ArduinoMania

Cruise ship giant Royal Caribbean has announced that it will equip its fleet with SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellite internet service. The dishes are designed to provide a "better onboard experience for guests and crews fleetwide," and will be installed on its Royal Caribbean International, Silversea Cruises and Celebrity Cruises ships. 

Earlier this year, SpaceX unveiled Starlink Maritime for boats at a cost of $5,000 per month, on top of a hardware investment of $10,000. In comparison, the standard residential Starlink setup's hardware costs only $599, while the service costs $110 a month for 50 to 250 Mbps speeds (Starlink also offers a premium service that costs $500 per month with up to 500Mbps speeds). The Maritime service will deliver up to 350 Mbps download speeds.

The company tested the service earlier this year, offering packages called "Voom Surf" and "Voom Surf & Stream," according to Royal Caribbean Blog. That indicates that the service will likely be a paid upgrade, something that's usually not cheap on cruise ships. The testers saw respectable upload and download speeds and said they were able to watch YouTube and Netflix videos "with no lag or buffering." 

Those speeds may change when the service is fully commercialized, though, depending on how popular it is and how many Starlink dishes Royal Caribbean uses on each ship. Depending on the line, the company's boats can carry anywhere from several hundred to nearly 7,000 passengers. 

The cruise industry has struggled post-pandemic due to staffing, inflation and other issues. Starlink will be a good marketing point for Royal Caribbean, however, as cruise ships have notoriously poor internet service. Starlink, meanwhile, is aggressively pursuing the travel industry, announcing partnerships with Hawaiian Airlines and JSC, while also recently launching a Starlink service for RVs and campers. 

Meta has started notifying users of its standalone Facebook Gaming app that it will soon no longer be available. In an in-app notification (as shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra and other publications), the company has announced that both iOS and Android versions of the application will stop working on October 28th. Meta is also giving users the chance to download their search data and reminding them that Facebook Gaming isn't going away entirely. Users will merely have to go to the Gaming tab in the main Facebook app to watch their favorite creators' livestreams.

The company released the dedicated Gaming app in 2020 to better compete with Twitch and YouTube. Meta (still known as Facebook back then) designed the app to highlight content from streamers and to provide users with a group chat and other community features. It didn't say why it decided to shut down the standalone app, but it could be part of its cost-cutting efforts meant to help it weather what Mark Zuckerberg calls "one of the worst downturns [the company has seen] in recent history."

Over the past year, streaming tool providers such as StreamElements reported that Facebook Gaming comes only second to Twitch when it comes to hours watched on a game streaming platform. However, we examined data from CrowdTangle, Meta's analytics service, and found that the platform is flooded with spam and pirated content masquerading as gaming livestreams. Back then, a spokesperson told Engadget that Meta was "working to improve [its] tools to identify violating content" so that users can have "the best experience."

NASA plans to make another attempt at launching the Artemis 1 Moon mission on Saturday, September 3rd, after it scrubbed the planned launch on August 29th due to engine problems. The Space Launch System was supposed to go on its first test flight and kickstart the Artemis program that day. However, its ground teams were unable to chill down one of its RS-25 engines that exhibited temperatures higher than the other three. NASA discovered the issue merely a couple of hours before launch and had to scrap the event entirely less than hour before liftoff.

During a press conference about the new target date, SLS program manager John Honeycutt said they believe the problem stemmed from a faulty sensor. The rocket's technical team is still reviewing data and polishing its plan to make sure the launch on Saturday pushes through. Over the next few days, the team will practice propellant loading procedures, which would start the engines' chilldown process 30 to 45 minutes earlier in the countdown in an effort to ensure that they reach temperatures of around minus 420 degrees Fahrenheit.

If the SLS team needs access to the sensor to solve the problem, though, it could delay the Artemis 1 mission by weeks or even months. An SLS launch must meet a number of environmental conditions in order to push through, so NASA can only schedule a mission within specific time windows. Once the current launch availability closes on September 6th, the next earliest possible date for the flight test won't be until September 19th. 

The SLS team plans to review data and assess the mission's flight readiness on Thursday. If it decides to proceed with the September 3rd launch, the SLS will be blasting off to space anytime between 2:17 to 4:17 PM EDT, assuming no other issues arise.

