It’s been a longer wait than we’d hoped, but the first major software update for the Analogue Pocket is finally here. It’s still a beta version so not everything is fully fleshed out, but you’ll at least be able to get a taste of the company’s vision for its fledgling OS. The beta does include a taste of the “reference” Library, much-improved game saves and, most excitingly, a glimpse at how third-party developers can use the Pocket to emulate consoles beyond the ones it already does.

Analogue OS 1.1

“Memories,” as Analogue calls save-states, still aren’t complete, but you can at least save a respectable 128 different game states which is a vast improvement on the minimal offering at launch (one slot for just one game total). You can create saves for any game, be that physical cartridge, or any “.pocket” GB Studio files you have (like Deadeus). The method for making a save is the same as before (Up+Analogue button) and you can recall a list of saves during play with Down+Analogue button. If you prefer to start from the last save point immediately, you can activate that in options also (rather than choosing from a list).

What you can’t do is keep updating the last save as you go along (think “save slots” in most emulators). Every new save will be a separate file and you’ll manage them individually. They show up in a long list which details the platform for the game you were playing (Game Boy, Game Gear etc.) the game’s title and date/time of the save.

Right now you can pull up Memories from the main menu (before loading a game), but choosing a save that corresponds to the cartridge in the slot doesn’t take you directly there (it’s grayed out), you have to load the game first. Analogue says that saves/Memories will soon have a screenshot attached and will be sortable in a variety of ways to make the experience much smoother in the full release this September.

James Trew / Engadget

What wasn’t in the OS at launch at all was the “Library” feature. All we knew was that it had the lofty goal of being a complete reference of all gaming history. From within that you’d see artwork for titles along with what company made the game, for what platform, what year and even what region or version you had inserted in the cartridge slot. In today’s beta, the Library is more of a splash screen before the game loads. Analogue says you’ll even be able to add your own image to a game in the Library, but again, expect that in the final release.

All the cartridges I tested had the correct details with a screenshot, but the information is limited (no mention of what year or version of the game I have etc.). Of course we’re excited to see how this scales up once it’s fully integrated, but for now it’s a pleasant stop along the way to playing a game. It’s worth noting that, as is, it only applies to cartridges and not titles launched from the GB Studio section (such as the aforementioned Deadeus which is a full game that Analogue made available for the Pocket at launch).

On a more practical note, Analogue has added support for more third-party controllers for when playing through the TV via the dock. To be fair, even though the officially supported list at launch was short (three 8Bitdo models plus the PS4 and Switch controllers), many more did still work. As of this release the number of 8Bitdo controllers supported jumps to 15 and PS5 owners can now use their DualSense, too, if they wish.

OpenFPGA

One of the more interesting features of the Pocket at launch was the presence of a spare FPGA chip. Analogue’s hardware doesn’t use software emulation, instead it uses a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to emulate consoles at the hardware level with cores — instructions for the FPGA that configure it to mimic a specific system. Analogue pledged that others would be able to develop cores for the Pocket, and today we see the first example of that.

James Trew / Engadget

A core for the PDP-1 has been created for the Pocket allowing you to play one of the very first videogames — Spacewar! — from 1962. As you can imagine, the game is very simple and doesn’t really tax the Pocket, but it’s a fitting first example for a console that wants to celebrate the history of gaming. And this should really just be the start of something more exciting as other developers – which can be anyone – get onboard.

What’s more of a surprise is that the entirety of the Pocket’s hardware appears to be open to developers. Initially, it was thought that the Pocket’s main FPGA would be kept for Analogue and the less powerful second FPGA was there to be tinkered with. But the company's founder, Christopher Taber, confirmed to Engadget that "developers will be capable of implementing totally decentralized cores as far as they can push Pocket's hardware ... roughly up to the 32-bit generation.”

Best of all, we might not even have to wait very long to see what comes along. “Many third-party developers have had their hands on openFPGA for some time now and you can expect a plethora of new amazing things being publicly released by them shortly on/after July 29th”, Taber told Engadget, before concluding: “We are not f***ing around with this.”

Snap has set up a new grant program to pay indie musicians behind popular songs on Snapchat. It created the Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund to "recognize emerging, independent artists for the critical role they play in driving video creations, inspiring internet trends and defining cultural moments," according to a blog post.

