Reddit's transparency reports go beyond what most social media companies offer, providing copious data on content moderation and global legal requests. Now, the company has introduced a transparency center serving as a hub for safety, security and policy information. It also announced plans to release transparency reports biannually rather than just once per year and said that in 2022, it removed significantly more offensive content, including child abuse and revenge porn, than in 2021.

Last year, Reddit saw a big jump in moderation and legal requests, according to its 2022 transparency report. Government and law enforcement removal account information requests were up by 51 percent and 61 percent respectively, while copyright notices jumped 43 percent. 

The story was similar on the moderation front. Last summer, the BBC reported that Reddit was still leaving up "thousands" of non-consensual intimate (NCII) images (aka revenge porn), despite making changes to its policy earlier in this year. 

As a result, Reddit joined StopNCII.org, a database that aims to reduce the spread of revenge porn, operated by the nonprofit charity SWGfL's Revenge Porn Hotline. "We have already seen promising results from this tool and believe it will help us remove this content more quickly," a spokesperson told Ars Technica. To wit, it removed 244 percent more user accounts violating revenge porn policies than it did in 2021, and banned 473 percent more subreddits. The total number of NCII posts removed was 187,258 compared to around 88,000 the year before. 

The site also removed 874 percent more child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) than it did in 2021. It achieved that by hiring more moderation staff and investing in proactive detection tools. By comparison, Twitter has reportedly been cutting its global moderation workforce and disbanded its Trust and Safety Council.

The aim with the transparency center, Reddit said, was to make it easier for user and "other interested parties like policymakers and the media" to find information about content moderation, legal requests and general platform safety. As such, there are sections for Reddit's terms & policies, guidelines for law enforcement, platform security updates, its bug bounty program and past transparency reports.

The company also said it would publish full transparency reports twice a year, rather than annually as it does now. Last year, it did publish its first mid-year transparency report, but it only focused on global legal requests. Going forward, however, the mid-year reports will cover both legal requests and content moderation data, exactly like the current year-end wrap-ups.

Netflix might have started (or is at least looking to start) testing games for TV, based on code within its app that developer Steve Moser has shared with Bloomberg. Moser reportedly found hidden code referencing games played on television, as well as additional code that indicates the possibility of being able to use phones as controllers to play them. One line from within the app apparently reads: "A game on your TV needs a controller to play. Do you want to use this phone as a game controller?" Moser also previously found hints that the service's then-upcoming ad-supported plan might not come with offline viewing. He turned out to be spot on. 

The streaming giant launched its gaming experience on Android, iPhones and iPads in 2021. It requires mobile users to download games from the App Store or from Google Play due to rules set by Apple and Google. But since the point of these games is to increase engagement and retain users, they can be launched from within the Netflix app and an active subscription is necessary to be able to access them. On the Netflix app for TV, these games are notably absent. 

It remains to be seen how the company intends to implement gaming on TVs and whether it will also require users to download the games before being able to play them. Netflix VP of game development Mike Verdu said last year, though, that the company was "seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering" and that it's looking to launch more than just casual games for television. 

For now, users will have to make do with what's available on mobile. At the moment, Netflix's catalogue has around 55 titles available, though it's rolling out 40 more games throughout 2023. 

Over the past few days, users have reported seeing ads within the Bing chatbot experience. Based on the limited examples we've seen, the GPT-4-powered chatbot embeds relevant ad links in responses to users' actual questions. Ads don't seem to show up for most people (including us) yet, but they'll most likely pop up more frequently and in more places soon. In a new post on the Bing blog, Microsoft Corporate VP for Search and Devices Yusuf Mehdi has admitted that the company is currently exploring putting ads in Bing's chat experience, indicating that the samples we've seen so far are part of its experimentation. He also revealed how the company intends to embed more ads in the new Bing experience. 

So far, the ads that show up for users come in the form of a linked citation, along with additional links in a "Learn More" section below Bing's response to their query. In the future, Microsoft could launch an experience wherein hovering over a link from an advertiser will display more links from its website in hopes of driving more traffic to it. The company is also exploring the idea of adding rich captions from its Start personalized news feed publishers right beside the AI chatbot's responses.

The fact that Microsoft is monetizing its Bing chatbot is an expected development. From the start, the question was never "Will the company do it?" but "How will the company do it?" And now we have an idea of the tech giant's initial plans. As Mehdi said in his post, Bing has amassed more than 100 million daily active users after the chatbot came out. Since one third of those users are new to Bing, they present a new opportunity for advertisers, and Microsoft clearly intends to strike while the iron is hot.

