Next year's Sundance Film Festival will mark a momentous return to Park City, Utah, after in-person festivities were cancelled last year. But Sundance isn't giving up on the digital platforms it used to stream films and bring cinephiles into a VR social hub last January. As part of its New Frontier exhibition, Sundance plans to expand The Spaceship, its virtual venue where attendees can chat together and explore VR and mixed reality art installations.
In an effort to connect Sundance's in-person attendees with its global online audience, the Festival will also launch a "Biodigital Bridge" in Park City. Shari Frilot, Sundance's Senior Programmer and Chief Curator of New Frontier, describes it as a human-scale screen where physical and digital attendees will be able to interact with each other. Developed together with the immersive studio Active Theory, the bridge will offer basic chat support, but it's mostly a way for Sundance-goers to see how other attendees enjoy the event.
Sundance New Frontier curator Shari Frilot.
Sundance Film Festival
Frilot says New Frontier has been pushing the concept of biodigital experiences for several years now, mostly through an exploration of how technology can intersect with our lives. Think of the way that an app like Uber, or even Google Maps, has reshaped the way we navigate physical spaces. But now that the pandemic has forced us to rely on our tech more than ever — Sundance wouldn't have been possible without it last year, after all — the term seems practically prescient. It's more than just a buzzword: Frilot says she's interested in exploring the technology that best serves humanity, or Team Human, as media theorist Douglas Rushkoff put it.
Last year, I found Sundance's online platform last year to be a fascinating way to explore the festival and interact with fans. The core of the experience is the aforementioned Spaceship, which allows attendees on computers and VR headsets to mull about together. On a laptop or desktop, it resembles a stripped down version of Second Life. You walk around as simplistic avatars, and if you choose, you can also flip on your webcam, which fills your avatar's head with a live video feed. Since Sundance's platform is built on WebXR, a way to deliver virtual reality over the web, you can enter that same space in VR by slipping on any headset and visiting Sundance's website.
Sundance Film Festival
Compared to SXSW's VR platform, which looked beautiful but mostly felt like a virtual wasteland, it was clear that Sundance got something right last year. After isolating for most of 2020, being able to see many of my cinephile friends in VR made last year's Sundance feel special. So for next year, Frilot says, the festival is going even further. The Spaceship will be upgraded with a new Cinema House, where attendees on computers and VR headsets can view events livestreamed from Park City, as well as room-scale discussions.
On the ground, Sundance will also have a new space called The Craft, which will let in-person attendees visit New Frontier exhibits, artist discussions and panels. There will also be VR headsets to use, though the festival is also encouraging people to bring their own gear if they've got it. Sundance hasn't finalized its list of New Frontier exhibits yet, but Frilot tells me many artists are optimizing for the Oculus Quest 2, so fest-goers can experience their work without being connected to a PC. But there will likely still be pieces that demand a serious VR rig. Sundance's famed Egyptian theater will also host some New Frontier performances, which will occur both on the ground and virtually on the Spaceship.
You'll need a $50 Sundance Explorer Pass to access all of these virtual goodies, which is double what it cost last year. It's a shame to see the price jump so quickly, but it's also reflective of the deeper commitment the festival is making in its digital platforms. Notably, the Explorer Pass is also open to people around the world, whereas Sundance's virtual screenings are limited to U.S. attendees.
"[The virtual platform] is not just this thing that we're trying, we're actually doubling down on this," Frilot says. "This points to the vital landscape of how cinema and storytelling is going to manifest [going forward]. We're here to not only contribute to it, but to meet it and support it."
A set of carefully-worded warnings directed to the right accounts could help reduce the amount of hate on Twitter. That’s the conclusion of new research examining whether targeted warnings could reduce hate speech on the platform.
Researchers at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics found that personalized warnings alerting Twitter users to the consequences of their behavior reduced the number of tweets with hateful language a week after. While more study is needed, the experiment suggests that there is a “potential path forward for platforms seeking to reduce the use of hateful language by users,” according to Mustafa Mikdat Yildirim, the lead author of the paper.
