Netflix has launched a full trailer for its upcoming animated adaptation of Tekken, Bandai Namco's famous fighting game franchise, and with it comes the show's premiere date. Tekken: Bloodline is arriving on the streaming service on August 18th and will be available in several languages, including English and Japanese. The show focuses on Jin Kazama and takes place between the events of Tekken 2, which features his mother Jun Kazama as one of The King of Iron Fist Tournament competitors, and Tekken 3. Jin made his debut in the franchise's third entry released back in 1996 after losing his mother and his home to Ogre, one of the franchise's antagonists.
In the series, Jin trained under his grandfather Heihachi Mishima, the tournament's founder, in his quest for revenge. You'll hear Heihachi tell Jin to shed the pacifist Kazama ways and to "stoke [his] Mishima fire." Yes, Heihachi sounds positively villainous, because he's the franchise's main antagonist. The trailer also shows faces that would be familiar to long-time fans, as characters from the games also appear in the show. They include Hwoarang, Julia Chang, Nina Williams, Paul Phoenix, Ling Xiaoyu and Heihachi's son Kazuya Mishima.
The zealous online campaign that helped pave the way for the "Snyder Cut" version of Justice League was boosted by a large number of bot and fake accounts, according to a report from Rolling Stone. An investigation commissioned by WarnerMedia seen by RS found that "at least 13 percent of the accounts that took part in the conversation about the Snyder Cut were deemed fake, well above the three to five percent that cyber experts say they typically see on any trending topic." In other words, while many real fans certainly pushed for the new version, their voices were amplified disproportionately by bots.
As a reminder, director Zack Snyder stepped down during the editing of Justice League for personal reasons and Joss Whedon completed the film as an uncredited director, overseeing reshoots and other changes to reduce runtime and increase humor. When the film was released in 2017, it was a critical and commercial failure. Following that, an online fanbase pushed for Snyder's darker original vision, aka the Snyder Cut. When released in 2021, it became the fourth most viewed film on HBO Max and was generally praised as superior to the original.
However, questions arose as to whether the fan interest was completely organic. WarnerMedia decided to launch an investigation following some severe cyber harassment that included calls for boycotts, firings and even death threats. It identified communities "made up of real and fake authors that spread negative content about WarnerMedia for not restoring the 'SnyderVerse," and directed harassment toward Warner Bros.' then-CEO AnnSarnoff and other executives and creatives involved with the project.
Rolling Stone also hired a security company to check suspicious activity, and it said that "there's no question that bots were involved." Another firm used by WarnerMedia to investigate inauthentic activity around the forsnydercut.com domain traced it to a defunct ad agency promising "cheap, instant Avatar traffic to your website." Snyder fanned the online flames with social media posts including one showing a photo labeled "JL Director's Cut Running Time 214 [minutes]," but it's not clear what role, if any, he played in the online campaign.
As we implied in our review of Zack Snyder's Justice League last year, the report shows the power but potential pitfalls of fandom. "There are positive ways to influence change for any piece of pop culture, but shouting at each other on social media, not to mention sending death threats, shouldn't be normalized," wrote Engadget's Devindra Hardawar.
Instagram is making it a little easier for creators to make a living from their merch. The social network has introduced the option to shop through chats. Message a small business and you can ask questions, receive product details and check out (using Meta Pay, naturally) without leaving the conversation. You can buy and customize that must-have shirt without visiting a website or looking for a shoppable post. The feature is available through qualified small businesses in some countries. We've asked Meta for more details.
Chat-based shopping isn't a surprising move. You can already shop through WhatsApp chats in many countries. This expansion could make Instagram chats just as viable for shopping, and might be particularly useful in North America and other regions where WhatsApp doesn't have much clout. If nothing else, this makes Instagram more of a full-service storefront — you might never need to leave the app to address your concerns.
By now, you've likely heard at least some of the rumors about Apple's secretive automotive ambitions. The Information spoke to nearly two dozen people about the self-driving car project to chronicle all of the development, demos, prototypes and staff departures along the way.
If you're eagerly awaiting the debut of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series next month, EW has a preview of what to expect with commentary from the show's cast and creators.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is joining the ranks of games with more inclusive character generators. Both Wowhead and Polygon note the expansion's new alpha release has dropped gendered language from its character creator. Instead of the male and female options you frequently see in these tools, they're now divided into respective "Body 1" and "Body 2" sections. While they effectively offer the same characteristics as before, you can now build a gender non-conforming adventurer without any awkward wording.
