Tascam knows some musicians pine for the 'warm' quality of cassette recordings, and it's willing to effectively resurrect dead technology to meet their needs. The company has introduced a 424 Studio Master High Bias Type II Cassette designed for the brand's decades-old Portastudio four-track cassette recorders. Artists can record analog samples and tunes without hunting down rare tapes and fretting over degradation.

The cassette isn't a perfect match. Tascam said it's using existing magnetic oxides to produce tape that's as close "as possible" to the material Portastudios were meant to use, but recorder owners may still have to do some "fine tuning" to adjust for 2021-era cassettes. 

However, this isn't just an appeal to nostalgia — to some extent, it's about the preservation of analog cassette recording. Cassette production has been suffering from oxide shortages since 2019, years after a (still-ongoing) tape revival. Tascam noted that it's now the sole company making High Bias Type II cassettes. While there are tapes already on the market, they're both rare and expensive.

Availability is only listed as "soon." Tascam's cassettes also won't satisfy creators who want genuinely new recorders to replace a shrinking supply of old hardware. This might be the next best thing, though, and could be a relief for Portastudio fans who don't want to make a complete leap into the digital realm.

Streamlabs isn't the only company drawing flak from the Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) project. According to Protocol, OBS business development manager Ben Torell claims to have "clear evidence" TikTok is violating the open source GNU General Public License (aka GPL) with its recently released Live Studio software. The Windows livestreaming app allegedly uses code from OBS Studio and other open efforts, but TikTok isn't sharing that code under GPL terms.

Live Studio is meant to offer the features and quality you typically get from livestreaming services like Twitch, such as game capturing and overlays. It's only available to a small number of users in a few Western markets, TikTok told TechCrunch, but that doesn't matter in a licensing dispute like this.

We've asked TikTok for comment. This won't necessarily lead to a lawsuit, however. Torell stressed the OBS project responds to GPL violations "in good faith" and would be happy to work with TikTok as long as it respected the license. With that said, TikTok hadn't responded to OBS' concerns as of this writing — the dispute isn't over yet.

At-home COVID-19 tests might not be as trustworthy as you'd hope — not in the hands of a committed hacker, at least. As The Vergenotes, F-Secure researcher Ken Gannon discovered a since-patched security flaw in Ellume's Bluetooth-connected nasal swab test that let him change the reported results. The vulnerability was complicated, but still disconcerting.

Gannon used a rooted Android device to inspect the Bluetooth traffic Ellume's lateral flow tester was sending to the company's mobile app. The researcher pinpointed the traffic used to indicate test results, and wrote scripts to change the outcome. F-Secure Marketing Manager Alexandra Rinehimer even managed to fool Azova, a company issuing certificates for US entry tests, when it supervised her test.

Ellume has made it harder to study and modify the data, and it's not clear iPhone or iPad users could replicate the same feat. The company is also building a portal to help officials verify at-home tests, and has determined that all previous tests were authentic.

Even so, the findings raise concerns about people using other flaws (including for other tests) to falsify their COVID-19 results. Someone with enough know-how could flip results negative to re-enter the US or a particular workplace while infected. Although the effort currently involved makes that fraud unlikely on a large scale, it wouldn't take many bogus results to lead to outbreaks.

Scientists have finally studied their first full samples returned from an asteroid in space, and they confirm what you'd expect — while providing some new insights. ScienceAlertreports researchers have released twopapers revealing their first analysis of samples from Ryugu, the space rock the Hayabusa2 probe visited in February 2019. The team knew Ryugu would be a common, carbon-rich C-type asteroid, but that still makes it a good peek at the ingredients of the early Solar System.

The sampling indicates Ryugu has a carbon-dominated composition similar to the Sun's photosphere (outer shell), much like certain meteorites. It's made of the most primitive materials in the Solar System, emerging from the dust disc that formed along with the Sun itself. It's also quite porous, like many asteroids. However, it's not quite a neat and tidy example. Most C-type asteroids have a low albedo (solar radiation reflectivity) of 0.03 to 0.09 due to their carbon, but Ryugu's is 0.02. It's dark even by the standards of its cosmic neighbors.

As it stands, the very existence of these studies represents an achievement. The first attempt to return a sample, from the astroid Itokawa in 2010, only netted a tiny amount of dust. There's still more to come from Ryugu, but even the existing data could help scientists reshape their understanding of the Solar System's birth and development.

Illegal streaming could be particularly costly in Malaysia. TorrentFreakreports the country has passed amendments to its Copyright Act that punish those who enable pirate streaming. People who offer streaming services and devices that "prejudicially" hurt copyright owners can face fines equivalent to $2,377 or more, prison sentences up to 20 years, or both.

The updated law also discourages companies from either participating in streaming piracy or tolerating its presence. Unless managers can show they were unaware of a violation and took "all due diligence" to stop such acts, they'll be considered guilty of the relevant crime.

Copyright laws worldwide frequently cover digital piracy, but some of them were designed to tackle downloads and other, older forms of bootlegging. That was a problem for Malaysia, which couldn't use the Copyright Act against people selling piracy-oriented streaming devices until a High Court decision allowed those cases.

The potential punishments are strict, and the wording suggests it may be difficult for some companies to avoid entanglements with rogue employees. How much diligence is necessary, for example? Still, this shows how some countries may specifically address streaming through legislation, and might please the US and other copyright-driven nations worried their neighbors might tolerate illegal internet services.

