Quests are now available to everyone with a Quest — a Meta Quest VR headset, that is. Meta is rolling out quests and rewards to every user on Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality live-interactive experience. Meta started testing quests over the spring with a game called Giant Paddle Mini Golf and added two more: Arena Clash and Bad Roommates. Rewards include things like new clothing options for your avatar.
Meta clearly designed many of the quests (and rewards) to encourage users to interact more with their avatar — an area of its business that has seen billions of dollars lost. Main quests include "try on a clothing avatar reward you've earned" and "open your backpack and change your emote" — not exactly a Frodo traveling to Mordor-level quest, but some could be engaging. Quests are available in the Worlds Menu, each stating how much of a reward you'll receive for completing it. Meta claims it will add more as time goes on.
Meta Horizon Worlds' update also includes a new quick actions menu that can pause your gameplay and lets you mute, follow or block people you encounter. While Meta fixed some bugs, anytime you discover one, you can now report them by clicking the home button four times in a row or holding down AB/XY.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-adds-quests-to-horizon-worlds-to-keep-users-returning-to-the-metaverse-123100954.html?src=rss
In the second quarter of 2023, Spotify saw its million monthly active users (MAU) climb to 551 million after welcoming 36 million new listeners. That represents a 27 percent increase in MAUs and is an all-time high for the streaming giant, which has just published its earnings report. While not all new users signed up for a Premium account, Spotify also had a record-breaking second quarter when it comes to Premium subscriber numbers. It welcomed 10 million paying users — 3 million larger than guidance — and grew its subscriber base by 17 percent year over year. That's not an all-time high, but it's also apparently the best Q2 Spotify has ever had in that regard.
Despite the massive influx of new users, Spotify still lost a significant amount of money. Its total revenue for the period is $3.5 billion (€3.2 billion), 11 percent larger than last year's. However, it also posted an adjusted operating loss of $123.7 million (€112 million). Spotify blamed those losses on the shutdown of its podcast shows, as well as on excess real estate and severance for employees laid off due to company restructuring. If you'll recall, the audio streaming giant recently made big changes to its podcast strategy and axed several original productions.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Spotify previously told investors that it would be raising prices in order to turn a profit. Indeed, the company just added $1 on top of the old subscription rate, meaning users in the US now have to pay at least $11 a month. Spotify also plans to implement price hikes across markets, including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. The company anticipates a slowdown in premium subscription signups due to its higher prices for the third quarter of the year. From having 10 million new paying users in the second quarter, it expects to add 4 million Premium subscribers in Q3. Even so, it believes the price increases will "have a minimal impact on total revenue" and is still expecting to earn $3.65 billion (€3.3 billion) this quarter.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-grew-far-more-than-expected-but-is-still-losing-money-121553523.html?src=rss
Governing bodies worldwide have taken steps in recent years to boost local chip manufacturing, such as tax incentives and funding. For instance, the European Union just approved the Chips Act, regulations meant to improve its member states' semiconductor production capacity. First announced in February 2022, the Chips Act aims to use €43 billion ($47.5 billion) in investments to increase the EU's cut of microchip production to 20 percent in 2030 — it currently sits at about 10 percent. The Council of the European Union also hopes it will "attract investment, promote research and innovation and prepare Europe for any future chip supply crisis." The semiconductor industry is projected to be worth $1 trillion by 2030, led by smartphones, servers, data centers, and storage applications.
In approving the Chips Act, the EU might remove some of its reliance on foreign entities, like China, to produce semiconductors. "With the Chips Act, Europe will be a frontrunner in the world semiconductors race," Héctor Gómez Hernández, Spanish Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, said about the development. "We can already see it in action: new production plants, new investments, new research projects. And in the long run, this will also contribute to the renaissance of our industry and the reduction of our foreign dependencies."
The EU's final approval of the Chips Act follows President Biden signing the CHIPS and Science Act into law in 2022. It made $52 billion in funding and tax credits available to the United States' semiconductor industry, with $39 billion of it set aside for semiconductor manufacturing initiatives — applications for funding first opened in Spring 2023.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-eu-chips-act-just-received-its-final-approval-114524113.html?src=rss
Over the years of true wireless earbuds, Sony has consistently kept its place among the best with its 1000X series. Just when it seems like others may gain ground through software tricks or beefed-up noise-cancellation, the company adds new features or improves audio quality to ensure it continues to dominate.
With this year’s WF-1000XM5 true wireless earbuds, there’s a notable caveat: At $300, these are the most expensive earbuds yet from Sony – and a chunk of change above rival headphones. These earbuds are undoubtedly the company’s best and most comfortable design in its premium model so far, which was one of the few remaining riddles Sony needed to solve – aside from the complicated, unmemorable name, the WF-1000XM5. Not exactly AirPods, is it? If you can afford them, the buds launch on August 4th and are available to pre-order now. And check out the full review right here.