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.

Let's be honest: you were probably curious about Sackboy: A Big Adventure when it launched alongside the PlayStation 5, but not so much that you were willing to buy that instead of Demon's Souls or Miles Morales. Thankfully, you no longer have to pay extra to indulge that curiosity. Sony has made the LittleBigPlanet spinoff (also available on PS4) free to all PlayStation Plus members between April 4th and May 1st.

Sackboy is decidedly different than the core franchise. Where Little Big Planet is a 3D-enhanced side-scroller that revolves more around environment interaction and creativity, this game is a 3D platformer that revolves around its namesake hero's acrobatics. They all share a relatively uncommon co-op mechanic, though. Up to four players can tackle stages together, and some segments require teamwork to move forward. This may be an ideal game to play with your kids.

You have options if Sackboy doesn't strike your fancy. The newly launched build-and-raid game Meet Your Maker is also available for free on PS Plus this April, as is the hand-drawn RPG Tails of Iron. Both freebies are available for PS4 and PS5.

These new offerings won't make you regret a PS Plus Extra or Premium subscription. If you pay for those tiers, you recently received high-profile games like Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection and Tchia. Still, it's nice to know that you can add one more marquee title to your library with very little effort.

Renewables are already producing more energy than fossil fuels in Europe, and now the US is approaching that milestone. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has determined that renewable power generation overtook coal in 2022, with 4,090 million megawatt-hours coming from solar, wind, hydroelectric, biomass and geothermal technology. These green sources leapt past nuclear in 2021, but widened the gap last year. They have about 21 percent share combined.

The shift came through the combination of increasing renewable capacity and coal's years-long decline. Wind was the dominant source of clean electricity, with the capacity jumping from 133 gigawatts in 2021 to 141 gigawatts a year later. Hydro was second, followed by utility-level solar, biomass and geothermal. Coal dropped to 20 percent share due to both the closure of some plants and the reduced use of others. Nuclear has remained relatively steady, but the shutdown of Michigan's Palisades powerplant saw it dip to 19 percent.

It might not surprise you to hear which states dominated certain renewable energy sources. Sunny California was the leader in solar power generation with 26 percent of the output, while Texas had a similar slice of wind generation. Texas also has the largest shares of coal and natural gas, although its lead in those areas is only slight.

Renewables weren't the top power source in 2022 — that distinction went to natural gas, which claimed a 39 percent share. However, it's evident that clean tech has a firm foothold in the US despite attempts to undermine it through regulation. We'd expect the trends to continue, too. President Biden's administration has heavily promoted renewable electricity, including the approval of the first large offshore wind farm in the country, while the EIA expects coal use to shrink to 17 percent. Natural gas may retain a comfortable lead, but it now has a new chief rival.

Luxury sports cars aren’t exactly known for being eco-conscious, but Lamborghini just announced the company’s first plug-in hybrid supercar. The Lamborghini Revuelto, which translates to “scrambled,” should satisfy anyone’s need for speed, so long as they don’t look too hard at the battery life.

In other words, engaging this vehicle in all-electric mode won’t get you very far, just 6.2 miles from a full charge. That is likely not enough juice to get you to the grocer and back, but this is a hybrid vehicle not exactly intended for all-electric usage. With that said, the combustion engine charges the rather minuscule 3.8kWh battery on its own in just six minutes via regenerative braking on the front wheels, the company announced in a press release.

Battery life isn’t the main reason people buy luxury sports cars (it probably doesn't crack the top ten) so the engine here is designed for power, acceleration and max speeds. The relatively light engine (480 pounds) pumps out 814 horsepower at a blistering 9,250 rpm. This is a Lamborghini through and through, with a multitude of air intake ducts located throughout to increase airflow for the engine, resulting in a power level of 126 hp per liter. The company says this is the “highest output in the history of Lamborghini’s 12-cylinder engines.”

The design is heavily influenced by aerospace engineering, with sculpted surfaces, pointed lines and hexagonal exhausts. Lamborghini also took design cues from its own past, like the vertically opening scissor doors from 1970s Countach models and the floating blade on the rear fender often associated with the Diablo line.

