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Bluesky, one of the most notable alternatives to the platform formerly known as Twitter, has just hit a million users. That's admittedly tiny compared to the number of users on major social networks, but it's a big deal for a service that remains inaccessible to most people until today. Bluesky team member Rose Wang, who has announced the milestone on X, told TechCrunch that the service's app reached a million downloads in July. However, those interested in getting in on the action at Bluesky will have to secure invite codes to log in, and it's only now that enough people were able to create accounts for the social network to be able to announce that it has reached 1 million users. 

Bluesky first burst into the scene as a decentralized social network (previously) funded by Twitter and backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Shortly after it launched in closed beta, it rolled out the ability for users to choose their own algorithms so that they can customize their timelines. And in its bid to remain ad-free, it started offering a paid domain service as a way for users to verify their identity. It's unclear when the app will open to the public, and, upon checking, some codes are still being sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. 

Meta, on the other hand, chose to make Threads available to everyone from the get-go, even though it was still lacking a number of critical features. Threads reached 100 million users merely a week after it became available in July, but keyword search only started rolling out earlier this month. 

In the world of console video games, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo stand as titans. For PC gamers, however, Valve reigns supreme. Its distribution platform, Steam, may not be the only place to buy and play games on the PC, but it's easily among the largest, oldest and most iconic. Today marks Steam's 20th anniversary.

Valve is celebrating by slashing prices on its self-published games, offering most of its catalog for 90 percent off, except Half-Life: Alyx. The sale's landing page doubles as a cheery retrospective of Steam's last two decades. It's a fun read that offers users the chance to buy the "Top Games" from key years in the platform's history, punctuating footnotes about the very first Steam Sale with a chance to buy the original Portal for just $0.99.

Again, it's fun, but the nostalgic look back leaves out a few key details. Folks who were around when Steam first launched might remember its early days as a time of frustration. Valve built the platform as a way to easily deliver updates to its games and combat cheating in online multiplayer — but many saw it as an antagonistic force and an early attempt to impose restrictive DRM on players.

Digital distribution was in its infancy in 2003, and most PC gamers bought their games at the store, installing them manually from a CD or DVD. That didn't change, but when Valve released Half-Life 2, players were surprised to find that the game required Steam — and an internet connection — to launch the single player experience. It was unheard of at the time, and people hated it.

As history shows, however, we got used to it. Other publishers started selling games on Valve's platform. Users were drawn in by the convenient distribution model and the allure of the aforementioned Steam Sales. Steam added cloud save backups, a hub for player-created content, social features and more. Soon, Valve started toying with making its own hardware, first with the somewhat lackluster Steam Machines initiative, and later, the much more successful Steam Deck.

Today, Steam is a household name in the gaming community, and with good reason. Go ahead, celebrate. Valve even brought back the platform's original dark green color to give the anniversary a nice, retro feel.

Court filings have revealed new details about the FTC’s investigation into Elon Musk over his handling of privacy and security issues at X. In newly public court documents, the Department of Justice says Musk fostered a “chaotic environment” at Twitter, now known as X, that prevented company officials from complying with their obligations to the FTC.

The FTC investigation stems from a 2022 settlement between the FTC and Twitter over the company’s use of deceptive ad targeting under the leadership of Jack Dorsey. Prior to Musk’s takeover, the company paid a $150 million fine and signed on to an agreement to implement specific privacy and security measures. It was those additional data protection measures that apparently fell by the wayside once Musk took control, triggering new scrutiny from the regulator.

In March, the FTC began investigating the rushed rollout of Twitter Blue, which reportedly launched without the privacy and security review required under the FTC order, as well as Musk’s handling of the so-called “Twitter Files.”

In the latest court documents, the Department of Justice details new information provided by a number of former top Twitter executives. According to the DoJ, Twitter’s former chief privacy officer Damien Kieran said Twitter Blue launched so quickly a “security and privacy review was not conducted in accordance with the company’s process for software development.”

It also details employee concerns over Musk’s attempts to grant an outside journalist unfettered access to the company’s internal systems. (The filing notes that “longtime information security employees intervened” and the reporter was ultimately given access to files and systems via an intermediary.) 

The government also raises concerns over Musk’s rearranging of company servers between data centers. The company’s policy required that servers be wiped prior to being moved, but that didn’t happen, according to former Twitter employees. The government also notes that Musk’s rapid-fire layoffs resulted in deep cuts among the Twitter staff who could have helped the company stay in compliance with the FTC.

X didn’t respond to a request for comment. Musk has previously described the investigation as the “weaponization of a government agency for political purposes.”

Ultimately, the owner of X may end up having to answer to the FTC directly on these issues. The regulator argues that Musk should be deposed, though lawyers for X have sought to prevent the deposition. “Evidence the FTC uncovered during its investigation reveals that Musk has been deeply involved in the ‘fundamental transformation’ of X Corp.,” the government wrote. “Musk exercised granular control of X Corp., at times directing employees in a manner that may have jeopardized data privacy and security.”

