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A lot of companies have already entered the metaverse in some way, and today another big name is doing so. Spotify has announced that its venture into virtual worlds is coming via a Roblox interactive space called Spotify Island. The setting is a place where users can create music, chill in virtual venues and get access to exclusive virtual merchandise — and it's debuting today. 

Spotify has given its Roblox island a design that's true to its brand: lots of green with shapes, colors and icons you'll recognize from its apps. These are all part of the game as well. You can collect the heart-shaped "Like" icons for free merch, for example. Speaking of digital goods, Spotify says the exclusive in-game virtual merchandise will give artists a chance to connect with fans and a way to earn money. The company explains that a portion of sales will go to the artists, though it didn't specify a percentage. It did say that it has already collaborated with some acts to create a collection of items that "truly reflects who they are." 

The main tasks on Spotify Island are hanging out with artists, completing quests and accessing "exclusive content." The company says it has stuffed the virtual world full of Easter eggs for users to find along the way. You can also create your own music and sounds via beat-maker stations that are powered by Soundtrap, the online recording platform Spotify acquired in 2017. 

Spotify says its first "themed experience" will debut in a few weeks. K-Park, a nod to K-Pop, will give users the ability to interact with artists Stray Kids and SUNMI. This is surely the first of many of the hangouts as the metaverse as a concept is just getting started. You don't have to wait until K-Park starts to buy things either. SUNMI’s merchandise will be on sale today, with items for Stray Kids coming soon.

Neighborhood social network Nextdoor is trying out a new way to keep conversations respectful. The company is introducing a new feature that will remind users to keep conversations “constructive” when the app detects that a particular thread may be likely to turn negative or overly contentious.

With the change, which will be rolling out over the next few weeks, users will see a big pop-up reminding them “you can set the tone,” before they are able to add to a discussion. “Show your neighbors what it looks like to have empathetic conversations,” it reads.

It’s an approach the company has tried before. Nextdoor introduced “kindness reminders” in 2019, which surface pop-ups when the app detects someone may be about to post a heated comment. Last year, it debuted a similar reminder to promote anti-racist language among its users.

What sets these latest notifications apart is that they appear proactively, before a user has typed out a comment. The feature uses machine learning to detect when a conversation between neighbors may be close to becoming problematic, looking at factors like the rate of comments coming in as well as whether the people active in a thread have been reported in the past.

Nextdoor

The goal, according to the company’s Chief Product Officer Kiran Prasad, is to catch people before they get involved in a discussion that could be veering off course. Once you’ve already started typing out a response, he says,"you’re kind of committed to a certain level because you’ve already written a bunch of stuff." If people can see the reminders before they start writing, the hope is they’ll be more likely to respond thoughtfully, or even not jump in at all.

For a service that has often been in the spotlight for enabling people’s more base instincts (there’s a reason why the app has had to actively remind users to not be racist) predicting when a conversation is likely to turn negative could have a sizable impact.

“It'll start to kind of set the tone that these are the types of conversations that are appropriate or not appropriate on the platform,” Prasad said.

Nextdoor isn’t the only platform to try out these kinds of reminders in an effort to make people be nicer to each other online. Twitter has prompted users to rethink mean tweets, and has said the prompts have led to a decrease in harmful replies. TikTok adopted a similar measure, prompting users to “reconsider” before posting offensive comments. Instagram also has anti-bullying “nudges.”

Prasad says that early tests of Nextdoor’s “constructive conversations” reminders have already been positive, though it has led to some decrease in overall engagement on the platform. “We think that it's still the right thing to do.”

We don't see deals on Apple's AirTags very often, but you can now pick up a four-pack at Amazon for $89, or $10 (10 percent) off the regular price. They've been slightly cheaper at Woot, but it matches the best Amazon deal we've seen so far — so it's a good time to act if you have multiple items to track. 

If you're an Apple user, AirTags offer some large advantages over Tile and other rival trackers. The ultra-wideband functionality offers precise tracking with iPhone 11 or later devices up close, so you can narrow your search between a couch and love seat in the same room. Over larger distances, the AirTag network enabled by all Apple device users lets you track down an object you might have misplaced in a café.

It offers a simple coin-sized design and seamless experience thanks to the Find My app. You can also force an AirTag to emit a chime to help you hone in an object's location, and Apple recently made that chime louder so the devices are easier to locate. 