Ubisoft’s Rocksmith+ subscription service will arrive on September 6th, the publisher announced today. Following a nearly year-long delay, the guitar learning platform will be available on PC exclusively through the Ubisoft Store. With 5,000 songs available at lunch, including tunes from Alicia Keys, The Clash and Santana, Ubisoft claims Rocksmith+ will feature the “largest catalog of official songs ever offered in a music learning service.” Additionally, the company has pledged to add “millions” of more tracks in the future.

If you played a previous Rocksmith release or participated in the closed beta, you can take advantage of loyalty pricing. Subscribe for three months upfront and you’ll receive one month free. You can also prepay for a year of service and Ubisoft will give you an additional three months for free. One-, three- and 12-month subscriptions are priced at $15, $40 and $100 per respective billing period.

You will need a way to connect your electric, acoustic or bass guitar to your computer. Your first option is to download the Rocksmith Plus Connect app on an iOS or Android device. It will use your phone’s built-in microphone to detect your playing. Alternatively, you can use Ubisoft’s Rocksmith Real Tone Cable to connect your instrument. The advantage offered by the latter option is that you can add effects to your playing. Ubisoft notes it’s also possible to use a third-party audio interface, but not every single one will work and the company won’t offer you technical support in that case.

Notably, Ubisoft makes no mention of the previously announced PlayStation and Xbox versions of Rocksmith+. It does note, however, that the mobile release will arrive this fall.

Arturia has been building out its collection of effects plugins over the last few years. One notable blind spot was distortion. It wasn't until FX Collection 3 launched in June that the company would introduce its first dedicated distortion plugins. Dist OpAmp-21 and Dist Tube-Culture are solid, if unspectacular entries in the world of dirt effects. But the new Dist Coldfire is something different. It might just be the most interesting and most versatile distortion plugin I've ever used. 

Where OpAmp-21 and Tube-Culture were emulations of classic effects units, Coldfire is something completely new. It takes an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach similar to the company's Pigments (still my favorite soft synth on the market). It's a dual distortion engine — meaning you can combine two different drives simultaneously. There are 11 different distortion algorithms, ranging from the subtle warmth of tape to the harsh howl of a wavefolder. Many of them even have multiple modes, giving you a grand total of 33 variations to play with. And you can run any of them independently or paired in series, parallel, split stereo, mid/side or band split. 

That alone is pretty solid. But there's also a multimode pre filter and a simple two-band post filter on each channel, a three-mode dynamics module (limiter, compressor, multi-band) that can be pre or post distortion, and a feedback unit (basically a very short delay) for creating wails of cascading noise. Plus many of the parameters (though, not all), can be automated using the robust modulation section that has six slots that be any combination of LFOs, function generators, envelope followers or 16-step sequencers. 

If that sounds like a lot to wrap your head around, I don't blame you. Arturia included over 150 presets with helpful categories and tags as a jumping off point, though. Plus there's plenty of tutorial content to help you get familiar with the various pieces.

Once you start exploring though, Dist Coldfire is actually surprisingly straightforward. At least if you're familiar with Arturia's general interface practices. There's clearly labeled and color coded buttons and knobs. Modules are laid out in a pretty intuitive manner, and modulation is easily assigned and attenuated (click the assign button, then dial in the amount by clicking and dragging around the parameter you want to target).

While it would be easy to cut the company some slack if some of the sounds were underwhelming, considering the breadth of options available, I'm happy to report that almost everything sounds pretty good. Some of the distortion algorithms have smaller sweet spots than others. And not all are going to be to everyone's tastes, but they're pretty successful in achieving the vibe they're looking for.

For example, the Gentle Lo-fi preset is one of the most immediately usable right out of the box. It adds a healthy amount of tape saturation, a dash of bit crushing and just a touch of modulation to give you a sort of wistful and retro sound. It's easy enough to up the modulation too, to give it an even more worn character. But hey, maybe not everyone is like me and looking to make everything they record sound slightly broken and old. Maybe you want the harsh digital sound of mid '90s industrial metal — well combining the tube drive and waveshaper can get you there. 

Or heck, maybe you want full on digital oblivion. Combining multiple bit crushers with some random LFOs and you get something resembling a malfunctioning computer. Take it even farther by adding modulated notch or bandpass filters. The point being that, there's probably something here for everyone. 

