The following article contains spoilers for “Subspace Rhapsody.”

At some point in the ‘90s, it became law that all genre shows with a certain flexibility in their premise must do a musical episode. Xena, Ally McBeal, Buffy, Psych, Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs have all done one, as has Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, 7th Heaven, Supergirl and The Flash. Now, it’s Strange New Worlds’ turn to make its characters spontaneously burst into song as it drops “Subspace Rhapsody” as the penultimate episode of its second season.

It’s clear from the start that Strange New Worlds was well-suited to do a musical given how broad its range is. In the last four weeks alone, we’ve had goofy comedy served up back to back with serious meditations on empathy and redemption. This is the first live action Trek of the streaming era to remember the franchise gets better when it allows itself to be goofy. The only surprise is that this is coming so early on its run; this is just the nineteenth episode of the series overall.

Musical episodes serve several purposes: It allows the cast to show off their hidden talents and lets the production crew indulge their latent musical theater nerd. They’re also, in many cases, a useful narrative crucible, forcing characters to reveal secrets they’d otherwise never let out. It’s an old trick to use the primary colors of a rousing number to drop something deep and dark on an audience. This comes in handy given the number of running storylines in the back of each episode, which get resolved more or less all in one go.

Michael Gibson/Paramount+

Uhura’s opening narration informs us the Enterprise has discovered a large subspace fissure. Spock believes it could be used to speed up communication over long distances, but despite several tries, he and Uhura can’t make it work. Not until Pelia suggests they test the system using music, so Uhura fires up Anything Goes and sends it into the ether. Before you can say that’s-a-good-macguffin, a large subspace wave hits the ship and sends everyone singing.

As this is happening, Pike and Batel – who I can’t believe Pike didn’t dump after arresting and prosecuting his first officer – argue about holiday destinations. Chapel has received word she’s been accepted for a prestigious fellowship with a high-profile academic. She’ll be away for a while but declines to share her news with Spock after the fraying of their relationship last week. And, to further complicate matters, James T. Kirk is back on board to shadow Una in preparation for his own promotion. But when they start spouting technobabble as lyrics and feeling the urge to dance, we’re straight into an acapella rendition of the theme tune.

I’ve pointed out, too frequently this year, the confidence Strange New Worlds has in its own execution. This is the second time in three weeks that it’s not just screwed with its format but also its packaging in the form of its opening credits. It’s evidence of a show that knows it has the patience from its audience to play around with its formatting.

Urged on by Pike, stuck firmly in his eyebrow-raising sick-of-this-malarkey mode, the team find they’re trapped in a state of quantum uncertainty. They’re in a universe that follows the rules of a musical, so when emotions are high, people are likely to burst into song. That’s bad for La’an, who is struggling to contain her feelings with her alternate-history beau on board, especially since she’s prohibited from talking about it. Pike, too, starts to confess his misgivings about the holiday he and Captain Batel have been planning. La’an gets a solo about being emotionally shut off from the rest of the crew, followed soon after with a duet with Una talking about why it’s good to open up.

The improbability field starts to expand, encompassing more starships in the area and reaching Klingon territory. They soon dispatch a cruiser to shut it down, but the Enterprise crew discover that shooting the fissure will release enough energy to wipe out the quadrant. Uhura posits that, if they’re in a musical, their behavior might have to follow the tropes of the genre. Armed with a tricorder, she drags Spock to the bar where he bumps into Chapel, who then dumps him with a full-cast song-and-dance number about the importance of her career. He responds by singing his own solo in engineering in which he talks about his abandonment of logic and reason for love, a mistake he won’t make again.

La’an, who has spent more and more time with Kirk, decides to open up a little bit only to find her advances rebuffed. Not because he doesn’t feel similarly, but because he’s in an on-again, off-again relationship with a scientist called Carol. And that Carol is currently pregnant with Kirk’s child, who we might not get to see again until Kirk looks a lot more like William Shatner. (This episode has more than a few moments where it’s consciously drawing attention to its “evolution” into The Original Series.)

Spock’s judgment may be clouded but Uhura, whose awareness of musical tropes has been key all episode, spots the solution. In order to pop the uncertainty field, the whole crew needs to do a big full-cast finale, but not before Uhura gets her own solo. At Pike’s urging, Uhura gets on the ship’s PA and inspires the whole crew – complete with dancing redshirts and balletic starship dances to produce a showstopper climax. We even get a blast of the Original Series’ theme to underpin their victory, while Spock goes off to smooth things over with the Klingons and get over his split with another round of heavy drinking.

