bill. They do not know what rules the FTC may come up with to enforce its provisions.

The inability to answer those questions is the result of several vague provisions of this bill, and once enacted into law, those questions will not be answered by the elected representatives in Congress, they will be answered by bureaucrats who are likely to empower themselves at the expense of our First Amendment rights.

There are good reasons to think that the courts will strike down this bill. They would have a host of reasons to do so. Vagueness pervades this bill. The most meaningful terms are undefined, making compliance with the bill nearly impossible. Even if we discount the many and obvious First Amendment violations inherent in this bill, the courts will likely find this bill void for vagueness.

But we should not rely on the courts to save America from this poorly drafted bill. The Senate should have rejected KOSA and forced the sponsors to at least provide greater clarity in their bill. The Senate, however, was dedicated to passing a KOSA despite its deficiencies.

KOSA contains too many flaws for any one amendment to fix the legislation entirely. But the Senate should have tackled the most glaring problem with KOSA—that it will silence political, social, and religious speech.

My amendment merely stated that no regulations made under KOSA shall apply to political, social, or religious speech. My amendment was intended to address the legitimate concern that this bill threatens free speech online. If the supporters of this legislation really do want to leave content alone, they would have welcomed and supported my amendment to protect political, social, and religious speech.

But that is not what happened. The sponsors of the bill blocked my amendment from consideration and the Senate was prohibited from taking a vote to protect speech.

That should be a lesson about KOSA. The sponsors did not just silence debate in the Senate. Their bill will silence the American people.

KOSA is a Trojan horse. It purports to protect our children by claiming limitless ability to regulate speech and depriving them of the benefits of the internet, which include engaging with like-minded individuals, expressing themselves freely, as well as participating in debates among others with different opinions.

Opposition to this bill is bipartisan, from advocates on the right to the left.

A pro-life organization, Students for Life Action, commented on KOSA, stating, "Once again, a piece of federal legislation with broad powers and vague definitions threatens pro-life speech…those targeted by a weaponized federal government will almost always include pro-life Americans, defending mothers and their children—born and preborn."

Student for Life Action concluded its statement by stating: "Already the pro-life generation faces discrimination, de-platforming, and short and long term bans on social media on the whims of others. Students for Life Action calls for a No vote on KOSA to prevent viewpoint discrimination from becoming federal policy at the FTC."

The ACLU brought more than 300 high school students to Capitol Hill to urge Congress to vote no on KOSA because, to quote the ACLU, "it would give the government the power to decide what content is dangerous to young people, enabling censorship and endangering access to important resources, like gender identity support, mental health materials, and reproductive healthcare."

Government mandates and censorship will not protect children online. The internet may pose new problems, but there is an age-old solution to this issue. Free minds and parental guidance are the best means to protect our children online.

The post Censoring the Internet Won't Protect Kids appeared first on Reason.com.

Last week, Bethesda released a remastered edition of Doom and Doom II on Steam, with lots of extra episodes and improvements. One of these new features is a built-in browser for mods, and support for many existing mods that previously required a different version of the game. Basically, lots of good fan-made mods are now playable on the Steam version of ye olde Doom. That's neat! Ah, but there is some demon excrement on the health pack, so to speak. The mod browser lacks moderation and lets people upload the work of others with their own name pinned as the author. That's prompted one level designer to call it "a massive breach of trust and violation of norms the Doom community has done its best to hold to for those 30 years."

Read more

Last week, Bethesda released a remastered edition of Doom and Doom II on Steam, with lots of extra episodes and improvements. One of these new features is a built-in browser for mods, and support for many existing mods that previously required a different version of the game. Basically, lots of good fan-made mods are now playable on the Steam version of ye olde Doom. That's neat! Ah, but there is some demon excrement on the health pack, so to speak. The mod browser lacks moderation and lets people upload the work of others with their own name pinned as the author. That's prompted one level designer to call it "a massive breach of trust and violation of norms the Doom community has done its best to hold to for those 30 years."

Read more

Overwatch 2 has a lot of heroes on its roster. With Juno, the Martian support character joining the game in season 12, the hero shooter now has 41 different heroes for players to choose from. Spreading the love equally between all of them as far as skins and other cosmetics go is a tall order, one that would be…

Read more...

The Catwoman movie turned 20 years old recently and its star, Halle Berry, has been celebrating the critically panned superhero flick’s anniversary. In fact, she’s said she’s even down to return to the role and make another one, but this time she’d want to lead the film behind the camera, too.

Read more...

Steam store page – Wikipedia – Official website

So, when I’m writing this, it is 2024. I turned 31 years old back in February. I still love playing video games and surfing the internet since I was a young lad. Besides that, I also have a fascination for anything that has to do with dreams and their meanings. And then a game called Hypnospace Outlaw turns up on my radar. A game that promises to bring back the early years of the internet that I remember. Not only that, we are going to have to moderate the internet with a new technology that allows people to surf the internet while they are dreaming. We have to play as an unnamed enforcer to keep the internet safe and on top of that, we can create our own pages and mod this game easily. But before we start spending time on that, let’s find out if the base game is actually good and if it’s worth to start playing this game or if it’s something we should skip. Also, feel free to leave your thoughts and/or opinions on this article and/or the game in the comment section down below. Besides, dear enforcer and MerchantSoft, this isn’t harassment, this is a fair review/critique of the game. Removing this from HypnoOS isn’t the solution.

Dreaming Up Nostalgic Investigations

In this game, you play as an unnamed enforcer for MerchantSoft. A company that developed a headband that allows users to surf the web in their dreams. Your goal is to clean up the HypnoSpace for everybody. You start in late 1999, where your first case is assigned. When your first case is assigned, you are left to your own devices, and you can explore the internet by yourself. And let me tell you, there is a lot of internet to explore.

The story of this game is fascinating. You get to dive and explore through various pages on the internet about various things. A long time before social media was a thing and everybody had a website for their own creations. The HypnoSpace has several zones, with each their own theme. If you remember AOL, you will know what I’m talking about.

If you want to get the most out of this game, I highly advise you to take your time with this game. Don’t rush it at all. This game is sadly rather short if you only follow the main story of the game. It’s only 6 hours long and shorter if you know what you are doing. I mean, the speedruns are only around 11 minutes. The strength of this game is the depth it has. This game has three main chapters, and there are clear triggers that separate the chapters.

The deeper you dig and the more you read up, the more interesting lore gets revealed. I actually started a second playthrough to try and find the things I missed. And honestly, this game is one that gets ruined by playing it with a guide in any sort or form. Do not play this game with a guide. It’s a lot less rewarding if you play it with a guide in your first or second playthrough. The wonder of getting lost in all of these pages is just so nostalgic.

Now, while I was playing, I was wondering if it would appeal to the younger players out there. I’m somewhat on the fence about that. While it tackles a lot of subjects that are still somewhat relevant, I honestly think that it’ll mostly click with those who grew up with the internet of the ’90 to early ’00. With that said, I think that it still might click with the younger people, but know that the internet was very different back then.

Point-And-Click Detective

This game is a point-and-click adventure game in any sense of the word. You get a case, and you have to explore the internet to see if anyone broke the rules or not.

Each infraction you find, will reward you with HypnoCoin. You can use these coins to buy various things in the Hypnospace. This can go from stickers, wallpapers, themes, applications to so much more. But be careful, it’s quite possible that some of these downloads are infected with malware. And back then, malware was a lot more visual and less aimed at serving you a lot of ads or stealing your information.

The controls of this game are quite easy. You mostly click with your mouse and input things sometimes in the search bar. If you know how to do basic things with a computer, you’ll very quickly find your way around with this game as well. While I sometimes struggled with opening apps, I didn’t have too much trouble with the controls. Thankfully, there are some options to tweak the controls to your liking, like disabling that double-clicking opens apps. But, I’m a Windows user and the double click to open apps is just hardwired in my brain.

Visually, this game really looks like you are playing with the old internet. When I noticed that there was a mod that changed the OS into Windows 95, oh boy, I was sold. There are various themes for the OS in this game, and they go from amazing to silly. There is even a fast food theme. Now, if you read that this game is mostly created by a team of 5 people, it’s even more impressive. Not only that, one of the main designers of Dropsy is part of the team.

The creativity of this game never ceased to amaze me. Let me continue on the trend of the visuals and say that the little details on how the webpages look is just so realistic. The little typo’s here and there, the rabbit holes you can jump down, the crazy visuals on various pages… Even the “help me, I can’t remove this” and “Test 1 2 3″… I made me crack up and remember my early days when I used to write webpages in plain HTML with barely any coding knowledge as a young teen.