Now, are the analog distortions here 100-percent accurate and indistinguishable from their real world counterparts? Absolutely not, despite Arturia's TAE marketing claims. The company's technology remains much better at capturing the vibe of vintage analog synths than it is at recreating the warmth and growl of a well loved tube amp. That being said, it's not bad and hardly discernible in a fully mixed track. Just don't go cranking most of them. 

Of the analog emulations — tape, tube, transformer, transistor, germanium and force — I found only tape and force really usable with the drive set to max. The transistor and germanium in particular have a somewhat unpleasant digital harshness at the highest levels. Some modes are also better fits for specific instruments and sounds. While you can obviously slap a waveshaper on an intricate piano melody if you like, the result might not always be ideal. 

Dist Coldfire is versatile enough to be your only distortion plugin. But it probably won't be my go to when looking to add a touch of warmth or saturation — even though I can easily see myself slapping Gentle Lo-fi on everything and calling it a day. It's a complicated plugin whose true power lies in its more out there capabilities. It's also a bit resource intensive — for a distortion plugin at least. 

Still, for $99 it's a pretty great deal. And, if you don't already own FX Collection 3, you can basically get it for free bundled with that suite of plugins for $299. 

Snap is reportedly preparing to lay off around 20 percent of its staff. The company, which has more than 6,400 employees, will start letting people go on Wednesday, according to The Verge. Snap declined to comment to Engadget.

There will reportedly be cuts among the company’s hardware division, which recently halted development on the Pixy selfie drone. The report suggests a group that was working on tools to help developers build games and mini apps on Snapchat will be among the hardest hit by the cuts. Social mapping app Zenly, which Snap bought in 2017 and kept running independently, is expected to be heavily impacted. The advertising sales team will also be restructured, according to the report.

It’s been a rough year for Snap, which has seen its stock price fall by 80 percent since January amid a broader economic slowdown that has affectedmanynotabletech companies. Snap has said it would look to cut costs while bringing in fewer new hires. The company posted weak earnings results for the April-June quarter, which led to its stock dropping by 40 percent.

One recent bright spot for Snap is the $4 per month Snapchat+ subscription service, which offers early access to new features, such as seeing who re-watched a story and pinning a friend to the top of the chat history. More than 1 million people signed up in the first month or so.

Tom Hanks has leaned into one of his passions by creating a trivia game with the help of developer BlueLine Studios. Not only is it Hanks' first game, it'll be the only trivia title on Apple Arcade to date. Hanx101 Trivia will feature questions in several categories, including history, math, geography and food. You can try to beat your high score or face off against other players in head-to-head bouts and team matchups when the game arrives this Friday.

This isn't the first time Hanks has worked on an app for Apple devices. In 2014, he debuted Hanx Writer, a typewriter-themed writing app that became a hit on iPad. His production company also has an exclusive deal with Apple. Hanks' movies Greyhound and Finch are Apple TV+ originals.

Several other games are coming to Apple Arcade in September. One of them is Gris+, an updated version of the gorgeous indie hit. Apple named it the best Mac game of the year in its 2019 App Store awards and called it a "masterpiece in visualization and atmospheric storytelling." Apple Arcade subscribers can play it at no extra cost starting on September 30th.

Along with those, you'll be able to try arcade racer Horizon Chase 2 (September 9th, coming to PC and consoles next year) and Garden Tails: Match and Grow, a new match-three puzzler from Two Dots studio PlayDots (September 16th). Farming sim Farmside will join the Apple Arcade lineup on September 23rd, as will a long-in-the-works Shovel Knight game, Shovel Knight Dig. The latter will hit Steam and Nintendo Switch on the same day.

The Surrey police force in the UK has found itself at the center of a controversy after one of its official Twitter accounts shared how some officers use Waze to encourage drivers to slow down. In a series of tweets spotted by The Guardian, the department’s Roads Policing unit revealed it uses the crowdsourced navigation app to share misleading information.