Last year Devialet, the French luxury audio company known for mighty speakers with even mightier price tags, launched its first pair of earbuds. Gemini carried many of the usual Devialet features, including good design, excellent sound and noise cancellation. But it also had some quirks around fit, weird audio modes and a bulky charging case that turned off plenty of reviewers. It’s those pain points that the company is addressing with its second-generation edition, the Gemini II.

The first and most welcome change is to the charging case, which was awkward and bulky last time out. Now, it’s a lot smaller, and uses the same pocket-friendly lozenge design you’ll find with pretty much every other pair of good TWS earbuds. Inside, the company has added a new custom driver and designed a new Active Wind Reduction mode to help screen out more unwanted sound. And to resolve the issues around fit, the buds are smaller and have been redesigned to better “fit any ear.”

You’ll also spot plenty of quality-of-life improvements like wireless charging and Bluetooth 5.2. But there has been a few spec-drops compared to the last version, with promised battery life falling from 24 hours on the first model to 22 hours here. The per-charge life has also dropped, with the Gemini II pledging five hours on a single charge, down from the six on the original.

This is Devialet, of course, which means you can pick up the standard version from today in black or white, each model costing $450. But you can also get an Opéra de Paris edition, which adds a 24-carat PVD gold plating onto the white case and earbuds, priced at $650. That way, when you’re strutting down the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, everyone will know how classy you are.

Unity announced a new fee structure today, and developers are none too happy. “We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing the change. “We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed.” The new per-install fees are set to kick in on January 1, 2024.

The company says developers will be charged for installations after passing both a minimum revenue threshold from the last 12 months and a minimum lifetime install count. The exact fees will vary depending on which plan they use. Unity Personal and Unity Plus subscribers will pay $0.20 per install after reaching $200,000 in revenue from the past 12 months and 200,000 lifetime installs. Meanwhile, after hitting $1 million in revenue in the last 12 months and one million lifetime installs, Unity Pro members’ fees start at $0.15 per install, while Unity Enterprise fees start at $0.125 per install.

Members using Unity Pro and Enterprise plans have a tiered fee structure that decreases their rates after reaching thresholds of 100,000, 500,000 and one million installs. The company claims making developers hit both marks before requiring them to pay the fee will ensure that only those who reach “significant success” will be charged.

Unity Technologies

The gaming developer community reacted to the announcement about as positively as you’d expect. “If you buy our Unity game, please don’t install it,” Newfangled Games designer Henry Hoffman quipped on X (formerly Twitter). “This is such an abysmally catastrophic decision that it really will either (likely) be u-turned, or the engine is completely done for on all scales of the indie industry,” posted gaming industry worker Ryan T. Brown on X.

Axios gaming reporter Stephen Totilo wrote on X that Unity clarified several points that, if anything, make the change sound like even more of a hassle for developers. He wrote that if a player deletes and reinstalls a game, that counts for two installs and two charges. Ditto for players installing a single game on two devices. However, charity games and bundles are supposedly exempt.

The Falconeer developer Tomas Sala posted about how the pricing changes wedge him between a rock and a hard place. “I already committed to [Unity’s] engine for my new game,” Sala wrote. “Put years and years of work into my pipeline. I did so under a simple per-seat license I am happy to pay. Now while I am close to release they spring something new on me. Not a price increase [but] a fundamental change in how we do business together. I have no options, cannot go back, can only bend and [pay up]. It’s [a] form of blackmail. It’s not dependable. How will they change it two years from now, a decade? It is gross and makes me want to go somewhere else with my business.”

Finally, the company announced that it’s discontinuing Unity Plus subscriptions starting today to “simplify the number of plans we offer.” It says existing members on that tier will receive “an offer to upgrade to Unity Pro, for one year, at the current Unity Plus price” via email in mid-October.

Influencers have been using TikTok to land brand deals and promote products for years, but now the company is ushering in a more formal shopping experience. TikTok is launching its e-commerce product in the United States in an attempt to capitalize on the app's popularity, and turn its viewers into consumers. In a recent blog post, the company announced its TikTok Shop — which includes a host of features for users, content creators and businesses.

The TikTok Shop includes a “Shop Tab” for businesses to display their products, affiliate videos placed in users' feeds that allow creators to earn commissions and shopping ads for businesses. TikTok is also launching its own logistics arm called “Fulfilled by TikTok,” which will facilitate storage and shipping for registered merchants.

In an interview with The New York Times, TikTok executive Nico Le Bourgeois said the TikTok Shop had more than 200,000 registered sellers, with over 100,000 creators already having access to its livestream shopping buttons. Bourgeois went on to discuss the company's plans to shake up the industry.

“We have a very aggressive plan to make a splash in the industry and make sure that people out there understand that TikTok is a place for shopping,” he said. “We’ll be very present for Black Friday and Cyber Monday through a combination of traffic, free shipping and deals.”

TikTok Shop is based on a similar and hugely successful feature on its sister app, Douyin, available across Asia. While there's no doubt that hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has fueled product discovery on TikTok, live shopping hasn't quite taken off in the US yet. Of course, TikTok isn't the first social media app to attempt a pivot to e-commerce. Meta has tried for years with Facebook and Instagram. Pinterest has also been navigating the e-commerce waters by offering its users an easier and faster way to by what they see. However, those efforts have not skyrocketed just yet.

