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The original Erae Touch was one of the more interesting MPE controllers to come out in the last few years. But it's been on the market for less than three years. So it was something of a surprise when Embodme showed up to NAMM 2024 with Erae II, the next iteration of its customizable controller with significant upgrades and one unexpected new feature.

Now, it's important to note that the version of the Erae II I was able to test out was very early prototype. There were a few bugs, the construction definitely had some rough edges. But the company has plenty of time to iron those out. The Kickstarter campaign opens on February 15 with an expect ship date sometime in June. 

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

But the vision is already clear. The main surface is largely the same, a singular smooth expanse with RGB lights underneath it. Those are used to illustrate various layouts that can be customized. It can be a standard keyboard, a grid, faders, a step sequencer, et cetera. The design is definitely more refined, even at this early stage. It also acknowledges that while the customizability of the controller was a big draw, it perhaps relied too much on the desktop app and the playing surface for handling settings. 

The updated version has a number of buttons across the top for quickly swapping layouts, controlling the new MIDI looper and accessing other settings. There's also a small, but high resolution screen tucked in the top righthand corner next to a jog wheel. The viewing angles on the screen were solid and it's plenty sharp, but its size could pose some challenges. I'm not going to judge it by this very early version of the firmware, but I had to squint pretty hard to make out the tiny text laying out all the MIDI assignments.

The controller itself was very responsive, though. The new sensors (16,000 of them to be specific) were able to track my glides and subtle shifts in pressure with incredible accuracy. The company claims the playing surface has sub-millimeter accuracy. Obviously there's no way I could truly put that to the test on the show floor but, suffice it to say, it was accurate. 

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

I can already tell that the Erae requires quite a bit of nuance, though, to get truly expressive results from the aftertouch. The surface doesn't have a lot of give, so tiny changes in pressure can result in big changes to the sound. 

One of the surprising things is that the Erae II will have swappable skins, kind of like the Sensel Morph (RIP) or the Joué Play, but also, not. The unit I played had a silicone cover like the original that the company says is meant for those who want to play the Erae II with drum stick. It will will ship with a white fabric one though, which was specifically meant to improve the feel and responsiveness for those playing with their fingers. 

Changing the skins is a little involved, however. Because Embodme sees the Erae not simply as a tool for the studio, but as a live performance device it wanted to make sure the covers would be secure and standup to abuse. So you actually have to unscrew the frame to pop on a new skin. And since the display on the Erae is already customizable, it's not bothering to have skins with particular layouts, just different materials.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

Embodme also added a ton of new connectivity options. The original simply had a USB-C port and a TRS MIDI out. But the Erae II will have two MIDI out ports, a MIDI in jack, two USB ports, with the ability to be either a host or a device, and 24 configurable analog outs that can send gate, trigger and CV to external gear. 

Obviously it's way to early to know for sure how well the Erae II will standup to real world use. But it's got a promising feature set and an intriguing design. If you want to be among the first to get your hands on one you'll be able to back it on Kickstarter starting February 15 with early bird prices of $549 or $649, depending on how early you hop on. When it reaches retail later in the year, however, it will be going for $799.

We were so close to finally drifting on the cobblestone streets of Yharnam, but it looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer for Bloodborne Kart. And, it’ll be called something else when it does arrive. Lilith Walther, the developer behind the project, said the team has to “scrub the branding” off of the game and delay its release after Sony intervened. It was supposed to be released on January 31 for PC. The outcome isn’t exactly surprising, but it means the game will take shape a bit differently than planned — in a thread posted on X, Walther said, “This is a fan game no more!”

Bloodborne Kart, a retro-style racing game that started out as a meme, has generated a ton of support from fans who have been yearning for new Bloodborne content. In response to the latest development, many have joked that the whole saga has forced Sony, which owns the IP, to actually acknowledge the title for the first time in years. Walther previously released a free Bloodborne “demake” in the style of a PS1 game.

“So Sony contacted us,” Walther wrote in an update on Friday. “Long story short, we need to scrub the branding off of what was previously known as Bloodborne Kart. We will do this, but that requires a short delay. Don't worry, the game is still coming out! It'll just look slightly different.”