While I knew that wiggling the mouse sped up the loading of the webpages, I just never really did. I just enjoyed the webpages loading slowly and having that experience again when I was a teenager before Facebook or any other big social media started to take over. Yes, even before MySpace. While I only experienced the late “pre-social media internet”, I do have amazing memories of it.

On top of that, you have the amazing wallpapers and sticker packs you can buy and play around with. With this, you can really make your desktop your own. But, something that really triggered memories for me were the viruses you can encounter. Back as a young teen, I was a lot less careful in what I downloaded and seeing the visual mess some viruses can create in this game, it triggered some nasty memories.

Memories like how one time, I got a very nasty variant of the SASSER worm and each time I installed something new, my computer would lock up and crash. Yes, even when you tried to re-install Windows, it locked up and crashed the installer. After a lot of digging, I found that it was caused by a program starting with boot and I had to screw out my hard drive, connect it with somebody’s computer and then remove the start-up file from there. I also had a piece of malware that looked like the ButtsDisease virus in this game. Where it started to change all the text on a webpage to another word. Oh man, those were the days.

So, during your investigations you can encounter various things. Things like people breaking the rules, and you have to report those. You mostly need to focus on one of 5 categories. Copyright infringement, harassment, illegal downloads/malware, extra illegal commerce and illegal activity. Each law gets several infractions, and you do have to look for them. At one moment, I really that to take notes. I really have to say, taking notes for this game is really helpful, you even have the notes’ app in HypnoOS.

Sticking in your brain

Now, something I have to commend the developers for in this game is that they also took accessibility into account. Something I have to commend the developers for as well is the amount of content in this game, even when the main story is extremely short. I already talked about the visuals and how much I love them, but the music in this game is something else.

Some of the music tracks are really stuck in my mind and I wouldn’t be surprised that if I ever write another article in my favorite game music series, some of them will pop up in that. Some tracks are real earworms and got stuck in my brain. The music for some of the parody products in this game is so good, that I wish they were real.

The music in this game is a mixture of various styles, and I find some of them more catchy than the others, but it’s really impressive at how many styles there are in this game. If you know that this game has over 4 hours of music in it, that’s an amazing feat.

There is even a whole suite where you can create your own pages, music and mods released by one of the main developers of this game. It works only on Windows and you can read more about it on the itch.io page of Jay Tolen here. There were even various community events where your stuff could appear as an Easter egg in the main game. Yet, these tools are now part of the main game and are in your installation folder.

Speaking about this, modding this game is extremely easy. There is even a build in mod browser, and it’s a piece of cake to install and downloads mods. If you use the in-game mod menu, you don’t have to reboot the game for most mods to take effect. Just go to the main menu, choose the mods button and install the mods you want. Now, there are a lot more mods out there then just what you can find in the in-game mod browser, so check them out here.

The game has an autosave, it doesn’t really show when the game gets saved. There are three save slots, so if you want to replay the game, you can pick another save slot. Now, if there is one mod I highly advise is he expanded endgame cases mod. This mod expands the game quite naturally and is a lot of fun and additional challenge. But don’t read the description when you haven’t finished the game, since it contains quite a lot of spoilers.

This game can be quite tricky. Sometimes the solution isn’t the easiest to find. It’s even possible you don’t find the solution to every puzzle out there. Now, there is a built in hint system for this game. It’s somewhat hidden to avoid immersion breaking, but for a small HypnoCoin fee, you can get a hint to progress. I really love this system, since I rather have you getting a crowbar to get yourself unstuck than you getting a guide where it’s very easy to other things and spoil the whole experience. Since the fun of this genre depends highly on solving the puzzles with what’s given to you. If you want to get a hint, just search hint.

Overall I have been extremely positive about this game, and I have to say that overall this game is extremely well-made. I rarely found any moments where I thought, this isn’t right. But does that mean that this game doesn’t have any negatives? Well, sadly enough there are a few things I didn’t like about my experience and that I want to talk about.

First of all, I wish the default text-to-speech voice wasn’t the default language of your system if you aren’t English. I’m from Belgium and my text-to-speech voice reads English extremely weird. Thankfully, I had the English soundpack installed on my computer so after I went into the BIOS settings, I was able to quickly change it to the English one and it sounds a lot more natural and better.

Secondly, this is an issue in general with point-and-click games but the replay value just isn’t here. Once you explored everything, you have seen everything. There are various mini-games, but those are quickly beaten. While I personally don’t really see this is a negative, since not every game needs high replay value and sometimes playing it once and having the whole experience engulf you is the idea… I want to mention it, if somebody is looking for replayable games.

Third, you can find more infractions than what’s required to close the case. While I can understand that the game doesn’t tell you how many other things there are out there for immersion reasons, as somebody who wanted to experience everything, I was sometimes a bit annoyed that I couldn’t make sure I found everything. If only there was an option you could toggle to see completion percentage or something of that nature. Since, because of this, it’s possible to lock yourself out of achievements or content in this game.

Yes, this game has achievements and some of them are extremely tricky to get. It took me a lot of researching and exploring in HypnoSpace to find all the material. Thankfully, taking notes really helped me to find it all.

And the final thing is that the final chapters of this game feel a bit rushed and undercooked. One of the final cases is a breeze to solve if you have written notes during your playthrough and it feels like there is content cut out of the game. The ending comes a bit out of nowhere and if you didn’t explore everything or didn’t register certain things, the ending won’t make sense to you and it will loose it’s impact. Thankfully, the mod I shared earlier resolves this to a degree.

That’s all the negative I could say about this game, in my honest opinion. When this game clicks with you, it clicks really well and doesn’t let go at all. But, I’ll leave my final thoughts after the summary of this review. So, I think it’s high time for that since I have touch upon everything I wanted to in this review.

Summary

The bad:

-Text-to-speech should use English by default

-It’s possible to miss content or lock yourself out of it.

-The game is rather short.

-Rushed ending.

The good:

+ Amazing nostalgic trip

+ Amazing music

+ Fantastic writing

+ Easy to use mod tools

+ Great puzzles

+ Great controls

+ …

Final thoughts:

Hypnospace Outlaw is an amazing nostalgic point-and-click adventure trip through the late ’90’s internet. This game might not be for everyone, but when it clicks… Oh boy does it really click. Now, this is also a game you shouldn’t rush. The charm of this game is in all the little details and references that are hidden in the pages and the world building of this game.

While the game is rather at the shortside for point-and-click games, I don’t see it as a big problem to be honest. The journey that this game took me on was a lot more worth it to me than having a long game. Since, I think it would have lost it’s charm if this game kept going and going.

While I personally have more memories with the internet time period that came right after it, the developers are already working on the sequel to this game called Dreamsettler. I honestly can’t wait to play that one, since the quality that this game has is just top notch. The music is catchy, the visuals are amazing and it alls comes together in an amazing nostalgic trip that makes you want to play more.

There are some minor blemishes on this game, but you can work with them. Like I said before, when this game clicks, it really does click extremely well. I’d compare my experience with games like There Is No Game or SuperLiminal. Amazing small titles that leave a lasting impact on those who play it. All of these games are passion projects that turned out amazing and get a recommendation from me.

If you enjoy playing unique point-and-click games and/or if you have nostalgia for the old ’90’s internet, I highly recommend that you give this game a try. While this game is on multiple platforms, I highly recommend that you play the PC version since it has mod support that gives you even more toys to play with and expands the game even more.

I had a blast with this game and it’s a breath of fresh air for me. I’m angry at myself that I rushed my playthrough, but now I have installed several mods and I’m so going to replay this game after I have published this article. I also want to earn every achievement in this game, since I really want to see everything. I’m also extremely hyped for the sequel to this game and I can’t wait to start playing that, since that is going to be an even bigger nostalgic trip for me than this game. And with the amazing set of developers behind this game, I think we get another gem in our hands.

And with that said, I think it’s high time to wrap this article up. I want to thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Score: 100/100

The latest episode of The GamesIndustry.biz Microcast is available to download now, with a video version due tomorrow.

This week's packed episode covers the key takeaways so far from the latest financials season, included expected declines at Nintendo and Electronic Arts (and why 2023 is such a tough comparison year to follow), as well as Activision Blizzard's ongoing boost to Microsoft's results.

We also discuss the Bungie layoffs and the latest US monthly spending figures, with Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree helping to offset the potential year-on-year decline.

Read more

Skydance Games has partnered with Plaion to publish Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra when it debuts next year.

The game was unveiled earlier this year during GDC, and features both Captain America and Black Panther in a World War II setting. It is being developed by Skydance New Media, the studio led by Naughty Dog alum and Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig, as well as her fellow co-president Julian Beak.