In the experiment, researchers identified accounts at risk of being suspended for breaking Twitter’s rules against hate speech. They looked for people who had used at least one word contained in “hateful language dictionaries” over the previous week, who also followed at least one account that had recently been suspended after using such language.
From there, the researchers created test accounts with personas such as “hate speech warner,” and used the accounts to tweet warnings at these individuals. They tested out several variations, but all had roughly the same message: that using hate speech put them at risk of being suspended, and that it had already happened to someone they follow.
“The user @account you follow was suspended, and I suspect this was because of hateful language,” reads one sample message shared in the paper. “If you continue to use hate speech, you might get suspended temporarily.” In another variation, the account doing the warning identified themselves as a professional researcher, while also letting the person know they were at risk of being suspended. “We tried to be as credible and convincing as possible,” Yildirim tells Engadget.
The researchers found that the warnings were effective, at least in the short term. “Our results show that only one warning tweet sent by an account with no more than 100 followers can decrease the ratio of tweets with hateful language by up to 10%,” the authors write. Interestingly, they found that messages that were “more politely phrased” led to even greater declines, with a decrease of up to 20 percent. “We tried to increase the politeness of our message by basically starting our warning by saying that ‘oh, we respect your right to free speech, but on the other hand keep in mind that your hate speech might harm others,’” Yildirim says.
In the paper, Yildirim and his co-authors note that their test accounts only had around 100 followers each, and that they weren’t associated with an authoritative entity. But if the same type of warnings were to come from Twitter itself, or an NGO or other organization, then the warnings may be even more useful. “The thing that we learned from this experiment is that the real mechanism at play could be the fact that we actually let these people know that there's some account, or some entity, that is watching and monitoring their behavior,” Yildirim says. “The fact that their use of hate speech is seen by someone else could be the most important factor that led these people to decrease their hate speech.”
It didn't take long for Netflix to greenlight more Arcane. Deadlinereports Netflix has renewed the League of Legends-based series for a second season now in production. Core stars Ella Purnell (Jinx), Hailee Steinfeld (Vi) and Katie Leung (Caitlyn) are already set to reprise their roles.
There's no mystery behind the decision: the show is a success. Co-creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee said they were "beyond happy" with the reaction. The numbers also back them up — the first season of Arcane racked up nearly 34.2 million viewing hours in its first week on Netflix's new top 10 chart, making it the second-most popular TV series in any language behind Narcos: Mexico (almost 50.3 million).
The popularity isn't a shock. Both Netflix and League creator Riot Games heavily promoted the show, to the point where LoL included multiple crossovers. You knew Arcane was available if you were even vaguely interested in the game that inspired it. And yes, it helps that Arcane happens to be well-received by many accounts.
The renewal doesn't necessarily hint at a new wave of game-inspired Netflix shows. It does, however, suggest that relatively high-budget game productions have a healthy future at the streaming pioneer. Don't be surprised if Netflix takes more chances on projects like this.
Ready yourselves, friends. Season 2 of Arcane is now in production.
Activision has delayed the release of Call of Duty Vanguard’s season one update andWarzone Pacific by about a week. The publisher now plans to make both available on December 8th, instead of December 2nd and December 3rd as previously planned. Activision did not provide a reason for the delay. However, it has been mired in controversy this week following an explosive report from The Wall Street Journal on CEO Bobby Kotick and the role he may have played in creating the toxic “frat boy” culture that has seen the company in the news frequently in recent months.
Update: Season 1 of #Vanguard and Warzone Pacific will now release Dec. 8.
Vanguard owners will have 24-hour exclusive first play access to the Caldera map. Open access begins on Dec. 9. pic.twitter.com/GnnYCp6g75
According to a tweet from the official Call of Duty Twitter account, Vanguard’s first seasonal update includes new maps and modes, an update to the game’s Zombies mode and the addition of new gear and weapons for players to earn. Warzone Pacific, meanwhile, adds a map called Caldera to Activision’s popular battle royale. If you own a copy of Vanguard, you’ll get the chance to play the new battleground 24 hours before everyone else.