The developers planned to feature 12 racers styled after familiar Bloodborne characters, including The Hunter and The Doll from the Hunter’s Dream, with single-player and multiplayer modes. There were to be 16 maps and boss fights, so you could race against the likes of Father Gascoigne. It really sucks that they won’t be able to follow through with the original idea, because it looked awesome, but I have no doubt they’ll spin it into something equally great.

“We were honestly expecting something like this to happen and the idea of having full creative control is kind of exciting!” Walther wrote. There's no new release date just yet, but in the meantime, you can rewatch the Bloodborne Kart trailer on a loop and dream of what we almost had. 

NAMM is packed to the gills with synths, guitars, saxophones, et cetera. But, I promise you right now, the Dimension Tripper from Casio is the only wireless expression controller on the floor that you operate with your guitar strap. 

The concept is simple. It's an expression pedal. Just, not in pedal form. Now we've seen expression controllers in all sorts of shapes and sizes: Faders, rollers, even lasers. The Dimension Tripper does the same thing, except instead of rocking a pedal back and forth with your foot or sliding a fader back and forth with your hand, you pull down on your guitar itself.

There are two parts to the system. The transmitter goes between the end of your strap and the strap button on your guitar. One end of it is retractable and, as you stretch it out it sends information over Bluetooth to the receiver. Under ideal conditions there is about 20ms of lag, but even on the floor at NAMM with all of the interference it was barely noticeable.

The receiver is a relatively standard looking box that sits on your pedalboard and connects to your target pedal. A row of lights in the middle gives you visual feedback as you stretch out the sensor on the transmitter. 

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

The two parts are a bit bulkier than I would have expected, though. The receiver has two foot switches and is basically the size of a standard guitar pedal. The transmitter is nearly 5 inches long and is 1 inch thick. You will notice it when you play, and will need to shorten your strap significantly.

Other than that, it works like any other expression controller. You can use it for energetic wah wah effects, or gentle volume swells or to crank up the weirdness on a ring modulator. It can even be used in place of a foot switch to turn on and off effect. So you could yank down hard at the start of the chorus to kick in an overdrive.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

The concept is definitely gimmicky. But I have to admit it's fun and actually felt kind of natural. Most players move their guitar a bit when anyway, and this just felt like an extension of that. I had to be a little more emphatic and move with more conviction than I might normally, but I adapted pretty quickly. Is it practical? Probably not. But kudos to Casio for trying something different.

What's not clear is whether or not this will become an actual retail product. Right now Casio is running a crowdfunding campaign where you back the Dimension Tripper for 32,736 yen, or about $221. If the wireless expression controller has a life beyond that however is still up in the air. 

Fossil is officially getting out of the smartwatch business. Following months of speculation about the future of its Wear OS smartwatch lineup, which hasn’t seen a new model since 2021’s Gen 6, the company confirmed to The Verge on Friday that it’s abandoning the category altogether. There won’t be a successor to the Gen 6, but existing Fossil smartwatches will still get updates “for the next few years.”

In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson said Fossil Group has “made the strategic decision to exit the smartwatch business,” citing the industry’s evolving landscape. “Fossil Group is redirecting resources to support our core strength and the core segments of our business that continue to provide strong growth opportunities for us: designing and distributing exciting traditional watches, jewelry, and leather goods under our own as well as licensed brand names.”

Fossil has been pretty quiet about its smartwatch plans lately, after an initial few years of steady releases, and the decision is going to come as a disappointment to anyone who’s been holding out hope for a Gen 7. While they were known to struggle in the battery life department, Fossil smartwatches are some of the nicest looking out there.

With a healthy dose of heart and whimsy, the Sundance documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon follows two young Black women who are devoted to finding the original model for Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. If you touched a computer during the '80s or '90s, there's a good chance that Mavis helped you get comfortable with a keyboard. Or at the very least, you might remember her from the program's original 1987 cover: a smiling, elegant Black woman dressed in a cream-colored outfit. She embodied style and professional poise — it was as if you could be just as capable as her if you bought that program.