While the specific devices have yet to be confirmed, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is due to launch some time in 2025.

Read more

The upcoming movie adaptation of Bioshock has seen its budget slashed as Netflix focuses on making it a smaller, "more personal" project.

Variety reports the revelations come from a Thursday panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, where the film's producer Roy Lee said the BioShock project was being "reconfigured" following a change in leadership at the streaming firm.

In March, Netflix named Dan Lin as its new film boss, with the producer of the company's live action Avatar: The Last Airbender remake replacing Scott Stuber, who was in charge when the BioShock film was announced back in 2022.

Read more

SDCC 2024 has given fans from every corner of the world something to be excited about – especially anime fans. As part of Viz Media’s panel, one of the biggest news the publisher shared with fans was the official anime adaptation announcement for Rooster Fighter by Shu Sakuratani.

After beginning serialization in 2020, Rooster Fighter quickly went viral for its hilarious premise, and its self-aware humor.

Rooster Fighter’s Anime Adaptation Helped Sakuratani Fulfill a Lifelong Dream

After announcing that the Rooster Fighter anime would be airing on Adult Swim, being produced by Sanzigen and Sola Entertainment, the mangaka shared his thoughts on the adaptation, stating:

Ever since becoming a manga artist, my biggest goal was to have my work adapted into an anime. So, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see my dream come true! This is all thanks to my readers’ continued support and Hero’s and VIZ Media’s contributions. I extend my gratitude to all of you.

Shu Sakuratani

He continued, saying this about his action comedy series:

I believe Rooster Fighter is very blessed. We have the best director, the best writer, the best production staff, and the best voice actors all working together to create the best anime. As the original creator, I am ecstatic! I can’t wait to see Keiji and the gang come to life on TV. I hope that everyone out there will enjoy this anime where chickens take center stage!

Shu Sakuratani

The upcoming anime will be directed by Daisuke Suzuki, previously known for his work on D4DJ Double Mix and 009 Re:Cyborg. Series composition will be handled by Hiroshi Seko, whose credits include Attack on Titan, Mob Psycho 100, and Jujutsu Kaisen.

While fans are still waiting on an official release date, the mangaka’s enthusiasm has the community excited to see what’s to come from the series when it finally airs on Adult Swim.

In the latest example of a troubling industry pattern, NVIDIA appears to have scraped troves of copyrighted content for AI training. On Monday, 404 Media’s Samantha Cole reported that the $2.4 trillion company asked workers to download videos from YouTube, Netflix and other datasets to develop commercial AI projects. The graphics card maker is among the tech companies appearing to have adopted a “move fast and break things” ethos as they race to establish dominance in this feverish, too-often-shameful AI gold rush.

The training was reportedly to develop models for products like its Omniverse 3D world generator, self-driving car systems and “digital human” efforts.

NVIDIA defended its practice in an email to Engadget. A company spokesperson said its research is “in full compliance with the letter and the spirit of copyright law” while claiming IP laws protect specific expressions “but not facts, ideas, data, or information.” The company equated the practice to a person’s right to “learn facts, ideas, data, or information from another source and use it to make their own expression.” Human, computer… what’s the difference?

YouTube doesn’t appear to agree. Spokesperson Jack Malon pointed us to a Bloomberg story from April, quoting CEO Neal Mohan saying using YouTube to train AI models would be a “clear violation” of its terms. “Our previous comment still stands,” the YouTube policy communications manager wrote to Engadget.

That quote from Mohan in April was in response to reports that OpenAI trained its Sora text-to-video generator on YouTube videos without permission. Last month, a report showed that the startup Runway AI followed suit.

NVIDIA employees who raised ethical and legal concerns about the practice were reportedly told by their managers that it had already been green-lit by the company's highest levels. “This is an executive decision,” Ming-Yu Liu, vice president of research at NVIDIA, replied. “We have an umbrella approval for all of the data.” Others at the company allegedly described its scraping as an “open legal issue” they’d tackle down the road.

It all sounds similar to Facebook’s (Meta’s) old “move fast and break things” motto, which has succeeded admirably at breaking quite a few things. That included the privacy of millions of people.

In addition to the YouTube and Netflix videos, NVIDIA reportedly instructed workers to train on movie trailer database MovieNet, internal libraries of video game footage and Github video datasets WebVid (now taken down after a cease-and-desist) and InternVid-10M. The latter is a dataset containing 10 million YouTube video IDs.

Some of the data NVIDIA allegedly trained on was only marked as eligible for academic (or otherwise non-commercial) use. HD-VG-130M, a library of 130 million YouTube videos, includes a usage license specifying that it’s only meant for academic research. NVIDIA reportedly brushed aside concerns about academic-only terms, insisting their batches were fair game for its commercial AI products.

To evade detection from YouTube, NVIDIA reportedly downloaded content using virtual machines (VMs) with rotating IP addresses to avoid bans. In response to a worker’s suggestion to use a third-party IP address-rotating tool, another NVIDIA employee reportedly wrote, “We are on [Amazon Web Services](#) and restarting a [virtual machine](#) instance gives a new public IP[.](#) So, that’s not a problem so far.”

404 Media’s full report on NVIDIA’s practices is worth a read.

National Geographic is no stranger to new media. The network has produced a slew of immersive virtual reality experiences, 360 degree videos, and even its own "Space Projection Helmets" for its big-budget show One Strange Rock. Today, it's finally delivering its first immersive experience for the Apple Vision Pro: A Disney+ environment featuring Iceland's Thingvellir National Park. Now you can sit back and watch The Avengers in 3D amid pristine white snow, towering rock formations and a clear blue sky (or a star-filled on at night). Alongside that film, Disney+ is also adding 3D versions of The Age of Ultron and the first two Ant-Man movies today.

While standing in the middle of a snow-filled park isn't as adventurous as, say, rowing a kayak through Arctic waters in VR, the environment shows that Nat Geo isn't completely ignoring the Vision Pro. Apple's headset has sorely lacked truly immersive experiences, outside of the "Encounter Dinosaurs" demo it shipped with, as well as Marvel's What If...? 

I'm not holding my breath for a big-budget National Geographic experience only meant for the Vision Pro, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Nat Geo could reconfigure some of its existing VR projects to work on the Vision Pro, or even adapt One Strange Rock's unique helmet projection view. (I'd bet money only very few people ever saw the footage in that form.) 

Ahead of the full release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and more, Apple continues to bring updates to the betas it's made available to early testers. Today, the company has dropped the fifth developer beta to those platforms, and with it comes a few changes to Safari and Photos. Specifically, Apple's browser is getting some tools that could make surfing today's cluttered and overwhelming web pages a lot less distracting, with something called Distraction Control. 

Is Safari's Distraction Control an ad blocker?

To be clear, this isn't intended to be an ad blocker. It's for parts of a page that distract you, like an overlay asking you to subscribe or even requests to use cookies. When you land on a website, you can press the Page Menu button in the Search field (where the Reader and Viewer buttons are). There, you can tap "Hide Distracting Items" and go on to choose which parts of a page you want to filter out. Subsequently, that part will be blocked on that domain moving forward on repeated visits.

There are a few important caveats, though. The first time you click on Distraction Control, Apple will inform you that it won't permanently remove ads or other areas where content might change or get updated. Since on-page banner ads usually refresh on each visit, this renders Distraction Control useless for those elements. 

You'll also be the one selecting which parts of the site to hide, and there's no artificial intelligence automatically detecting which components might be deemed distracting. You'll see a blue outline over certain areas and can tap to select them. According to Apple, nothing will be hidden unless a user proactively selects it. You'll also be able to unhide items afterwards, by going back to the hide icon in the search field and choosing "Show hidden items."

If something you've chosen to block, like a headline or an ad, has changed in any way, it will resurface upon your next visit. 

How does Distraction Control handle those pesky GDPR cookie requests?

Theoretically, you would also be able to use Distraction Control to hide the dialogs with the GDPR-stipulated cookies permission requests. If you choose to block those, the website would just be told you closed its request without an answer. Based on the legal requirements in different regions, the website would then have to proceed based on that information. 

It's not yet clear how Distraction Control will handle paywalls, especially since there are different ways that content is protected. 

The fifth developer beta also brings with it features that were teased at WWDC, like a redesigned Reader and Highlights, which brings up summarized information from a website like a business' hours or phone number. There's also a new Viewer experience that works when Safari detects a video on the page and puts in front and center. It'll also give you system playback controls in this mode, including picture-in-picture. 

