ArduinoMania

If you take pride in people bookmarking your social media posts, Twitter is ready to feed your ego. The social network has added a bookmark counter to its iOS app. Similar to the counts for likes, quotes and retweets, you'll know just how many people saved a given tweet for later reference. The company hasn't mentioned when the feature might come to Android or the web.

Twitter stresses that bookmarks are still private. Users may know if their tweets are popular, but they won't know just who bookmarked a given post.

This counter isn't just useful for bragging rights, of course. If you're a creator or run a company's Twitter account, the tally could show whether or not followers find your posts useful. That, in turn, may help you refine content to reach a wider audience.

The addition comes after a handful of upgrades to Twitter, such as alerts about community misinformation notes. However, the service has lately been dominated by concerns about a string of outages and a paywall for text-based two-factor authentication. However useful the bookmark counter may be, it's not going to garner as much attention as it might have in the past.

Disney is pushing out new Tron merchandise despite the 13 years since the last movie (not to mention the four decades since the original). Although another sequel — this one with Jared Leto — may be in the works, the toys coincide with the Disney World opening of Tron Lightcycle / Run, the high-speed ride that debuted at Shanghai Disneyland in 2016. The action figures are customized using the park’s Tron Identity Program to display your scanned face on an LCD hidden behind the figure’s visor.

The Tron Identity Program will digitize visitors’ facial features, including six lines of recorded dialogue. The LCD on the resulting figure will show your scanned face, and pressing a button on the chest will play back your recorded lines. Your custom identity is stored on a memory card that you can swap into other Tron toys that Disney hopes you’ll buy.

Custom action figures are about as old as modern 3D printing, but the holographic approach has the advantage of much quicker turnaround times. Since it doesn’t require plastic molding, Disney World visitors can have their toy in hand in around 16 minutes. By comparison, Hasbro’s Selfie Series can take 45 to 60 days to ship to you, although you don’t have to visit Florida to get one of those.

If you have a Disney World trip planned, you can reserve a time with the Tron Identity Program beginning on March 21st. A custom figure will cost $90, which is $30 more than Hasbro’s (non-LCD, non-Florida) custom figures.

Satellite-to-phone service is only just getting started, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to give a boost. The regulator is proposing rules that would make it easier for phone carriers and satellite operators to provide coverage in remote and underserved areas. Under the plan, satellite companies teaming with cellular providers could get FCC permission to operate on some licensed, flexible wireless spectrum normally reserved for ground-based service.

Operators would have to meet certain requirements. They'd have to use non-geostationary orbit satellites, and get leases from terrestrial spectrum owners in a given area. After that, though, they could provide outdoor service even in areas where cellphones are completely non-functional.

Few devices support satellite connections so far. Apple's iPhone 14 family can use satellites to send emergency messages. Qualcomm's Snapdragon Satellite enables texting off the grid, but only for Android phones using Snapdragon systems-on-chip and the X70 modem. It won't arrive until the second half of 2023, however. Carrier partnerships also won't kick off in earnest until T-Mobile and SpaceX roll out their Starlink-based collaboration. Testing for that begins later this year, although it should work with both standard texting as well as some messaging apps.

The technology usually depends on line of sight to a satellite, and the limited bandwidth of existing solutions makes them impractical for significant data transfers. However, they can help you reach first responders during a hike or confirm your arrival at a camp site in the wilderness. Eventually, the hope is to use satellites for general data.

The FCC is looking for public input on how the satellite-to-cell rules would bolster access to 911 and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The agency is also exploring whether or not it can apply the framework to other purposes, regions and wireless bands. If the proposal moves ahead, though, carriers beyond T-Mobile may have a relatively easy time filling (some) gaps in their networks.

Last month, the FCC proposed a new set of rules designed to combat the nuisance of robotext scams. Those rules are now official: not only will carriers be required to block messages that are likely to be illegal, but the new order also takes the first steps toward closing a loophole that allows scammers to dodge Do-Not-Call Registry protections.

Specifically, the rule targets text messages that come from numbers that are "unlikely to transmit text messages," citing unallocated, unused or invalid numbers, as well as numbers for government agencies and other "well-known entities" that don't send text messages. The order also hopes to close the "lead generator loophole," that allows companies to interpret a consumer's "consent" to a call as permission for other marketers to add them to a robocall list.

The announcement makes a point of saying that while these kinds of robotexts already fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection act, the new rules will give carriers more tools to help them actively block scammers. Even so, the best way to prevent being scammed is to protect yourself.

