Twitter has finally confirmed some of the details and pricing for the new version of its API. The company had previously delayed the changes after confirming that it was banning third-party clients as part of a larger shakeup of its developer features.

As expected, the company is maintaining a free tier with limited functionality, though it offers far less than its predecessor. Under the new free tier, which is aimed at bots and other “testing” purposes, accounts can post up to 1,500 tweets a month, but won’t be able to access any other featuires. That may offer a lifeline to some of Twitter’s famed bot accounts, but at about 50 tweets a day, may prove to be too limited for those that post more frequently.

At $100 a month, the new “basic” tier offers a bit more: developers can post up to 3,000 tweets a month at the user level and up to 50,000 a month at the app level. It also offers a read limit of 10,000 tweets a month, which, again, is far less than what was previously offered.

Twitter

Meanwhile, an enterprise tier is meant for businesses that need a higher level of access, though details for that tier are still murky. According to Twitter’s developer website, the enterprise tier will include “commercial-level access that meets your and your customer's specific needs” and other features. Businesses can apply for enterprise access, but the only pricing information Twitter has disclosed is that there will be "monthly subscription tiers." 

It’s also unclear what will happen to researchers and academics who currently rely on Twitter’s API for their work. In a series of tweets, the company said it was “looking at new ways to continue serving this community” but didn’t elaborate. Wired previously reported the company had told some organizations API access could run as much as $42,000 a month, but that plan doesn't seem to have materialized, at least not yet.

The new details also mean that a lot of services using Twitter’s older APIs could soon stop working altogether. The company confirmed that its existing APIs, used by a vast number of developers, researchers and other services, would be deprecated within the next 30 days. “We recommend that you migrate to the new tiers as soon as possible for a smooth transition,” the company said. Though it’s unclear just how many developers will be willing to pay for stripped down versions of the APIs.

Spotify already offers a host of personalized playlists, and now the company is giving users even more control over the generation of those mixes. Building on the mood, decades and genre playlists the platform debuted in 2021, Spotify today introduced Niche Mixes, a feature the company says combines all of its personalized playlists “in a playful way.”

In short, you can now prompt Spotify to create an algorithmically generated mix for almost any mood or genre. To do so, navigate over to Spotify’s search bar and type the activity you want the app to soundtrack for you and add “mix” to the end. You can get pretty creative. I asked Spotify to create a witch house playlist for me, followed by one featuring relaxing videogame soundtracks. In both cases, Spotify obliged and did a pretty good job of selecting appropriate tracks. That said, you'll sometimes run into situations where Spotify won't produce an exact match for the mix you want. For example, I asked it to create a "dubstep work mix," only to get a workout playlist instead.   

As with the company’s other personalized mixes, you can expect each playlist to feature a mixture of familiar songs alongside tracks ones you may not have heard before. Niche mixes are available to today to free and Premium users who search in English.

You now know when you can continue following the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike. Paramount+ has revealed that the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will premiere June 15th, with new episodes appearing each Thursday. While the streaming service isn't saying much about the plot apart from a Star Trek: Lower Decks crossover, it's promising a 10-episode run and has already renewed the show for a third season.

Animation fans in the US, meanwhile, can expect Lower Decks season four in August and a fifth season in the pipeline. The new episodes have the crew of the USS Ceritos dodging "malevolent computers," getting trapped in caves and running into aliens from across the galaxy.

The second season of kids' animated series Star Trek: Prodigy is now slated to debut this winter. The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery was already poised to arrive in early 2024.

The two confirmed renewals aren't surprising. While Paramount+ is now popular for more than Star Trek, the sci-fi franchise remain one of the service's main attractions. Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks in particular have enjoyed a strong reception. With Picard winding down this April, the remaining productions will have to carry extra weight.

Nintendo might be making it harder to play its older games on official hardware, but there are other options if you know where to look. One of them is about to be a lot easier to find: Dolphin, a popular emulator that runs most GameCube and Wii titles, will be launching on Steam later this year. Dolphin is already available for free, but launching on Steam could make using the emulator more straightforward on devices like the Steam Deck, where dropping to desktop mode and manually installing programs can be a little cumbersome. 

That doesn't mean downloading Dolphin from the Steam store will give you instant access to classic Nintendo games, however. Dolphin's store page is quick to point out that the "app does not come with games. You must own an original copy of any game you want to use with Dolphin." If you've dabbled in retro game emulation at all, that should sound pretty familiar — emulating console games is a bit of a legal gray area. 

That's probably why the Dolphin Steam page is reluctant to even identify what, exactly, it does — instead choosing to say it plays "classics from the Big N's cube-shaped and motion-controlled consoles." The emulator's website is a bit more explicit, specifically stating that "downloading commercial games is illegal" and encouraging users use homebrew tools to make backups of game discs they legally own. 

Dolphin is expected to launch on Steam Early Access by the end of Q2 2023, with a full launch planned by the end of the year. 