As of right now, the Shop Tab is available for 40 percent of TikTok users. The feature will be rolled out gradually and become available for all users by early October.

Not much was leaked about the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 ahead of the company's launch event today, and it might be because most of the changes weren't easily photographed. One of the biggest updates to the company's flagship smartwatches is the S9 SiP, which promises better animations, on-device Siri processing, as well as a whole new gesture called Double Tap. The latter allows you to make a pinch gesture twice in mid-air and use it to do things like answer calls, pause music, dismiss alarms and more. There's also a new material called FineWoven that's meant to replace leather, and features in some new straps and accessories. While most of the other changes this year, like brighter displays and greater use of recycled material, are less exciting, I found myself very intrigued by Double Tap. 

This isn't Apple's first attempt at gestures that minimize having to tap a smartwatch screen, by the way. It introduced Assistive Touch in 2021 to allow people who may not have full use of their fingers or have other mobility issues to clench their fists (and perform other actions) to navigate watchOS. 

Based on my experience with both so far, Double Tap feels like a more refined version. I put on a demo unit of the Watch Ultra 2, and pinched quickly in mid-air. By default, doing so from the home screen brings up the Smart Stack, and continuing to double tap will scroll through individual cards. For the most part, the Watch Ultra 2 recognized all my pinches, and wasn't tricked by me clenching other fingers together. It also wasn't fazed when I touched my thumb to my knuckles, only reacting when I quickly brought thumb to index finger pad. 

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Wonderlust' event right here.

Fresh off of Apple’s “Wanderlust” event, Devindra and Engadget Editor-in-Chief Dana Wollman dive into the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro and the Apple Watch Series 9. We explain why Apple’s move towards USB-C on the iPhones has been a long time coming, and why we’re excited about even more emergency satellite calling capabilities. And while the Apple Watch Series 9 looks like a worthwhile upgrade, we’re more intrigued by the new double tap finger gesture.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!

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Credits
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Dana Wollman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

Apple announced both the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Pro during today's "Wonderlust" keynote event. Some of the numerousrumors about the new handsets have been confirmed, while others, like the possibility of an iPhone Ultra, didn't materialize. Like in years past, Apple reserved its newest mobile chip for the Pro model (giving last year's Pro-level chip to the new standard iPhone). The A17 Pro is the first "Pro" chip for an iPhone and sports 19 billion transistors. Apple claims its two performance cores are 10 percent faster than last years's A16.

The long-hoped-for conversion to USB-C charging has been confirmed for all models of the iPhone 15, but the Pro got a few perks that the standard model isn't getting such as the Action Button. Formerly the mute toggle, the button can be programed to quickly activate the camera, flashlight, Voice Memos, or your own Shortcuts. The new titanium case, fused to an internal aluminum frame makes this the lightest iPhone Pro yet.   

It starts at $999 which is actually the same price as the iPhone 14 Pro, and you can pre-order it on Friday. Before you dive in, you may want to take a moment to compare it to other high-end handsets on the market. Here's a side-by-side comparison highlighting how the specs of the new iPhone 15 Pro compare to Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra and Google's Pixel 7 Pro.  

Apple iPhone 15 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs. Google Pixel 7 Pro

Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Wonderlust' event right here.

Apple's iPhone 15 event today saw the company spend a lot of time (and money) talking about its "Apple 2030" vision for carbon neutrality and environmental responsibility. The irony is, Apple wants you to buy more iPhones, and to do so, it's introducing new models with slightly different features so you'll spend your money. With the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro this year, Apple is also beginning to comply with EU regulations that mandate every new device made by the end of next year support USB-C charging. While that's good news for most people, it does mean that those who might not have already a compatible wire will have to, once again, get a new charger.

In addition to the new port (farewell, Lightning!), the iPhone 15 Pro Max gets a zooming lens thanks to a tetra prism system, as well as a so-called Action button that replaces the slider switch on the side. On the base iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, we're also bidding goodbye to the notch and saying hello to the Dynamic Island. It looks like with the iPhone 15 series, we're leaving a lot of things in the past, hopefully for better things.

The most intriguing of these changes is the Action button, which can be programmed to do one of many things. By default, it will still switch between Silent and Ring modes. But by going into the settings, you can customize it to start a voice recording, open the camera, switch focus modes and more. Within each shortcut, you can get more precise about what the action button does. Say you choose the Camera shortcut. You can tap a dropdown list to choose whether it launches in regular photo mode or in selfie, video or portrait. 

One thing worth noting about the Action button is that, aside from the default mode, you'll have to long-press it to actually start your shortcut. If you just press it, you'll see an onscreen indicator next to the button that tells you to hold it down, while the dynamic island changes to indicate what will launch. I thought it would be annoying to have to long-press the button to actually trigger what I want, but in spending a bit more time with it I felt it might be too easy to set the action off. While I don't think a long-press will necessarily prevent accidental pushes, it's at least less likely to happen than a simple tap.

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Wonderlust' event right here.