It's no spoiler to say that "Mavis Beacon" didn't really exist – she was a marketing idea crafted by a group of white dudes from Silicon Valley. But the program's cover star was real: Her name was Renee L'Esperance, a Haitian model who was discovered while working at Saks Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles. After her image helped make Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing a success, she retreated from the spotlight, reportedly heading back to retire in the Caribbean.

Seeking Mavis Beacon

The documentary's director and writer, Jazmin Jones, as well as her collaborator, Olivia McKayla Ross, start with those basic details and set out to find L'Esperance like a pair of digital detectives. From a home base in a rundown Bay Area office – surrounded by tech ephemera, a variety of art pieces and images of influential black women – they lay out L'Esperance's reported timeline, follow leads and even host a spiritual ceremony to try and connect with the model.

I won't say if the pair actually end up finding L'Esperance because it's the journey that makes Seeking Mavis Beacon such a joy to watch. Jones and Ross both grew up with the typing program and felt a kinship toward the character of Mavis Beacon. It was the first program to prominently feature a Black woman on the cover (a move that reportedly caused some suppliers to cut their orders), so it made the technology world seem like somewhere young Black women could actually fit in. Beacon's digital hands also appear on-screen, as if she's gently guiding your fingers to the correct letters and positioning.

To help uncover more details about the whereabouts of Mavis Beacon, Jones and Ross set up a hotline and website for anyone to submit clues. Some of those calls are featured in the film, and they make it clear that her digital presence inspired many people. The film opens with references to Beacon throughout culture, including one of my favorite bits from Abbott Elementary, where Quinta Brunson's over-achieving teacher is far too excited to spot the typing icon in a school crowd. I was reminded of my own childhood experience with Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, spending free periods at school and idle time at home trying to get my typing speed up. By middle school, typing felt as natural as breathing. And yes, I would also have freaked out if I saw the real Beacon in person.

While the documentary doesn't seem out of place at Sundance, which is known for innovative projects, it also sometimes feels like a piece of experimental media meant for YouTube or an art show filled with impossibly cool twenty-somethings. (At one point, Ross attends a farewell ceremony for one of her friends' dead laptops, which was hosted in an art space filled with people dressed in white. That's the sort of hip weirdness that will either turn you off of this film, or endear you to it more.)

Jones shows us screen recordings of her own desktop, where she may be watching a TikTok alongside her notes. Instead of a full-screen video chat with another person, sometimes we just see a FaceTime window (and occasionally that reflects Jones' own image looking at the screen). Finding Mavis Beacon tells its story in a way that digital natives will find natural, without locking itself exclusively into screens like the film Searching.

As is true for many first features, the film could use some narrative tightening. Jones and Ross's investigation stalls at several points, and we're often just left adrift as they ponder their next steps. The pair also occasionally appear too close to the story, or at least, that's how it seems when we see Jones tearing up while pleading to meet with L'Esperance.

But I'd argue that's also part of the charm of Seeking Mavis Beacon. Jones and Ross aren't some true crime podcast hosts looking to create content out of controversy. They're young women who found comfort in one of the few faces in tech that looked like them. With this film, Jones and Ross could be similarly inspirational for a new generation of underrepresented techies.

Sorry to interrupt your Saturday, but The Pokemon Company is aware it's being mocked and Apple isn't giving up on its dreams of making a car — it just might not be as impressive as first imagined. This week's YouTube-coated version of TMA covers both of those, we get sad about a moonlander that didn't really land properly and I try to name our new gaming video show. I tried. I didn't say I succeeded.

This week:

🍎🚘 The Apple car apparently still exists

🚘🤑 Elon Musk confirms a new low-cost Tesla model is coming

🍎📲 Apple details how third-party app stores and payments will work in Europe

Read this:

Wired headphones are coming back. Not in an LA-centric retro twist, but in a nerdy high-fidelity-they-actually-sound-better... way. James Trew explains how, with built-in DACs new wired headphone models make any phone Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless ready. And thus much better. If you can tell the difference. 

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In October 2023, 23andMe admitted that it suffered a data breach that compromised its users' information. The company has been hit with several lawsuits since then, and according to The New York Times, one of them is accusing 23andMe of failing to notify customers that they were specifically targeted for having Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. They also weren't told that their test results with genetic information had been compiled in curated lists that were then shared on the dark web, the plaintiffs said. 23andMe recently released a copy of the letters it sent to affected customers, and they didn't contain any reference to the users' heritage. 

