Thursday, February 3, 2022

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In the Joe Rogan debate, Spotify is acting like a spectator rather than a player

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 10:40 AM PST

The Joe Rogan Experience was problematic long before Spotify paid a reported $100 million for exclusive rights to the show in 2020. Rogan's tendency to let guests disseminate hideous and demonstrably false viewpoints has attracted criticism before, but as with many things, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the controversy to new heights in recent weeks. On December 31st, Spotify published an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience in which virologist Dr. Robert Malone likened the belief that vaccines are effective to "mass formation psychosis."

A few weeks later, 270 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators sent an open letter to Spotify asking the company to adopt a clear misinformation policy to help curb the spread of dangerous false claims, like those made in that episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.

Over the last few weeks, the backlash to Rogan's podcast has come from others on the platform. Several high-profile musicians, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, pulled their music from Spotify over the platform's dissemination of misinformation. Spotify's Science VS podcast also announced this week that it would only produce episodes that fact-check misinformation spread on the platform until the company made a stronger effort. Author and researcher Brené Brown has paused her Spotify-exclusive podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead as well.

Rogan and Spotify haven't seen a response of this magnitude before, and it shows no signs of abating. Indeed, several of these artists and podcasters chose to remove their content after Spotify publicly shared its content guidelines and announced a plan to add a "content advisory" to any podcast that discusses COVID-19.

In many ways, what Spotify is grappling with right now is the same thing social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have had to confront over the last five years. They're so big that they need to have guidelines around what people post, and accept some degree of responsibility for how they disseminate information. Spotify needs to do the same thing, with the added wrinkle that there's no gray area: By paying artists and podcasters to appear on its platform, the company has a responsibility for the content it puts out. Of course, it's not clear Spotify sees it that way. 

Instead of simply being a podcast player, Spotify has a host of exclusive deals and owns major podcasting studios including Gimlet Media and The Ringer. These financial entanglements mean Spotify has to make tough decisions about how much of a voice it wants to give to potentially objectionable creators like Joe Rogan. As Ashley Carman of The Vergenotes, Apple delisted Alex Jones's Infowars show from its podcasts app, but people could still find his show and listen to it through RSS. But The Joe Rogan Experience is part of an increasingly common closed podcast ecosystem — and any company that participates in such a system could have similarly difficult decisions to make about what creators say on those platforms.

Spotify's response to this controversy has been tepid at best. The content guidelines the company published say nothing about spreading misinformation on the platform, and the COVID-19 content advisory draws a false equivalency between legitimate discussion and incorrect information. It's hard to imagine these moves doing anything to quell the backlash any time soon.

And that backlash is now coming from Spotify employees, as well. The Vergeviewed screenshots from Spotify's internal Slack that showed the company said it reviewed all episodes of Rogan's podcast and found that none met the threshold for removal. This was a response to Spotify employees reportedly being "vocally upset" about Spotify's deal with Rogan and his view on vaccines. And earlier today, Carman and The Vergeonce again published details of an internal Spotify meeting where employees voiced their concerns and where Ek defended his decisions, including Ek insisting that Spotify is simply a platform, not a publisher.

"Everyone's a little upset, especially the people whose initiatives directly contradict what's happening," a source who asked to remain anonymous told Carman. "People are feeling increasingly frustrated that no matter what the company says messaging-wise, or no matter what people's initiatives are, it all kind of ladders up to, 'What's the best for Joe Rogan and Joe Rogan's audience?'"

Ek continued to defend Spotify's relationship with Rogan today, saying that "exclusivity does not equal endorsement," (n.b.: paying money to support something is literally endorsing something) and saying that exclusive deals like the one the company cut with Rogan are what's helping keep the company successful. "To be frank, had we not made some of the choices we did, I am confident that our business wouldn't be where it is today," Ek reportedly said. 

It's hard to imagine Spotify turning its back on Rogan. The Joe Rogan Experience remains an exceptionally popular show, and Spotify made its feelings about Rogan clear when they backed up a dump truck full of cash to have exclusive rights to the show – and they've been steadfast in their defense of him since then. The company knew he was a controversial figure before, and he's so popular that someone else would surely open their wallets for his show if Spotify decided to cut him loose.