Wowhead also found code suggesting that you may get to choose he/him, she/her and they/them pronouns in a future release, which could help other players address your character accordingly. Game director Ion Hazzikostas also suggested in an interview that there might be a way to choose your character's voice at some point, although the most recent alpha version pulled references to that potential feature.
The changes might not be as substantial as you'd like. You can't have facial hair and breasts on the same character in the alpha, for instance. Still, this could make World of Warcraft more appealing if you're non-binary, transgender or otherwise don't fit neatly into conventional gender representations.
Apple is no stranger to exclusive tunes, but now it's using them to more directly challenge its rivals. The company has launched an Apple Music Sessions series that, much like Spotify Sessions, revolves around live performances from big-name artists at in-house venues. Not surprisingly, Apple is wielding its technical clout to reel you in — every song is available in spatial audio, and videos of the performances are available if listening isn't enough.
The initial sessions cater to country fans, with Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes playing favorites and covers in Apple's Nashville studio. Upcoming releases will feature the likes of Ingrid Andress and Ronnie Dunn. There will be releases for other genres, so don't worry if you prefer live music without a twang.
There's no mystery to the strategy here. As with Apple's other exclusives, ranging from early iTunes Originals through to recent spatial audio offerings, this is all about giving you a reason to either switch to the service or stay hooked. The company just isn't shy about its main competition this time — it's hoping to draw in some Spotify converts, or at least keep Apple Music fans from jumping ship.
Remember when Steve Jobs pulled the original MacBook Air out of a Manila envelope? That was 2008. The Air series of laptops kickstarted the era of ultraportables, but Apple’s slimmest PCs were often underpowered compared to the Windows competition that appeared. Now, with Apple’s very own, very powerful silicon, the M2 chip, the 2022 MacBook Air has almost too much power, a new design, (a few) more ports and just… more.
That includes the price. The revamped MacBook Air starts at $1,199, $200 more than the M1 model. Check out Devindra Hardawar’s full review right here.
It’s squashed hundreds of bugs in the early release of ChromeOS Flex.
Earlier this year, Google announced ChromeOS Flex, a tool that lets anyone take an old Windows or Mac laptop and give it new life by installing Chrome OS. After launching ChromeOS Flex in “early access,” Google now says that Flex is ready to “scale broadly” to more Macs and PCs.
The basics remain the same. You can visit the ChromeOS Flex website to make a bootable Chrome OS installation on a USB drive to ensure that your system works properly, and you can then fully replace your old computer’s OS with Chrome OS if everything checks out.
Nothing’s first smartphone certainly looks different. While that will help it stand out, it’s backed up by a solid array of features and clever touches. Sadly, it’s not coming to the US, though.
This is a midrange smartphone with style, so we expected some compromises on performance and cameras. Fortunately, the Phone 1 nails most of the fundamentals, with a surprisingly capable camera setup. Nothing is walking a fine line between gimmick and innovation, but as a new company, it gets to do that. Read our full review on the site, or check out our video right here.
She pulled off one of the largest hoaxes ever seen on the platform.
Chinese Wikipedia had a robust collection of detailed and authoritative articles on medieval Russia, thanks to one user. Zhemao wrote 206 articles for the website since 2019, the longest of which rivals The Great Gatsby for length. It detailed Tartar uprisings in 17th century Russia and was supported by a map of the country during that era. Except it was all faked.
It may be too early for you to think about the upcoming school year, but it can’t hurt to get a jump-start on planning. Once again this year, we’ve curated the best gadgets for studying more efficiently. As always, there are plenty of laptop recommendations for all kinds of students, but also our favorite streaming hardware, dorm room essentials and even free services that will come in clutch for those headed to college.
They can offer subscribers exclusive group chats, Stories and livestreams too.
Instagram has been building out its creator subscription program this year and it’s got some major additions this week. Creators can now share subscriber-only feed posts. Those Reels and photos will have a purple badge with a crown symbol to make them stand out. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said this was the feature he's had the most requests about from creators in the program.
Still playing Wordle? Well now you can go for a “hyper-realistic” version, because the New York Times is teaming up with Hasbro to launch Wordle: The Party Game, in time for the one-year anniversary of the hit word guessing game. It’s multiplayer, too. The “Wordle Host” will write down a secret word and the rest of the players will be given six tries to guess it, much like the online version. Players who take fewer attempts to guess the secret word will earn fewer points, and the player with the least points at the end of the game wins. The board game will cost $19.99, and is available to pre-order today at Amazon.
Facebook's parent company also tried to avoid blame for violence in India.
Meta has released its first yearly human rights report, and you might not be shocked by the angle the company is taking. As CNBC notes, the 83-page document outlines the Facebook parent's handling of human rights issues during 2020 and 2021, with a strong focus on justifying the company's strategies for combating misinformation and harassment. We’re all aware how those have fared.