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco after the company revealed that the hack had gone unnoticed for months. Apparently, the hackers started accessing customers' accounts using login details already leaked on the web in late April 2023 and continued with their activities until September. It wasn't until October that the company finally found out about the hacks. On October 1, hackers leaked the names, home addresses and birth dates of 1 million users with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry on black hat hacking forum BreachForums. 

After someone responded to the post asking access to "Chinese accounts," the lawsuit said the poster linked to a file containing information on 100,000 Chinese users. The poster also said they had access to 350,000 Chinese profiles and could release more information if there was enough interest. In addition, the same poster allegedly returned to the forum in mid-October to sell data on "wealthy families serving Zionism" after the explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. 

"The current geopolitical and social climate amplifies the risks" to users whose data was exposed, according to the lawsuit, since the leaked information included their names and addresses. The plaintiffs want their case to be heard by a jury and are seeking compensatory, punitive and other damages.

ElevenLabs, an AI startup that offers voice cloning services with its tools, has banned the user that created an audio deepfake of Joe Biden used in an attempt to disrupt the elections, according to Bloomberg. The audio impersonating the president was used in a robocall that went out to some voters in New Hampshire last week, telling them not to vote in their state's primary. It initially wasn't clear what technology was used to copy Biden's voice, but a thorough analysis by security company Pindrop showed that the perpetrators used ElevanLabs' tools. 

The security firm removed the background noise and cleaned the robocall's audio before comparing it to samples from more than 120 voice synthesis technologies used to generate deepfakes. Pindrop CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan told Wired that it "came back well north of 99 percent that it was ElevenLabs." Bloomberg says the company was notified of Pindrop's findings and is still investigating, but it has already identified and suspended the account that made the fake audio. ElevenLabs told the news organization that it can't comment on the issue itself, but that it's "dedicated to preventing the misuse of audio AI tools and [that it takes] any incidents of misuse extremely seriously."

The deepfaked Biden robocall shows how technologies that can mimic somebody else's likeness and voice could be used to manipulate votes this upcoming presidential election in the US. "This is kind of just the tip of the iceberg in what could be done with respect to voter suppression or attacks on election workers," Kathleen Carley, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told The Hill. "It was almost a harbinger of what all kinds of things we should be expecting over the next few months."

It only took the internet a few days after ElevenLabs launched the beta version of its platform to start using it to create audio clips that sound like celebrities reading or saying something questionable. The startup allows customers to use its technology to clone voices for "artistic and political speech contributing to public debates." Its safety page does warn users that they "cannot clone a voice for abusive purposes such as fraud, discrimination, hate speech or for any form of online abuse without infringing the law." But clearly, it needs to put more safeguards in place to prevent bad actors from using its tools to influence voters and manipulate elections around the world. 

Instagram is testing yet another feature meant to give users an alternative to finstas. It’s called “flipside” and it allows people to create a secondary photo grid that only designated friends can see.

If that sounds somewhat familiar it’s probably because Instagram already makes it pretty easy for users to create posts intended for a more limited audience. The app added the ability for users to share grid posts with “close friends” back in November (Stories for close friends has been a thing since 2018). More recently, it tested audience lists for Stories, so users could create multiple lists for small-group sharing. The app, of course, also makes it fairly easy to create an actual finsta.

Flipside, somewhat confusingly, offers yet another way of doing essentially the same thing. Users create a separate list of friends, distinct from “close friends,” to add to their “flipside.” They can then choose to post to their main grid or to their “flipside,” which is also accessible from their profile but only visible to the aforementioned list of friends. People will know if they have access to someone’s flipside if they see a key icon in someone’s grid, according to screenshots shared on Threads. (You can see a video of it in action over on Threads.)

Apparently, even Instagram head Adam Mosseri realizes this is all a bit redundant. “On one hand it feels good to create a clear space that feels more private,” he wrote in a post on Threads. “On the other, it's yet another way to reach a smaller audience on top of secondary accounts and Close Friends.”