It's not impossible that Rogan could do something that would cause Spotify to change its stance. After all, Facebook and Twitter eventually banned the former president of the United States after putting up with years of lies and dangerous rhetoric. And Twitter recently banned Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. But it'll take a lot more than Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulling their music catalogs to make Spotify change course, given its financial investment in Rogan. If Rogan or a guest on his show called for an insurrection at the US capitol — that might move the needle. But short of that, it seems likely that Spotify will likely wait for this current storm to subside and simply move on with the status quo.

Adidas' FWD-02 Sport earbuds are now available for $170

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 09:30 AM PST

Last October, Adidas partnered with Swedish headphone maker Zound, best known for its work with Marshall, to announce three sets of new true wireless earbuds. One of those was the FWD-02 Sport earbuds, which were supposed to launch last year. Following a delay, however, they're finally available starting this month.

Adidas FWD-02
Adidas

As a refresher, the FWD-02 Sport are a pair of runner-friendly earbuds with swappable ear tips and wings, and a force sensor so you can control them while wearing gloves. They're also IPX5 certified so they're resistant to sweat and water. Adidas and Zound claim you can expect up to 6 hours of playtime from the earbuds, with the charging case providing another 19 hours of battery life before you need to head to an outlet.

The case features a mesh top layer, which Adidas said helps the buds dry faster when you need to store them. The FWD-02 also include an Awareness mode that allows ambient sounds to filter through so you can stay safe while using them for outdoor workouts.

At $170, the FWD-02 earbuds face some stiff competition, particularly from Apple's Beats Fit Pro. While they're $30 more expensive, they include active noise-cancellation, a fit a lot of people like and Apple's H1 chip for hands-free access to Siri, one-touch pairing and other iOS-specific features. The lack of ANC isn't a dealbreaker for a pair of sport-focused earbuds like the FWD-02, but it's a feature that more and more people are looking to get on their next pair of headphones.

Netflix will release at least 70 movies in 2022

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 09:20 AM PST

Just like it did last year, Netflix will release at least one movie a week in 2022. There are currently more than 70 films on the docket for this year, and the company offered a peek at some of them in a teaser.

The three-minute sizzle reel is packed with footage from upcoming films, including a first glimpse at Knives Out 2, the sequel to Rian Johnson's terrific 2019 comedy-mystery movie. There are looks at Enola Holmes 2, Jason Momoa as a half-man/half-beast in fantasy flick Slumberland and a stop-motion take on Pinocchio from Guillermo del Toro. You can also get your first peek at The Gray Man, a big-budget thriller from Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo.

Expect to see projects from filmmakers including Judd Apatow, Noah Baumbach, Niki Caro, Sally El Hosaini, Louis Leterrier, Richard Linklater and Tyler Perry, as well as Dev Patel's directorial debut. Among the other films in Netflix's pipeline are sci-fi movies starring Halle Berry (The Mothership) and Adam Sandler (Spaceman) and a new version of Matilda. There is, as always, a broad range of offerings on this year's slate, including action, comedy, drama, horror and family movies. So, there should be something for everyone as Netflix seeks to make sure subscribers are getting their money's worth from its increasingly expensive plans.

Jeff Bezos will have Rotterdam dismantle a bridge so his superyacht can pass through

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 09:10 AM PST

Need proof Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a disconcertingly large fortune? Just ask Rotterdam. Rijnmond and The Washington Post have learned the Dutch city has agreed to temporarily dismantle part of the historic Koningshaven Bridge (often called De Hef) to let his upcoming superyacht, Y721, pass through this summer. City spokeswoman Frances van Heijst didn't yet have a cost estimate, but stressed that shipbuilder Oceanco would cover the costs rather than the city.

As you might imagine, Y721's design is... excessive. With a 417-foot length, three masts and several decks, the vessel is poised to be the world's largest sailing yacht. It's currently under construction in Alblasserdam and is believed to cost about $500 million. If Rotterdam hadn't granted permission to dismantle part of the bridge, Oceanco would likely have needed to sail the partly constructed yacht under the bridge and finish construction at another dock.

