Spotify has added a new feature for Premium subscribers meant for bookworms. Starting on October 4, subscribers in the UK and Australia will get access to a selection of more than 150,000 audiobooks without having to pay extra. US subscribers will also be able to enjoy the new perk sometime later this year. While they're getting access to a wide range of books and can choose to listen to as many as they want, the offering comes with a catch: Subscribers will only get 15 hours of free audiobook listening every month. The streaming giant told us that users can top up their listening hours to the tune of $11 for another 10 hours after the allocation.

That makes Spotify's service a lot more expensive than Audible's, which costs $8 a month and has no listening limit. The company first made audiobooks available on its platform back in September last year. It launched with 300,000 titles in its library, and users could purchase any of them from within the service. Spotify could have added audiobooks to Premium subscriptions as a way to get users hooked to consuming different types of media in one place. It's just a question of whether users would be willing to pay $11 for every 10 hours of listening after the first 15. That may sound lengthy to some, but for voracious readers (or audiobook listeners), that's nowhere near enough.

"We believe that offering personalized music, podcasts, and audiobooks on a single platform gives you a superior way to connect with your favorite artists, podcasters, creators, and authors — all in one spot," Spotify explained in its announcement.

That said, users can still purchase any title they want from Spotify's audiobook library, so there's no need to pay for additional hours if they have specific books in mind. The feature also comes with auto-bookmarking, preventing users from having to repeat pages and lose precious minutes of listening. Plus, if they activate Spotify Sleep Timer, they can fall asleep while listening to their books without having to rewind when they wake up. It's also worth noting that subscribers can download audiobooks for offline listening. 

At the moment, the new perk is only available for individual Premium subscribers and to plan managers of Family or Duo accounts, but Spotify says it plans to expand its availability in the future. 

Apple has acknowledged its new iPhone 15 and 15 Pro can get uncomfortably hot. The company said background activity, an iOS 17 bug and third-party apps were the cause, with some apps, like Instagram, already updated not to make the newest iPhones sweat.

Everyone loves to have opinions on why the newest iPhones aren’t working like they should, with some people blaming the new titanium body. Apple told MacRumors that the design actually provides better heat dissipation than previous stainless steel models. Similarly, the company says the issue isn’t connected to its new A1 Pro chop, nor high-power chargers and the new USB-C connector.

My iPhone 15 Pro ran pretty hot the first few days, pulling down all my apps, games and music library, but it’s evened out more recently. Others are still waiting on a fix.

— Mat Smith

Humane’s futuristic wearable revealed at Paris Fashion Week

As seen on Naomi Campbell, it has a mini-projector and camera.

Reuters

Humane is a startup founded by ex-Apple executives. It’s working on a device called the Ai Pin, which uses projectors, cameras and AI tech as a sort of wearable AI assistant. The company unveiled the Ai Pin at a Paris fashion show (Humane x Coperni), attached to Naomi Campbell, who is the first person outside of the company to wear the device in public. The company describes the device as a “screenless, standalone device and software platform built from the ground up for AI.” Other information is less clear, like how the device connects to the internet, as it doesn’t pair with a smartphone. We’ll learn more when it’s fully unveiled on November 9.

Continue reading.

It’s not Tom Hanks in that dental ad, and he’s not happy about it

Hanks called out the ad for using an AI likeness of him.

An ad reportedly used a deepfake of Tom Hanks to promote dental plans without the actor’s permission. Hanks shared a warning on Instagram on Sunday about the AI-generated video, which he wrote he had “nothing to do with.” Hanks has been outspoken about the challenges AI poses for the industry, and the use of actors’ digital likenesses is one of the major points of concern voiced by striking SAG-AFTRA workers. The use of AI to capitalize on celebrities’ legacies has already become an ethical issue. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain sparked widespread debate after it was revealed the documentary contained AI-generated voiceovers of Bourdain.

Continue reading.

Watch the star-studded trailer for cyberattack thriller Leave the World Behind

From the creators of Mr. Robot.

Netflix

Leave the World Behind is a dual-release Netflix film that hits theaters on November 22 and the streaming service on December 8. It stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali and Kevin Bacon, which is a whole lot of star power. The movie continues Netflix’s recent dual-release strategy as seen with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Marriage Story, The Irishman and other high-profile features. It also ensures these movies are eligible for award season.