Much as the ending is ostensibly happy, with everyone learning the lesson to be more honest and authentic with each other, there’s trouble on the horizon. Batel has to cancel her holiday with Pike, she’s being sent on a top secret mission which, I’m sure, is our lead in to the finale. Spock’s nursing his grief, and the rest of his supersized emotions, while La’an has to deal with the ramifications of her not-quite-requited love.

Michael Gibson/Paramount+

It’s almost pointless to try and judge a musical episode by the standards of its peers given how different it is from the norm. The script, credited to Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, efficiently and effectively works in the musical universe concept without a lot of setup. Demott Downs’ direction blends the closed nature of Strange New Worlds’ standing sets with the necessary scope a musical demands. And the songs, from Letters to Cleo’s Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, are perfectly fine. Musical lovers will have a greater appetite for enjoying each track on a loop, but as a casual enjoyer of the artform, I’m not sure how many would enter my regular Spotify rotation.

Obviously, much of the dramatic weight of the episode hangs on the shoulders of the cast members who can sing. Christina Chong, Jess Bush, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck and Celia Rose Gooding all get showpiece numbers and boy, can they all sing. But that’s not to shade the names not on that list, especially those who are getting by with the help of autotune. It’s hard enough to sing and dance even if you’ve got years of experience behind you, let alone if you’re dropped into the deep end in an acting job. Now, onward to the finale!

Elon Musk and X, the site formerly known as Twitter, are in more legal trouble. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) is suing X for not engaging in discussions about payment to the French publisher in exchange for its articles appearing on the platform. In 2019, France passed neighboring rights legislation, extending copyright law to content produced by news publishers, such as text and videos, for two years after release. The law requires any sites that share this work to negotiate with the publishers about remuneration instead of sharing it without compensation for its creators. 

In its press release, the AFP stated that it has "expressed its concerns over the clear refusal from Twitter (recently rebranded as 'X') to enter into discussions regarding the implementation of neighbouring rights for the press. These rights were established to enable news agencies and publishers to be remunerated by digital platforms which retain most of the monetary value generated by the distribution of news content."

X isn't the first tech company AFP has gone up against. In 2020, France's competition authority ordered Google to enter negotiations with publishers, and, while it reached an agreement in early 2021, the company was fined €500 million ($546 million) later that year for not reaching a fair agreement. In that case, part of the argument was that Google owns 90 percent of the search market, leaving them in a position where they could abuse their power if an equitable deal wasn't reached. Twitter's influence in this area of the internet isn't nearly as strong, so we'll have to wait and see if it will face the same fight. 

X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, is now letting users download videos from its website, as long as a couple of criteria are met. First, the creator must explicitly allow downloads for the content they post. Also, the ability to save videos from the website is exclusively available to verified (aka paying) users. Elon Musk has announced the new feature on his account and explained that a Blue subscriber can download content by tapping the ellipsis (...) menu on the upper right corner of the screen when a video is in full screen mode. Musk also said that X will soon make it easy to download videos on mobile simply by tapping and holding the content on the screen. 

Previously, people have had to use to third-party websites and apps to be able to save videos. Of course, non-paying users still have to use those tools if they want to download content from X. That doesn't come as a surprise, seeing as the company has been releasing new features specifically for paying members while making the website less usable for the rest of its userbase. It announced in July that it will limit the number of DMs non-paying users can send to address its spam issues, and it also previously limited the number of posts non-verified users can see to 600 a day.

Meanwhile, X gave verified users the ability to publish posts with up to 25,000 characters and allowed them to post videos up to three hours in length. More recently, it also gave Blue subscribers the option to hide their blue checkmark in case they don't want to make it obvious that they're paying for the service. For those interested to see how X has evolved since Elon Musk took over Twitter, company CEO Linda Yaccarino has just published the list of changes it has implemented right here.

One of the main selling points for Twitter Blue — now "X Blue" — when the service was first launched was that anybody on the platform willing to pay for it can get the once-coveted blue checkmark. Over the past months, though, subscribers have been getting shamed for paying $8 a month or $84 a year for the service. Now as TechCrunch has noticed, the company has updated its support page for X Blue with a new feature for members: The ability to hide the verified checkmark on their account. 

Under the "Profile customization" section in account settings, subscribers will now find a new "Hide your blue checkmark" option that they can tick. By activating the feature, the badge will no longer show up on their profiles and next to their usernames on posts. However, the company warned that it could still show up in some places and that some features may not be available to them while their checkmark is hidden. It didn't say which features will become inaccessible, but Twitter has rolled out a number of changes made specifically for paying users since Elon Musk took over. 