– Mat Smith
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Microsoft is promoting the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie by giving away a limited batch of pizza-scented Xbox controllers. Apart from the built-in scent diffuser, though, these are otherwise stock Xbox controllers with TMNT style, in four variants that reflect the four ninja turtles. To win one – they won’t go on sale – you'll have to follow Xbox Game Pass on Twitter X and retweet a post before August 13th. If you absolutely must operate a pizza-scented controller, these will be out and about at Microsoft's Experience Center on New York's Fifth Avenue for an August 2nd promo event.
It’s long been rumored Musk is keen to bring fintech features to Twitter.
Twitter’s rebrand to X is officially underway, and CEO Linda Yaccarino has offered some new clues about what it may mean for the company. In a memo reported by CNBC, Yaccarino suggested payments and banking features could feature prominently in Elon Musk’s new vision. Back in January, the Financial Times reported he wanted “to offer fintech services such as peer-to-peer transactions, savings accounts and debit cards” to users.
Is it time to replace your notebook with something high-tech? There’s been a boom in e-ink tablets to replace your myriad notebooks with something that can connect to the internet, detect your handwriting and more. We tested a bunch of the most popular e-ink tablets available – and we have recommendations.
A Premium Single subscription is going from $10 to $11 a month.
Hot on the heels of price bumps at Peacock, Apple Music and YouTube, Spotify is the latest to inch up the prices of its services. Spotify has announced it's raising the price of all its Premium plans. In the United States, this means a Premium Single subscription is going from $10 a month to $11 a month — its first increase since Spotify launched over a decade ago. Its Premium Family and Student plans are also going up by a dollar, now costing $17 and $6 per month, respectively. Premium Duo has the largest bump, going up two dollars per month from $13 to $15.
Apple is now making its Vision Pro developer kits available. If you qualify, you'll get a loaned mixed reality headset as well as help with setup, expert "check-ins" and extra support requests beyond what developers normally get. You're submitting an application, not buying a product like the old Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit, so you'll need to detail your existing apps and overall team talent. The company will favor creators whose app "takes advantage" of the Vision Pro's features. Apple also demands developers keep the Vision Pro in a secure workspace only authorized team members can access.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-our-verdict-on-sonys-newest-noise-canceling-earbuds-111504008.html?src=rss
Samsung's refreshed M8 Smart Monitor is currently on sale at $100 less than retail, and you can get one right now for $600 if you're looking for a multi-functional display. It's the new version of the monitor Samsung launched at CES in 2022, which comes with both smart TV and internet of things (IoT) features. Like its predecessor, you can use the new M8 to stream content like you would on any other smart TV from services like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.
But you can also use it to edit documents, browse the web and do other things you'd do on a computer without needing to plug it into a separate PC, since it comes with Microsoft 365 programs. The upgraded Workmode feature lets use the monitor to access other computers, as well, in case the documents or programs you need are on another PC. And if you have a Samsung phone or tablet, you can use Samsung DeX on the display to link to them as well.
Unlike most of Samsung's other smart TVs, though, the M8 comes with an IoT hub that will let you control your smart home products with SmartThings. You can switch off the lights or set the thermostat temperature right from the display. The M8 monitor ships with a detachable SlimFit Cam, which captures images in full HD and can track and focus your face to follow you around during video calls. Finally, the product comes with built-in Alexa support, so you can issue voice commands from across the room.
When Samsung launched the new M8 in May, Hoon Chung, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, said: "We are raising the bar for Smart Monitors globally with our new lineup and especially our enhanced M8 model. Within a single monitor, users can enjoy the best of entertainment and gaming, productivity, design and personalized convenience and comfort."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-refreshed-smart-monitor-m8-gets-a-100-discount-104153448.html?src=rss
Microsoft's Bing Chat is no longer exclusive to the Edge browser, as it's now rolling out to Chrome and Safari, The Verge reported. "We are flighting access to Bing Chat in Safari and Chrome to select users as part of our testing on other browsers," a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge. "We are excited to expand access to even more users once our standard testing procedures are complete."
It seems to be more than a small test, as a number of users (including myself on Chrome but not Safari) have gained access. There are a few limitations, though. You have to be logged into your Microsoft account, and prompts are limited to 2,000 characters compared to 4,000 on Edge. Conversations reset after five queries rather than 30, and it constantly prompts you to download Edge (never change, Microsoft).
Bing Chat is powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, giving users access to the latter's features without the need to pay. There are some differences, though, as Bing Chat has access to Bing Search while ChatGPT-4 by itself doesn't, so can provide more up-to-date information and sources for responses. However, OpenAI's chat generally provides more detailed responses. Recently, a paper came out claiming that ChatGPT-4's capabilities have declined, but some experts have downplayed the conclusions.