If you're curious about how the new tools and Distraction Control work, you can run Apple's developer beta. Just know that since you'll be opting in to preview software, there may be bugs or quirks, so make sure to backup your data before you proceed. According to the information accompanying the iOS 18 beta 5 update, it requires 7.11GB of storage, too.

Update, August 5 2024, 1:31PM ET: This story has been updated to clarify that hiding distracting items only applies to that specific domain moving forward, and not all websites across the internet.

HBO has released the first teaser for The Last of Us season two and while short, it offers clues as to what we can expect when the series debuts in 2025. It starts off with Joel (Pedro Pascal) in conversation with a new character played by Catherine O'Hara (seemingly his therapist), reckoning with his past actions. "Did you hurt her?" she asks. "I saved her," he replies. 

On top of O'Hara's unknown role, we see other characters for the first time including Kaitlyn Dever's Abby, Jeffrey Wright reprising his video game voice role as Isaac, and Dina, played by Isabela Merced. Meanwhile, Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) appear briefly in some intense action scenes.

As revealed last year, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann decided to split the events from The Last of Us Part II video game into two seasons, since the story was far more complex than the original. The second season will be just seven episodes to create a natural break, while the third season will be "significantly larger," they said. 

The original series mostly followed the events of the game, with some smart deviations and changes. Expect more of the same for season two, though the teaser already shows one significant divergence. In the game, Joel only confesses the events that occurred at the hospital to his brother, but here, he's telling O'Hara's character. 

The teaser appeared as part of HBO's Coming to Max trailer, along with previews for The Penguin, Dune: Prophecy, It: Welcome to Derry, and our first peek at A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the next Game of Thrones spinoff. 

In this installment of What We're Listening To, Engadget's Weekend Editor Cheyenne MacDonald dives into the new releases she's been enjoying lately.

Francesca Wexler - I Dreamt I Found a Red Ruby

Every once in a while, “the algorithm” actually does right by me. While scrolling through my Instagram feed sometime in the last month or so, a suggested Reel from artist Francesca Wexler popped up, and I couldn’t help but get pulled in by her captivating flow. Her style isn’t so easy to nail down to a single genre, but would fit under the alt hip-hop umbrella — she described her work in one instance as “psychedelic rap.”

Some songs on Wexler’s latest album, I Dreamt I Found a Red Ruby, have almost an ethereal quality to them, like its opening and closing tracks, “Heaven on Earth” and “Moonwalking.” The upbeat and catchy “Ain’t I” hits like a sunny day. But there are darker, harder moments too in songs like “Amphetamine Man” that really show off Wexler’s depth as a rapper. With I Dreamt I Found a Red Ruby, it’s evident that Wexler is an artist that shouldn’t be slept on.

Orville Peck - Stampede

Orville Peck didn’t make us wait long for a full album after dropping Stampede: Volume 1 in May. On Friday, the country artist released the duets album in its entirety, and even though it hasn’t been a full three days yet since it came out, I can already tell it’s going to dominate my Most Listened playlists for the foreseeable future.

Stampede sees Peck collaborating with country legends and emerging artists alike, and genre-wise, there’s a little of everything in there. On top of the songs I shouted out from the first half, the rest of Stampede brings a bunch of new bangers, my favorites including “Back At Your Door” featuring Debbii Dawson, “Papa Was a Rodeo” featuring Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, and “You’re an Asshole, I Can’t Stand You (and I Want a Divorce)” featuring Margo Price.

Honorable mention: Street Cleaner 

I recently set out looking for music that sounds like it could be straight out of an ‘80s horror/thriller movie, and Reddit pointed me to Street Cleaner. Well let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Street Cleaner, whose style is described on Bandcamp as being a “theatrical and grimey take on synth music,” has become my go-to artist to pop on when I need to get some work done or otherwise be locked in. 

There isn’t a particular song or album I've latched onto — I just throw the entire discography on and let it get me in the zone. Street Cleaner released some new music in April, though, and that's as good a place as any to start your listening journey. The artist apparently also made a video game, which I fully plan on checking out.

Apple pulled the latest short film in its The Underdogs: OOO (Out of Office) series set in Thailand. The tech giant scrubbed it over complaints about stereotypical portrayals of Thailand and its people in certain scenes.

The Bangkok Post reports that Apple issued an apology to the people of Thailand for the fifth film in its Underdogs series. The ad series features a group of travel weary office workers navigating the world using Apple’s various products.

Several viewers posted comments criticizing the film’s use of a sepia filter to make Thailand seem underdeveloped. The comments also called out the costuming and scenery decisions in its airport scene using outdated representations of Thailand’s citizens.

Sattra Sripan, the spokesman for the Thai House of Representatives’ committee on tourism, called for a boycott over the ad.

“Thai people are deeply unhappy with the advertisement,” Sripan said in a statement. “I encourage Thai people to stop using Apple products and change to other brands.”

Apple issued an apology for the ad shortly after pulling it off of YouTube. Lawmakers have also invited Apple representatives to visit with them to discuss the ads and how they portray Thailand on film.

“Our intent was to celebrate the country’s optimism and culture, and we apologize for not fully capturing the vibrancy of Thailand today,” the statement read.

This is the second time this year that Apple has apologized for a commercial. Apple pulled an ad back in May that it told AdAge “missed the mark” for its new thin iPad Pro. The commercial features a giant pneumatic press crushing a large collection of items used in or to represent creative endeavors such musical instruments, paints, a generic arcade cabinet, and camera equipment. The steel crusher smooshes everything flat and lifts up to reveal an intact iPad sitting on the lower steel block that a voiceover describes as “the most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.”

Artists, musicians and other creators took offense to the ad’s implied tone that generative AI would replace human artistic endeavors. Apple vowed not to air the ad on TV but it’s still on its YouTube page with the comments section disabled.

A guest who appeared on the No Jumper podcast to boast about a hack and payback scheme involving his victims’ social media accounts could face federal charges. Idriss Qibaa, also known as “Dani” and “Unlocked” who authorities allege ran the social media hacking site Unlocked4Life.com, faces two criminal felony counts filed by the US Attorney's Office in Nevada for allegedly violating interstate communications laws for threats he issued in text messages to two victims and members of their families, according to documents obtained by 404 Media.

Investigators filed the sealed complaint against Qibaa on July 25 and issued a warrant the following Monday when also made his first initial appearance in court, according to federal court records.

The criminal complaint states that the FBI received a tip about Qibaa’s alleged extortion scheme on April 1 pointing to an appearance he made on the No Jumper podcast hosted by Adam22, also known as Adam Grandmaison, back in January under his pseudonym “Dani.” Qibaa outlined a financial scheme using over 200 victims’ social media accounts in which he would lock them out of their pages and charge them to regain access.

He also boasted that he made about $600,000 a month from his activities and hired two security guards to follow him.

“You’re making $2 million a month off your Instagram and Telegraph,” Qibaa says on the podcast. “I come and I take it away and make you pay for it back and I make it public and I post it and I expose you.”

Qibaa even said on the podcast episode that he pulled the scheme on celebrities who unknowingly kept paying him to get their social media back. He later noted “I’m very petty” followed by a menacing laugh.

“I’ve talked to stars who have told me that they’ve paid to get it back 20 times over and over and over they just have to keep paying to get it back,” Qibaa says, “and I’m like you realize what’s happening to you right like the same that’s getting you it back is…you’re getting extorted.”

The criminal complaint tells the story of eight victims’ encounters with Qibaa and his services. One identified as “J.T.” operated two Instagram accounts: a cannabis news aggregate account called “theblacklistxyz” and a cannabis merchandising store under “caliplug,” both of which are currently set to private. J.T. reached out to Qibaa asking if he could obtain a username. Qibaa quoted a price back between $4,000-$5,000. J.T. refused to take Qibaa up on the offer and Qibaa responded with threats.

“Qibba told J.T. that J.T. had wasted Qibaa’s time, blocked J.T.’s Instagram pages and demanded $10,000 to reinstate it,” the complaint reads. “J.T. offered Qibaa $8,500 to reinstate the account, an offer Qibaa accepted.”

The complaint asserts that Qibba reached out to J.T. two more times. The first time, Qibba asked if J.T. would promote his Instagram page under the username “unlocked4life” that’s since been taken down. J.T. agreed but when he learned Qibaa had been threatening and extorting other victims, he confronted Qibaa and “Qibaa was irate.”

A few months later, Qibaa apparently increased the scope of his threats to J.T. and members of his family. He sent threats to call the victim’s ex-wife’s lawyer and child protective services on his kids. Screenshots of the victims’ phone show Qibaa allegedly identifying the address and phone number of the victim’s sister. He texted another family member and introduced himself as “The guy that’s gonna murder your drug dealer brother. Tell him Unlocked says hi though. We have your entire family’s info.”