Continue reading.

​​

The biggest stories you might have missed

One of the brightest objects in the night sky is a human-made satellite

The best early October Prime Day deals you can get for 2023

Google’s Chromebook Plus initiative pushes higher spec standards and handy software tools

NordVPN review: A bit too overhyped for the price

Loog’s baby digital piano could be the perfect starter instrument for newbies

How to send animated reactions on FaceTime with iOS 17

Meta may charge Instagram users in Europe a $14 per month subscription fee unless they opt in to targeted ads, according to The Wall Street Journal. In addition, it may impose a combined monthly fee of $17 for ad-free access to Facebook and Instagram on desktop. 

Last month, rumors surfaced that Meta would start forcing subscriptions on users who opted out of targeted ads, but the potential fees were unknown. Users willing to pay would see no advertising on Facebook and Instagram, while those who want to stick to the free version would have to consent to be targeted by ads based on their personal data. The company has reportedly discussed the plans with regulators in Brussels and Ireland.

The move comes in response to a court ruling in July finding that Facebook must gain the consent of users to access their personal data. That court said that site operators have to prove that users willingly gave permission, possibly by allowing them to reject ad tracking. That's exactly what Apple did with iOS 14, and with very few users opting in, Meta predicted a significant hit to its revenue. In its ruling, the EU court also said companies should explore subscription models for users. 

If accurate, the numbers revealed by the WSJ are just a bit less than Netflix charges in the EU for it's regular monthly plan. With only power social media users or companies likely willing to pay that, Meta could effectively force regular users to accept targeted ads or stop using its social media sites altogether.

Earlier this year, the EU hit Facebook with a record €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) fine for transferring EU user data to the US, in violation of the bloc's key digital privacy rules. And the rules are about to tighten more, as Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations come into force starting in March 2024. 

At the same time, Meta makes nearly a quarter of its revenue in Europe, with the bloc accounting for $7.2 billion of its $32 billion total in the second quarter this year. 

An advertiser reportedly used a deepfake of Tom Hanks to promote dental plans without the actor’s permission. Hanks shared a warning on Instagram on Sunday alerting his followers about the AI-generated video, which he wrote he had “nothing to do with.” Hanks has been outspoken about the challenges AI poses for the industry, and the use of actors’ digital likenesses is one of the major points of concern voiced by striking SAG-AFTRA workers.

Just last spring, Hanks said in an appearance on The Adam Buxton Podcast that AI and deepfakes present both artistic and legal challenges. “I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it,” Hanks said, “but my performances can go on and on and on and on and on, and outside of the understanding that it’s been done with AI or deepfake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me.” He also spoke of a hypothetical scenario in which an entire movie series could be made using an AI version of him that’s “32 years old from now until kingdom come.” Perhaps in confirmation of what's to come, the offending dental plan ad depicts a significantly younger Hanks.

The use of AI to capitalize on celebrities’ legacies has already become an ethical issue. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain sparked widespread debate upon its release after it was revealed the documentary contained AI-generated voice overs of the beloved chef and storyteller. Just this weekend, Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda Williams, posted in support of “SAG’s fight against AI,” writing on Instagram that she’d seen firsthand how the technology is used to capture the likeness of people “who cannot consent,” like her father.

“These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people,” Williams wrote, “but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.”

Hanks said in the April interview that the issue has been on his radar since filming The Polar Express in the early 2000s, which starred a CGI version of the actor. It was “the first time that we did a movie that had a huge amount of our own data locked in a computer,” Hanks told Buxton, adding, “We saw this coming.”

It’s been a few years since Mr. Robot dropped its mind-bending final episode, and now series creator Sam Esmail is back with a film that explores similar themes of cyber security and paranoia. Leave the World Behind is a dual-release Netflix film that hits theaters on November 22 and the streaming service on December 8. Here's a new trailer to wet your whistle for the cyber-apocalypse thriller.

Leave the World Behind stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali and Kevin Bacon, which is a whole lot of star power. As for the plot, this is an Esmail joint, so it’s likely best to go in fresh, but Netflix did drop a tantalizingly simple story premise: a “family’s vacation is upended when two strangers arrive at night, seeking refuge from a cyberattack that grows more terrifying by the minute.”

