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It looks like Meta truly is making a big push for Reels. Social media consultant Matt Navarra has posted a screenshot on Twitter showing a notice for an experimental Instagram feature that says all video posts would be shared as Reels on the app. If your account is public, that means anyone can discover your video and use your original audio to create their own Reel. Only friends would see your video if your profile is private, but other users can still create a remix with your Reel and download it as part of their remix. The only way to ensure nobody uses your Reel for remixes is to turn the option off in Settings or to disable it for each video you post.

As TechCrunch notes, this move doesn't come as a surprise when the TikTok-style videos have quickly become a popular format on both Instagram and Facebook. When he revealed the company's fourth quarterly earnings report for 2021, Mark Zuckerberg said that Reels is now Meta's fastest growing content format. Meta chief product officer Chris Cox called Reels a "bright point" for the company, as well, in a recent memo shared with employees warning them about "serious times" ahead due to slowing growth. He also said that one of the projects Meta intends to focus on for the second half of 2022 is monetizing Reels as quickly as possible. 

Apparently, time spent viewing the short-form videos has more than doubled since last year, with 80 percent of that growth coming from Facebook. That's why the company will go as far as to redesign Instagram's and Facebook's home pages to better incorporate the short videos. Turning all video posts into Reels would give the company more content to circulate, which in turn would translate to more time viewing videos on the platform and bigger potential ad earnings for when the format is finally monetized. That said, not all experimental Instagram features make it to wide release, and it remains to be seen whether this one will survive the testing phase.

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Europe and its member states have provisionally agreed on new crypto regulations that aim to protect consumers and service providers, the European Parliament announced. Called "MiCA" (markets in crypto-assets), it's designed to guard against things like fraud, criminal activity, climate impact and more. 

"In the Wild West of the crypto-world, MiCA will be a global standard setter," said Germany's MEP Stefan Berger in a statement. "MiCA will ensure a harmonised market, provide legal certainty for crypto-asset issuers, guarantee a level playing field for service providers and ensure high standards for consumer protection." 

A new legal framework is designed to protect market integrating by regulating public crypto offerings. A key provision is a public register administered by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to address money laundering concerns. Major crypto-asset service provider (CASPs) will also have to disclose energy consumption and declare environmental and climate impact data to their national authority, which will in turn inform ESMA. 

This new regulation strengthens the European framework to fight money-laundering, reduces the risks of fraud and makes crypto-asset transactions more secure. The EU travel rule will ensure that CASPs can prevent and detect sanctioned addresses and that transfers of crypto-assets are fully traceable.

The law covers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, but NFTs (nonfungible tokens) including "cinema tickets, digital collectibles from clothing brands or in-game items in computer games" will be exempt. However, those could later be re-classified as financial instruments or crytpo assets subject to MiCA, according to the rules. 

The law is still provisional, with key details like whether CASPs will need to be located in the EU still being debated, according to Bloomberg. Earlier version of the draft, first proposed in 2020, included a provision to ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that used energy-intensive mining processes. However, those were subsequently removed following industry complaints. 

The news follows a a bad run for crypto, with the collapse of TerraUSD and other tokens, the freezing of withdrawals at Celsius and a general decline in the market. The US has yet to implement its own rules on crypto, but US senators recently introduced a bipartisan bill designed to do just that. 

In a weekly employee Q&A session, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said the company is experiencing "one of the worst downturns [it has seen] in recent history." According to Reuters, the executive has revealed that Meta has slashed its target number for new engineers hires this year by about 30 percent. Meta previously said that it's slowing its hiring plans due to weak revenue forecasts, but now Zuckerberg has announced more details with exact figures. Apparently, from plans to hire 10,000 new engineers this year, Meta will only hire between 6,000 and 7,000.

Further, the CEO said that Meta is raising expectations on current employees and giving them more aggressive goals so that they can decide on their own if the company isn't for them. "[S]elf-selection is OK with me," he said. In a memo to employees, chief product officer Chris Cox has stressed that the company "is in serious times here and the headwinds are fierce." He also listed the company's six investment priorities for the second half of the year, starting with its metaverse initiatives Avatars and its virtual world Horizon Worlds. 

According to the memo, published in full by The Verge, Meta is also aiming to monetize Reels as quickly as possible. Time spent on Reels has more than doubled around the world since last year, the memo reads, with 80 percent of that growth coming from Facebook. Cox called Reels, its short-form video format created as an answer to TikTok, a "bright point" for the company in the first half of 2022. Meta plans to continue improving the experience, including making changes to the home screen on Instagram and Facebook to incorporate the videos more natively.

In addition, Meta plans to focus on its AI initiatives, as well as on WhatsApp and Messenger in the second half of the year. It plans to test WhatApp communities before the feature launches around the world by the end of 2022. The company is also going to develop Instagram Creator channels and joinable chats, which are slated for rollout in the coming months.

