The host and editor of Science VS, a podcast owned by Spotify, are no longer making episodes of the show — save for those "intended to counteract misinformation being spread on Spotify." In a letter to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Wendy Zukerman and Blythe Terrell said their policy would remain in place until "Spotify implements stronger methods to stop the spread of misinformation on the platform."

Zukerman, who is also executive producer of the show, shared a copy of the letter on Twitter. She and Terrell said that, throughout the pandemic, Spotify had given them the resources they needed to publish a show containing accurate information about the coronavirus. "For more than six months, we've been encouraging our listeners to move to Spotify and telling them that this is the company that supports us to create factual episodes that are grounded in science," they wrote. "Spotify's support of Joe Rogan's podcast has felt like a slap in the face."

The pair said that, in an upcoming episode of Science VS, they'll show that information about COVID-19 vaccines is "repeatedly taken out of context" during a discussion between Rogan and Dr. Robert Malone on the former's podcast. "There's plenty of scientific evidence that contradicts some of the claims in the interview — but it's nowhere to be found in the episode," they wrote. "Rogan's show leaves the audience with a skewed and inaccurate view of the COVID-19 vaccines. And Spotify has done little to address this."

Zukerman and Terrell acknowledge that moderating content on a platform as big as Spotify isn't an easy ask, but argue that the company "has a responsibility to do more." They said they'll be examining the effectiveness of strategies that tech platforms are harnessing to tackle misinformation and were willing to share those findings with Spotify.

On Tuesday, the day after tweeting the letter, Zukerman said Spotify was willing to work with Science VS, which "feels like a step in the right direction." Science VS is produced by Gimlet Media, which Spotify purchased in 2019 as part of a major push into podcasts.

There's been a growing backlash against Spotify over claims that Rogan has been accused of spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on his enormously popular podcast. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from the platform last week in protest, while Brené Brown has put her successful Spotify-exclusive podcasts on hold.

India Arie and Graham Nash (Young's Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate) also said they're removing their music from Spotify. "I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews," Arie wrote on Instagram. "For me, it’s also his language around race.”

On Sunday, Rogan apologized to Spotify over the backlash and said he'd do more to provide balance and differing opinions on his podcast. Spotify says it has removed more than 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. The company reportedly noted in an internal memo that Rogan's content did not "meet the threshold for removal.”

In a blog post published at the weekend, Ek said Spotify would publish its content guidelines publicly and add a content advisory to podcast episodes that include COVID-19 discussions. He noted that the company hadn't been clear enough about its content policies. Earlier in January, hundreds of doctors, nurses, scientists and educators urged the platform to ""responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation" and adopt a clear policy, in the wake of Rogan's discussion with Malone.

Spotify became the exclusive distributor of The Joe Rogan Experiencein 2020 as part of a multi-year deal worth a reported $100 million. It was the most popular podcast on the platform last year.

Google is making it easier for domestic violence survivors to get help. As of today, people who search for domestic violence and abuse terms in the US will see a box that provides direct contact info for The National Domestic Violence Hotline's 24-hour phone (1-800-799-7233) and chat services. The move is meant to help survivors quickly get assistance, particularly when there's only a brief opportunity to safely request aid.

The hotline is available directly in English and Spanish, and through interpreters for over 200 additional languages. Representatives can also offer internet-specific advice, such as hiding your search history or creating an alternate email account.

The quick-access box is similar to those Google offers for other personal crises, and reflects a familiar goal. Google uses these boxes to provide relevant, trustworthy information that could save valuable time, and the effort will easily be worthwhile if it helps people escape dangerous domestic situations.

Snap may not be particularly keen on the metaverse — at least, not as it’s been articulated by Mark Zuckerberg — but the company’s latest experiment certainly sounds a lot like a version of one. The company is teaming up with Universal to host a virtual concert featuring Jennifer Lopez and Colombian pop singer Maluma, which viewers can watch as their Bitmoji avatars.

The concert itself won’t take place in the Snapchat app, but would-be spectators can access the show by signing into the concert’s dedicated website with their Snapchat login. Users’ Bitmoji avatars will appear as spectators in the crowd. There are also a handful of interactive effects that will be available during the show, including the ability to start “the wave” and trigger a virtual laser effect. Lopez and Maluma will also appear as 3D Bitmoji avatars.