Another victim identified as a journalist and comedian with the initials “E.H.” learned they were a target of Qibaa’s illegal services. Qibaa blocked their Instagram account, the name of which was redacted, at the request of a dentist in California who treated them. E.H. reached out to the Unlocked4Life account and received a reply that read, “Yo its Idriss.” He then told E.H. to pull up the No Jumper podcast episode featuring his interview. Qibaa not only took the victim’s Instagram account access away but also threatened to take their Social Security number and “blast it out” if they didn’t pay him $20,000.

According to the complaint, not even restraining orders could make Qibaa leave his victims alone. One named “R.B.” received a restraining order from Los Angeles County Superior Court in July but “Unblocked” responded, “Cute restraining order..last I checked you’re still gonna die.” Then “UNLOCKED UNCENSORED” posted on Telegram, “$50,000 reward for whoever sleeps BO this week.”

Perhaps the most disturbing threats happened to several victims in which Qibaa claimed he’d happily go to jail if payments weren’t made to him. Screenshots of the text chains show a person named “Dani” and “Daniel” telling his victims, “I will come and shoot you myself,” “I’m going to bury you for this shit” and “D., L., J., T., Children-Main Targets” referring to the victims’ children.

Another text chain shows Qibaa allegedly threatening someone that he would “rather take a life sentence for murdering you then this,” “Idc if I have to shoot you my self [sic]” and “I’ll go to jail happily.” He follows the text with the threat “Here’s the last guy that came to take photos / came near my home” and sends three pictures of an unidentified bearded man, his car and a photo of his badly bruised and bloodied on the ground.”

Adam22 concluded his podcast interview with “Dani” saying he was “very excited to see the fallout from this” and “I respect the hustle even though I can’t justify it on a moral level.”

Google is phasing out an Olympics ad for its AI-powered chatbot, Gemini, after receiving widespread criticism for showing a father using AI to help his daughter write a fan letter to her favorite athlete. In the 60-second commercial, which is still available on YouTube, a father uses Gemini to write a fan letter to Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, on behalf of his young daughter.

“She wants to show Sydney some love and I am pretty good with words, but this has to be just right,” the dad says in the commercial. “So Gemini, help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is.” The ad ends with the words: “A little help from Gemini.”

A Google spokesperson told CNBC that although the ad tested well before it aired, “given the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation.” The spokesperson added that the ad’s goal was to create an authentic story to celebrate Team USA. “We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it,” they added.

“The commercial showing somebody having a child use AI to write a fan letter to her hero SUCKS,” wrote Linda Holmes, the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, on Threads. “Obviously there are special circumstances and people who need help, but as a general ‘look how cool, she didn’t even have to write anything herself!’ story, it SUCKS. Who wants an AI-written fan letter??”

Shelley Palmer, a professor of advanced media at Syracuse University’s communications school, strongly criticized the ad in a widely-shared post on her blog. She argued that the commercial’s approach could lead to a “monocultural future where original human thoughts become increasingly rare” and expressed concern for the ads’s implications for parenting and education.

The backlash reflects the broader debates around the role of AI in creative processes and its potential impact on the quality of human expression. As AI technologies continue to advance, companies are facing increasing scrutiny not only over how they portray and promote these tools but also about using the work of creative professionals without permission to train AI models.

Apple pulled the latest short film in its The Underdogs: OOO (Out of Office) series set in Thailand. The tech giant scrubbed it over complaints about stereotypical portrayals of Thailand and its people in certain scenes.

The Bangkok Post reports that Apple issued an apology to the people of Thailand for the fifth film in its Underdogs series. The ad series features a group of travel weary office workers navigating the world using Apple’s various products.

Several viewers posted comments criticizing the film’s use of a sepia filter to make Thailand seem underdeveloped. The comments also called out the costuming and scenery decisions in its airport scene using outdated representations of Thailand’s citizens.

Sattra Sripan, the spokesman for the Thai House of Representatives’ committee on tourism, called for a boycott over the ad.

“Thai people are deeply unhappy with the advertisement,” Sripan said in a statement. “I encourage Thai people to stop using Apple products and change to other brands.”

Apple issued an apology for the ad shortly after pulling it off of YouTube. Lawmakers have also invited Apple representatives to visit with them to discuss the ads and how they portray Thailand on film.

“Our intent was to celebrate the country’s optimism and culture, and we apologize for not fully capturing the vibrancy of Thailand today,” the statement read.

This is the second time this year that Apple has apologized for a commercial. Apple pulled an ad back in May that it told AdAge “missed the mark” for its new thin iPad Pro. The commercial features a giant pneumatic press crushing a large collection of items used in or to represent creative endeavors such musical instruments, paints, a generic arcade cabinet, and camera equipment. The steel crusher smooshes everything flat and lifts up to reveal an intact iPad sitting on the lower steel block that a voiceover describes as “the most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.”

Artists, musicians and other creators took offense to the ad’s implied tone that generative AI would replace human artistic endeavors. Apple vowed not to air the ad on TV but it’s still on its YouTube page with the comments section disabled.

A guest who appeared on the No Jumper podcast to boast about a hack and payback scheme involving his victims’ social media accounts could face federal charges. Idriss Qibaa, also known as “Dani” and “Unlocked” who authorities allege ran the social media hacking site Unlocked4Life.com, faces two criminal felony counts filed by the US Attorney's Office in Nevada for allegedly violating interstate communications laws for threats he issued in text messages to two victims and members of their families, according to documents obtained by 404 Media.

Investigators filed the sealed complaint against Qibaa on July 25 and issued a warrant the following Monday when also made his first initial appearance in court, according to federal court records.

The criminal complaint states that the FBI received a tip about Qibaa’s alleged extortion scheme on April 1 pointing to an appearance he made on the No Jumper podcast hosted by Adam22, also known as Adam Grandmaison, back in January under his pseudonym “Dani.” Qibaa outlined a financial scheme using over 200 victims’ social media accounts in which he would lock them out of their pages and charge them to regain access.

He also boasted that he made about $600,000 a month from his activities and hired two security guards to follow him.

“You’re making $2 million a month off your Instagram and Telegraph,” Qibaa says on the podcast. “I come and I take it away and make you pay for it back and I make it public and I post it and I expose you.”

Qibaa even said on the podcast episode that he pulled the scheme on celebrities who unknowingly kept paying him to get their social media back. He later noted “I’m very petty” followed by a menacing laugh.

“I’ve talked to stars who have told me that they’ve paid to get it back 20 times over and over and over they just have to keep paying to get it back,” Qibaa says, “and I’m like you realize what’s happening to you right like the same that’s getting you it back is…you’re getting extorted.”

The criminal complaint tells the story of eight victims’ encounters with Qibaa and his services. One identified as “J.T.” operated two Instagram accounts: a cannabis news aggregate account called “theblacklistxyz” and a cannabis merchandising store under “caliplug,” both of which are currently set to private. J.T. reached out to Qibaa asking if he could obtain a username. Qibaa quoted a price back between $4,000-$5,000. J.T. refused to take Qibaa up on the offer and Qibaa responded with threats.

“Qibba told J.T. that J.T. had wasted Qibaa’s time, blocked J.T.’s Instagram pages and demanded $10,000 to reinstate it,” the complaint reads. “J.T. offered Qibaa $8,500 to reinstate the account, an offer Qibaa accepted.”

The complaint asserts that Qibba reached out to J.T. two more times. The first time, Qibba asked if J.T. would promote his Instagram page under the username “unlocked4life” that’s since been taken down. J.T. agreed but when he learned Qibaa had been threatening and extorting other victims, he confronted Qibaa and “Qibaa was irate.”

A few months later, Qibaa apparently increased the scope of his threats to J.T. and members of his family. He sent threats to call the victim’s ex-wife’s lawyer and child protective services on his kids. Screenshots of the victims’ phone show Qibaa allegedly identifying the address and phone number of the victim’s sister. He texted another family member and introduced himself as “The guy that’s gonna murder your drug dealer brother. Tell him Unlocked says hi though. We have your entire family’s info.”

Another victim identified as a journalist and comedian with the initials “E.H.” learned they were a target of Qibaa’s illegal services. Qibaa blocked their Instagram account, the name of which was redacted, at the request of a dentist in California who treated them. E.H. reached out to the Unlocked4Life account and received a reply that read, “Yo its Idriss.” He then told E.H. to pull up the No Jumper podcast episode featuring his interview. Qibaa not only took the victim’s Instagram account access away but also threatened to take their Social Security number and “blast it out” if they didn’t pay him $20,000.