The city is also catching some flak over the decision. Koningshaven, built in 1927, was declared a national monument after it was decommissioned in 1994 due to its significance as the first in Western Europe with a central section that raises to allow taller ships underneath. The city finished a three-year restoration of the bridge in 2017, and vowed to never dismantle the bridge again — the Bezos deal breaks that promise in spectacular fashion.

Not that Bezos will necessarily be fazed. Forbesestimates Bezos' net worth at $166.6 billion as of this writing. He could pay for the Netherlands' latest defense budget ($14.3 billion) ten times over and still afford the yacht. To him, dismantling the bridge is effectively a minor inconvenience where it it's a huge affair for virtually everyone else.

GameStop confirms it's building an NFT marketplace

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 07:58 AM PST

As reports suggested last month, GameStop is getting into NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The company has partnered with Immutable X to build a marketplace for NFTs, which they expect to open up later this year. 

People will be able to buy and sell NFTs linked to digital assets for use in various games. The items will include things like virtual real estate, character skins and weapons, according to The Verge.

Immutable X is based on the Ethereum blockchain, which requires significant energy consumption and high gas fees (a cryptocurrency payment that's required to carry out an Ethereum transaction). The platform claims to diminish those drawbacks by combining many NFT sales into a single Ethereum transaction and buying carbon offsets. As such, Immutable X, whose partners include some blockchain games and TikTok, promises zero gas fees and carbon-neutral NFTs.

GameStop and Immutable X are hoping to entice game developers to use the marketplace with the help of a $100 million fund. Whether developers and studios will bite en masse remains to be seen.

For its annual State of the Game Industry Survey, the Game Developers Conference polled more than 2,700 devs. It found 70 percent of them and their studios were not interested in NFTs, while 72 percent had no interest in packing cryptocurrencies into their games. Around 28 percent said they were at least somewhat interested in NFTs.

Over the last few months, some studios, publishers and industry figures have announced NFT projects, only to abandon their plans after a significant backlash. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer GSC Game World, publisher Team17 and prominent game voice and motion-capture actor Troy Baker all backed out of their NFT schemes.

Ubisoft brought NFTs to one of its games for the first time in December, but it seems sales have been slow. Last week, an Ubisoft executive argued that, for gamers, being able to sell virtual items to others is "really beneficial. But they don't get it for now."

Time will tell whether GameStop's latest endeavor, which follows its emergence as a popular meme stock last year, proves successful. The signs aren't looking promising for the marketplace, though. It's worth bearing in mind that the Steam marketplace has allowed players to buy and sell in-game items for many years without the shadow of NFTs looming over it.

NFTs are designed as public records of ownership of digital assets. The notion is that NFT holders own the asset (which include things like music, digital artworks and in-game items), though in reality the NFT is a verified URL that points to the file. The owner of the URL's destination can alter or delete the file in question. This week, artists claimed that HitPiece, which has since gone offline, was minting and selling NFTs of their music without permission.

EPA objects to US Postal Service plan to buy a new gas-powered delivery fleet

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 07:32 AM PST

The Biden administration is determined to eliminate combustion engine vehicles from federal fleets, and it's not thrilled that one agency might be holding it back. According to The Washington Post, the Environmental Protection Agency and White House Council on Environmental Quality have sent letters to the US Postal Service urging it to rethink a proposal to mostly buy gas-powered next-gen delivery trucks in a project worth up to $11.3 billion. The current strategy is a "lost opportunity" to more drastically reduce the carbon footprint of one of the world's largest government fleets, EPA associate policy administrator Vicki Arroyo wrote.

Only 10 percent of the USPS' new trucks would be electric under the existing proposal, and the overall effort would only improve the fleet's fuel economy by 0.4MPG. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy previously claimed the Postal Service couldn't afford more electric mail vehicles, and has argued his agency needs to focus on basic infrastructure improvements over technology. The USPS is required by law to be self-sufficient, and can't simply request government funds.