It does lack a built-in keyring like rival trackers, so you'll need to pay an extra $35 for that. And it only works with Apple devices, so Android users will have to buy something else. However, if you're in Apple's ecosystem and have been waiting for a discount, now is the time to act. 

Rocket Lab has taken a huge step towards making its Electron orbital launch vehicle a reusable rocket. The company has successfully captured Electron’s first stage mid-air with a helicopter for the first time upon its return to Earth after deploying 34 satellites to orbit. To ensure that the first stage will survive its re-entry into the atmosphere, Rocket Lab re-oriented it into the ideal angle that would give it the best chances to withstand tremendous heat and pressure. A drogue parachute then deployed to increase drag before the main parachute opened up in the final part of its descent.

The company sent a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter to rendezvous with the returning stage at 6,500 feet in the air, using a hook on a cable to capture the booster's parachute line. While the catch was a success, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said on Twitter that the pilots weren't happy with the way the booster was hanging below the helicopter and opted to drop it into the ocean. It was eventually retrieved and loaded onto a vessel for transport back to Rocket Lab's HQ for re-flight assessment. 

Rocket Lab says the test gave its helicopter pilot "different load characteristics than previously experienced in testing" and will provide important information for future helicopter captures. The goal is to be able to grab the booster mid-air and bring it straight back to land instead of having to drop it into the sea, since salt water could damage the booster. If the company successfully proves that it can reuse its boosters similar to what SpaceX can do, it can ramp up launch frequency and reduce mission costs for small satellites.

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said:

"Bringing a rocket back from space and catching it with a helicopter is something of a supersonic ballet. A tremendous number of factors have to align and many systems have to work together flawlessly, so I am incredibly proud of the stellar efforts of our Recovery Team and all of our engineers who made this mission and our first catch a success. From here we’ll assess the stage and determine what changes we might want to make to the system and procedures for the next helicopter catch and eventual re-flight."

The company has another launch scheduled for May, but it's unclear if it will attempt another helicopter recovery.

It only took about 15 years, but Amazon’s Kindle will finally support the ePub format. First spotted by Good E-Reader, Amazon updated its Kindle section with the news that the Send to Kindle function will convert ePub files to a format that can be opened on the e-reader. The update is scheduled to occur in late 2022.

It’s a change that — at first glance — seems rather minor, but in truth solves a lingering problem in the ebook industry. Amazon’s Kindle Store is a major ebook seller and ePub is the most widely-used ebook format. But up until now, Kindle devices couldn’t read the ePub format. For Kindle owners who’ve had to grapple with manually converting their ebook library to a more Amazon-friendly format with an app like Calibre, this will be a welcome change.

But another upcoming change is that Kindle will finally lose the ability to support MOBI, an older French file format that was Amazon’s proprietary ebook format for a while. Amazon acquired the company Mobipocket in 2005, and subsequently rebranded MOBI to AZW. If you already own ebooks in either format on your Kindle, you can still access them. The update only applies to new ebooks.

Apple has accused a company of stealing its trade secrets. In a complaint filed Friday, the tech giant claims Rivos, a “stealth-mode” startup based out of Mountain View, California, led a recent “coordinated campaign” to poach employees from Apple's chip design division.

According to Reuters, the first publication to report on the lawsuit, Apple alleges at least two former employees took gigabytes of confidential data with them to Rivos. Among the information those individuals allegedly stole are presentations that detail unreleased chip designs, reports Bloomberg.

“Apple has reason to believe that Rivos instructed at least some Apple employees to download and install apps for encrypted communications (e.g., the Signal app) before communicating with them further,” the company says in the complaint. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

Should the case move forward, it’s likely to draw a significant amount of attention, much like Waymo's suit against Uber for stealing confidential information about its self-driving technology did in 2017. After years of litigation, that case ended with Uber agreeing to settle for $245 million, and with a court sentencing Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of the dispute, to 18 months in prison before former President Donald Trump issued a pardon.

Google’s recent Pixel software updates haven’t always landed flawlessly. At the end of last year, for instance, the company was forced to pause the release of an OTA after reports that the software caused the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro to drop calls. More recently, the March update introduced an issue that left the company’s latest phones producing much weaker notifications when you got a notification. Many Pixel 6 and 6 Pro owners complained after Google released the update, noting that no matter what they set their phone’s haptic feedback to, they would miss calls and emails because they couldn’t feel their device vibrating.