Wordle players who can’t resist posting their scores on social media to show off their verbal smarts can now subject friends to this behavior in-person. Hasbro and New York Times Games announced a physical adaptation of the online word game phenomenon to be called Wordle: The Party Game, designed to be played with multiple players or teams.
Each round of Wordle: The Party Game begins with one player (the so-called “Wordle Host”) who writes down a secret word. The rest of the players will be given six tries to guess it, much like the online version. Players who take fewer attempts to guess the secret word will earn less points, and the player with the least points at the end of the game wins. The game comes with three Wordle boards, a secret word board for the host and dry-erase markers There’s also a set of physical green and yellow tiles that mimic the ones used in the game.
The board game will cost $19.99, and is available to pre-order today at Amazon, Target and Hasbro’s online store. Wordle: The Party Game is expected to hit stores in October, which will also be the one-year anniversary of the online game's release to the public. Since its debut, the strangely addictive word game has been purchased by the New York Times and inspired a number of spin-offs, including Tradle, which has players identify countries by their exports and Heardle, a guessing game for popular songs. Earlier this week, Spotify purchased Heardle for an undisclosed sum.
Facebook is testing giving users the ability to create up to five profiles on the platform, a major change to its longstanding policy that only allows people to have a single account and identity on the service. The upcoming test was reported byBloomberg, which notes that it’s Facebook’s latest ploy to stave off declining engagement, particularly among younger users.
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed the test. “To help people tailor their experience based on interests and relationships, we’re testing a way for people to have more than one profile tied to a single Facebook account,” the spokesperson said. “Anyone who uses Facebook must continue to follow our rules.”
It’s not clear how big the initial test will be, or if Facebook plans to eventually make it available more widely. If it does, it could significantly alter the dynamics of how people interact on the social network. For one, it would make it easier for people to maintain different personas on the platform, or create separate pages targeted for different friend groups or interests. It’s also a major shift from Facebook’s longtime policy of requiring “real names.”
Unlike Instagram, which allows users to create multiple accounts and doesn’t require them to use their real names, Facebook has had strict — and oftencontroversial — rules about users’ identities, regularly suspending users it catches using multiple accounts. In some cases, the service will even ask users to verify the name on their profile by providing a copy of an official I.D.
But users who have access to multiple profiles will now only need to use their real name on their main profile. Additional profiles will be able to use nicknames or other identities as long as they don’t break other rules, like those barring impersonation.
That the company is now changing its approach to users’ names and identities is a sign of just how important it is for Facebook to reverse recent declines in engagement. Mark Zuckerberg had said the platform will reorient itself to be more appealing to younger users in an effort to better compete with TikTok and other rivals. The app is also planning a significant redesign that will emphasize recommendations more than posts from friends.
Social networks still aren't doing much to safeguard LGBTQ people against abuse, according to GLAAD. Bloombergnotes the media monitoring organization has published its second-ever Social Media Safety Index, and has given failing scores to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube after examining their LGBTQ-oriented features and policies. While GLAAD found that all the platforms had strong policy commitments and barred hateful ads, their actions generally didn't live up to those goals.
None of the five platforms did enough to restrict anti-LGBTQ content, the watchdog said. They also fell short on offering gender pronoun options, providing adequate moderator training, minimizing takedowns of legitimate content, banning non-consensual ad targeting and protecting the privacy of gender identity and sexual orientation data. Only TikTok and Twitter adequately barred targeted deadnaming and misgendering (maliciously using a trans or non-binary person's pre-transition name or gender), while Facebook and Instagram were the only ones making sufficient promises to shield LGBTQ users from harm.
GLAAD made recommendations in the wake of the findings. It called for more policies against practices like deadnaming and unwanted ad targeting. The organization also wanted Facebook to outline how it enforces its LGBTQ policies, and YouTube to disclose how it minimized wrongful demonetization and content bans. There was also pressure on TikTok to publicly promise to diversify its workforce.
All five social networks defended their current approaches in statements to Bloomberg. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta said it barred dehumanizing and violent anti-LGBTQ material, and will pull misgendering content upon request. Twitter said it already worked with GLAAD and was discussing the new recommendations. YouTube parent Google stressed that it made "significant progress" in pulling harmful videos, while TikTok highlighted both its anti-hate policies and recent tools to promote kinder comments.
As Bloomberg pointed out, though, there are still significant gaps in these protections. GLAAD is hoping the Safety Index will pressure companies to act, and that regulators will step in to demand greater accountability.