Cox wrote in the memo:

"I have to underscore that we are in serious times here and the headwinds are fierce. We need to execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets. We must prioritize more ruthlessly, be thoughtful about measuring and understanding what drives impact, invest in developer efficiency and velocity inside the company, and operate leaner, meaner, better exciting teams."

Starting today, small phone carriers must implement a special caller ID authentication tool that will help identify robocallers, the Federal Communication Commission announced. Known as STIR/SHAKEN, major carriers such as AT&T and Verizon — due to an FCC rule adopted in 2020 — have had the same tool in place since last year. The agency initially gave small carriers a more generous deadline of June 2023 to adopt STIR/SHAKEN, but opted to fast-track adoption because it discovered "a subset of these small voice service providers were originating an increasing quantity of illegal robocalls."

But as a new report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) notes, merely flagging suspected robocalls is not enough to tackle the robocall industry. "The problem is that applying the STIR/SHAKEN methodology requires only that originating providers apply a certification indicating how confident they are that the caller ID displayed in the calls is correct," the report states. Presumably, this means calls can still be routed through gateway carriers from abroad where the FCC's rules don't apply. But as EPIC also mentions, implementing STIR/SHAKEN may help identify spam callers, but there aren't any real metrics in place by which to measure how effective carriers are at stopping the calls. "The FCC’s pending regulatory efforts would continue to require only that providers have procedures in place to mitigate illegal robocalls," the report points out, "with no meaningful and enforceable requirement that these procedures actually be effective."

When I went hands-on with Roland's SP-404 MKII back in October I said it was "becoming" my favorite sampler. Fast forward a few months and it is firmly entrenched in that spot. Of course, no piece of gear is perfect, and there's always room for improvement. So Roland is pushing out a 2.0 firmware update that only further cement's the 404's place at the top of my list.

Perhaps the biggest addition is a new TR-style (as in TR-808) step sequencer. While the SP series has always appealed more to those that want the loose feel of live instrumentation, being able to punch in a basic four-on-the-floor kick that's right on the money is always nice. That's especially true if your sense of rhythm is only so-so, but it also makes the 404 more useful for genres that are all about being right on the beat like house and techno. And in some ways, it's actually more versatile than your average TR-style sequencer since patterns can be up to 64 bars (or 1,024 steps) in length. 

In addition to being able to program beats by manually punching in individual steps, you can also now record to patterns in chromatic mode: load up a sample of a single note and just play a melody into a pattern. Previously this had to be done via resampling, i.e. creating an entirely new sample of the melody you played.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

But wait, there's more! Now chromatic sample playback has three different modes — plain old monophonic, legato (great for sliding bass lines) and polyphonic — so you can turn a single piano note into a chord. And, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it gets better still. Roland has vastly improved the time stretching algorithm. Frankly, it was borderline useless before. Now, in addition to the default "vinyl" mode of pitch shifting (just playing things back faster or slower), there are two Variphrase modes (these change pitch without changing playback length): Backing, for things with distinct attacks like drums and guitar; and Ensemble for sustained sounds like strings and synth pads. Backing is still a little rough sounding, though it handles drums decently enough. But Ensemble is lightyears beyond what the 404 previously had, and is key to making that new polyphonic sample playback mode useable.

Now if this was all Roland added, it would be a pretty big deal. But the company also included four new bus effects: SX Reverb, SX Delay, Cloud Delay and Backspin. Plus there's now a Harmonizer on the input FX menu and a second version of reverse playback borrowed form the SP-303 for those that really want to lean into the lo-fi heritage of the range. And, on top of all of that, the Skip Back feature can, at any time, recall audio from up to 40 seconds in the past where its prior iteration had a 25 second maximum.

In short, Roland took what was already a pretty great piece of music gear and made it even more alluring. Now if only they weren't completely out of stock everywhere. 

NFT marketplace OpenSea shared today that it’s the victim of another data breach — though this time the target is one of its vendors. An employee of its email delivery vendor, Customer.io, allegedly downloaded and shared stored email addresses associated with OpenSea accounts and newsletter subscriptions with an unknown third party. Any OpenSea account holder or newsletter subscriber should assume their email address was among those impacted, according to a blog post by the company’s head of security Cory Hardman. At this time it does not appear any passwords or other personal information was stolen.

The company is working with Customer.io to investigate the matter. “Please stay vigilant about your email practices, and be alert for any attempt to impersonate OpenSea via email,” wrote Hardman.

Unlike a previous phishing attack on OpenSea in February that resulted in hundreds of NFTs being stolen, there appears to be no further reported damage beyond the leaked email addresses. Still, the number of people likely impacted by the breach is significant. Hackread noted that 1.8 million users made purchases through the Ethereum network on OpenSea, according to data from Dune Analytics.

Yesterday the company sent emails to OpenSea users who they suspected were involved, warning them to be on the lookout for phishing emails and other scams. Beyond standard advice such as not to download attachments or click on a link from an OpenSea email, users were also warned not to sign wallet transactions directly from an email or to share or confirm secret wallet phrases.

