ArduinoMania

Ericsson's chief executive officer Borje Ekholm has told Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri that the company may have made payments to the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS) terrorist organization for its operations in Iraq. According to Bloomberg, the CEO said the telecoms giant has identified "unusual expenses dating back to 2018." While the final recipient of those payments has yet to be identified, Ekholm has admitted that they're seeing records of purchased transport routes "through areas that have been controlled by terrorist organizations, including ISIS."

Ekholm's admission comes after Ericsson issued a statement in which it said it continues to "invest significantly" into an investigation regarding compliance concerns surrounding its Iraq-based business. In that statement, Ericsson said that unusual expense claims triggered an internal investigation in 2019, which led to the discovery of "serious breaches of compliance rules" in the conduct of its employees, vendors and suppliers in Iraq. Regarding those purchased transport routes in particular, Ericsson said they were used in "connection with circumventing Iraqi Customs." The company wrote:

"Ericsson invested significant time and resources to understand these matters. The investigation could not identify that any Ericsson employee was directly involved in financing terrorist organizations."

After Ericsson released its statement, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed that the company spoke to address the wrongdoing the consortium uncovered as part of a global investigation. The ICIJ also said that it will publish its own findings "soon."

Ericsson has been landing massive 5G contracts around the world in the past couple of years, in part because some countries need to replace banned Huawei equipment used in their networks. This isn't the first time the telecoms giant has been caught in a corruption scandal, however. It was previously charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act between 2000 and 2016 for bribing officials and falsifying records. In 2019, Ericsson settled with the US Justice Department and the SEC for $1.1 billion to leave it mostly free of criminal convictions, sanctions and penalties. But US prosecutors determined last year that it violated the terms of the settlement by failing to provide certain documents and information related to it. 

Snapchat on Wednesday unveiled a new partnership with Ticketmaster that will make staying updated on shows and inviting friends a little bit easier. The in-app Mini — a sort of micro-app inside the Snapchat app — functions a little bit like a dating service and can curate a selection of local shows tailored to individual users' interests.

Users are first asked to take a small survey, which allows the app to compile a list of artists and events they might like. They can then swipe right or left depending on if the show sparks an interest, and see if any of their Snapchat friends also liked the event. Snap Maps will also display upcoming concerts and events that are nearby.

Snapchat’s popularity with the under-25 demographic gives it a unique advantage in the live music space. Snap Inc. had a recent boost in popularity, gaining 13 million new users in the last quarter of 2021. The platform has already gotten its feet wet in the music space, partnering with Universal Music Group last year to launch a music discovery tool. Snapchat rivals only TikTok as the Gen Z app of choice, but the latter has stood out with its ability to make both new and old songs go viral. Given that Snapchat’s strength lies in connecting people in more intimate networks, a tool that matches users to shows and allows them to invite friends makes more sense.

Sony is still struggling to keep up with the demand for the PlayStation 5 due to the global chip shortage issue affecting companies across industries. It even recently dropped its sales forecast and told analysts that the company expects the console to continue to be in short supply this year, especially in the first half. Indeed, retailers' PS5 listings often show that it's "Out of Stock" or "Currently Unavailable" most of the time, and catching a restock is a race against scalpers and other fans also on the lookout for a unit. Now, Sony has launched a contest that gives you (the semblance of) a chance to finally get your hands on a PS5. 

Over the next few weeks until March 7th 10AM PST/1PM EST, Sony will be releasing 14 unique codes resembling the PlayStation controller through various means. It will post some online, on its social media channels, but it will also release them through high-profile events in sports, gaming, film and music. In other words, you'll have to keep their eyes peeled and maybe even make friends to turn the hunt into a group effort. Finding them doesn't automatically mean you win a console, after all. 

Nope — each code will only give you the opportunity to win a draw for the PS5. You'll have to enter the code in the dedicated page for the promo and then answer a question relevant to where the code was shown before you can be eligible. Oh, and the promo is only open to residents of participating territories:

Argentina, Canada, Chile, Mexico and United States, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Poland, United Kingdom.

At least you'll have 14 chances to win if you can find all the codes (and live in the right country,) but you may have a better chance just refreshing the PS5's Best Buy listing over and over again. 

Google Drive's "search chips" designed to making it easier to find files are rolling out to all Workspace users, The Verge has reported. The new feature first arrived in beta late last year, letting you limit results by file type, modification date, location, people involved and other parameters.

Google

Using the new feature is pretty easy, luckily. When you execute a normal search, you'll see a list of six chips with dropdown menus: Location, File Type, People, Last Modified, Title Only and To do. Clicking or tapping on one of those will filter your search results by a relevant person in the case of people, or a date (Today, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, etc.). 

Google Drive already offered a way to filter files, but hid that feature behind a sub-menu on the right-most icon on the search bar — so many users likely weren't aware of its existence. The search chips are thus more of a (welcome) UI experience improvement than an all-new feature. 

Just last month the original Baby Shark video and its impossibly catchy song set a record with 10 billion views on YouTube. Now, Baby Shark is going to become a movie with a release date planned for 2023, Paramount announced. 

The film will be produced by Nickelodeon Animation and creator The Pinkfong company, but there are no details about the script, plot, etc. The character has been seen in the cinema before, as Pinkfong and Baby Shark’s Space Adventure had a limited run when it came to Netflix. However, that ran for just an hour, while Paramount described the upcoming release as a "feature-length film." 