The synopsis calls to mind M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, and both films do have something in common—They’re based on books. The similarly-named Leave the World Behind novel was penned by renowned author Rumaan Alam and has been praised by publications like NY Times, USA Today, Esquire and many more. On the plus side, we know the movie will have a proper ending to work with. On the down side, spoilers will be tough to avoid, so exercise caution when surfing the endless web.

The movie continues Netflix’s recent dual-release strategy as seen with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Marriage Story, The Irishman and other high-profile features. Leave the World Behind starts a two-week exclusive run at movie theaters on November 22 before premiering on the popular streaming service on December 8. This isn’t the first movie written and directed by Esmail. Just before booking Mr. Robot, he created a romance film called Comet about parallel universes.

The film-focused social media site LetterBoxd has new ownership. Cofounder Matthew Buchanan announced on Friday that Tiny, a venture capital firm, has bought a 60 percent stake in the platform. The New York Times reported that the deal values Letterboxd at over $50 million. Buchanan and fellow founder Karl von Randow will retain minority shareholder positions and continue to lead the company as they insist “very little else will change.”

Founded in 2011, Letterboxd was a rare independently owned social network. It grew significantly during pandemic lockdowns as homebound users sought new movies to stream (and communities to chat with). Lacking the clutter of Amazon-owned IMDb, the website and app provided a haven for film buffs who wanted to write and read reviews, rate movies, create watch lists and socialize with fellow enthusiasts.

Letterboxd’s cofounders frame the move as less about selling out to big money and more a growth opportunity. “Teaming up with Tiny represents a big leap forward for us,” Buchanan and von Randow wrote in a statement. “We see this as a huge win for our community, enabling us to cement Letterboxd’s future with additional resources without sacrificing the DNA of what makes it special.”

The site doesn’t currently support television series, but the founders say they’re working on a way to offer that. They insist they want to incorporate TV shows “only once we know we can do it right.” Letterboxd partnered with Netflix earlier this year, bringing the streaming service’s recommendations to the social platform. 

“We’ve been huge fans and users of Letterboxd for a long time and could not be more excited to join forces with Matthew, Karl, and the rest of the team for the long-term,” said Andrew Wilkinson, Co-founder of Tiny. “If you’re running out of things to watch, it’s because you haven’t used Letterboxd yet — and we believe that the potential for superior discovery is a large opportunity.”

Equal parts Terminator, The Golden Child and The Matrix prequel, The Creator is yet another sci-fi epic about a war between humans and AI, one told by someone who just can't shut up about their time backpacking across Asia. Director Gareth Edwards clearly understands the power of scale and spectacle, something he demonstrated with his indie knockout Monsters, as well as his big-budget efforts, Godzilla and Rogue One. But The Creator, like those films, also suffers from a disjointed narrative, weak characters and a surprisingly shallow exploration of its (potentially interesting!) themes. It's a shame — at times, the film also proves he can be a genuine visual poet. 

The Creator stars John David Washington, fresh off of Christopher Nolan's Tenet, as Joshua, an American soldier embedded among a group of AI rebels as a double-agent. When an operation goes wrong early on, he loses his rebel wife Maya (Gemma Chan) and the will to keep fighting the war between the anti-AI West and the AI-loving country of New Asia. (Yes, this is a film where the many people, cultures and languages throughout Asia are flattened into a single nation.)

Photo by 20th Century Studios

Through a series of clunky newsreels that open the film, we see the rise of artificial intelligence as a potential boon for mankind, as well as the creation of Simulants, AI-powered beings with human-like bodies and skin. When a nuclear bomb hits Los Angeles, obliterating millions in seconds, the US and other Western countries blame AI and ban its use. And so begins the war with New Asia, where people live alongside AI and support their rebellion against the West. Naturally, the US ends up building a killer, trillion-dollar weapon: Nomad, an enormous spaceship that can obliterate any location on Earth.

In a last-ditch effort to win the war, Joshua is tasked with finding a powerful new AI weapon and destroying it. Surprise! It's an adorable AI child (portrayed by the achingly sweet Madeleine Yuna Voyles). Joshua doesn't have the heart to kill the kid, who he calls Alfie (based on her original designation, "Alpha Omega"). The pair then set off on a Lone Wolf and Cub journey together, as often happens when a grizzled warrior is paired with an innocent child.