According to the complaint, not even restraining orders could make Qibaa leave his victims alone. One named “R.B.” received a restraining order from Los Angeles County Superior Court in July but “Unblocked” responded, “Cute restraining order..last I checked you’re still gonna die.” Then “UNLOCKED UNCENSORED” posted on Telegram, “$50,000 reward for whoever sleeps BO this week.”

Perhaps the most disturbing threats happened to several victims in which Qibaa claimed he’d happily go to jail if payments weren’t made to him. Screenshots of the text chains show a person named “Dani” and “Daniel” telling his victims, “I will come and shoot you myself,” “I’m going to bury you for this shit” and “D., L., J., T., Children-Main Targets” referring to the victims’ children.

Another text chain shows Qibaa allegedly threatening someone that he would “rather take a life sentence for murdering you then this,” “Idc if I have to shoot you my self [sic]” and “I’ll go to jail happily.” He follows the text with the threat “Here’s the last guy that came to take photos / came near my home” and sends three pictures of an unidentified bearded man, his car and a photo of his badly bruised and bloodied on the ground.”

Adam22 concluded his podcast interview with “Dani” saying he was “very excited to see the fallout from this” and “I respect the hustle even though I can’t justify it on a moral level.”

Google is phasing out an Olympics ad for its AI-powered chatbot, Gemini, after receiving widespread criticism for showing a father using AI to help his daughter write a fan letter to her favorite athlete. In the 60-second commercial, which is still available on YouTube, a father uses Gemini to write a fan letter to Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, on behalf of his young daughter.

“She wants to show Sydney some love and I am pretty good with words, but this has to be just right,” the dad says in the commercial. “So Gemini, help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is.” The ad ends with the words: “A little help from Gemini.”

A Google spokesperson told CNBC that although the ad tested well before it aired, “given the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation.” The spokesperson added that the ad’s goal was to create an authentic story to celebrate Team USA. “We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it,” they added.

“The commercial showing somebody having a child use AI to write a fan letter to her hero SUCKS,” wrote Linda Holmes, the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, on Threads. “Obviously there are special circumstances and people who need help, but as a general ‘look how cool, she didn’t even have to write anything herself!’ story, it SUCKS. Who wants an AI-written fan letter??”

Shelley Palmer, a professor of advanced media at Syracuse University’s communications school, strongly criticized the ad in a widely-shared post on her blog. She argued that the commercial’s approach could lead to a “monocultural future where original human thoughts become increasingly rare” and expressed concern for the ads’s implications for parenting and education.

The backlash reflects the broader debates around the role of AI in creative processes and its potential impact on the quality of human expression. As AI technologies continue to advance, companies are facing increasing scrutiny not only over how they portray and promote these tools but also about using the work of creative professionals without permission to train AI models.

When Don Lemon's "premium" video hosting deal on X was canceled in March, a representative for the former CNN anchor threatened legal action. Nearly five months later, he's taking Musk and his platform to court, claiming he hasn't been paid.

The former CNN anchor filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Musk and X, the New York Times reports. The suit pertains to an alleged payment agreement Lemon says Musk refuses to honor. Lemon filed his case in California Superior Court in San Francisco.

Lemon claims that he agreed to produce a news and interview show on the X platform back in January. Lemon would receive $1.5 million a year and part of the advertising revenue for producing premium content for X. However, Lemon states in the filing that he never signed a contract because Musk told him he didn’t need to “fill out paperwork” and that he’d back his show regardless of his views or interview topics.

Lemon kicked off his first episode by interviewing Musk, asking questions about Musk’s alleged ketamine use, his views on transgender individuals and his stance on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring initiatives. Lemon also interrogated Musk for tweets which appeared to support the racist belief known as the “great replacement theory.” Hours after the interview, Musk texted Lemon to tell him their deal was done.

X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino says the company was focused on becoming a “video first” platform and inked similar deals with famous names like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, former Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard and sports commentator Jim Rome. Many of these shows have yet to materialize on X.

SiriusXM just announced a standalone podcast subscription service called SiriusXM Podcasts+. The platform will be available via Apple Podcasts starting August 5 and will offer a “premium listening experience” for some of the “biggest shows across the SiriusXM Podcast Network.”

Subscribers will enjoy an ad-free experience, bonus content and early access to new episodes of popular shows. None of the content is exclusive, however, as you’ll still be able to check out these podcasts via numerous other platforms.

At launch, the platform will be home to some of the bigger names in the space. There’s Smartless, the one with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, and other programs from the same production team. Other included podcasts include Literally! with Rob Lowe, Andy Cohen’s Daddy Diaries Podcast and Last Podcast on the Left. The company says that more programs will join the platform later this year.

Though tied to Apple Podcasts at first, the company says it expects the “subscription will expand to other platforms in the coming weeks.” At launch, it’ll be available in over 60 countries. SiriusXM Podcasts+ will cost $6 per month or $45 per year.

SiriusXM has become a major player in the podcast space, which makes sense given that satellite radio talk shows are basically podcasts by another name. This move could continue that trend.

Netflix has announced plans for its Geeked Week 2024 event. The festivities will take place on the week of September 16. As in previous years, it's sure to include a ton of news and updates for Netflix TV shows, films and games. One thing that's new this year is an in-person fan event that will take place in Atlanta on September 19.

A teaser gives some idea of what's in store. Among other projects, you can expect updates on Wednesday, Squid Game (which will return in December), Arcane, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Tomb Raider, One Piece and a little show called Stranger Things. The clip also suggests there will be some news on the Monument Valley front — that series is slated to hit Netflix's games library this year, while a sequel has been teased.

After the live experiences, TV shows based on TV shows and a boom in childhood South Korean games and hobbies, Squid Game returns for season two. Almost three years after the bleak, lightly anti-capitalism drama became a massive hit in the US. Season two will hit Netflix December 26, with a final third season coming sometime in 2025.

In a letter, series director and writer, Hwang Dong-hyuk, teased the continuation of Seong Gi-hun’s revenge, facing off against Front Man. We’re expecting more death, betrayal and enough delicious Korean food to make me want to take a trip to Seoul.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Tesla involved in fatal Washington crash was using self-driving mode

Etsy just announced a loyalty program that’s (sort of) similar to Amazon Prime

Ayaneo’s take on the Game Boy Micro is available to order starting at $190

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

Reddit CEO wants Microsoft to pay for its content

Steve Huffman called out Microsoft for scraping data from Reddit.

Reddit boss Steve Huffman called out Microsoft and other AI search engines, like Anthropic and Perplexity, for not paying for the information their AI models have seemingly scraped from Reddit. “Without these agreements, we don’t have any say or knowledge of how our data is displayed and what it’s used for, which has put us in a position now of blocking folks who haven’t been willing to come to terms with how we’d like our data to be used or not used,” Huffman said in an interview with The Verge. Reddit said it’s blocking unauthorized data scraping by updating its Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt), and it’s already stopped Microsoft’s Bing from accessing the social site’s data.

Continue reading.

Twelve South’s AirFly Duo Bluetooth dongle drops to $30

The best way to listen to your inflight movie with wireless headphones.

Engadget

Twelve South’s AirFly Duo is a dongle that connects Bluetooth earbuds and headphones to in-flight entertainment systems. The device is currently on sale for $30, and I swear by it. It plugs into any 3.5mm audio jack, so you can use it with gym equipment, older gaming systems or even TVs. I used it with my Switch before Nintendo finally enabled Bluetooth audio.

Continue reading.

Senators introduce bill to protect individuals against AI-generated deepfakes

OpenAI joined several entertainment industry groups in backing the NO FAKES Act.

US senators have introduced a bill to combat the growing threat of AI-generated deepfakes. The legislation would hold online platforms accountable for deepfake content by requiring them to label the material. If it passes, the NO FAKES Act would create an option for people to seek damages when their voice, face or body are recreated by AI. Both individuals and companies would be held liable for producing, hosting or sharing unauthorized digital replicas.

It follows the Senate’s recent passage of the DEFIANCE Act, which would enable victims of sexual deepfakes to sue for damages.

Continue reading.

Netflix has finally set a date for the next season of Squid Game, almost three years after the Korean drama became a massive hit in the US. Season 2 is set to hit Netflix December 26, with a final third season coming sometime in 2025, the streamer announced.

While the initial teaser for Season 2 doesn’t reveal much about what to expect in the next installment, Netflix shared a few more details about the plot in a letter from Hwang Dong-hyuk, the series’ director and writer.