Starting in August, the fund will give artists who distribute music on Snapchat Sounds via DistroKid up to $100,000 in total each month. For now, the program is limited to 20 songs each month. The artists behind each of the songs Snapchat selects will receive $5,000. "We want to support the independent and emerging artists that are driving creation on Snapchat," said Snap's global head of music partnerships Ted Suh said. 

Artists need to be at least 18 years old to be eligible (or 16 if they have written consent from a parent or guardian). Snap says artists can't apply for a grant and it will decide recipients at its own discretion.

Snapchat started letting users attach music to snaps through the Sounds feature in October 2020. Creators have made more than 2.7 billion videos with music from Sounds and have accrued more than 183 billion views in total. The Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund seems like a reasonable way to reward musicians whose work has become a viral hit on the platform or helped creators to express themselves.

YouTube has introduced a new tool that makes it easier for creators to turn regular videos into Shorts, it announced in a community update. If you have any of your own videos loaded up, you'll see a new tool under "Create" called "Edit into a Short" right inside the main app. It lets you select up to 60 seconds of the video and bring it directly into the Shorts editor, where you can add text filters, or additional video, then upload it as a Short. 

After you upload the Short, it links to the full video it was taken from via "Created from" link at the bottom of the video. That lets creators use Shorts as promo tools for the main video, helping drive views and engagement. However, the tool only works on your own content, unlike Cut, which lets you remix content from any video. 

YouTube

I tried the tool out by creating a 10-second Short out of a longer video I created back in 2010 and it was as easy to use as advertised, letting me grab the best part of the video, embed text and add a filter. 

The immense success of TikTok has forced all social media networks to respond in some way. However, Instagram recently backpedaled on its TikTok like full-screen feed and recommended posts features following a significant backlash from users. YouTube is arguably less threatened by TikTok as it offers longer-form content that draws a different audience. The new tool shows that it can have its (Short?)cake and eat it too, though, by letting creators offer Shorts as a form of publicity for their primary content. 

After Meta's revenue shrank for the first time in its history, the company has reportedly told publishers it will no longer pay for content to run in Facebook's News Tab, according to Axios. "Most people do not come to Facebook for news, and as a business it doesn't make sense to over-invest in areas that don't align with user preferences," a spokesperson said in a statement.

Facebook spent around $105 million on such deals, paying $20 million to The New York Times, $10 million to The Wall Street Journal and $3 million to CNN, according to Axios. Facebook struck the deals back in 2019 as it boosted its investment in news and even hired journalists to direct traffic to the news tab. 

Facebook also promised to pay partner sites including The Guardian and The Economist for news in the UK when it launched the News Tab there late in 2020. Shortly after that, it signed a deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to pay for content in Australia, after the Australian Parliament passed a law requiring Facebook and Google to do so. 

Along with Google, Facebook has taken criticism for drawing ad dollars away from dedicated news sites. That has contributed to the failure of a quarter of US news sites over the last 15 years, according to Poynter, with the professional journalism vacuum often been filled by false or misleading news on Facebook. 

Twitter's $3 subscription now costs $5 a month. The social network has sent out an email notifying existing subscribers that Twitter Blue has raised its prices for new members, but as early adopters, the monthly amount they're paying will remain the same until October. In the email posted by social media consultant Matt Navarra and first spotted by The Verge, the company said early adopters will also be notified at least 30 days before the new monthly price takes effect for their accounts. 

The company didn't elaborate on the reason behind the price increase and only said in the email that it will help Twitter build new features subscribers have been asking for, improve upon the ones it already has and sustain its mission of supporting journalism. It also said that it's currently creating a "more frictionless reading experience" and launching new experimental features in Twitter Blue Labs for those who choose to stick around even with the higher subscription price.

Twitter launched its subscription service in the US back in November, unlocking additional features for the website's most dedicated users. Some of its features can be very useful, including the ability to Undo tweets, which is the closest thing to an "edit" button at the moment. It also allows members to browse news without ads and gives them access to the latest features the website is testing.