On Monday, Google began rolling out the May Pixel software update. It includes a fix for the vibration issue. “Improvements for haptic feedback under certain conditions and uses cases,” the company writes on its community website. The update resolves two other issues that affect all recent Pixels devices. The first involves a bug that had caused those phones to wake their displays without any input. The second solves a problem that could crash the Pixel launcher after you restarted your device. The update also includes the latest Android security patch from Google.

According to Google, it will roll out the May 2022 update to all eligible Pixel devices in the coming weeks. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can attempt to install the software on your phone by manually sideloading it. Just note that flashing a device always comes with a degree of risk.

Facebook's podcast offerings are vanishing just a year after they launched. Parent company Meta has confirmed to Bloomberg that it will wind down podcasting, Soundbites and its general audio hub. It will no longer let podcasters add shows to Facebook as of this week, and will remove them entirely on June 3rd. The hub and Soundbites will close sometime in the "coming weeks," while Live Audio Rooms will fold into Facebook Live. 

A Meta spokesperson characterized the move as a matter of concentration. The move will help Meta "focus on the most meaningful experiences," according to the representative.

There were hints in recent weeks that Meta was losing interest in podcasts and shifting attention to hotter products like Facebook's main feed and Instagram's Reels. There was a good response to audio services, a Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg in mid-April, but the news outlet's sources said the social media firm was more interested in highlighting the metaverse and shopping when talking to podcast partners. Simply speaking, Meta's interests in conquering AR, VR and rivals like TikTok may have pulled its attention away from audio.

Facebook also has fiercer competition in the sound-only realm. Podcast app operators like Apple and Spotify were already major threats, but there was also a flood of efforts to mimic Clubhouse in 2021. Meta had to pit Facebook's services against the likes of Twitter Spaces and Reddit Talk. There was no guarantee Facebook would stand out in this market, even with a well-known name and massive resources at its disposal.

Netflix is tightening its purse strings after a drop in subscribers. Deadline reported that the streaming platform canceled production on Pearl, an animated series created by Meghan Markle, before it was even finished. The project was a part of a multi-year production deal that Markle and Prince Harry signed with Netflix back in 2020. The animated family series followed a 12-year girl as she learned about influential women throughout history. The show is only the latest casualty in a recent series of cost-saving measures by the streamer, including firing most of the writing staff for its fan site project and canceling the show Space Force. It also axed two other animated children’s series, Dino Daycare and Boons and Curses, reportedPeople.

Netflix confirmed to CNBC that the cancellation of Pearl is a part of strategic decisions it is making around animated series. The platform has invested heavily in animation since 2018, and was projected by Loup Ventures to spend $5 billion on original animated content this year. But the company’s boomtown mentality appears to have shifted, at least for now.

The company’s market value dropped a staggering $60 billion after a disappointing first-quarter earnings call last month. The streamer lost roughly 200,000 subscribers in the first few months of 2022, its first decline in nearly a decade. A number of factors led to the drop, including competition from rival platforms like Disney+ and Hulu, halting service to Russia and widespread password sharing.

Deadlinereported that a number of projects through Archwell Productions — the production company owned by Markle and Prince Harry — are still in the works, including a docuseries on the Invictus Games.

Rocket Lab is trying something different during today’s launch of Electron, its reusable rocket. The space company will attempt a mid-air capture of Electron’s first stage as it plummets back to Earth. In order to do this, Rocket Lab is deploying a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter, a twin-engine helicopter that can seat 19 people and is often used for military or presidential purposes. While recovery missions for rocket stages are uncommon — most end up on the ocean floor — the company’s goal is to create a truly reusable rocket that will allow for more frequent launches.

Rocket Lab has recovered boosters three times in the past, first in November 2020 with a parachute, followed by two sea recoveries in May and November 2021. But this will be the first mid-air retrieval of a booster with a helicopter. Space X — the only other space company that has successfully recovered its boosters— usually relies on drone ships.

Electron is scheduled for lift-off on May 2st at 6:35PM ET from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula, Roughly two and a half minutes after launch, the first and second rocket stages will separate. The first stage, outfitted with a parachute and a heat shield to protect it from the harsh forces of the atmosphere, will then descend back to Earth. The helicopter at this point will then hook on to the parachute and recover the booster.

You can watch a live webcast of the launch (and hopefully, the subsequent recovery) below on Rocket Lab’s YouTube channel.