There may be an uphill battle to make any changes. DeJoy has staunchly refused to alter the purchasing plan, and the USPS rejected California officials' January 28th request for a public hearing on the plans. The service also largely ignored EPA advice when it created the analysis guiding its plan. The environmental regulator accused the USPS of using "biased" estimates that preferred gas-based trucks. The mail institution reportedly assumed battery and gas prices would remain static even decades later, and that the existing charging infrastructure wouldn't grow. It further overestimated the emissions from plug-in vehicles, according to the EPA.

The Postal Service might be forced to change regardless. The EPA has the option of referring its disagreements to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which can mediate disputes like this. The letters gave the USPS a last chance to voluntarily rethink its proposal before the Council stepped in, sources for The Post claimed. Environmental groups are also likely to sue if the gas-centric plan moves ahead, and the law firm Earthjustice told The Post the USPS might lose when its proposal often lacks supporting evidence. You may well see a transition toward mail-carrying EVs, even if the transition is particularly messy.

The EARN IT Act is back, and not much has changed

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 07:30 AM PST

The EARN IT Act is a piece of legislation, first introduced in 2020 by Republican Senator Lindsay Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. Its sponsors, of which there are many, say that the bill will tackle the proliferation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) posted online. Its critics say that the bill uses an emotive subject as cover to force tech companies to further erode online privacy protections and curtail freedom of speech. Much like FOSTA/SESTA before it, the bill's key target is further weakening the legal protections of Section 230 Communications Decency Act, better known as the "26 words that created the internet."

Originally tabled March 5th, 2020, the bill received plenty of bipartisan support in the Senate and was passed to committee soon after. It did not, however, receive a full vote at the time, likely due to the fact that COVID-19 massively disrupted the legislative process. It has now been reintroduced in largely the same form as before, and is being discussed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, February 3rd, 2022.

Broadly speaking, the bill seeks to launch a new national commission, led by a committee of senior law enforcement officials. This body would develop a series of so-called best practices to prevent online platforms distributing CSAM. Any platform that did not adopt these best practices would subsequently lose their immunity provided to them by Section 230. It also places a lot of power to regulate internet providers directly in the hands of state legislatures.

As Engadget explained at the start of 2020, Section 230 gives internet infrastructure providers broad legal immunity from the actions of their users. If you write something that is defamatory on your Facebook page, it'll be you, not Mark Zuckerberg, who has to answer for it. It's this protection from liability that has allowed a wide variety of internet businesses to flourish.

Now imagine what would happen if every online platform was on the hook for everything its users wrote. The ability to write pretty much anything online would disappear within weeks, with only the wealthiest platforms (Facebook) able to survive. Everything that wasn't instantly shut down would be subject to even more overzealous moderation than what's currently in use.

Think about it this way: Imagine if Yelp was itself legally liable to every restaurant which received a bad review on its service. It would either have to shut down, purge every bad review in its database, rendering it useless, or get sued into oblivion in very short order.

One of the bill's more troubling moves is to outsource the key decision-making power to a politically-chosen body. The committee would involve the Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security and appointees with a background in law enforcement. There is an understandable concern that such a group would be unrepresentative in terms of the broader debate around this issue, and unaccountable for the decisions that it reaches.

This lack of accountability and the fact that the bill repeats many of the same mistakes that marked the passage of FOSTA/SESTA, advocacy groups are worried. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), for instance, believe that the law's broad scope could be used to erode basic online freedoms at the whims of politicians. At the time the bill was initially introduced, the Attorney General was William Barr, a prominent critic of encryption. Barr said, many times, that tech companies "can" and "must" put back doors into their products. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said that such a move would enable "law enforcement agencies, from the FBI down to the local police, to scan every message sent online." The fact that the new text explicitly nods that the use of encryption could be a reason to lose liability protection makes this even more troubling. And even if that clause is watered-down, the broad-brush power handed to the committee overall means it just takes a change in leadership and encryption is gone for good.