In its second quarter earnings report for 2022, Twitter said it has seen a sharp rise in the number of regular users on the website. The bad news was that it didn't translate to more money for the company. It posted a net loss of $270 million, which it blamed on the economic downturn and the uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk's takeover. If you'll recall, Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion back in April and the social network quickly accepted, but they've been at odds since then. In July, Twitter sued Elon Musk for attempting to back out of the acquisition, and now the two parties are going to face off in an expedited, five-day trial beginning in October.

Outer Wilds is getting a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade on September 15th, and it'll be free for anyone who already owns the game on PS4 or Xbox One. Outer Wilds is a brilliant open-world mystery about exploring strange planets and unlocking the secrets of an endless time loop that's consumed the solar system, and it first landed in 2019. It's the first console and PC game out of indie studio Mobius Digital, and it's picked up a handful of prestigious accolades since launch, including Best Game at the 2020 BAFTA Games Awards.

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, a big and beautiful bit of DLC for the game, landed in September 2021. The native PS5 and Xbox Series upgrade will hit 60fps. It's unclear whether Echoes of the Eye will be included.

The Switch version of Outer Wilds is set to come out after the new upgrade in September, and this is a delay from its original release window of this summer. Mobius Digital made all of these announcements during today's Annapurna Interactive showcase.

Later this year, Google Photos is going to get a significant update that has the distinction of first arriving on Chromebooks. According to a Google blog post, Google Photos will get a new movie editor and video editing features this fall as part of an update to Chrome OS. From the sound of things, it’ll let users make videos similar to the highlight clips the app already automatically makes. You’ll be able to select a theme as well as people or pets you want to feature in it; from there, Google Photos will pull together a movie using video clips and images from your library. It’ll be smart enough to scan longer videos and pull out specific clips to include in these new creations as well. 

While it’s no surprise that Google is including an automated tool, the company is also including the ability to start from scratch, adding video clips and photos in any order you like. The app will let you adjust things like brightness and contrast, trim clips as you see fit, add title cards and music and apply Google’s Real Tone filters that work better with non-white hairstyles and darker skin. 

Google isn’t saying yet if these video editing features will come to the mobile apps for iOS and Android, but Google Photos has usually had feature parity regardless of platform, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see these tools expand past Chromebooks before long. In fact, the video editor will be built in to an optimized version of the Android Google Photos app specifically built for larger screens. The app will also seamlessly work with the Files and Gallery Chrome OS apps, so you can open a video in the Gallery app and immediately move it right over to Google Photos for editing or including in a new creation. 

Google

There are numerous other handy updates planned for Chrome OS coming in the next few months. Another new Google Photos feature will allow Chromebooks to access your library and use those pictures for background wallpaper; like other Chrome OS wallpaper options, you can pick a specific album and set it to change daily. The aforementioned Gallery app is going to get PDF editing features, so you can fill out forms and sign them if you’re using a Chromebook with a stylus. That feature is coming next week. There’s also a new Cursive app for capturing and organizing hand-written notes; those can be copy and pasted into other apps or exported to PDFs for, depending on how you need to share them. 

Chrome OS is also getting a new dark mode, something that’s been rumored for a long time now. As you can on most other devices, you’ll be able to pick one mode or have it automatically switch based on the time of day. Some new wallpapers will also come with light and dark versions that automatically switch depending on which theme you use, too.

Google

Finally, Google is making a few productivity improvements to Chrome OS. Clicking on the date in the Chromebook shelf will pop up a monthly calendar view; you can choose a date to see your Google Calendar events without having to open the app or website. And Chrome OS will let you save virtual desk setups, so if you have a specific set of tabs and apps you use frequently, you can call them up and dismiss them as needed.

Most of these updates should be coming in August, though Google specifically noted the virtual desk update won’t be available until late September. And the Google Photos video editing tools are set to arrive in the “fall” — hopefully sooner than later.

You might not get to play the PlayStation 5 remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic anytime soon: According to Bloomberg, its development has been delayed indefinitely. Sony announced that Aspyr Media, a company known for creating ports out of existing video games, was remaking BioWare's classic Star Wars RPG last year. Aspyr had been working on the remake for three years by then and had industry veterans, as well as people who helped create the original game, onboard. Things certainly looked promising, but now the game's future seems uncertain. 

