Twitter discussed creating an OnlyFans clone to monetize the adult content that's been prevalent on the platform for many years, but its inability to effectively detect and remove harmful sexual content put the brakes on that notion, according to a Verge investigation. A team Twitter put together to find out whether the company could pull off such a move determined this spring that "Twitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale.” The team's findings were “part of a discussion, which ultimately led to us pause the workstream for the right reasons,” Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough said.

Twitter is said to have halted the Adult Content Monetization (ACM) project in May, not long after it agreed a $44 billion sale to Elon Musk — that deal is now up in the air. The company's leadership team determined that it couldn't move forward with ACM without enacting more health and safety measures.

The investigation (which you can read in full here) details warnings that Twitter researchers made in February 2021 about the company not doing enough to detect and remove harmful sexual content, such as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The researchers are said to have informed the company that the enforcement system Twitter primarily uses, RedPanda, is “a legacy, unsupported tool” that is "by far one of the most fragile, inefficient and under-supported tools" it employs.

While the company has machine learning systems, those seemingly struggle to detect new instances of CSAM in tweets and livestreams. Twitter manually reports CSAM to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). However, the researchers noted that the labor-intensive process led to a backlog of cases and a delay in reporting CSAM to NCMEC. Rosborough told The Verge that since the researchers released their report last year, Twitter has significantly increased its investment in detecting CSAM and is hiring several specialists to tackle the issue.

“Twitter has zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation,” Rosborough said. “We aggressively fight online child sexual abuse and have invested significantly in technology and tools to enforce our policy. Our dedicated teams work to stay ahead of bad-faith actors and to help ensure we’re protecting minors from harm — both on and offline.”

Advertisers may have bristled at the notion of Adult Content Monetization (even though porn is widespread on the platform), but the potential financial upside for Twitter was clear. OnlyFans expects to bring in $2.5 billion in revenue this year, which is about half of what Twitter generated in 2021. Twitter offers creators several ways to directlymonetize the large audiences many of them have built on the platform. Adding OnlyFans-style functions might have been a goldmine for adult content creators and the company. Broader issues have prevented the company from taking that step, despite the improvements it claims to have made over the last 18 months.

Engadget has contacted Twitter for comment.

Well-renowned peripheral maker 8BitDo has revealed three new versions of its Ultimate Controller, including two wireless options. There are Bluetooth, 2.4GHz and wired variants, all of which are available to pre-order now. The controllers will ship on October 28th.

Both the Bluetooth and 2.4GHz models have rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and come with a charging dock. All three have a switch that allows you to swap between three profiles on the fly. You can remap the controller and adjust other settings using 8BitDo's Ultimate Software on Windows, Android and iOS (but only on PC for the wired controller). The Xbox-style controller also has two back paddle buttons.

8BitDo

The Bluetooth version works with Nintendo Switch and Windows, though you may need to connect the included 2.4GHz adapter (which nestles inside the charging dock) to your PC. It costs $70 and it's available in black and white. The 2.4GHz model is compatible with Windows, Android and Raspberry Pi, 8BitDo says. That one comes in white, black and pastel pink. It's all yours for $50.

As for the wired USB variant, that's compatible with Switch, Windows, Android and Raspberry Pi. Other features include trigger vibration and enhanced grip. You can choose between black and white colorways for the wired version, which will run you $35.

8BitDo

Sony has unveiled its latest Dolby Atmos soundbar, the 3.1-channel HT-A3000. It's a more affordable alternative to the higher-end 5.1.2-channel A5000 and the flagship 7.1.2-channel A7000, albeit with a lot of the same tech included in those models. While this model doesn't have any upfiring speakers, it does virtualize the height channels using Virtual Surround Engine and S-Force Pro Front Surround tech. The device has a dedicated center speaker for dialogue and a dual subwoofer for bass tones. It also has 250W of output.

The A3000 doesn't come with rear speakers. However, it does support the 360 Spatial Sound Mapping tech found in the previous two models. You'll need to connect the soundbar to Sony's wireless rear speakers, like the SA-RS5 or SA-RS35, to use that option.

Sony

The Sound Field Optimization feature uses the built-in microphones to detect the relative height and position of the rear speakers and soundbar. Sony says 360 Spatial Sound Mapping will then be able to set up several "phantom speakers." It does this by synthesizing sound waves based on positional information from the soundbar and rear speakers.

In addition, there's an Acoustic Center Sync feature you can use with some compatible Bravia TVs. With this switched on, both the soundbar and the TV's speakers act as the center channel. The idea is to increase the sense of immersion — Sony says you'll hear dialogue from where a character is positioned in the scene. On top of that, there's support for 360 Reality Audio and DTS:X.

You can use Chromecast (which is built in), Spotify Connect and AirPlay 2 to play music from several streaming services. In addition, users can play audio wirelessly from other devices via WiFi or Bluetooth 5.0. The A3000 is compatible with Google Assistant and Alexa. It's possible to connect the soundbar to a speaker group through Google Home for whole-home audio playback. As for connecting the soundbar to your home theater setup, there are HDMI eARC, USB and optical in ports, as well as HDMI eARC and S-Center outputs.