It has increased paid users' post limit to 25,000 characters and is even working on new tools to publish long-form content. The website has also expanded their video limit to 3 hours. Meanwhile, the social network has become less and less attractive for free users. It announced in July that it will limit the number of DMs non-paying users can send in an effort to limit spam, and it previously put a strict cap on how many tweets a day a user can see due to "extreme levels of data scraping." While the restriction was temporary, unverified accounts were initially limited to 600 posts daily. 

App developer Alessandro Paluzzi first spotted the capability to hide checkmarks in March. Based on the screenshots Paluzzi shared, the verification process will remain the same, with users being required to submit a government ID to authenticate their identities. It now simply won't be obvious at first glance that someone's paying for X Blue.

One of the main selling points for Twitter Blue — now "X Blue" — when the service was first launched was that anybody on the platform willing to pay for it can get the once-coveted blue checkmark. Over the past months, though, subscribers have been getting shamed for paying $8 a month or $84 a year for the service. Now as TechCrunch has noticed, the company has updated its support page for X Blue with a new feature for members: The ability to hide the verified checkmark on their account. 

Under the "Profile customization" section in account settings, subscribers will now find a new "Hide your blue checkmark" option that they can tick. By activating the feature, the badge will no longer show up on their profiles and next to their usernames on posts. However, the company warned that it could still show up in some places and that some features may not be available to them while their checkmark is hidden. It didn't say which features will become inaccessible, but Twitter has rolled out a number of changes made specifically for paying users since Elon Musk took over. 

It has increased paid users' post limit to 25,000 characters and is even working on new tools to publish long-form content. The website has also expanded their video limit to 3 hours. Meanwhile, the social network has become less and less attractive for free users. It announced in July that it will limit the number of DMs non-paying users can send in an effort to limit spam, and it previously put a strict cap on how many tweets a day a user can see due to "extreme levels of data scraping." While the restriction was temporary, unverified accounts were initially limited to 600 posts daily. 

App developer Alessandro Paluzzi first spotted the capability to hide checkmarks in March. Based on the screenshots Paluzzi shared, the verification process will remain the same, with users being required to submit a government ID to authenticate their identities. It now simply won't be obvious at first glance that someone's paying for X Blue.

TweetDeck has started showing signs that it will not escape Twitter's massive rebranding unscathed. If you take a look at the tool's landing page while logged out, you'll see "XPro" on the upper left corner of the website, indicating its new name. That's pretty much it at the moment, though — the page still shows the iconic Twitter bird logo, and it still calls TweetDeck a "powerful, real-time tool for people who live on Twitter." And, yes, its URL is still https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ in the same way Twitter's (sorry, we mean X's) URL is https://twitter.com/. 

Twitter's rebranding to "X" hit us overnight quite literally in July, with Elon Musk announcing the change in a tweet and then, reportedly, emailing his employees about it afterward. The social network started implementing changes after that by swapping out the Twitter bird with a generic-looking "X" logo, which will apparently "evolve over time," as well as renaming tweets to "posts" and retweets to "reposts." Google and Apple both relisted the social network's app as "X" on the Play Store and the App Store, respectively, by the end of July. 

The move, while sudden, perhaps didn't come as a surprise for those who've followed Musk's career over the years. Musk is known for favoring the "X" branding and had wanted to rename PayPal to X.com before he was ousted as CEO. The executive also renamed Twitter's parent company to X Corp. He said the social network's new name will help it branch out and become an "everything app" with payments and banking features. But critics are doubting the rebranding's success, with some calling it "the dumbest thing [Musk has] done since taking over" and something that now makes the company less identifiable and less valuable. 

Despite the criticisms, the erasure of the Twitter brand is now well underway. TweetDeck will not remain TweetDeck for very long, and it also won't be free to use in the near future. The company has previously noted that it will be locked behind a paywall and will be exclusively available to Blue subscribers. 

As promised, Meta has begun blocking news content in Canada. Starting today, Facebook and Instagram users in the country will no longer be able to view or share news links or see videos and photos posted by publishers and broadcasters. The company, which has threatened to make the drastic move for several months, said it will take a few weeks for the change to come into effect for all users in the country.

"News links and content posted by news publishers and broadcasters in Canada will no longer be viewable by people in Canada," Meta said. "We are identifying news outlets based on legislative definitions and guidance from the Online News Act." Any content shared by international news organizations won't be visible on Facebook and Instagram in Canada either.