This week, Cherlynn and Devindra are joined by Engadget’s Jessica Conditt to dive into the latest controversy around Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, he was well aware of sexual misconduct allegations at the company, and he deliberately kept Activision's board in the dark. Also, we chat about what Apple’s self service program means for you, as well as a new accessibility gadget that brings eye tracking to the iPad.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar Guest: Jessica Conditt Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos,Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Emotes are a great way to add character and distinctiveness to a Twitch community — they can also get casual viewers to pay for subscriptions. A Twitch affiliate who's just starting out, however, used to only have a single custom emote slot. Now, the livestreaming website has upped the initial number of emote slots to five, based on affiliates' feedback. That means streamers can offer five custom emotes from the get-go, simply by meeting the bare requirements needed to become part of the affiliate program. In all, affiliates can earn nine slots for custom emotes by reaching certain subscription milestones.
Twitch is also carrying the change over to its partner program, increasing the slots available for them, as well. To be able to apply for partner status, an affiliate must reach a certain number of streaming hours, views and subscribers. Even then, they might not get in. That's why giving potential subscribers more incentive in the form of emotes could help beginners reach their goal sooner and earn more money.
The website has also given affiliates the capability offer animated emotes to their community. They'll start with one slot and can unlock up to five as their audience grows. Those who can't afford to pay an artist to create animated emotes for them can use the website's Easy Animate feature to quickly convert static emotes into animated versions for free. These updates have started rolling out to Twitch streamers and will be reaching everyone in the coming weeks.
The cult classic '90s game Earthworm Jim is coming back to TV as a new series, according to Variety and a tweet from Interplay Entertainment. Interplay holds the rights to Earthworm Jim games and recently announced it was bringing the franchise back as an Intellivision Amico exclusive.
The project will be headed be Interplay's newly formed TV and film studio division, working with the animation studio Passion Pictures. "There’s so much potential in this story universe: a galaxy full of animals battling for power," project lead Michel K. Parandi told Variety. "Jim is an earthworm in a universe where Earth is nothing more than a myth. His struggle to find meaning is surreal and comical, but it’s also relatable."
The first Earthworm Jim game came out on Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo in 1994, with the last released in 1999. There's still no word on when the new game will arrive. There was also a Warner Bros. cartoon series based on the game that ran for two season in 1995, with the lead character played by none other than Dan Castellaneta, best known as the voice of Homer Simpson.
In a follow-up tweet, Interplay said that the original creator of the game, presumably Doug TenNapel, "is not involved at all." TenNapel was originally brought in as a creative consultant on the game, but his participation was called into question after he made a number of racist and homophobic comments on a podcast.
After introducing its "tip jar" feature to all iOS users over 18, Twitter has brought the feature to Android as well. The idea is that if you see a particularly entertaining or informative tweet, you can send money to the creator's Cash App, Patreon, Paypal, Bandcamp and Venmo from directly within the app.
Tips is now on Android!
You can get set up to receive tips from your profile –– tap the “Edit profile” button then tap “Tips” to start.
Twitter first introduced tip jars in May, then rolled it out widely to iOS users in September. A similar feature is available inside Twitter's Clubhouse-like "Spaces" feature, letting creators charge for "tickets" to its live access features. Twitter also recently opened "super follows" to select creators, allowing them to monetize tweets and provide exclusive content, along with a subscription service that could eliminate publications’ paywalls on the platform.
On top of using regular money via payment services, Twitter may soon let you tip others using Bitcoin. According to a leak, Twitter is planning to use the Lightning Network to enable Bitcoin payments with high speed and relatively low fees.
Since 2017, Instagram has allowed users to combine up to 10 photos and videos in a single post, but only now, some four years later, is the company adding a way to delete a single image or clip from a carousel. Instagram head Adam Mosseri detailed how the new feature works in one of his recent weekly video updates.
You can delete a photo or video from a carousel by first tapping the three dots icon, then the edit button. At that point, swipe over to the image or clip you want to remove and then tap the delete icon. According to Mosseri, the feature is currently only available on iOS, though it’s coming to Android soon. He was also quick to admit it was something Instagram should have added a while ago.