Sony

The A3000 doesn't have as much power or as many channels as the A5000 or the A7000, but it won't leave you as light in the pocket. It costs $700, compared with $1,000 for the A5000 and $1,400 for the A7000. You can pre-order the latest model now from Amazon and other retailers.

Meanwhile, the SA-RS5 wireless rear speakers offer 180W of wider surround sound, Sony says. They have built-in batteries and upfiring speakers. Those are available now for $600. The company is also selling the SA-RS3S wireless rear speakers, which have 100W of output and cost $350.

Uber has announced some upgrades for its Safety Toolkit. Among the new features is a way to get live help from an ADT safety agent via phone call or text in the US. The agent can monitor a trip, stay in contact with the user throughout the duration and, if necessary, contact 911 on their behalf. The agent can provide authorities with the make and model of the vehicle, the license plate number and its GPS location.

On a similar note, Uber is expanding its text-to-911 feature across more of the US. The app can automatically populate a text with details about the vehicle and the ride, including the destination and current location.

Uber debuted the feature in Los Angeles, Minnesota and Indiana in 2019. It will now be available in almost 60 percent of the country, including New York City and all of California, as 911 call centers in those areas can receive text messages. Uber plans to expand the option to more regions where the technology is supported.

In addition, Uber has revamped the Safety Toolkit menu. There are large icons that show all the available urgent help options, such as an emergency button. "Our goal is to streamline access to and visibility of our most critical safety features because in an emergency, every second counts," the company said. Uber introduced the Safety Toolkit in 2018. Other safety features include the option to verify a ride with a PIN code and share the status of a trip with friends and family.

Giving riders and drivers more options for assistance is a welcome move, particularly given that Uber doesn't exactly have a spotless safety record. The company's most recent safety report, which was published in June and covers 2019 and 2020, notes that 99.9 percent of trips ended without a reported safety incident. However, there were 20 fatalities reported "in a total of 19 physical assault incidents in relation to Uber." 

There were also 3,824 reports of sexual assault, compared with nearly 6,000 in 2017 and 2018. The company says riders were the accused party 43 percent of the time in sexual assault reports in 2019 and 2020. In July, more than 500 women sued Uber, alleging that they were attacked by drivers.

Meta has followed through on its threat promise to bring NFT (non-fungible token) support to Facebook. Users can now post digital collectibles that they have in their digital wallets across Facebook and Instagram. After they connect digital wallets to one app, they'll be able to access NFTs from both of them.

The company is making the move a few weeks after it expanded access to Instagram's NFT functions in dozens more countries. It started testing NFTs on Facebook earlier this summer. Meta is moving deeper into NFT territory even though the market for the digital tokens has nosedived in recent months. There are indications that Meta is working on a marketplace where people can buy and sell NFTs, but whether people will actually use it remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, here's Snoop Dogg and Eminem's MTV Video Music Awards performance, which featured animated versions of their NFTs. In terms of bleak visions of the near future, The Last of Us has nothing on this.

The Federal Trade Commission has sued a data broker called Kochava, alleging the company sold geolocation information that could be used to reveal visits to sensitive locations. The agency says the data could show movements to and from reproductive health clinics, places of worship and addiction recovery centers, as well as homeless and domestic violence shelters.

"By selling data tracking people, Kochava is enabling others to identify individuals and exposing them to threats of stigma, stalking, discrimination, job loss and even physical violence," the agency said. It wants Kochava to stop selling such data and to delete sensitive geolocation information it has collected. Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the move is an attempt to protect people's privacy.

The FTC says the data includes timestamped latitude and longitude locations that are matched with unique mobile device identification numbers. It alleged that Kochava's custom data feeds allow its customers "to identify and track specific mobile device users." The agency claims that someone who buys the data could compare the location of a phone (especially if it's in the same place overnight) against property records to identify someone and follow their movements. In fact, using a data sample, the FTC says it was able to track a device from a reproductive health clinic to a single-family residence, as well as other locations.

In June, the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, which had conferred a nationwide right to safe abortion access since the early '70s. After that decision, Google started deleting abortion clinic visits from users' location history. The FTC is going a step further by trying to halt the sale of device-level geolocation data that could be used to identify someone who visits or even works at a reproductive health clinic.

Amid Elon Musk's legal battle with Twitter, his attorneys have now subpoenaed the company's former security chief, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, to appear for a deposition on September 9th. Zatko last week submitted a lengthy whistleblower complaint against Twitter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. He accused the company of (among other things) having "egregious" security issues. Zatko suggested the problems may pose a national security risk.

In the subpoena, which was filed on Monday and obtained by The Verge, Musk's attorneys request materials related to how Zatko’s tenure at Twitter ended and what stock, if any, he owns in the company. There are also demands for documents that might indicate any illegal activity by Twitter or foreign intelligence agents it employs. Perhaps most pertinently to Musk's attempt to back out of his agreement to buy Twitter, the subpoena asks for information connected to the monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) metric Twitter uses, as well as documents Zatko has on Twitter's alleged spam problem.