There's some good news if you've been holding off on buying a Steam Deck. Valve's terrific portable gaming system is on sale for the first time, just over a year after the company started shipping the device. The price of the Steam Deck has dropped by 10 percent. 

The 64GB model is currently $359.10 ($40 off). The 256GB variant has dropped from $529 to $476.10. The 512GB Steam Deck, which has a screen with anti-glare glass and the fastest storage of the bunch, is $65 off at $584.10. As things stand, it should take 1-2 weeks for your Deck to arrive. The discount will apply in all regions where the Deck ships until 1PM ET on March 23rd, when the Steam spring sale that just started comes to an end.

There are currently discounts on hundreds of games, so you'll surely find plenty of things to play on your shiny new Steam Deck. The deals include Red Dead Redemption 2 (67 percent off), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (70 percent off), Marvel's Midnight Suns (50 percent off) and NBA 2K23 (75 percent off). All are among the 100 most-played games on Steam Deck to date, but Valve has verified that thousands of titles will work on the portable PC just fine (keep an eye out for green and yellow check marks on the Steam store).

Valve, which has constantly been updating the Steam Deck over the last year, has added another feature. It'll now be easier to change the startup video that plays when you boot up the system. Valve has created 20 startup videos that you can buy from the Steam Points Shop, but you can easily find other custom boot clips elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in case you're worried that the Steam Deck will soon be obsolete, there likely won't be a vastly more powerful second-generation model anytime soon. While Valve might continue to iterate on the system, "a true next-gen Deck with a significant bump in horsepower wouldn’t be for a few years," designer Lawrence Yang told Rock Paper Shotgun earlier this month.

YouTube TV is getting another price hike, from $65 to $73. The company says new members will see the updated pricing starting today while existing subscribers will pay more beginning April 18th. 

It’s the latest in a long line of YouTube TV price hikes. Before the latest increase, it had last raised them by $15 in June 2020. The service started at a mere $35 in 2017 and has ballooned incrementally as cord-cutting television has evolved from a scrappy disruptor to oh my god this costs $73 every single month.

A message sent this morning to YouTube TV subscribers reads, “As content costs have risen and we continue to invest in the quality of our service, we are updating our price to keep bringing you the best possible service.” In addition, the email notes that the service has dropped the cost of its 4K Plus add-on from $20 to $10 per month. The message also guides users to cancel their subscriptions if the new monthly fee pushes pricing out of their comfort zone.

Baseball fans may be especially peeved with the new price, as YouTube TV dropped MLB Network from its lineup last month after failing to reach a new agreement. Although the company kept the door open to eventually restoring the service, that has yet to materialize over six weeks later.

After 16 years with Twitch, company co-founder Emmett Shear is stepping down from his role as CEO. Shear was there at the beginning, when the popular entertainment platform was still called Justin.tv, a live video site designed to host a 24/7 reality show about the life of co-founder Justin Kan. When the company spun the platform's growing gaming category into its own brand, Twitch was born. Shear shepherded the company through that transition, through Amazon's $970 million acquisition of the company in 2014, and beyond. Now, he says he says fatherhood has inspired him to step down from his leadership role. "I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world," he wrote in a farewell blog. "I will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role."

Dan Clancy will be taking over as CEO. Originally hired in 2019 as the executive VP of creator and community experience, Clancy soon rose to the role of President at Twitch. When streaming partners raised concerns over Twitch's revenue split with creators, Clancy was the one who put the issue to bed — explaining in a letter to streamers that the share would remain at 50/50 and premium 70/30 splits given to the platforms biggest stars would be subject to new limitations. As the face of this decision, Clancy bore the brunt of much of the backlash.

As for Shear, his exit letter exudes confidence for the new CEO. "He cares deeply about the Twitch community, its streamers and our staff and understands what makes Twitch, Twitch," he wrote. Dan Clancy will step into his role as CEO effective immediately.

Any images that are produced by giving a text prompt to current generative AI models, such as Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, cannot be copyrighted in the US. That's according to the US Copyright Office (USCO), which has equated such prompts to a buyer giving directions to a commissioned artist. "They identify what the prompter wishes to have depicted, but the machine determines how those instructions are implemented in its output," the USCO wrote in new guidance it published to the Federal Register.

"When an AI technology receives solely a prompt from a human and produces complex written, visual, or musical works in response, the 'traditional elements of authorship' are determined and executed by the technology — not the human user," the office stated.

It noted that the level of human creativity involved in a work is a significant consideration as to whether it will grant copyright protection. It suggested that current AI models can't generate copyrightable work. "Based on the Office's understanding of the generative AI technologies currently available, users do not exercise ultimate creative control over how such systems interpret prompts and generate material," the USCO said. "In the Office’s view, it is well-established that copyright can protect only material that is the product of human creativity." In one famous case, the office ruled that it couldn't allow selfies taken by a monkey to be copyrighted.