On top of releasing it for other browsers, Microsoft also introduced a dark mode for Bing Chat. To use it, click on the hamburger menu at the top right and select "Appearance/Dark." That function may not yet be available for all users.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bing-chat-powered-by-openai-tech-is-rolling-out-to-chrome-and-safari-035228266.html?src=rss
The humble sedan isn't seeing much love these days. Most are being put out of production, clearing factory manufacturing lines to make room for ever-more SUVs. But, for Mercedes-Benz, luxury sedans are life, and the E-Class is one of their longest-running.
For the 2024 E-Class, Mercedes-Benz hasn't radically reinvented this stoic sedan, giving it a refreshed look and some new, more efficient engines with hybrid power. But more interestingly, the new E is loaded with interesting tech tricks and toys that, for now at least, are only found on Mercedes' mid-tier option.
The E-Class is Mercedes' first car with a selfie camera and the first car in the world that offers TikTok, WebEx, and Zoom right there in the dashboard. All that, paired with some advanced driver assistance on the highway plus all the luxuries you've come to expect from a Mercedes, creates a sedan that's perhaps a bit too steady for some, but will be right on the money for many. Watch the video below for the full story.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-new-mercedes-benz-e-class-puts-tiktok-on-the-road-220017398.html?src=rss
Last month, theoretical physicist Avi Loeb made headlines with the sensational claim that tiny spherules recovered from the bottom of the ocean were probably of alien origin. “It’s most likely a technological gadget with artificial intelligence,” he said to The New York Times, which published a story today about the Harvard professor’s contentious claims. Although the biggest scientific breakthroughs often start with a bold hypothesis, Loeb’s peers believe the decorated astrophysicist’s assertions can be called many things — but “good science” isn’t one of them.
Loeb’s proclamations stem from an object that US government sensors logged on January 8th, 2014: a fireball from space that blazed into the western Pacific Ocean off the northeastern coast of Papua New Guinea. Highlighting its logged speed and direction as an anomaly, Loeb and undergraduate assistant Amir Siraj targeted the otherwise inconsequential planetary entry as an object worthy of further investigation.
Fast-forward to last month, when Loeb led a voyage — funded by a crypto entrepreneur — to recover evidence from the fireball’s calculated crash path. Dragging a magnetic sled attached to the expedition boat across the ocean floor, the team recovered a series of tiny spherical objects which Loeb says “appear under a microscope as beautiful metallic marbles.” Preliminary analysis indicated that the sub-millimeter orbs were 84 percent iron, with silicon, magnesium and trace elements comprising the rest. Loeb believes that “as a result of being exposed to the fireball’s heat, the surface of the object likely disintegrated into tiny spherules, similar in number per unit area to those recovered by the expedition.”
Avi Loeb / Medium
Not one to exercise much caution with public pronouncements, Loeb wrote in a Medium post, “Their discovery opens a new frontier in astronomy, where what lay outside the solar system is studied through a microscope rather than a telescope.” He summarized, in an equally dramatic manner, “The discovery of spherules felt like a miracle.” Soon after, CBS News picked up on his excitement and published an attention-grabbing article titled, “Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes he’s found fragments of alien technology.” Loeb has sent the mysterious spheres to Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley and the Bruker Corporation in Germany for more in-depth analysis.
“It has material strength that is tougher than all space rock that were seen before, and catalogued by NASA,” CBS Newsreported Loeb as saying earlier this month. “We calculated its speed outside the solar system. It was 60 km per second, faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the sun. The fact that it was made of materials tougher than even iron meteorites, and moving faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the sun, suggested potentially it could be a spacecraft from another civilization or some technological gadget.”
It all sounds fascinating, especially with the resurgent interest in UFOs and the quest to discover signs of alien life. But there’s one problem: The scientific community, by and large, believes Loeb is, if not entirely full of it, practicing something far outside what they’d call science.
Peter Brown, a meteor physicist at Western University in Ontario, said that “several percent” of detected events appear interstellar at first but almost always end up chalked up to a measurement error. Steve Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University, argued at a recent conference that if the object were traveling as fast as the data suggests — one of the points Loeb uses to indicate its origin was from outside our solar system — it would have been wholly incinerated entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Brown and other scientists also highlight Loeb’s lack of engagement with peers who study similar unidentified fireballs.
Brown recently presented data (accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal) demonstrating that NASA’s recordings in cases like these often end up being proven untrustworthy. He believes the fireball likely impacted at a slower speed than the recorded data suggested. “If the speed was overestimated, then the object becomes, more or less, within the realm of what we see in terms of other bound solar system objects,” he said. (Loeb retorted by citing an unbendable trust in government data: “They are responsible for national security. I think they know what they are doing.”) The New York Times adds that the government is unlikely to declassify the data that would allow the scientific community to learn how precise (or not) it is.