The event, scheduled for February 3rd, is meant to promote the upcoming rom-com Marry Me (also starring Lopez and Maluma), and is expected to last about 10 minutes, according to the company.

Virtual concerts have become one of the earliest examples of a metaverse-like experience. Fortnite’s in-game concerts are often referenced in discussions of what an eventual metaverse will look like. And Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has said he wants the Fortnite publisher to be a leader in the space. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also referenced concerts in the metaverse, writing last year that in the future people may be able to “teleport instantly as a hologram” in order to attend shows.

But Snap executives have talked about the metaverse very differently. Snap AR exec Sophia Dominguez told Engadget in December that the company’s vision for the future is not to “escape into another world” but create experiences that can bridge physical spaces with virtual ones. (Snap CEO Evan Spiegel put it slightly differently, remarking last fall on the dystopic origins of the word metaverse. “I think the basic notion was that you know as the physical world was sort of crumbling in this dystopian future that people would escape into this virtual world — that's not at all a focus for us,” he said referring to Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.)

What’s less clear is if Snap intends for Bitmoji-led concerts to be a regular occurrence like Fortnite has (Live streaming platform Oz is powering the tech behind the show). But if the company’s first big foray into metaverse adjacent experiences is a hit, it’s not difficult to imagine Snap could host more Bitmoji-driven live events.

Battlefield 2042 is flawed, to put it mildly, and the developers are rethinking their schedule to address to address those shortcomings. DICE and EA have officially delayed the game's first season to early summer, and will use the extra time to fix the core experience. The next BF2042 update will bring a revamped, easier-to-digest scoreboard, while better player profiles and long-awaited voice chat functionality are coming "as soon as possible." There will be improvements to squad mechanisms, the ping system, objective rewards and Portal mode, DICE added.

The studio similarly promised a better feedback loop. The BF2042 team will publicly discuss major areas for planned improvement, including its existing strategy. Staff will listen to the community's response to those subjects and roll the feedback into the relevant updates. There will be conversations for smaller refinements, too. This open-book approach certainly isn't new for game creators, but it is an acknowledgment this latest Battlefield didn't match player expectations.

As for season one? DICE is shy on details, but it did promise BF2042 Gold and Ultimate Edition buyers will get a "Steadfast" bundle in return for the wait. The pack will include a melee weapon, player imagery and skins for weapons, a Specialist and a vehicle. While that's a far cry from what's expected from the four intended seasons (including new Specialists), it might be a small comfort for those who spent extra.

HBO Max will soon be available in 15 more countries as part of the platform's gradual global rollout. Folks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia can start using the service starting on March 8th.

Once WarnerMedia flips the switch in those locations, HBO Max will be officially accessible in 61 territories across Europe and the Americas, following its debut in Spain, Andorra and four Nordic nations in October. The service will arrive in six more European countries, including Greece and Turkey, later this year.

Word of the second phase of the HBO Max European rollout comes as AT&T announced more details of its plan to spin off WarnerMedia as a separate company as part of the proposed merger with Discovery. AT&T's shareholders will still own 71 percent of Warner Bros. Discovery (as the new company will be called). They'll receive 0.24 shares for each share of AT&T they own. Existing Discovery shareholders will own around 29 percent of the new endeavor. 

AT&T expects the move to be completed in the second quarter of 2022. There's talk that HBO Max and Discovery+ may be combined into a single service after the deal closes.

Bose's QuietComfort family of headphones is a safe bet for those who want both great sound quality and strong active noise cancellation. You'll have to shell out quite a bit of money for a pair, however right now one of the latest models is back down to a record low. The QuietComfort 45 wireless headphones are on sale for $279, or $50 off and a return to their Black Friday price.

They may not be the slickest looking headphones (the Bose 700 take that title), but the QC45 have plenty of other things to love about them. They're comfortable to wear for hours on end and have handy onboard control buttons, a switch to go from ANC to ambient sound mode, a USB-C port for charging and an impressive 22.5-hour battery life. They pump out clear and balanced sound and Bose managed to improve upon its already stellar ANC. Multiple microphones along with a "proprietary digital chip" in the QC45 help detect and silence more mid-range frequencies, which should quiet things like the subway train you're riding or the sound of someone else's Zoom call nearby.