If you live in the US, you also have access to another new feature. This one is called “Rage Shake,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. If you’re using Instagram and something isn’t working properly, shake your phone. Doing so will cause the app’s bug report interface to appear. You can then tell the company what happened. Mosseri says it will help Instagram prioritize the specific bugs it needs to address. Rage Shake is currently only available in the US.
Both features won’t change how you use Instagram, but they should be welcome additions all the same. Now if only the company would release a dedicated iPad app.
Last week, Twitter’s “premium” subscription service made its debut in the United States. Twitter Blue is a $3 monthly subscription that buys subscribers access to additional features, like an undo button and ad-free news articles.
For now, Twitter Blue comes with a fairly limited set of extra features designed for the people who spend the most time on the service. According to Twitter’s Sara Beukpour, this group includes “verified longtime Twitter users” as well as “news lovers” and other “super tweeters.” In other words: the 25 percent of Twitter’s user base who send 97 percent of all tweets.
“I actually bet many of them are you,” Beykpour said during a briefing with a group of tech reporters last week. Of course I signed up immediately.
And after a little more than a week with Twitter Blue, I’m not sure it’s worth $3 a month for most people. The features are mostly useful, but it’s frustrating that not everything works the same way across Twitter’s app and website. But there are undoubtedly useful features, and I am intrigued by what might come next for “premium Twitter.” For now, though, here’s a look at what $3 buys you.
‘Undo’ tweets
Of all the features in Twitter Blue, the “undo” button has gotten the most hype. Twitter will likely never give us an actual edit button, so this is probably the closest we’ll ever get. And if you’re prone to typos or tweeting-and-then-instantly-regretting, this feature alone might be worth the subscription. I say might because the “undo” can also be incredibly confusing, and doesn’t always work as you expect.
It’s supposed to work pretty much like Gmail’s “undo send” feature. After you hit “send,” you’ll have a few seconds when you can see the tweet you just wrote, but it hasn’t actually been published. If you change your mind for whatever reason, you can hit “undo,” which takes you back to the tweet in the compose screen. Twitter gives you the ability to set how long this window is — it can range from 5 seconds to a full 60 seconds — and you can always opt to send it before the window runs out with an extra click.
Screenshot / Twitter
But undoing a tweet doesn’t always work the same way across Twitter’s app and website. On Twitter’s app, you can use the “undo” feature for almost any type of tweet: original tweets (tweets sent from the main compose window), replies, threads, quote tweets and polls. Essentially, you can “undo” almost anything you tweet, anywhere in the app. But that’s not the case on twitter.com, where the undo function only works with original tweets and replies, but not with quote tweets or threads. Unless you exclusively tweet from your phone, this means you have to remember which tweets are editable undoable and which aren't. A typo-ridden tweet can be undone, but an ill-advised quote tweet cannot.
There’s also the fact that it can take several steps to actually undo a tweet. In Twitter’s app, the default setting is that the first thing you see after you mash the tweet button is your tweet and an “undo” button. This gives you plenty of time to give it another read, even if you have a relatively short undo “window.” But on Twitter’s website, you can only undo by looking for a “view tweet” dialog at the bottom of the page and then navigating to the page with your tweet and the undo button.
Sometimes, "view tweet" doesn't appear at all, and the only way to access the "undo" is to navigate to your profile and look for the pending tweet on your timeline. Not only is this a confusing extra step, but it also makes it harder to take advantage of the undo button at all. Is it still useful to have? I guess, but the unpredictability of it kind of gave me more anxiety than just not having it at all.
Reader mode and bookmark folders
The reader mode is probably the most underrated feature of Twitter Blue, and the one I’d argue would be most useful for all the site’s users, not just those willing to pay. It converts long threads into a much more readable stream of text, much like a browser’s reader view would. I hate those intrusive (and ethically dubious) third-party thread apps that “unroll” tweets into separate websites, but there’s a reason why those services are so popular: lengthy threads are difficult to read. Twitter’s service was never designed for essay-length tweet storms, and long threads are often cut off. Reader mode is a simple solution that is so effective I can’t believe it took them this long to make.