“We definitely don’t drop police markers on Waze at random points on our patrol, nope - never,” the unit said, adding a winking emoji for good measure. “An easy way to get drivers to slow down on our roads – thanks Waze.” As you can probably guess, the tweet wasn’t received warmly, with some people accusing Surrey Police of operating “phantom units” and violating the UK’s Computer Misuse Act. Others didn’t go so far, but many pointed out that Waze has a policy against repeatedly posting false reports.

“Technically not false though. We are there at that very specific point in time,” the traffic unit said in response to one accusation of sharing misleading information – this time using a smirking emoji to punctuate its point. “Nowhere on Waze does it say the patrol has to be stationary,” it added.

Waze did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. After the tweet attracted media attention, Surrey Police issued the following statement:

While officers used this application to deter dangerous driving on our roads, this is not a tactic or policy endorsed by Surrey Police. Innovation and technology will always have a part to play in keeping our communities safe but, although well-intentioned, we know this has caused concern and undermines the trust the public has in us. Media coverage has claimed “phantom” units have been created. This is not the case. Technology has not replaced the presence of officers on our roads. We’re currently reviewing and addressing the use of this tactic.

As for what prompted some to use the tactic in the first, the Roads Policing account suggested it was partly a response to there being fewer officers to enforce traffic laws. “We’re not responsible for the significant cuts to policing budgets over the years that decimated traffic units across the country,” the account said. According to data from the UK government’s Home Department, as of March 2022 there were 4,102 full-time officers policing roads in England and Wales. Just seven years earlier, that number was 5,237.

Instagram is giving users more ways to tweak their suggested posts amid a backlash to the app’s aggressive shift toward recommendations. The app is testing a new option that will allow users to use keywords and emoji to mute certain topics from appearing in suggested posts.

The change will block posts in which the users’ keywords, which can include emoji as well as words and phrases, appear in the caption or hashtag for a post. “You can use this feature to stop seeing content that’s not interesting to you,” Instagram writes in a blog post. Users can customize their filter words from the app's settings. The company notes that people can also opt to snooze all recommendations entirely.

Instagram is also testing a new way to weed out unwanted posts from the app’s Explore section. With the change, users can select multiple posts at a time and mark them all as “not interested.” This will hide those posts, and block out similar recommendations in the future, according to the company.

Instagram

While both new options require a bit of extra work, the changes could bring some relief for users’ who have been frustrated by the quality of Instagram’s recommendations as the app has taken increasingly aggressive steps to become more like TikTok. Instagram’s top exec Adam Mosseri said last month the company would tone down the number of recommended posts and halt its experiment with a full-screen feed. Both changes have been deeply unpopular, prompting viral memes criticizing the company’s efforts to copy TikTok.

Regardless of criticism, Meta’s leaders have been clear that they intend to shift both Facebook and Instagram’s feeds from mostly friend content to more posts from AI-driven recommendations. But the new controls could help the company eventually improve the quality of those suggestions, which might make them more palatable to users in the long run.

Elon Musk's lawyers today filed a motion to delay his trial against Twitter by a month, arguing they need more time to process recent claims by whistleblower Peiter Zatko, the former head of security at Twitter. With the motion, Musk's legal team is attempting to amend its counterclaims against Twitter, using details from Zatko's legal complaints against the company. The trial between Musk and Twitter is currently scheduled to begin in October, and the motion filed today would delay it into November.

This is the same tactic that Musk is using to try to end his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter altogether. Twitter originally sued Musk in July in an attempt to force him to follow through on their multibillion-dollar acquisition agreement, and Musk counter-sued, attempting to get out of the sale. Musk's legal team this morning filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission asking to kill the acquisition agreement, citing Zatko's recent allegations of security deficiencies at Twitter. Zatko's claims build on Musk's original argument to end his Twitter takeover, which accused the company of dramatically underestimating the number of bot accounts on the network.

Zatko filed complaints last week with the SEC, Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission accusing Twitter of gross negligence when it comes to information security. Zatko accused the company of encouraging the propagation of spam accounts in the name of increasing user numbers, downplaying the amount of bot profiles on the platform, and running the whole enterprise on outdated software. There is already movement in Congress to investigate these claims.

Twitter said in court filings that Zatko's accusations are riddled with inconsistencies and lack context. The company has long argued that spam accounts make up less than 5 percent of Twitter's total user numbers. Musk, and now Zatko, argue the true figure is much higher.