Avi Loeb / Medium
Regardless of the spherules’ origins, researchers are alarmed by Loeb’s penchant for venturing outside science to make bold (and highly publicized) claims — with his scientific background boosting their perceived legitimacy. The gist of their alarm is that becoming a Harvard-employed astrophysicist doesn’t grant you the wizard-like ability to know the answers to questions the scientific method hasn’t yet confirmed. On the contrary, it’s supposed to mean your peers respect you for exercising restraint and doing quite the opposite. “[Loeb’s claims are] a real breakdown of the peer review process and the scientific method,” Desch said to The New York Times. “And it’s so demoralizing and tiring.”
Loeb’s views about his peers’ harsh response can be summarized in his cited quote from philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer from a recent blog post. “All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident.” Notably, Loeb seemingly refers to his team’s preliminary findings — with plenty of question marks still intact — as “truth.”
The Oxford English Dictionary defines confirmation bias as “the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.” Loeb’s words and excited tone suggest he knows the answer and that his peers’ criticism stems from their resistance to the new frontier he’s discovered. However, their criticism seems only partially about his specific conclusions; it’s paired with a larger concern about an esteemed cohort jumping to conclusions that fall far outside of the scientific method. “What the public is seeing in Loeb is not how science works,” remarked Desch. “And they shouldn’t go away thinking that.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/astrophysicist-who-claimed-to-find-alien-tech-may-have-done-the-science-wrong-214008434.html?src=rss
Dall-E and Stable Diffusion were only the beginning. As generative AI systems proliferate and companies work to differentiate their offerings from those of their competitors, chatbots across the internet are gaining the power to edit images — as well as create them — with the likes of Shutterstock and Adobe leading the way. But with those new AI-empowered capabilities come familiar pitfalls, like the unauthorized manipulation of, or outright theft of, existing online artwork and images. Watermarking techniques can help mitigate the latter, while the new "PhotoGuard" technique developed by MIT CSAIL could help prevent the former.
PhotoGuard works by altering select pixels in an image such that they will disrupt an AI's ability to understand what the image is. Those "perturbations," as the research team refers to them, are invisible to the human eye but easily readable by machines. The "encoder" attack method of introducing these artifacts targets the algorithmic model's latent representation of the target image — the complex mathematics that describes the position and color of every pixel in an image — essentially preventing the AI from understanding what it is looking at.
The more advanced, and computationally intensive, "diffusion" attack method camouflages an image as a different image in the eyes of the AI. It will define a target image and optimize the perturbations in its image so as to resemble its target. Any edits that an AI tries to make on these "immunized" images will be applies to the fake "target" images resulting in an unrealistic looking generated image.
""The encoder attack makes the model think that the input image (to be edited) is some other image (e.g. a gray image)," MIT doctorate student and lead author of the paper, Hadi Salman, told Engadget. "Whereas the diffusion attack forces the diffusion model to make edits towards some target image (which can also be some grey or random image)." The technique isn't foolproof, malicious actors could work to reverse engineer the protected image potentially by adding digital noise, cropping or flipping the picture.
“A collaborative approach involving model developers, social media platforms, and policymakers presents a robust defense against unauthorized image manipulation. Working on this pressing issue is of paramount importance today,” Salman said in a release. “And while I am glad to contribute towards this solution, much work is needed to make this protection practical. Companies that develop these models need to invest in engineering robust immunizations against the possible threats posed by these AI tools."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mits-photoguard-protects-your-images-from-malicious-ai-edits-213036912.html?src=rss
How do you create a large audience for a game's spiritual sequel? Make sure everyone has played the original. Sega and Amplitude Studios have made Dungeon of the Endlessavailable for free on Steam before its follow-up, Endless Dungeon, arrives on October 19th. You have until July 27th to grab the freebie. You can also download both DLC packs through the community hub "while supplies last," according to the developers. The older game is available for both Mac and PC, although it won't work with Macs running macOS Catalina or newer.
Dungeon of the Endless drew attention by mashing up multiple game genres, including roguelikes (a brutal crawl through dynamically generated dungeons), classic role-playing, squad tactics and tower defense. You lead a team that has to defend its crashed spaceship against a horde of enemies while exploring an ever-larger dungeon. No one element is particularly complicated, but juggling them all can be challenging.
Endless Dungeon is still a hybrid game, but it's now more of a twin-stick shooter and has a gentler "roguelite" progression that lets you keep some of what you earn each time you fail. It's also built from the ground up for multiplayer. While you still lead a squad in solo play, you can invite two friends to join in. While it's more accessible, our early play session suggested it was still difficult. It'll be available on PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, with a closed beta available in September to Last Wish Edition pre-order customers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hit-roguelike-dungeon-of-the-endless-is-now-free-on-steam-210029777.html?src=rss