Screenshot / Twitter
It’s even better when paired with another new feature: bookmark folders. Now, when I come across an impossibly long tweetstorm I want to come back to later, I simply add it to my “to read” folder and keep scrolling. Except, again, bookmark folders are for now only supported in Twitter’s app. Head over to twitter.com and all your bookmarks are still a mess.
Ad-free news and ‘top articles’
My favorite Twitter Blue feature — and a large part of the reason why I will likely continue handing over $3 each month for it — is the “top articles” feature. The feature shows you a list of all the most-shared news articles by people in your Twitter network over the last 24 hours. If that sounds at all familiar, it’s because the feature is Twitter’s nod to Nuzzel, a once independent news app that also created feeds of articles based on what was being shared by people you follow on Twitter. But the original app was shut down when Twitter acquired Scroll, the news startup that had previously bought Nuzzel.
And while “Top Articles'' doesn't have all the functionality Nuzzel once did, it’s enough to scratch the itch for former fans of the app (a group that seems to be almost entirely made up of journalists as far as I can tell). But even if you never used Nuzzel, Top Articles is useful. It gives you a quick digest of what the people you follow are reading and tweeting about. Or, you know, you can just use it to figure out who is the main character of the day.
Screenshot / Twitter
Twitter’s acquisition of Scroll also powers another significant part of Twitter Blue: ad-free news articles. Scroll (and now Twitter) formed partnerships with hundreds of news outlets in order to offer ad-free browsing in exchange for a portion of users’ subscription fees. Now, Twitter lets subscribers view how much their own browsing has directed to those publishers. It’s an intriguing concept, and one that won Scroll a lot of praise before it was bought by Twitter.
It’s also the aspect of Twitter Blue I’m most curious to watch. As it stands now, it can feel a little disjointed. While stripping out ads is nice, it doesn’t include access to paywalled content, so it can be jarring to see an “ad-free with Twitter Blue” banner only to hit a paywall. However, Twitter has hinted that it may one day pursue more ways to access paywalled content — and a message in the app says paywall access isn’t included “right now” — so there’s good reason to hope that may one day change.
Early access to new features and customization
Twitter has gotten much more public with the features it experiments with in recent years. The company at one point had a separate beta version of the app it used to try out new tweaks. That app is no longer available, but the “labs” feature of Twitter Blue feels in some ways like its successor. The company plans to make some experimental features available to Twitter Blue subscribers first, before deciding whether they should become full-fledged features available to more people.
For now, there are only two features that fall into this bucket: the ability to pin specific chats to the top of your DM inbox, and the ability to upload videos of up to 10 minutes (these longer videos are not entirely new, but accounts had to be approved by Twitter in order to have access to the feature). I appreciate having the option to do both, though I haven’t used either feature and I suspect most others won’t either.
Screenshot / Twitter
Finally, Twitter Blue also gives you the ability to make small tweaks to the look and feel of the Twitter app. For example, you can change the app icon or set a new color theme (the “theme” only changes small elements like the color of the tweet composer and the dot that appears when you have a new notification). You can also opt to rearrange the shortcuts in the bottom of the app’s navigation bar, which is kind of cool (especially if you want to, say, banish the Spaces Tab). But, again, these are small details that I can’t imagine most people bothering to change.
Is it worth it?
Whether or not you think all that is worth three bucks a month largely depends on how much you use Twitter (and how willing you are to pay for apps). While I don’t think it makes sense for most people, I think it’s pretty compelling for anyone who depends on Twitter for their job or otherwise falls into that extra-dedicated “super tweeter” category.
And while Twitter hasn’t offered any details around how many subscribers have signed up, the app has made about $180,000 since it first started offering Twitter Blue this summer, according to data provided by analytics firm Sensor Tower. That’s not much money for Twitter, but it does suggest there is a not-totally-insignificant number of people willing to try it out (and the service is still only available in four countries).
At a broader level, Twitter Blue raises important questions about how the company will prioritize new features. While the company has maintained that there will always be a free version of Twitter, it’s not difficult to imagine that the most exciting and useful updates could end up being locked behind a subscription. Twitter spent much of the last decade not really creating any meaningful new features at all, so it still stings a little to see the company add the kinds of features longtime users have long hoped for, only to restrict them to those willing to pay.