Zatko claimed in the complaint that Twitter lied to Musk about the prevalence of bots and spam accounts, as The Washington Post notes. Musk has accused Twitter of fraudulently masking the true number of bots. In his bid to abandon the acquisition, Musk said Twitter made “false and misleading representations” about how many phony accounts are on the platform.

In July, Twitter sued Musk over his attempt to wash his hands of the deal. Musk filed a countersuit later that month. His team has also subpoenaed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The case will go to trial in October. 

Meanwhile, Senate and Congressional committee leaders are investigating Zatko's claims. The whistleblower is set to appear at a Judiciary Committee hearing five days after he's scheduled to be deposed in Musk's case against Twitter. Zatko's assertions have been disputed by Twitter and its CEO Parag Agrawal.

T-Mobile is offering those on the Magenta Max plan another perk. Starting on August 31st, Apple TV+ will be included with the plan. The carrier previously offered users on certain plans a year of access. However, this is an ongoing promotion. T-Mobile says customers will be able to stream Apple TV+ at no extra cost as long as they remain a Magenta Max subscriber.

For several years, T-Mobile has bundled Netflix access with certain plans. Magenta Max members also get a year of Paramount+, along with YouTube TV and Philo discounts. Meanwhile, Magenta subscribers will get six months of Apple TV+.

Ongoing Apple TV+ access is a decent bonus, considering that there's quite a bit worth checking out on the platform these days. Among other original shows and movies, you'll be able to stream this year's Oscar Best Picture winner Coda, awards magnet Ted Lasso and the engrossing Severance. Apple has also added sports to the service, starting with MLB Friday Night Baseball games. Major League Soccer matches will be available on the platform next year.

Ford is set to open up Mustang Mach-E orders for the 2023 model year after the 2022 trims sold out. You'll have the chance to order one of the EVs starting on August 30th. In addition, Ford has announced some pricing, range and other changes.

Premium Mach-Es built starting this fall that have the extended range battery will have a targeted EPA-estimated range of 290 miles on all-wheel drive models. That's a range increase of 13 miles. Meanwhile, the Ford Co-Pilot360 driver assist tech is now standard across all trims.

If you opt for a Premium model with extended range battery or the GT Performance edition, you'll be able to select the Mustang Nite Pony package. This includes high-gloss black 19-inch wheels and a black pony badge, black front and rear lower fascia, door cladding and black mirror caps on the grille for Premium trims. The package brings 20-inch high-gloss black wheels and a black GT badge to the GT Performance edition. You'll still be able to select any exterior color option with this package.

There will be two new colors to choose from: carbonized gray metallic and vapor blue metallic. They replace dark matter gray and iced blue silver. The California Route 1 trim will only be available as an AWD option moving forward, as Ford is sunsetting the rear-wheel drive option based on customer demand. Meanwhile, Ford will replace the black roof on GT and GT Performance editions with a panoramic sunroof.

As is the way of things in the auto world (and many other industries right now), prices of the Mach-E are going up for new orders, effective Tuesday. Ford says this is due to "significant material cost increases, continued strain on key supply chains and rapidly evolving market conditions." As Elektrek points out, the price increases are between $2,600 and roughly $8,000 compared with the 2022 trims. As such, the Mustang Mach-E will start at $46,895 MSRP (not including the delivery fee or taxes) for the Select rear-wheel drive standard model.

The Last of Us Part I, a complete remake of PS3 classic The Last Of Us, will hit PS5 on September 2nd (and PC at some point in the future). Not only will the game include all of the extensive accessibility options from 2020’s The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog has revealed some extra ones that it's including.

One that takes advantage of the DualSense controller seems particularly novel. “[A feature that] started as a prototype but ended up being really successful during playtesting is a feature that plays dialogue through the PS5 DualSense controller as haptic feedback," game director Matthew Gallant told the PlayStation Blog. "That way a deaf player can feel the way a line is delivered, can feel the emphasis, along with the subtitles to give some sense of how that line is delivered."

Another big accessibility update is audio descriptions for cutscenes. Gallant said Naughty Dog teamed up with a company that delivers descriptions for TV, movies and game trailers. The feature will be available across all the localized languages in The Last of Us Part I. “We’re expecting this to be an accessible experience for blind players, for deaf players, for players with motor accessibility needs,” Gallant said.

The blog post details all of the settings, including presets for vision, hearing and motor accessibility. You can expect visual aids and a way to zoom into a specific section of the screen using the touchpad. You'll be able to fully remap the controls — there's even the option to link a command to shaking the DualSense. There are also in-depth settings for motion sickness, navigation, traversal, combat, the heads-up display and, of course, difficulty.

It's heartening to see Naughty Dog place so much emphasis on making its games as accessible as possible. Not every developer has the resources of that studio, but here's hoping more game creators take inspiration from Naughty Dog's work in this area. In the meantime, if you want to find out much more about The Last Of Us Part I, you can read Engadget's review on August 31st.