We now know why Twitter’s algorithm seems to recommend some users’ tweets so often. Newsletter Platformer reports that the company has a secret VIP list of a few dozen accounts “it monitors and offers increased visibility” in its recommendation algorithm. The accounts include Elon Musk, as well as a handful of other prominent Twitter users.

The revelation comes as Musk has repeatedlypromised to make Twitter’s recommendation algorithms open source. He also recently stated that soon only paid subscribers to Twitter Blue would be eligible to have their tweets displayed in the algorithmic “For You” feed. It’s not clear if that change would also affect the VIP list of users who regularly get a boost in the feed. Some of the accounts on the list, like President Joe Biden and YouTuber Mr Beast, are currently verified but don’t pay for Twitter Blue. Twitter no longer has a communications team to respond to questions.

According to Platformer, the VIP list was “originally created to monitor the engagement received by Twitter power users” as the company has tried to allay suspicions that its “shadowbans” certain users to reduce their visibility on the platform. “Our ‘algorithm’ is overly complex & not fully understood internally,” Musk recently tweeted.

But the list, which reportedly is only 35 accounts in addition to Musk, is also telling about who Musk believes should benefit from Twitter’s algorithm. Platformer didn’t publish the entire list, which includes LeBron James, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, venture capitalist Marc Andreesen, Tesla fan account @teslaownerssv and conservative personality Ben Shapiro. It also includes @catturd2, an account recently described by Rolling Stone as the “Sh-tposting King of MAGA Twitter.”

It’s also not the first time that a report has surfaced about how Musk has tweaked Twitter’s algorithm to boost his own tweets. Last month, Musk said the company was fixing an issue that caused users’ For You feeds to be overwhelmed with dozens of Musk tweets. Platformer later reported that Twitter employees had changed its algorithm to favor Musk after the CEO was mad that his Super Bowl tweet didn’t receive as much engagement as Biden’s. Musk reportedly fired an engineer who suggested the lack of engagement was due to declining interest in his tweets.

We don't always think about it, but sound can be as important to identifying a brand as any graphical logo. Netflix's 'ta-dum' instantly brings the streaming service's logo to mind. Apple's startup chime feels like a warm greeting from your computer. Now, Wikipedia has an iconic audio mark of its own: a fluttering of book pages, keyboard clicks and synthesize tones it calls "The Sound of All Human Knowledge."

In true Wikipedia fashion, the four second audio clip was sourced from the community. The Wikimedia Foundation hosted a contest to find an audio logo for "projects when visual logos are not an option." Over 3,000 submissions later, they landed on a series of warm, happy notes preceded by book and keyboard noises, created by Thaddeus Osborne.

Osborne, a Nuclear Scientist by day, will be awarded $2,500 for creating the winning sound. Wikimedia will also be flying him to a professional recording studio to help produce a finalized version of the audio logo. The foundation says it hopes to have the final sound ready to use by June of this year.

In a couple of weeks, all the tweets you see on the For You feed will come from Twitter Blue users. Twitter boss Elon Musk has announced that the website will only display tweets from verified accounts in For You's recommendations starting on April 15th going forward. 

Musk explained that the company is making the move to combat AI bots and that it's the "only realistic way" to prevent "advanced AI bot swarms" from taking over. He also said that Twitter is fighting a "hopeless losing battle" otherwise if it doesn't implement the change. In a follow-up tweet, Musk clarified that AI bots can pay for verification (and presumably be shown in the For You timeline), as long as they don't impersonate a human. 

Twitter's For You interface shows not just tweets from the accounts a user follows, but also content based on previous tweets they've liked or other people in their network have liked. The feature debuted on iOS back in January as an alternative to the Following tab before making its way to other platforms. Not everybody liked it, and Twitter released an update so that its web and mobile apps will default to the timeline tab users last had open after it came out. But displaying only verified users could potentially mean that those who choose to view it would see a lot more promotional tweets. 

After all, pretty soon the only verified accounts on the social media site will be Twitter Blue subscribers. Twitter previously announced that it's killing legacy checkmarks on April 1st, stripping public personalities, companies, government and non-government organizations and the like of their verified status unless they pay for it.

Apple's long-expected Martin Scorsese movie has a release date — for theaters, that is. The company has revealed that Killers of the Flower Moon will get a wide theatrical release on October 20th following a "limited" run starting October 6th. The company hasn't said when the film will be available to Apple TV+ users, but the streaming launch will come after the theater exclusivity period ends. This is Apple's first movie to get a widescale big-screen debut before going online.

Killers of the Flower Moon is an adaptation of David Grann's namesake book. It covers the fledgling FBI's investigation of murders of Osage Nation members in the early 1920s after the tribe won rights to oil profits on its land. Scorsese both directed the movie and co-wrote it alongside Eric Roth (of Dune and Mank fame). The cast includes more than a few big-name stars and Scorsese favorites, including Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone.