Part of the broader context around Section 230 is the myth, intentionally propagated by some lawmakers and journalists, that online platforms are censoring conservative voices. Time and again, prominent figures on the right decry outfits like Facebook when it takes down content that violates its terms of service. They say that it's partisan censorship, despite the fact that Facebook has in fact bent overbackwards to accommodate and keep prominent right-wing figures on its site. The attacks on S230 are to be seen as both a political cudgel to ensure major platforms continue to carve out exceptions for prominent Republicans, and as a way of censoring huge swathes of internet speech.

No discussion of Section 230 can exist without talking about the harms created by the passing of FOSTA/SESTA. That bill had a similar aim of weakening the protections of Section 230, passed under the aegis of preventing sex trafficking. Once signed into law in 2018, a number of websites dealing with sex, sex work and sexual education were forced offline. Democrats in 2019 were sufficiently concerned by the fallout from the bill that they unsuccessfully attempted to pass a bill that would study the impact of FOSTA/SESTA on vulnerable individuals.

Freedom Network, a body that works to prevent trafficking, and provide support to its victims, spoke out against EARN IT at the end of 2020. It, along with a number of other groups, backed a letter (.PDF) saying that the bill was flawed and wouldn't succeed in its supposed aims. It said that the bill would repeat the mistakes of FOSTA/SESTA, explaining that "instead of narrowly targeting sex trafficking which used digital platforms, the law de-platformed and erased the existence of many, including sex workers, harm reduction workers and sex educators." It added that the bill could cause disproportionate harm to LGBTQ communities who would be starved of vital educational material and access to a broader community.

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, wrote to Graham and Dianne Feinstein in June 2020 to lodge its own opposition to the bill. It said that "the EARN IT Act not only jeopardizes privacy and threatens the right to free expression but also fails to effectively protect children from online exploitation."

Since the bill has reemerged, these same criticisms have been leveled against it, given that little has changed about its construction. The Center for Democracy and Technology said on Tuesday that its changes "in some cases, makes things worse." It remains to be seen, however, if these criticisms will get through to the politicians who will begin debating the bill in earnest later today.

Canon EOS R3 review: Innovative eye-control focus and speed, for a price

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 06:30 AM PST

After Sony released the A7 III way back in 2018, I wondered if Canon and Nikon could ever catch up to its autofocus and other technology. With the launch of the 24-megapixel EOS R3, however, it's Canon that's on the cutting edge with its "eye control" AF that lets you focus on a subject just by looking at it.

The R3 is also Canon's first camera with a backside illuminated, stacked sensor. That gives it burst shooting speeds in silent mode of up to 30 fps with autofocus and auto-exposure enabled. Plus, it has top flight video specs with RAW capture at 6K up to 60 fps.

Here's the rub, though: For $6,000 it has relatively low resolution, while Canon's own 45-megapixel EOS R5 costs more than $2,000 less. So, who is this camera good for exactly? And is the eye control AF a useful feature, or just a toy? With some help from my pro photographer friends, I spent some time with a final production model to find out.

Body and handling

The first thing you'll notice on the R3 is the big camera grip body that makes it look like a DSLR and mirrorless camera mashup. Much like the 1DX Mark III that inspired it, it has dual controls for both landscape and portrait shooting modes, including a matching shutter button, dials and joystick.

Despite the big body, the EOS R3 is relatively light at 2.3 pounds including a battery and memory card. The 1DX Mark III, by contrast, tips the scales at 3.17 pounds, while the EOS R5 is 1.6 pounds.

As you'd hope for a big camera, it has a big grip. That gives a feeling of security when you're holding it, and it handles great even with big telephoto lenses like Canon's RF 70-200mm f/2.8.

The R3 also packs plenty of dials and buttons so that you can operate the camera without diving into the menus, for the most part. The control layout is similar to the 1DX Mark III and uses the same infrared control button. That lets you set the focus point just by sliding your thumb over it – faster than a joystick, but easier to activate inadvertently until you get used to it.

Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera reivew
Steve Dent/Engadget

A dedicated button lets you switch easily between photo and video modes, while giving you separate settings and menus for each mode. However, it uses the same old Canon menus, which aren't quite as intuitive as on the latest models from Sony, Nikon and Panasonic. You can control it in a variety of ways, though, using the dials, joystick or touchscreen. That makes it quick to get to a setting, once you figure out where it is.