The identity of the third party who received the breached email addresses has not been revealed. A representative from Customer.io toldTechCrunch that the employee behind the breach had “role-specific” access to the OpenSea data that they abused. “We do not believe any other clients’ data has been compromised, but we are continuing to investigate. The employee in question has had all access removed and has been suspended pending the conclusion of our investigation.”

A small fleet of Cruise robotaxis in San Francisco suddenly stopped operating on Tuesday night, effectively stopping traffic on a street in the city's Fillmore district for a couple of hours until employees were able to arrive. TechCrunch first noticed a Reddit post that featured a photo of the stalled driverless cabs at the corner of Gough and Fulton streets. Cruise — which is General Motor’s AV subsidiary — only launched its commercial robotaxi service in the city last week. The rides feature no human safety driver, are geo-restricted to certain streets and can only operate in the late evening hours.

Cruise apologized for the incident in a statement, but gave little explanation for what caused the mishap. “We had an issue earlier this week that caused some of our vehicles to cluster together,” a Cruise spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “While it was resolved and no passengers were impacted, we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced.”

The GM-backed AV startup won the first driverless taxi permit in a major US city, and began offering San Francisco residents free rides in February. After launching its paid passenger service on June 24, early reviews from Cruise passengers came pouring in. One passenger noted that his Cruise car took an unusually long route to get to his home. Another passenger seemed to have a more positive experience, even leaving a cash tip for the driverless car.

This week’s traffic jam appears to be Cruise’s first major stumbling block, at least for its commercial service. Back in April, police stopped a Cruise car for not having its headlights on. Officers appeared unsure of how to proceed after discovering there was no human behind the wheel.

The State of California requires AV companies to report any collision that involve property damage, bodily harm or death to the DMV, which publishes the data online. A total of 18 reports involving Cruise vehicles have been filed this year.

A cyberattack on a third-party vendor has impacted employment services, including unemployment benefits, in several states, according to the Associated Press. Some state employment websites have been offline since Sunday, including the ones in Tennessee and Nebraska.

“We recently identified anomalous activity on our network, and immediately took [Tennessee's] Jobs4TN system offline to halt the activity. With the help of third-party specialists, we are conducting a full investigation to determine the cause and scope of the incident," Paul Toomey, the president of vendor Geographic Solutions, said in a statement on Wednesday. "Our current focus is working around the clock to bring Jobs4TN back online. We anticipate that this will occur prior to the July 4th holiday."

The full scope of the cyberattack's impact is not yet clear, though Geographic Solutions claims to have clients in more than 35 states and territories. As noted by StateScoop, the Louisiana Workforce Commission said on Wednesday its HiRE website is offline and the "attack is also impacting as many as 40 other states and Washington D.C." Geographic Solutions' website is also down.

The situation could have a significant effect on those who depend on unemployment benefits and are having problems accessing them. Around 12,000 people rely on such benefits in Tennessee, but the AP reports that they are not receiving payments.

The Nebraska Department of Labor expects its employment services site to remain offline through at least Friday. “Individuals cannot file for unemployment until the system is back online," a spokesperson told the AP.

Some state-run jobseeking sites are unavailable as well. In many cases, those seeking unemployment assistance need to show that they're actively searching for work to be eligible for benefits. California and Florida are among the states that have temporarily waived those rules.

Toomey said Geographic Solutions is taking steps to prevent a similar situation from happening again. "The latest information from GSI indicates no personal data was accessed, and no data was removed from its network operations center."

The walk from the Las Vegas Convention Center to Tacos El Gordo may only be seven-tenths of a mile but under the blazing sun of a Nevada winter, the trip can seem an eternity. Lucky for us Al Pastor enthusiasts, this traditional CES taco trek is now far more convenient as the Boring Company and Resorts World Las Vegas announced the official opening of the latest Loop station at Las Vegas Convention Center. 

This spur off of the Boring Company's existing Loop network (which runs underneath the North and South halls of the LVCC) connects the convention center directly to a sister station underneath the World Resorts property on the other side of South Las Vegas Blvd. Boring expects the trip between the two to take just a few minutes — assuming nothing goes wrong — and plans to eventually expand the underground vehicle network to more than 55 stops along the Strip. 

“Today marks a monumental moment not only for our resort, but for Las Vegas,” Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, said in a Thursday press relea. “Our passenger station will make a visit to our resort from the Las Vegas Convention Center easier than ever, and eventually connect us to key destinations throughout the city.”     

The Boring Company began work on the initial $47 million tunnels running under the LVCC back in 2019, completed excavation the following May, and opened for service — because of course it did — on April 20th, 2022. In October, 2021 Las Vegas approved the Boring Company's plans to expand its Loop network to encompass more than 29 miles of tunnel. That figure grew to 34 miles in June, 2022 to include stations at Harry Reid International Airport and Allegiant Stadium following approval from the Clark County Commissioners. However, despite Boring CEO Elon Musk's claims of superior passenger capacity — up to 4,400 people every hour! — the system so far has only managed to move around 575 people in that time.