Lamborghini

Of course, the interior is outfitted with all kinds of tech-forward components, like a 12.3-inch digital cockpit with a large center display, an equally large 9-inch passenger-side display and plenty of affiliated infotainment options. This is also the first Lamborghini ever with an advanced driver-assist system. Finally, there is an associated smartphone and smartwatch app that monitors aspects of the car’s status, such as fuel level, battery, range and GPS location. This app even performs basic tasks remotely, like activating the horn, lights and locks.

This is the first step in Lamborghini and parent company Volkswagen's plans to release an all-electric luxury vehicle by 2030. However, the brand hopes to continue making combustion engines into the 2030s that run on synthetic fuel. The Lamborghini Revuelto ships later this year at the eye-watering price of $542,165, as reported by Automotive News Europe (requires a free sign-up to read.)

Apple has set the dates for WWDC 2023. The company's developer conference will run between June 5th and June 9th. It's still in an online format despite the pandemic fading into the background, but there will be a "special experience" at Apple Park on the 5th for developers and students. The company isn't saying much about what to expect (even the graphic is too vague), but this may be one of Apple's most important events in recent years.

Developing...

Apple's latest Mac mini remains a hot item, but you can still find some savings. Amazon is once more selling the M2 Pro Mac mini at a best-ever price of $1,249, or $50 off. That's a modest discount, but the tiny-but-powerful desktop has rarely been discounted in any form at Amazon. You can roll the savings into a mouse, keyboard or other must-have peripherals.

The M2 Pro edition of the Mac mini is a great machine that fills a typically vacant spot in Apple's lineup — it's a powerful but relatively affordable "headless" desktop. The system is quick enough to handle serious media editing and multitasking duties, but still gives you the freedom to choose your own monitor. Throw in the abundance of ports and virtually silent operation (even under stress) and this may be the your ideal machine if you want some flexibility in your setup.

This high-end Mac mini is still expensive, and you won't find front-facing ports or an SD card reader like you get on the Mac Studio. And for many, this may be overkill — the standard M2 is often enough for everyday use while costing hundreds of dollars less. If you crave performance or extra ports, though, the M2 Pro version is a fine computer that won't use much space on your desk.

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I love all things The Last of Us, so it pains me to report that the PC port of The Last of Us Part I, which launched yesterday, is a buggy mess. Thousands of reviews on Steam are categorized as "mostly negative" and are filled with mentions of frequent crashes and poor hardware utilization. Meanwhile, Steam Deck users are reporting that it takes more than an hour for the game to compile shaders on its initial launch — and even once that's done, performance is an issue.

I don't have a powerful gaming PC, but I do have a Steam Deck and can confirm these issues. Once I got the game installed and waited around 90 minutes for the shaders to compile, I started playing the standalone DLC Left Behind, and the game crashed during the opening cinematics. Once I started playing the game, I saw it was using 102 percent of the Steam Deck's VRAM. Dropping all graphics settings to low got me under 100 percent, so crashes will probably be less frequent going forward. I only played for a few minutes, so I can't say how things work once you're taking on Infected, but I won't get my hopes up. 

It's also worth nothing that Sony didn't provide reviews with a demo code for the game until launch day, something that often means the game is either being worked on right up until the last minute or the experience isn't very good (or both). This made a bit nervous about how The Last of Us Part I would run, and it seems like my fears were well-founded.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Developer Naughty Dog didn't waste any time addressing the problems, tweeting out last night that they're "actively investigating multiple issues" that players have reported. The company also has a "known issues" page running, which acknowledges the shader loading issue as well as a potential memory leak, older graphics drivers leading to instability, and the game being unable to boot despite systems that meet the minimum requirements.

A number of high-profile PlayStation games from Sony's first-party studios have been ported to PC, including 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn and 2018's God of War, as well as Naughty Dog's own Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection (which includes remastered versions Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy). Both Horizon and the Uncharted collection had pretty serious issues at launch, as well. Since then, updates have made the games work much better, but it's still a disappointing trend. 

Even after delaying the game about a month from its original March 3rd date, things were clearly not ready to go. Sony likely wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the HBO series, which wrapped its first season earlier this month, but a delayed launch is probably better than a launch that no one can play. As of now, Naughty Dog hasn't released an update for The Last of Us Part I, but we'll be keeping an eye out for any fixes. I've been dreaming of having this game on-the-go since it was announced, so my fingers are crossed Naughty Dog can make it work on the Steam Deck — not to mention for the many people who want to play it on their powerful gaming PCs.