Baby Shark was also developed into a Korean TV series called Baby Shark's Big Show, which debuted on Nickelodeon in December of 2020. The show was announced by Paramount Plus as part of an upcoming slate of kids/youth programs, including a Dora the Explorer series, new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and three new films in the SpongeBob SquarePants Universe. 

Uber users have long been able to see their average ratings from drivers. Starting today, they can see how many one-star and five-star ratings they're getting as well.

The platform's Privacy Center, which debuted last month, shows riders and drivers a breakdown of their ratings. You can access the Privacy Center from the privacy section of the settings menu. From there, swipe to the right, select the “would you like to see a summary of how you use Uber” tile, scroll to "browse your data" and then tap "view my ratings."

Alongside the ratings breakdown, Uber has revealed which major US cities have the highest and lowest average rider ratings. Drivers typically dish out higher ratings in San Antonio, St Louis and Nashville. Riders tend to get the lowest ratings in New York City (perhaps unsurprisingly), followed by Seattle and Washington, DC.

Uber

Meanwhile, Uber has offered some tips, which are based on safety and common decency, to help you bump up your average. It suggests being ready to go when the driver shows up, buckling up and taking your garbage with you. Drivers often give riders a lower rating if they slam the doors, so be careful when you're getting in and out of vehicles.

Uber can boot riders with very low ratings off the platform, but as long as you're respectful (and leave fair tips), that shouldn't be an issue for you.

The 3DS and Wii U shops' days are numbers. In a new support page, Nintendo has revealed that it's shutting down the eShops for the Wii U system and the 3DS family of consoles in late March 2023. That means after that date, you won't be able to purchase any content from the shops anymore, download demos and redeem download codes. The shutdown process will start much earlier than March next year, though: You won't be able to use a credit card to add funds to your eShop account starting on May 23rd, 2022. 

Further, while retailers will sell Nintendo eShop Card cards until supplies last, you can't use them to add funds to your account anymore starting on August 29th, 2022. You can add as much funds as you want until those dates, however, and you can redeem download codes until late March 2023. After the eShops officially shut down, you can only use them to redownload any content you already own and to install software updates.

Nintendo wrote in the FAQ section of the page that the the move "is part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time." Both systems are getting up there in years, and Nintendo stopped manufacturing the 3DS back in 2020. Meanwhile, the Switch has become Nintendo's best-selling home console last year after selling a total of 103.54 million units since it launched in 2017. 

As Kotaku notes, Nintendo is also removing the only way to buy some classic games for older platforms by shutting down the shops. Apparently, the gaming giant deleted a section in its FAQ talking about how the Nintendo Switch Online "is an effective way to make classic content easily available to a broad range of players." It added: "We currently have no plans to offer classic content in other ways." Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription service, though, and you can only access its library of classic games as long as your membership is active. 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 won't hit theaters until April 8th, but a third movie is already in the works. Paramount confirmed that Sonic 3 is now in development, along with a Paramount+ streaming series based on Sonic sidekick Knuckles, starring Idris Elba. "We are delighted to announce that the third Sonic theatrical film and the first live action Sonic series for Paramount+ are being actively developed," said Sega CEO Haruki Satomi in a tweet.

Sonic 2's first trailer confirmed the existence of the titular character's new sidekick Tails, voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessy. We also saw the return of the first movie's villain, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carry), who's seeking to gain the Chaos Emeralds. Aiding his quest is none other than Knuckles the Echidna, who demonstrates his powers and posh Idris Elba voice. Elba will also voice Knuckles in the streaming series, set to arrive in 2023.

The first Sonic film was one of the most successful video game adaptations yet, making the launch of a sequel inevitable. Paramount must be pretty confident about that to have already announced Sonic 3 and a streaming series to boot. The trailer looked promising, but we'll find out when it arrives on April 8th. 

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface has a great acronym that is both nice to say and cleanly descriptive. The standard for talking to musical instruments relies on a serial signal at 31250 bps, which makes it easy to transmit using any old microcontroller UART with a settable baud rate. However, [Kevin] has dived into explore the utility of sending MIDI signals over I2C instead.

With a bit of hacking at the Arduino MIDI library, [Kevin] was able to get the microcontroller outputting MIDI data over the I2C interface, and developed a useful generic I2C MIDI transport for the platform. His first tests involved using this technique in concert with Gravity dual UART modules. After he successfully got one running, [Kevin] realised that four could be hooked up to a single Arduino, giving it 8 serial UARTS, or, in another way of thinking, 8 MIDI outputs.

At its greatest level of development, [Kevin] shows off his I2C MIDI chops by getting a single Raspberry Pi Pico delivering MIDI signals to 8 Arduinos, all over I2C. All the Arduinos are daisy-chained with their 5V and I2C lines wired together, and the system basically swaps out traditional MIDI channels for I2C addresses instead.

There’s not a whole lot of obvious killer applications for this, but if you want to send MIDI data to a bunch of microcontrollers, you might find it easier daisy-chaining I2C rather than hopping around with a serial line in the classic MIDI-IN/MIDI-THRU fashion.

We’ve seen [Kevin]’s work before too, like the wonderful Lo-Fi Orchestra. Video after the break.