Apparently, Aspyr finished a demo of the game to show Lucasfilm and Sony on June 30th and the developers were even excited by what they've achieved. A week later, however, the company fired design director Brad Prince and art director Jason Minor. On his LinkedIn page, Minor's Aspyr credit shows his end of employment as July 2022, and his profile image currently features the "#Opentowork" frame.

Aspyr reportedly held a series of meetings in July about the situation to tell employees that the demo wasn't where they wanted it to be and that the project would be put on hold. The studio heads also told staff members that the company will be looking for new contracts and development opportunities. 

While the developer's reasons for firing Prince and Minor and for freezing the project aren't clear at this point, one of Bloomberg's sources suggested that it poured a disproportionate amount of time and money into creating the demo. If that's the case, continuing what it's been doing for the rest of the game wouldn't be sustainable. Bloomberg says another possible point of contention is the game's timeline. Aspyr has been telling partners that the game would be released by the end of 2022, but 2025 would be a more realistic target.

Some Aspyr personnel now believe that Saber Interactive, which has been doing outsourced work for the project, could now take over. We reached out to the company for a response to Bloomberg's report and will edit this post with any information it may provide. To note, company released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II for the Nintendo Switch back in June. The game went out with a bug that prevented people from finishing it, but Aspyr rolled out a patch to fix the issue in July.

It's only been a few days since Netflix started streaming The Gray Man, its most expensive film to date, but the company has already announced plans to turn it into a major franchise. A sequel is in the works with star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo returning. Netflix didn't say when the follow-up is expected to arrive.

A spin-off from Zombieland and Deadpool screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese is in development too. Netflix says that movie will explore a different aspect of The Gray Man universe, but it's keeping quiet on the details for now.

While critics by and large had a lukewarm reaction to The Gray Man, the film appears to be a hit with viewers. It has a 91 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It debuted as the number one movie on Netflix in 92 countries when it was released last Friday. Netflix hasn't revealed more specific viewership data as yet.

Whether that apparent success translates into helping Netflix retain subscribers and attract new ones remains to be seen. The company lost almost a million subscribers last quarter, though the attrition wasn't as bad as Netflix feared.

Netflix spent a reported $200 million to make The Gray Man. So, along with moves the company is making elsewhere, it's not a huge shock that Netflix is turning it into a franchise. Sequels to other Netflix blockbusters are in the pipeline, including follow-ups to Extraction and Army of the Dead. Netflix also snapped up the sequels to the terrific murder mystery film Knives Out.

In case it's not clear, Netflix is very eager to build beloved franchises of its own. "We want to have our version of Star Wars or our version of Harry Potter, and we're working very hard to build that,” the company's vice president of original series Matthew Thunell told Reuters last week.

Netflix does have a few hit franchises already. A Stranger Things spin-off series and stage play are in development. The company has made a Korean version of La Casa de Papel and is working on a spin-off. It's expanding Squid Game, Bridgerton and The Witcher beyond the core shows as well.

You're not alone if you think Instagram's TikTok-like test feed is undercooked, but don't expect it to go away completely. As CNBCnotes, social network head Adam Mosseri has posted a Twitter clip acknowledging that the video-focused trial feed is "not yet good," and would need to be improved before it reached all Instagram users. However, he maintained that Instagram would invariably become more video-centric over time as that's the content people were sharing. Get used to seeing more clips, in other words.

Mosseri also defended the rise of recommended posts in users' feeds. He contended they were the "most effective and important" ways for creators to grow their audiences. Users could pause all recommendations for a month if they weren't interested, he said.

The Twitter post is effectively Instagram's response to a mounting backlash against the video feed and recommendation efforts. High-profile users like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian recently blasted Instagram for "trying to be TikTok," while posts and petitions have increasingly called on the social media site to "make Instagram Instagram again" by returning its attention to photos.

While Mosseri asked for feedback, there's no guarantee Instagram will change course. Meta has a long history of duplicating features from social networks that pose a competitive threat, including TikTok and Snapchat. The test feed and recommendations are clearly meant to keep Instagram users from drifting toward TikTok, and Meta is trying a similarly overt strategy with Facebook. So long as Meta is worried that rivals might take its user base, it's unlikely to completely scrap features like these.