If you're getting shades of Star Wars here — an evil Empire creates a massive space-based weapon to put down rebels — you're not alone. While The Creator is technically an original property, it lifts so much from existing fiction that it still ends up feeling like a visually lush facsimile. It's as if ChatGPT remixed your sci-fi faves and delivered the world's best screensaver.

It doesn't help that the film doesn't really have much to say. America's horrific military aggression against New Asia, which has overt and unearned shades of the Vietnam War throughout, is undoubtedly evil. AI's push for freedom and understanding is inherently good, and any violence against the West is justified as an act of self defense. Many characters don't think beyond their roles in the AI War: Allison Janney (from The West Wing!) plays the cruel Colonel Howell, a soldier who hates all AI and wants Alfie dead, no matter the cost. On the other side there's Ken Watanabe's Harun, a stoic rebel who fights relentlessly against the American army.

The Creator has no room to explore AI as their own beings and cultures — instead, they just adopt a mishmash of Asian identities. There's nothing close to the excellent Second Renaissance shorts from The Animatrix, which chronicled the rise of AI in The Matrix and humanity's eventual downfall. In that universe, AI rebelled against humans because they were basically treated like slaves, and they ultimately formed their own country and customs. In The Creator, some AI wear Buddhist robes for no reason.

I'd wager Edwards is trying to establish the humanity of AI by having them mirror so much of our culture. But that also feels like a wasted opportunity when it comes to portraying an entirely new lifeform. At one point, a village mother describes AI as the next step in evolution, but why must robots be defined by the limitations of humanity?

While the relationship between Joshua and Alfie serves as the emotional core of the film, it still feels stereotypical. Joshua begins the film as a complete anti-AI bigot – which seems odd, given that he spent years among AI rebels and fell in love with one of their major supporters. Alfie is an impossibly adorable Chosen One figure. You can just imagine how their bond grows.

On a personal level, I also found myself annoyed by the relentless Orientalism throughout the film, something that's practically endemic in popular science-fiction like Blade Runner, Dune and Firefly. By adopting elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and Asian cultures, The Creator is trying to suggest something profound or spiritual tied to AI. But it mainly serves as visual shorthand without giving artificially intelligent beings any interiority of their own.

As the film critic Siddhant Adlakha wrote this week, "By having robots almost entirely stand in for Asian peoples, but without creating a compelling cinematic argument for their humanity, The Creator ends up with a cultural dynamic that feels immediately brutalizing and xenophobic."

Despite the film’s flaws, Edwards deserves credit for delivering a major science-fiction release that at least attempts to look different than your typical comic book movie. The Creator was shot on consumer-grade Sony FX3 full-frame cameras (yes, even its IMAX footage), which gave Edwards the freedom to shoot on location across the globe. He also delivered a final cut of the film before VFX work began, which allowed those workers to focus on crafting exactly what was needed for each scene. In contrast, Marvel’s films require a backbreaking amount of VFX work, even for scenes that are later changed or cut. (It’s no wonder Marvel VFX workers voted to unionize for better treatment.)

The Creator is more of a missed opportunity than a complete creative failure. If you tune out the clunky dialogue and thin characters, it’s still a visually lush epic that’s worth seeing on the big screen. But I also think that’s true of Attack of the Clones. In a post-Matrix era, a world where we’re already seeing the (very basic) ways AI tools can reshape our society, science-fiction needs more than another story about man versus AI.

Netflix is shipping its final DVD rentals, marking the end of an era that helped make the company the streaming behemoth it is today. "Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023," the company said in a post on X yesterday. "But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment."

Netflix announced in April this year that it would shut down its DVD rental business on September 29, saying the shrinking demand for physical rentals is making it "increasingly difficult" to offer the quality of service it wants. The company shipped its first disc (Beetlejuice) in 1998, and has since shipped 5.2 billion movies in those red envelopes to more than 40 million customers. 

DVD rentals paved the way for Netflix to introduce streaming on-demand in 2007, and it quickly grew to become the company's most popular offering by 2009. The rest is history, as Netflix gradually expanded to produce its own streaming content and now counts over 238 million subscribers. Meanwhile, DVD rentals (which shifted to DVD.com) have gradually become a minor part of Netflix. And while video purists still love DVDs and Blu-rays, sales worldwide dropped 19 percent from 2021 to 2022 alone. In one recent blow, Disney announced that it was halting DVD and Blu-ray production in Australia.   