Scorsese struck a multi-year deal with Apple in spring 2020 that covered both movie and television projects. While the exact terms aren't clear, Killers reportedly has a budget topping $180 million. The pact came just months after Netflix's Scorsese film, The Irishman, received a massive audience but failed to win any Oscars.

The strategy of releasing a movie in theaters first isn't new. Industry awards like the Oscars frequently require movies to show in theaters before they qualify, and it's no secret that streaming giants like Apple, Amazon and Netflix chase after these awards for the publicity they bring. Apple's CODA was the first streamer to win a Best Picture Oscar, for instance. The scope of this premiere is new to Apple, though, and the company is clearly willing to spend on A-list talent to potentially clinch some statuettes and boost its credibility in Hollywood.

According to a New York Times report, parts of Twitter’s source code were leaked online. Court filings published Friday reveal Twitter claimed copyright infringement to have the code taken down from Github as soon as possible. The code was removed the same day, but there’s no report on how long it was online for – or the leak's scope or depth. The Twitter executive who spoke with the NYT said the company's primary concern was that the source code could be used in future hacking efforts.

Twitter executives suspect it's the work of a former employee who left "within the last year." That might not narrow down the hunt for the leak. Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter last October, the company has shed roughy 80 percent of its staff.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Elon Musk reportedly values Twitter at $20 billion

The billionaire bought the company last year for $44 billion.

In timely fashion, Twitter owner Elon Musk says he valued Twitter at about $20 billion, according to an email seen by The Information and The New York Times. (Although this was before the reports of the source code leak.) Musk shared the valuation, a significant drop from the $44 billion he paid to buy the company last fall, in a memo he sent to Twitter employees on Friday announcing a new stock compensation program.

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It's your last chance to buy from Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS eShops

You'll still be able to download games you've already purchased.

It's the end of an era: Nintendo is shutting down its Wii U and 3DS eShops today at 5 PM PT (8 PM ET). After that, you'll no longer be able to purchase new games for those consoles, but you'll still be able to redownload titles you've already purchased. Some games will disappear forever, with 450 digital-only Wii U games, 600 digital-only 3DS games and 530 virtual console titles gone (at least from official channels), according to Video Games Chronicle’s estimates.

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Netflix strikes last-minute deal for ‘Arrested Development’ streaming rights

It’ll leave when it’s good and ready.

Fox

All five seasons of Arrested Development, including the two financed by Netflix, were set to leave the service on March 15th. However, the series is now staying put, thanks to a licensing agreement the company reached with Disney-owned 20th-Century Fox, the show’s original rights holder. According to Vulture, the new deal gives Netflix exclusive streaming rights to the series. As a result, the show’s first three seasons will not be available to watch on Hulu as of later this year. Notably, the deal reportedly gave Disney the option to sell the linear TV rights for all five seasons.

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Intel co-founder Gordon Moore has passed away

Moore famously predicted the miniaturization of computers in 1965.

Gordon Moore, co-founder and former CEO of Intel, has passed away at 94. He was the last surviving member of the Intel Trinity, which also included his fellow founder, Robert Noyce, and their first hire, Andy Grove. In 1965, Moore wrote a paper that envisioned the miniaturization of computers, introducing the world to his prediction dubbed Moore's Law.

He predicted the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year, leading to the creation and production of smaller and more powerful chips that would, in turn, enable advancements in technology. By 1975, he adjusted his estimate for the doubling of transistors to every two years, though top chipmakers disagree on whether Moore's Law still holds.

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In yet another embarrassing development for new Twitter boss Elon Musk, court filings published Friday reveal that portions of the social media site's source code — the base programming that makes Twitter possible — have been leaked online, the New York Times reports.

Per court filings, Twitter claimed copyright infringement in an effort to have the offending code taken down from the Github collaborative programming network, where it had been posted. While the code was removed the same day, details as to how long the code had been left up were not made available, nor were the leak's scope or depth. As part of the takedown request reminiscent of Raytheon's famous -- failed -- attempt at court-sanctioned doxxing, Twitter also asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to order Github to reveal both the identity of the user who posted the code and those who accessed and downloaded it. 

The NYT reports that, per sources within the company privy to the internal investigation into the leak, Twitter executives strongly suspect it's the work of a disgruntled employee who had left, "within the last year." Coincidentally, Elon Musk purchased Twitter last October for the eye-watering price of $44 billion and proceeded to lay-off and otherwise lose 80 percent of the company's staff, not the 75 percent that everybody feared Musk would enact in the run-up to his purchase.  

The executive who spoke with the NYT are primarily concerned that revelations gleaned from the stolen code could empower future hacking efforts, either by revealing new exploits or allowing bad actors to access Twitter user data. If the increasingly temperamental page functionality wasn't enough to send the site's user base running for the hills that the site's resurgence of scammers and white nationalists since Elon's takeover didn't already scare off, will the threat of outright hacking be the final straw for advertisers and users alike?