All of those features lead us to award the QC45 a score of 86 in our review, but the cans come with a few downsides. Aside from the lackluster, albeit comfortable, design, the QC45 don't have automatic pausing and their multi-device connectivity can be frustrating due to the fact that they don't automatically reconnect to a second device after you take a call. But if you can live with those compromises, the QC45 are a solid pair of wireless ANC headphones that are made even better by this sale price.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Pretty soon, you'll no longer have to see those weird reaction texts from your iPhone-using friends. Google has started rolling out a feature for Messages that translates iMessaging "Tapbacks" as emojis, according to 9to5Google. The publication first discovered the experimental feature in a deep dive of the Google Messages beta app last year. It's unclear where it'll come out for the stable version, but If you're using the beta app, you'll get the update that enables it soon enough.

When iPhone users react to messages sent from an Android device, the recipient gets text interpretations of that reaction. A "thumbs up" to a text that says "see you in ten?" will be translated to "liked 'see you in ten?'", for instance. It can make the chat thread a bit cluttered and confusing. 

With this new update, the Android user receives emojis instead, though as 9to5Google notes, they're not exact translations of the actual reactions. A "heart" reacts yields the "face with the heart eyes," for instance, while the exclamation mark reaction sends the recipient the "face with the open mouth" emoji. When you tap on the emoji, a note pops up explaining that it was "Translated from iPhone," along with the sender's name. 

The feature is enabled by default, but users can toggle it off if they want by going to Advanced under the Messages' Settings and switching off "Show iPhone reactions as emoji."

Peloton is once again expanding its fitness equipment, but this time it's focused on tracking your workouts. PCMag and The Verge note Peloton has unveiled a $90 Heart Rate Band that, as the name implies, moves monitoring to your arm. The optical sensor-based wearable is theoretically more comfortable and easier to use than a chest strap (which typically requires precise positioning and a moistened contact point) while remaining accurate. That's particularly important for people whose limb and mobility issues might prevent them from using chest trackers. 

The Heart Rate Band is built to work with Peloton's app and devices, including all Bike and Tread models as well as the Guide camera. You're not locked into the company's ecosystem, though — the armband should support other products that recognize common Bluetooth heart rate monitors. Just be aware there's no ANT+ support.

The band is initially available in the US, Canada, Australia, Germany and the UK. The hardware has been development for a while — Bloombergfound early code for the Heart Rate Band in June 2021.

As The Verge explained, the Heart Rate Band might not be for everyone. While arm-based optical heart rate monitoring is common with smartwatches, it can have problems with some dark skin tones and tattoos. Obesity and loose fits can also cause problems. We'd add that $90 is nearly twice the normal $49 price for Peloton's chest strap. You'll have to really, truly value the convenience of an armband to justify that premium.

Bloodborne, a game famous for being notoriously difficult to beat, was released in 2015 for the PS4 with modern graphics and visuals. Over the past 13 months, though, game programmer Lilith Walther created a version of the title that makes it look like it was released way back in the 90's for the first PlayStation. Bloodborne PSX reimagines the Victorian city of Yharnam in the art style commonly seen in games from that console era. The blocky and pixelated graphics with the colored health bars would sure look very familiar to a generation of gamers who used to play on the PS1. 

The demake only covers some parts of the whole game, but it does give players access to 10 hunter weapons they can use to slay enemies — some even slow down the game's frame rate as one would expect to happen on a real PS1 title. As Polygon notes, Walther posted updates about the undertaking on Twitter for over 13 months, including one wherein she revealed that the music creator for the project remade the Cleric Beast boss music using a real Roland SC-88 Pro for authenticity. 

Bloodborne PSX is now available as a free download for Windows PC. Players can use a keyboard and a mouse for controls, but they can also dust off their old PS1 controllers and use that instead. Those interested can get a glimpse of the demake below.

It's now been three months since Apple brought its own silicon to its pro-grade laptops. As we said in our review, the M1 Pro and Max are fantastically capable chips that offer more than enough performance for the vast majority of users.

But for our explainer show Upscaled, we wanted to go a little deeper, with a suite of benchmarks that really push the Pro and Max to their limits, as well as some requests that our readers really wanted to see. Ever wondered how long it takes to open a 100MB Excel file?

Watch the video above for the full story, and we'll see you for the next episode soon.