YouTube TV's battle with Disney is over almost as soon as it began. The two have struck a deal that restores access to ESPN, FX and other Disney channels on YouTube's streaming service. Local ABC stations will come back over the course of the day (December 19th), but you may already see access to any recordings of Disney-owned channels.

The base subscription rate is returning to $65 per month, but YouTube TV promised that "all impacted members" would still receive a one-off $15 discount. More details would be coming through email, the service said.

Disney channels vanished on December 18th after the media giant and YouTube TV failed to reach an agreement on channel carriage fees. As is often the case with disputes like this, each side blamed the other. Disney claimed YouTube TV "declined to reach a fair deal," while YouTube maintained that it was advocating on "behalf" of viewers.

This isn't YouTube TV's only row over carriage deals. The service has traded blows with NBCUniversal and Sinclair, for instance. With that said, the Disney fight may have been one of its most important. It's not just that channels like ESPN remain a major draw for live TV services — it's that Disney could easily have siphoned some of those customers to its equivalent Hulu offering. YouTube may have decided that any increased costs (and possible rate hikes) were less painful than losing viewership.

Amazon is loosening its control of workers' activities as safety concerns mount. The internet retailer has confirmed to Bloomberg that it will back off a rejuvenated effort to ban personal phones in warehouses. Staff were told on December 17th they could keep their phones at hand "until further notice."

The company banned phones in warehouses for years, but eased its approach as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The ban was poised to resume in January 2022.

While Amazon didn't explain the decision, it comes just after a tornado struck a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, killing six people. It also follows a surge in COVID-19 cases. Warehouse employees have demanded access to their phones both for safety alerts and to stay in touch in the event of emergencies. A reinstituted ban would have appeared tone deaf, particularly in light of an incident where a dispatcher pressured a driver to keep delivering packages while a tornado rampaged through the Edwardsville area.

Companies are allowed to ban phone use on the clock, whether it's to improve safety or prevent staff from leaking sensitive information. That stance is changing as smartphones become an important part of daily life, though, and the combination of Amazon's poor safety reputation with recent incidents may leave the company little room to reimpose a ban — not without significant public pushback.

Months after the finalists were announced, a video game has won a Hugo Award for the first time. Gizmodoreports Supergiant Games' Hadeshas won the one-time award for Best Video Game, beating out the likes of Animal Crossing and The Last of Us: Part II (among others). Creative director Greg Kasavin gave a virtual acceptance speech saying he was "grateful" organizers were recognizing work in the game industry.

Hades has been available since September 2020, shortly before the Hugo Awards revealed plans for a game category in November that year. It came to PlayStation and Xbox consoles this August, however. The title has generally received a warm reception through fast-paced roguelike gameplay, a solid narrative element and mechanics that reward repeat playthroughs.

Whether or not other games receive awards is another matter. There aren't yet any plans for a permanent games category. However, the Hugo Awards have expanded over the years to consider digital content like podcasts and streaming video. It won't be surprising if games eventually have a long-term berth, if just because fantasy and sci-fi game storylines are increasingly sophisticated.

You'd think moons would be quiet compared to their host planets, but that's not entirely true — if you know how to listen. The principal investigator for NASA's Juno mission, Scott Bolton, has produced an audio recording of magnetic field activity around Jupiter's moon Ganymede as the Juno spacecraft flew past on June 7th, 2021. The 50-second clip reveals a sharp change in activity as the probe entered a different part of Ganymede's magnetosphere, possibly as it left the night side to enter the daylight.

The audio came from shifting electric and magnetic frequencies into the audible range. Jupiter's magnetosphere dominates that of its moons and is present in the recording, but Ganymede is the only moon in the Solar System to have a magnetic field (likely due to its liquid iron core). This isn't a feat you could replicate elsewhere in the near future.

The soundtrack was part of a larger Juno briefing where the mission team revealed the most detailed map yet of Jupiter's magnetic field. The data showed how long it would take the Great Red Spot and the equatorial Great Blue Spot to move around the planet (roughly 4.5 years and 350 years respectively). The findings also showed that east-west jetstreams are ripping the Great Blue Spot apart, and that polar cyclones behave much like ocean vortices on Earth.

You wouldn't hear these sounds if you could visit Ganymede yourself. However, they're a reminder that even seemingly dead worlds are frequently brimming with activity you can detect using the right instruments. It's just a question of how easy it is to notice that activity.

Tesla owners are already grappling with overcrowded Supercharger stations at times, and the company is taking extra steps to minimize those long lines during the Christmas travel period. According to Electrek, Tesla has made Supercharging free at some stations during off-peak hours (7PM to 10AM local time) between December 23rd and December 26th. The stations tend to be near major routes and urban centers, and are limited to 11 states including California, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

The EV maker has tried discounting off-peak Supercharger rates before, but there have still been significant waits at some stations. Free charging during these hours is relatively new, though, and might entice owners willing to leave early (or late) to save recharging costs.

The promo underscores a growing problem for Tesla: its Supercharger network is straining to handle an ever-larger customer base. Tesla has acknowledged the issue and vowed to triple the size of the network within two years, but even that might have its limitations when the company is piloting support for non-Tesla EVs. Don't be surprised if free off-peak charging returns on occasion to help Tesla manage growth.