When it comes to works that contain material generated by an AI, the USCO looks at whether the model's contributions to the work are the result of "mechanical reproduction" (i.e., generated in response to text prompts) or if they represent the author's "own mental conception." Current rules state that the USCO “will not register works produced by a machine or mere mechanical process that operates randomly or automatically without any creative input or intervention from a human author.”

However, the office has left the door open to granting copyright protections to work with AI-generated elements. "The answer will depend on the circumstances, particularly how the AI tool operates and how it was used to create the final work," it said. "This is necessarily a case-by-case inquiry. If a work’s traditional elements of authorship were produced by a machine, the work lacks human authorship and the Office will not register it."

Last month, the USCO determined that images generated by Midjourney and used in a graphic novel were not copyrightable. However, it said the text and layout of Kris Kashtanova's Zarya of the Dawn could be afforded copyright protection. The office said there was too much “distance” between Kashtanova's inputs and Midjourney's output for the images to be copyrightable. Kashtanova's lawyers have said that by focusing on the output rather than the input, the office "applied the wrong legal standard."

Meanwhile, the USCO has started an initiative to further explore copyright law and policy issues related to AI following requests from Congress and the public. It will host several panel discussions on the topics in April and May. The office plans to solicit public comments later this year on a swathe of copyright issues relating to the use of AI.

NVIDIA's DLSS 3 upscaling (Deep Learning Super Sampling 3) will soon be available for some particularly high-profile games. To begin with, Diablo IV will use the AI-based technology when the game launches on June 6th. If you have a GeForce RTX 40 series GPU, you can push the click-heavy action RPG to a high resolution without worrying so much about a frame rate drop.

Bethesda's open-world vampire shooter Redfall will also support DLSS 3 when it ships on May 2nd. And if you're a fan of arcade-style racing, you'l be happy to know that a Forza Horizon 5 update will introduce the feature on March 28th.

You may see broader game industry support before long. Epic is integrating DLSS 3 support into Unreal Engine 5.2 through an upcoming plug-in, so developers won't have to go to great lengths to add the performance-boosting feature to their titles. At the same time, NVIDIA is making the tech's signature frame generation available through an open source framework.

DLSS 3 builds on earlier iterations by generating whole new frames, not just pixels. It's particularly useful for CPU-limited games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft Flight Simulator, as it doesn't lean on your computer's processor. The catch, of course, is that you need NVIDIA's latest hardware to use it. While that's more affordable than before thanks to the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 40 laptop GPUs, you'll still need to invest significant funds to see the benefits.

Tinder announced this week that its users can now add relationship types and pronouns to their profiles. For example, you can specify whether you’re seeking monogamous or non-monogamous relationships (or are still figuring it out) and list your preferred gender pronouns. Both new features are borrowed from Hinge, owned by the same parent company, which added the same profile options last year.

Tinder’s new relationship-type options, spurred by growing interest in less traditional dating approaches, include monogamy, ethical non-monogamy, open relationship, polyamory and “open to exploring.” The company cites a study of 4,000 18-to-25-year-olds showing that 41 percent are open to or seeking non-monogamous connections. Among those, open relationships (36 percent) and hierarchical polyamory (26 percent) are the most popular choices. Perhaps just as critical, a survey indicated that 73 percent of young singles of any gender say they want someone who is clear about what they want. Most people don’t want to waste time with partners who have incompatible intentions.

Likewise, Tinder’s addition of pronouns can be tied to a poll revealing that 33 percent of young adults say their sexuality has become more fluid in the last three years, while 29 percent say their gender identity is more fluid. Additionally, it says the LGBTQIA+ community is the platform’s fastest-growing demographic. Thanks to these revelations, Tinder now lets you select up to four pronouns out of more than 15 options to show on your profile.

This follows the app’s addition of relationship goals, launched in December. That option lets users clarify whether they want short-term, long-term or an uncertain combination. The company says 40 percent of its users who specify their intent say they’re looking for a long-term relationship, while 13 percent claim they only want a short-term connection. If nothing else, it highlights how Tinder has expanded its brand from its early reputation as a “hookup app.”

The new features follow a dismal Q1 forecast for Tinder’s parent company Match Group after the app sparked the company’s first quarterly revenue decline. The options also align with Tinder’s recent marketing campaign, “It Starts with a Swipe,” which paints the app as a fluid experience that may just as easily lead to casual flings or more committed connections.