He added that “we're not even sure we'll launch it,” which might explain why the company has been relatively quiet about the test. Flipside was first spotted back in December but was an internal prototype at the time, according to TechCrunch. However, it's now started to appear for actual users, with a number of reports of it appearing on Threads over the last day.

Early reactions seem to be mixed, with some enthusiasm for the update and some wondering why on earth they need yet another social media profile to maintain. Others seem to be, understandably, confused.

While finstas have (sometimes hilariously) been maligned, Meta’s recent obsession with creating “more private” spaces on Instagram is likely about more than simply adding convenience. Mosseri has noted many times over the last couple years that Instagram users simply aren’t posting as much as they used to, especially in their feeds. For an app that relies on advertising — much of it in users’ feeds — that’s less than ideal. So it’s not all that surprising Instagram would be looking for new ways to get people to spend more time posting to and scrolling their feeds.

Cities: Skylines II developer Colossal Order has a uniquely close relationship with its community. The original Cities: Skylines came out in 2015 and gobbled up the audience that was left behind by EA’s SimCity, which came out in 2013 and was a busted mess. Cities: Skylines scratched that urban-planning itch, plus it cost just $30. The game came first to PC, Mac and Linux with modest hardware requirements, and it hit consoles within two years. Critically, Cities: Skylines also supported mods through the Steam Workshop, allowing players to add their own tools to the game and share those features with others.

“With Cities: Skylines, the audience grew in size and the modding took even a bigger role, allowing for a huge amount of creativity and inspiration for us devs,” Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen told Engadget. “Anything from quality-of-life improvements to ideas for DLC content, we have gathered a huge amount of information to help us create the game that Cities: Skylines is today.”

Colossal Order and its publisher, Paradox Interactive, continued to support Cities: Skylines with consistent game updates and DLC drops, and its mod community continued to grow. The game picked up a ton of new players during the pandemic in 2020, and around that time, a number of now-prominent content creators leaned into Cities: Skylines for streams and videos.

In the months before the launch of Cities: Skylines II in October 2023, Colossal Order partnered with a handful of content creators and gave them access to bits of the game early, so they could create YouTube videos showing off specific features each week. These partners included Biffa, two dollars twenty, YUMBL, Infrastructurist and City Planner Plays. City Planner Plays has a clever edge in this space — Philip, the man behind the builds, worked as an urban planner for more than a decade, and his videos often include insights about how real-life cities are designed. He started his channel in mid-2020, and today he’s a dedicated Cities: Skylines streamer and video editor with nearly 650,000 subscribers on YouTube. Like many other community members, he has a history with Colossal Order that spans years.

“Prior to the Cities: Skylines II release, I think that most everyone in the community viewed them incredibly positively, looking at them as ‘one of us’ and the type of developer that you want making a game that you love,” Philip said. “They were viewed as responsive and generous. …I can’t recall a bad thing being said about them.”

That’s exactly what made Hallikainen’s blog post on January 15th so surprising.

“We have seen a growing tendency of toxicity in our community, something we have not experienced to this extent before,” Hallikainen wrote, clarifying that the negativity was being directed at developers and players alike. She continued, “We have always treasured having the devs present on the different social platforms and having direct communication with the community, but our biggest responsibility will always be protecting the team.”

Tensions have been high in the Cities: Skylines community since the launch of the sequel in October. Though the game was originally pitched as a simultaneous PC and console release, it’s only available on PC and there’s no concrete timeline for when the other versions will come out. On top of that, Colossal Order raised the game’s minimum and recommended specs just a month before release, and the new requirements placed it out of reach for a large chunk of players.

Colossal Order

Even with a capable rig, the game is riddled with visual and mechanical bugs. Philip said Cities: Skylines II strained his RTX 4090 graphics card, making it run at 100 percent on the main menu, and he couldn’t play in 4K at launch because the game was so GPU-bound.

Simply put, it feels like the game needed more time in development.

“Since the launch of Cities: Skylines II, things have without a doubt gotten more prickly,” Philip said. “While many people have been appreciative of Colossal Order’s transparency with the weekly updates as well as the frequent bug fixes, many appear to view Colossal Order as being all-too-willing to release a game that wasn’t ready to be released.”

Hallikainen acknowledged that the game is missing some promised and highly publicized features, like mod support.