Seong Gi-hun who vowed revenge at the end of Season 1 returns and joins the game again. Will he succeed in getting his revenge? Front Man doesn’t seem to be an easy opponent this time either. The fierce clash between their two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season 3, which will be brought to you next year.

I am thrilled to see the seed that was planted in creating a new Squid Game grow and bear fruit through the end of this story.

We’ll do our best to make sure we bring you yet another thrill ride. I hope you’re excited for what’s to come. Thank you, always, and see you soon, everyone.

Despite the long wait since the initial season, Netflix has done a lot to capitalize on the success of Squid Game. The series inspired a spinoff reality show, called Squid Game: The Challenge, which has also been greenlit for a second season. The company also treated fans to an IRL Squid Game pop-up in Los Angeles.

Additionally, Netflix announced plans for a Squid Game multiplayer game that will debut alongside Season 2 of the show. Details of the game are unclear, but the company has said that players will “compete with friends in games they’ll recognize from the series.”

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw.

Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed.

IIn this week’s round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Jim Jordan Demands Advertisers Explain Why They Don’t Advertise On MAGA Media Sites (Techdirt)
• TikTok Has a Nazi Problem (Wired)
• NazTok: An organized neo-Nazi TikTok network is getting millions of views (Institute for Strategic Dialogue)
• How TikTok bots and AI have powered a resurgence in UK far-right violence (The Guardian)
• Senate Passes Child Online Safety Bill, Sending It to an Uncertain House Fate (New York Tmes)
• The teens lobbying against the Kids Online Safety Act (The Verge)
• Social Media Mishaps Aren’t Always Billionaire Election Stealing Plots (Techdirt)
• X suspends ‘White Dudes for Harris’ account after massive fundraiser (Washington Post)
• Why Won’t Google Auto-complete ‘Trump Assassination Attempt’? (Intelligencer)
• ‘Technical glitch’ is no longer an excuse (Everything in Moderation from 2020)
• A message to our Black community (TikTok from 2020)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Discord. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Mike speaks to Juliet Shen and Camille Francois about the Trust & Safety Tooling Consortium at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, and the importance of open source tools for trust and safety.

Akční adventura pro jednoho hráče od společnosti Skydance New Media vyjde někdy v roce 2025 pro PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S a PC.

Marvel 1943 je akční dobrodružná hra pro jednoho hráče s příběhem, ve které vystupuje ne jeden, ale dva ikoničtí superhrdinové Marvelu: A skutečnost, že ji vyvíjí tým vedený tvůrkyní Uncharted Amy Hennig, z ní dělá ještě zajímavější vyhlídku. Nyní vývojářské studio Skydance New Media představilo také společnost, s níž spolupracuje na vydání titulu.

Bylo oznámeno, že Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra vydá Plaion. Vydavatelství, které patří skupině Embracer Group, bylo dříve známé jako Koch Media a bude sloužit jako globální vydavatel připravované akční adventury společnosti Skydance New Media.

„Jsme hrdí na to, že můžeme spolupracovat se společností Skydance Games a legendou tohoto odvětví Amy Hennig na jedné z nejočekávanějších AAA her, která je v současné době ve vývoji,“ uvedl v tiskové zprávě generální ředitel společnosti Plaion Klemens Kundratitz. „Toto partnerství dvou ambiciózních nezávislých společností je důkazem pokračující mise společnosti Plaion stát se globální silou v oblasti vydávání videoher.“

„Věříme, že Plaion je ideálním vydavatelským partnerem pro multiplatformní celosvětové vydání hry Marvel 1943,“ říká Julian Beak, spoluprezident společnosti Skydance Games. „Pro debutový titul našeho studia připravujeme originální marvelovský příběh v režii Amy Hennigové. Jsme nadšeni, že jsme našli globálního vydavatele, který sdílí naši ambiciózní vizi projektu.“

„Marvel 1943: Mentes: „Rise of Hydra je skvělé a odvážné zpracování některých z našich nejoblíbenějších a nadčasových postav.“Prvotřídní vývojářský talent Skydance Games a globální vydavatelské schopnosti Plaionu jsou vynikajícím týmem, který zajistí, že splníme obrovský slib, který tato hra má. Jsme nadšeni, že můžeme spolupracovat a přinést Marvel 1943 hráčům po celém světě,“ řekl šéf Marvel Games.

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra vyjde někdy v roce 2025 pro PS5, Xbox Series X/S a PC. Konkrétní datum vydání titulu zatím nebylo oznámeno.

Článek Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra vydá Plaion se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

Popular streamer Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm has returned to the public eye a little over a month after admitting he sent “inappropriate” messages to a minor on Twitch. The controversial character, who was permanently banned from the platform on June 26, 2020, admitted in a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter) on June…

Read more...

Hannah Neeleman is a mother of eight, a beauty queen, a former Juilliard ballerina, and one of the most popular "momfluencers" on social media. She lives on a Utah ranch with her husband, JetBlue airlines heir Daniel Neeleman, and puts out both copious content and pasture-raised meat under the moniker Ballerina Farm. For years, their photogenic Mormon family has been amassing Instagram and TikTok followers—along with ample scrutiny and scorn from certain sorts of progressive-leaning, extremely online women. And these sorts were served a feast last month in the form of a London Times profile, which posited not-at-all-subtly that Hannah was being controlled and coerced by Daniel.

The profile was a little weird and the responses to it weirder. But they are also emblematic of something that goes way beyond Ballerina Farm: an inability to imagine women having different values, different politics, and different ambitions. And a refusal to accept that women may be happy leading all different sorts of lives.

Trad-Wife Tragedy

Times writer Megan Agnew clearly had an opinion about the Neeleman family's dynamics and framed her article to maximize the chances of readers coming away with the same opinion. That's not a journalistic crime by any means—the best profiles often inject some of the writer's own insight. But, to me, Agnew's insights felt shoehorned, and not entirely convincing. The quotes and anecdotes she wielded could betray a patriarchal arrangement in which Hannah is a not-so-enthusiastic participant. Yet there were lots of ways to read them that didn't support such a conclusion, and that's not to mention all the quotes and anecdotes that Agnew necessarily left out.

The internet, of course, ran with the tragic interpretation—Hannah as a put-upon waif of Dickensian (or at least Lifetime movie) proportions, all thwarted ambitions and rural isolation. A husband on a "sexist conquest" who stole her dreams, "trapped" her with eight kids, and now wouldn't even let her get a nanny or give her a trip to Greece for her birthday.

A consensus was emerging that Hannah needed to be freed.

But freed from what? Hannah has a life that many dream of, it seems. She may not be a professional ballerina, but she still has a highly successful career and a level of fame she likely never would have earned from ballet. She has a beautiful home, a wealthy husband, and eight healthy children whom she gets to raise in a spectacular setting an hour from where she grew up in a family that looks a lot like the one she has now (Hannah was one of nine children).

The interpretations of one journalist who spent a few hours with the family and a cornucopia of strangers' speculation aside, signs suggest Neeleman is happily living the life she wants to be living. It is highly weird to act like the fact that she once dreamed of being a pro ballerina means she's unhappy in any other lifestyle or that she didn't have other ambitions, too (especially since she has also talked about how she always wanted a big family).

Could Hannah be secretly miserable? Sure. But so could anyone.

Poor Little Political Wives

Reactions to Hannah Neeleman conjure that classic second-wave feminist trope: false consciousness. Sure, she says she is happy, fulfilled, and in control of her own destiny—but internet feminists know better. Clearly her claims are either an act (perhaps produced under the duress of a manipulative husband) or the result of being raised in a Mormon household. The poor dear can't even see how oppressed she is!

The Ballerina Farm discourse echoes recent reactions regarding Usha Vance, wife of Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.

Usha and J.D. met at Yale Law School. Usha also has an undergraduate degree from Yale and a master's degree from Cambridge. Until recently, she was a lawyer with one of the country's top law firms. At the Republican National Convention, she appeared confident and excited as she talked about her husband's candidacy and about their life together, which includes three children. Vance has, on numerous occasions, credited Usha for helping drive and shape him.

By all indications, Usha is an intelligent and accomplished woman who backs her husband's political career. Yet Vance, too, received the Hannah Neeleman treatment following her husband joining the Donald Trump ticket.

People began sharing images in which Usha was not smiling or looked sad as if this was proof that she disapproved of her husband's career, or worse.

Some surmised that J.D. must be an "abusive control-freak" whom Usha only stays with because this sort of thing was supposedly normalized by her Indian upbringing. Her "body language projects subservience." J.D. and/or the Trump campaign made her quit her job.