Meta made the decision in response to Canadian legislators passing the Online News Act. The law requires certain platforms to negotiate revenue-sharing agreements with news organizations. The aim is to address the collapse in advertising revenue that news outlets have struggled with over the last two decades amid the growth of online services.

The CBC has noted that Facebook and Google soak up some 80 percent of digital advertising revenue between them. Google also plans to stop users in Canada from accessing links to news stories across several of its products in response to the legislation.

Meta has previously played hardball with a government over news content. In early 2021, it stopped users in Australia from sharing news links on Facebook. However, Meta, Google and other platform holders relented and eventually reached an agreement to pay publishers there for posting news links and snippets.

YouTube has released several creation tools for Shorts, such as ones that give users the ability to remix most videos and add voiceovers, ever since it was launched in an effort to make it a more veritable TikTok rival. Now, the video-hosting platform is in the process of expanding its arsenal of creation tools even further. The first addition is Collab, which lets users record short-form videos in a split screen format with other Shorts or regular clips. 

All users have to do to create a Collab video from an eligible Short or YouTube content is to hit Remix and then choose the new format. TikTok, of course has long had a split-screen effect that lets people divide the screen into multiple frames. Well, YouTube's Collab is rolling out today and will continue making its way to users coming weeks to challenge TikTok's version. iOS users are getting the format first, but Android users will follow. 

The platform is also adding a tool that lets users quickly build off of and remix existing Shorts. They only have to tap the Remix button and select "use sound" in the Shorts player to automatically surface the audio and effect used in the clip they just watched. Users can then apply both sound and effect to their own post. In addition, YouTube will start testing a new recomposition tool in the coming weeks designed to simplify transforming horizontal videos into vertical Shorts. The tool will give creators a way to adjust the layout, zoom and crop of the segment they want to use after they've chosen a video to remix, giving them an easy way to reshare old footage in a new format. They can also choose to use the new split screen effect for the video they're recomposing. 

Aside from these new creator tools, YouTube is testing a new mobile-first vertical live experience for viewers, as well. Audiences will be able to see previews of vertical live videos in the Shorts feed with this new experience, and if they tap to expand it, they'll find a scrollable feed of more live videos. YouTube is hoping this could boost discoverability for creators and calls it is a great opportunity to make money for those who recently joined its Partner Program. The new mobile-first experience will make its way to more and more viewers over the coming months.

The next internet video summary you see might not have been written by a human. YouTube is testing AI-generated video summaries that appear on search and watch pages. The text is meant to provide a "quick overview" of a clip to help you decide if it's worth watching. The company is quick to stress that these don't replace creators' own video descriptions.

The test will only be visible with a "limited number" of English-language videos, and only for some viewers. YouTube hasn't said which countries, platforms or video types will get the AI-produced summaries. We've asked the company for comment and will let you know if we hear back.

YouTube has given users a few preview features in recent weeks, as Android Policeexplains. Premium subscribers could lock the screen during playback to prevent accidental commands. You've also had the option to turn Shorts comments into entirely new short-form clips.

The experiment comes nearly three years after YouTube started testing AI-produced video chapters, but it's part of a larger generative AI push at Google. The tech giant has introduced its Bard chatbot and is using the technology to produce everything from spreadsheet templates to whole news articles, if not always for public consumption.

The YouTube summary feature may be one of the more logical extensions, however. The service says over 500 hours of content are uploaded every minute — it would be impossible for humans to keep up. The question is whether or not the AI summaries are accurate enough. Google has warned that generative systems like Bard may be prone to inaccuracies and misinformation, and it's not yet clear how well the YouTube experiment works in practice.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, the upcoming game from Team Reptile with major Jet Set Radio vibes, is also heading to PlayStation and Xbox. It was initially announced for Switch and PC with a release date of August 18th. Now, the developer has revealed that PlayStation and Xbox gamers only have to wait a couple of weeks more, because the title will be released for their consoles two weeks later, on September 1st. 

Team Reptile describes Bomb Rush Cyberfunk as a world wherein "self-styled graffiti crews equipped with personal boostpacks are battling each other for control of the streets." Its theme, gameplay and art style are all reminiscent of the Dreamcast classic Jet Set Radio, which was released back in 2000. In the upcoming funkstyle game, players can explore the five main boroughs of New Amsterdam to spray graffiti, do dance battles and face off rival crews.

They can also expand their crew by finding new members around the city as they go around on inline skates, skateboards or bikes. (And yes, they can use the environment to do tricks.) Another layer of gameplay is that players have to evade militarized police as they move, which gets harder to do the longer they play because law enforcement scales up the more they vandalize the streets.