“Naturally we’re disappointed we weren’t able to achieve everything we aimed for, but it’s fantastic to have the game finally out and continue working on it with more openness,” she said.

The issue, as far as Colossal Order sees it, lies in the community’s response to Cities: Skylines II. Players have been venting on social media and in the Steam and Paradox forums, and the feedback has risen to toxic levels, according to Hallikainen. She cites a surge in personal attacks on developers and other players.

Colossal Order

“Cities: Skylines II attracted a lot of attention and very high expectations were set,” she said. “When the game did not fulfill all the promises, it was natural to cause frustration in the audience. However, the shortcomings should spark a conversation on ideas for improvement, constructive feedback and respectful discussions in the community.”

For City Planner Plays and other community members, the issue is the game itself. Where Colossal Order sees toxicity, Philip sees justified frustration.

“I will admit that I was taken aback by this description of what’s happening in the Cities: Skylines community regarding Cities: Skylines II,” he said. “I have noticed increased negativity. However, I wouldn’t say that I have noticed increased toxicity. And bluntly, I think the negativity is completely understandable and predictable.”

Philip identified four factors driving the negative sentiment: The game is only on PC, it’s buggy and unplayable on many common hardware configurations, there’s no official support for mods, and Colossal Order hasn’t held itself accountable for the game’s blunders.

“Colossal Order has been transparent, talking with the community, but has not taken accountability for the release of the game,” Philip said. “I hear this over and over again. Many players appear to want them to admit that the release state of the game was poor, say that they are sorry, and make some gesture to make amends. To date, they have delayed the DLC release — which actually was a huge negative for people that purchased the Ultimate Edition of the game — but not made amends. [They haven’t] provided the information that people are looking for.”

Colossal Order

The biggest misstep on Philip's list is the lack of mods. Colossal Order is planning to add an official pipeline for mods directly through Paradox, rather than Steam Workshop, which was the home for mods in Cities: Skylines. Shifting to an in-house modding platform will ensure parity across all platforms, bringing mods to consoles and players outside of Steam. However, the Cities: Skylines mod community was built on Steam Workshop, a popular and easy-to-use platform, and with the delay of the console release, the current player base is simply being inconvenienced.

“The maps that come with the game aren’t great — incredibly high difficulty level, unforgiving weather — and many basic features need refinement,” Philip said. “Mods offered that opportunity and they aren’t available just yet. Worst of all, early messaging made it seem like modding was around the corner, weeks after launch, [but it’s been delayed] to some undetermined time in Q2 of 2024.”

Collaboration with the community is what made the original game so successful, and the sequel could certainly benefit from crowdsourced improvements. For now, some players are using a third-party tool to make mods work in Cities: Skylines II.

“The tech is new, the simulation has been entirely rewritten and the game has all the potential to become the city-builder of this decade,” Hallikainen said. “What we failed in was to get the modding support available for the release, and we’re doing our best to catch up. We have been delighted to see the modding community has not waited for us, but are already creating amazing mods for the game.”

Paradox Interactive

This is only the beginning for Cities: Skylines II. Colossal Order has plans to support and expand the game over the next 10 years. The original Cities: Skylines didn’t have all of the bells, whistles and mods when it first came out in 2015, and the sequel is starting in a similar position. Colossal Order sees Cities: Skylines II as a fresh foundation, but its core community expected a more complete experience.

“The feedback we’ve gotten from the content creators and modders has immensely helped us in heading in the right direction, and we love working in cooperation with different parties,” Hallikainen said. “There’s a lot of work to be done and we plan to keep going for the next decade.”

Cities: Skylines II has improved significantly in the months since launch, thanks to a slew of updates from Colossal Order. It’s on the right track. Colossal Order continues to publish updates on the game’s progress each week, but it’ll take time — and maybe an apology, a plan and free in-game perks — to rewrite the narrative around Cities: Skylines II.

“I think the most ‘toxic’ people right now are the game’s biggest fans,” Philip said. “And bluntly, they are just disappointed that the game doesn’t run well for them or that they can’t play it at all. They’re disappointed and lashing out, which isn’t right. But to me, that means that there is a path to repair the issues if the game is fully fixed and accountability is taken.”