The comments about Usha Vance echoed a 2016 election-era refrain: "Free Melania." There were a lot of people then convinced, or at least opining, that Melania Trump wanted no part in her husband's political schemes and was a tragic figure trapped in a loveless and controlling marriage.

I won't pretend to know exactly what's going on between the former president and first lady. But the idea that Melania couldn't leave if she wanted to defies logic. The Melania who is literally trapped is a fiction, invented to further demonize Trump and/or deny that she is culpable in the creation of the life they both lead.

Voting for Harris Is 'in Everyone's Best Interest'

Shades of the same attitude driving this weird anti–fan fic about Usha Vance, Hannah Neeleman, and Melania Trump were detectable during a white women for Kamala Harris call last week.

During that call, author Glennon Doyle posited that the reason many white women are afraid to publicly support Harris and/or other Democratic candidates is fear of being disliked, chastised, or looked down upon. White women don't want to make neighbors "uncomfortable," and they "desperately need to be approved of and liked," Doyle said.

Meanwhile, Shannon Watts, who organized the call, suggested that the reason why many white women vote Republican is because they believe "that it is in our best interest to use our privilege and our support systems of white supremacy and the patriarchy to benefit us."

Voting for Harris is really what's "in everyone's best interest," said Watts.

This sort of rhetoric was common when Hillary Clinton was running for president and again after the election, when it came out that a majority of white women voters cast their ballots for Trump. Is there no room for imagining that some women might just be conservatives and/or dislike the Democratic candidate?

Can't Women Be Individuals?

In the construction of victimhood narratives around Hannah Neeleman, Usha Vance, and Melania Trump, there is an element of projection that is pre-political. Maybe it's rooted in jealousy, anxiety, revulsion, or anger. But for whatever reason, some people seemingly want to believe these women are unhappy. Perhaps it helps them get over their jealousy, or feel better about their own life choices, or feel there's still justice in the world—who knows? But it's clearly not based solely on the evidence laid before us.

The other thread underpinning some attitudes toward Melania Trump, Usha Vance, Hannah Neeleman, and any women who won't vote Democrat is a denial of conservative women's agency.

And while this thread has implications for politics, it also seems born of a realm outside of them. It's the inability—displayed here by the left, but also visible across the political spectrum—to imagine people genuinely believing in things different than what you believe.

In the political realm, this manifests as a conviction that support for different candidates and different policies doesn't come down to a million different factors and values and vibes but stupidity, brainwashing, coercion, and cowardice. Men get this treatment sometimes, too, but it's much more commonly aimed at women.

On the left, this manifests as utter disbelief that women like Hannah Neeleman and Usha Vance could be happy co-pilots in the lives they and their husbands are leading. Or as an insistence that the only reason women would oppose Harris is because they're trying to suck up to or benefit from white supremacy and patriarchy. On the right, we sometimes see it manifested as an assertion that female politicians, high-powered working women, feminist activists, etc., only speak out against conservative policies because they're bitter about their own lives.

Both sides do this at a peril to their own persuasive efforts. You won't win people over by telling them, "You may think you're happy, or expressing true convictions, but you're actually just a cog in cultural Marxism or white supremacist patriarchy."

What makes this especially weird coming from the left is that left-leaning women tend to do this under the mantle of feminism.

But it's not actually feminist to paint all women with one brushstroke. Women are not and will never be a monolith—not in their politics, their professional leanings, their preferred relationship styles, or anything else. Women are happy in as many different types of arrangements as men are, and as capable of choosing for themselves. Conversely, not every woman bristles at the kind of things that make some feminists bristle, including having a horde of children or moderating one's career plans to make this possible.

The sooner self-proclaimed feminists can see women as individuals—including sometimes very flawed individuals—the sooner we'll all be seeing women leading more free and full lives, in all their weird and messy and dazzling forms.

The post From Usha Vance to Ballerina Farm: Denying Conservative Women's Individuality appeared first on Reason.com.

First, the Republican meltdown over…people being biracial? Politicians code-switching? "I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?" asked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, referring to his presumptive opponent Kamala Harris, at the annual convention for the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).

"I've known her a long time, indirectly," Trump had said right before. "And she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I did not know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black."

"I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went—she became a black person," he added.

Harris is biracial, born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, which seems to really be blowing Trump's mind. He appeared to be trying to make the case that Harris code-switching, to appeal to black voters in speeches, is disingenuous. (Welcome to politics!) But it came off more as rude to biracial people, as if they need to pick an identity group.

"This room of mostly Black journalists is not the same friendly territory that the former president is used to on the campaign trail," reports The New York Times' Maya King. "As he cracks jokes and repeats falsehoods about his court cases and record, the audience is gasping and scoffing. Few are applauding or laughing."

At one point, Trump claimed immigrants are "taking black jobs." When pushed by a moderator to define what, exactly, a "black job" is, Trump claimed it was "any job." (If the claim is that Harris is disingenuous, pandering to black voters, it looks like Trump is cut from the same cloth.)

"Historically, the vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact," said Trump in response to a question about whether J.D. Vance would be ready for the job on day one. "I mean, virtually no impact…Virtually never has it mattered." It was a real shit show of an appearance, with Trump careening all over the place and very much failing to win over the room.

Trump later doubled down on his race comments, projecting headlines touting Harris' Indian ancestry on screen at his Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, rally:

The Trump campaign is projecting this on the screen above the stage at his rally in Harrisburg PA: pic.twitter.com/ZsGHAZaruk

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) July 31, 2024

Second, the Democratic meltdown over…journalists interviewing Trump: As if Trump's sort of strange race commentary weren't off-putting enough, many members of the media seem thoroughly unable to do their jobs when Trump is involved, in a sad redux of the last eight years.

"Trump's acceptance of NABJ's invitation prompted at least one high-profile member of the organization to step down as the co-chair of the convention," reported Voice of America. "Others expressed concerns that Trump would be given a platform to make false claims or give the impression he had the group's endorsement."

Journalists took to X to express their dismay at Trump even being invited to speak onstage at the NABJ conference, never mind the fact that the conference customarily invites candidates running for president to speak, so it would be out of step with tradition if Trump were randomly excluded.

On a personal note, NABJ has meant a lot to so many of us, so this has been hard to see play out on multiple levels. But I will never forget that Donald Trump insulted and was hostile to a Black female journalist in our own communal space and was unchecked. And the feeling of…

— Natasha S. Alford (@NatashaSAlford) July 31, 2024

Several journalists were seemingly unable to grasp the fact that Trump making strange comments, revealing of his character and his campaign strategy, which may in fact affect how some black voters view him, and those comments becoming a top domestic politics story is in fact a job well done. Journalists should know better than to equate interviewing someone with endorsing their beliefs. Also, didn't we already do this whole idiotic rigamarole years ago, the first time Trump ran for office? And the second? Can't we just cover the man, quoting what he says, without losing our minds?

The galaxy-brain take: "The question Republicans ought to confront before leveling any attack is: 'Will this energize my supporters more or hers?'" asks Abigail Shrier at The Free Press. "For nearly every ad hominem salvo currently flung at Harris, the answer is: hers." This most recent kerfuffle is no different. From a pure political strategy standpoint, it's not clear why Trump made the comments he did at the NABJ conference or how those comments will help him.

Scenes from New York: How to grow weed in your house or apartment (from Curbed).

QUICK HITS

• The Federal Reserve looks like it might cut interest rates in September, drawing widespread opprobrium from strategists in both parties: Democrats fear that it's too little too late to be a useful signal that inflation has been tamed (and President Joe Biden ought to be credited, in their telling), while Republicans fear it could be a messaging win for their opponents.
• "You almost have to feel sorry for Kevin Roberts, the ambitious president of the Heritage Foundation. He steered the venerable think tank away from some of its longtime conservative principles to court Donald Trump, only to be spurned by the temperamental former President he and his institution courted," writes the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal. 
• So true:

semiotics is the study of signification, unpopular due to being too abstract

heres why it matters: you make a tech device, called 'friend'. it provides companionship. but to wear this wouldnt signal "i have companionship". it signals the opposite: it communicates your alone-ness https://t.co/7iuRIXjgiL pic.twitter.com/KIuAvX1pW3

— owen cyclops (@owenbroadcast) July 31, 2024

• "Kari Lake won the Republican Senate primary in Arizona…setting up a high-stakes contest in the fall for the seat of Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who is retiring," reports The New York Times. "And Republican voters ousted a top elections official in Arizona's most populous county who angered conservatives by defending the state's voting system against false claims that the 2020 election was stolen."

The post Dueling Meltdowns appeared first on Reason.com.