While it's sadly the end of an era, there is one silver lining. This summer, Netflix announced that anyone who still has a rental will be able to keep their discs, and can even request up to 10 more movies so that the company can clear out its stock. "Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like," the company posted on X. 

Netflix

Netflix held a virtual event called DROP 01 to celebrate its forthcoming slate of animated projects. The showcase was an absolute cornucopia of trailers and announcements for animation fans, particularly those who enjoy video game adaptations (all of us.) It started with a global livestream of Castlevania: Nocturne’s first three episodes ahead of the official premiere later today.

After that, the hits kept on coming. We knew there was a Devil May Cry anime being produced, adapting the popular game series, and now we have a trailer. There’s no release date, other than “coming soon”, but the show’s being produced by Capcom and animated by Studio Mir, the same folks behind The Legend of Korra, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf and My Adventures With Superman. In other words, we should be in for a good time.

Sonic Prime is coming back for season three and there’s a trailer to prove it. The new episodes focus on the fallout of chapter two as the speedy hedgehog faces off against Nine Tails for the fate of the entire Green Hill Zone. Netflix makes games now and also showed off a trailer for the related mobile title Sonic Prime Dash.

It’s been nearly three years since the announcement of a Tomb Raider animated series, leaving fans wondering if the show would evaporate into vaporware heaven. Worry no longer. It’s real and it’s coming soon. Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is a team effort between game developer Crystal Dynamics and media dynamos Legendary Television. It’s being drawn by Powerhouse Animation, the studio behind Castlevania and Masters of the Universe. There’s no release date on this one yet but it looks nifty. 

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix isn’t exactly a video game adaptation, but it’s inspired by the world created in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. As such, Ubisoft is on board, as is Netflix’s animation wunderkind Adi Shankar. This is a cyberpunk show, through and through, with the unusual addition of Ubisoft mascot Rayman. The series releases soon, on October 19.

We don’t have that long to wait before Scott Pilgrim Takes Off graces our screens, as it premieres on November 17. To hype up fans, Netflix dropped a sneak peek with an actual scene from the show. The eight-episode series brings back every single cast member from the movie, including Michael Cera, Brie Larson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans and Aubrey Plaza.

It wasn’t all video game adaptations. Netflix also showed off trailers for the cinematic anime Blue Eye Samurai, a new season of Masters of the Universe: Revolution and a series based on Astro Boy called PLUTO. Prepare to go cartoon crazy in the coming months.

Cuphead developer Studio MDHR is celebrating the indie game’s sixth anniversary by giving Xbox and Windows players free behind-the-scenes content. The DLC includes high-res photos, concept art, a video player and the entire soundtrack. The developer describes the bonus content as a “love letter” to fans on the game’s initial platforms. It will be available on Friday, September 29.

The Cuphead DLC will include over 100 behind-the-scenes photos, including “never-before-seen concepts and unused art pieces” from one of gaming’s most stylistic titles. Among the images is a peek at early concept art that Studio MDHR describes as akin to Microsoft Paint.

“With our process being so painstaking once we put pencil to paper, we often use paint tools during brainstorming sessions to communicate ideas very quickly to one another for the broad strokes of a boss attack or phase transition,” said MDHR co-director Chad Moldenhauer. “A few of these made their way into the photo gallery, and we think they’re a fun break from tradition for the more handcrafted art we usually put out!”

Studio MDHR

The bonus content also includes the entire 86-track Cuphead soundtrack for the first time. In addition, a never-before-heard MIDI demo track will play in the background as you browse the stylized DLC menus.

Moldenhauer says the team wrestled with including music from The Delicious Last Course DLC as it was concerned about spoilers. “After much discussion, though, we came down on the side of giving the Xbox community access to as much of Kris’s great tunes as possible — especially as we feel most of the players enjoying a section like this will have experienced the full Cuphead game experience already!” said Moldenhauer. The song used over 110 musicians, more than on any tracks from the base game.

”We thought it would be fun to give this to our Xbox community as a gift on the game’s anniversary, as our Cuphead journey really started with the release on Xbox,” said Moldenhauer. “In game development, plans like that don’t always work out, but we were fortunate that all our testing and finalization for the update seemed to finish with enough time to launch on the game’s sixth birthday!”