The big 3.2-inch touch display has a crisp 4.15-million dot resolution, nearly double that of the R5. For scrolling through menus, browsing photos and more, it's extremely responsive – much more so than Sony's A1 or any other camera I've tried for that matter. The display also flips out for low-angle shooting or vlogging, though the R3 is a bit heavy for the latter.

The 5.76-million dot OLED EVF is similarly sharp and offers a smooth 120 Hz refresh rate. It doesn't stack up on paper to the 9.4-million dot, 240Hz EVF found on the A1, but I couldn't see much difference between them, to be honest.

It uses the same huge LP-E19 battery from the 1DX Mark III that delivers up to 620 shots on a charge or about two and a quarter hours of 4K 30p video shooting. Depending on how you shoot, you may easily be able to exceed those figures, however.

For storage, you get one fast CFexpress type B and one SD UHS II slot. It's nice to have the SD option if you prefer to shoot with those cards. However, if you want to back up the CFexpress card with SD, it's going to slow performance. Since this is mostly a pro camera, Canon should have offered dual slots for both like Sony does, or perhaps two CFexpress slots.

Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera reivew
Steve Dent/Engadget

It has a new hotshoe interface that supports Speedlite and other flashes along with accessories like Tascam's new XLR 4-channel microphone interface. That finally matches what Sony and Panasonic have offered for years now.

The fiddly micro-HDMI port is not ideal for video shooters, and it's an odd decision considering Canon had space with the R3's big body. It also comes with USB-C for data transfers and in-camera charging, though you'll need another optional accessory if you want to power the camera externally while you shoot.

Now, let's talk about Canon's new eye control feature. It's only really useful if you calibrate it, but luckily that's easy to do – you just stare at five dots. You might need to calibrate it multiple times depending on whether you're wearing glasses and contacts, or even for different environments. Luckily, you can save up to six different settings.

Once it was calibrated, I could select an object to focus on just by looking at it. Even if the eye control circle wasn't quite on a subject, the autofocus would usually select it if it was close. From there, the face, eye or subject tracking would kick in as needed to track the subject.

It worked even in tricky environments with lots of subjects or movement, though it turns off once you hit the focus button and start shooting. It worked fine for me, but didn't function at all for my photographer friend with light blue eyes and an astigmatism. So if you're interested in the feature, you may want to test it out before making a purchase, as the functionality seems to depend on your eye color and other factors.

Performance

Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera review
Steve Dent/Engadget

First and foremost, the EOS R3 is a speed demon. That starts with the shutter, which goes all the way up to 1/64,000th of a second in electronic mode, faster than any other consumer camera. It also supports some of the fastest bursts we've seen, up to 30 fps in silent mode or 12 fps with the mechanical shutter. Unlike some recent Sony models, you get those full speeds with uncompressed and not just lossy RAW files.

You can take a lot of shots in those modes, too. At 30 fps with the electronic shutter, you can shoot 150 shots to an SD UHS II or CFexpress card before the buffer fills, according to Canon. However, I was able to shoot many more than that with a fast CFexpress card, with just a slight reduction in shooting speeds after the 150 frame mark. It'll handle 1,000 RAW uncompressed photos or more with the mechanical shutter before stopping.

The Dual Pixel autofocus can keep up with those speeds too, so I had very few photos that weren't sharp. Face and eye detection is fast and fluid for people, though a bit less reliable for animals or birds. The EOS R has a car tracking feature that's mainly designed for race cars, and unfortunately I didn't have access to a Bugatti Chiron during testing.

Shooting sports is this camera's forte, and at an indoor soccer game with decent lighting, Samuel, the pro photographer I was working with, had only a few out-of-focus shots. It didn't perform quite as well as the A1 did for birds, but it was still better than most cameras I've tried. Overall, the EOS R3 has a very powerful AF system that puts Canon right up there with Sony.

The IBIS system can deliver 8 stops of shake reduction with supported lenses, more than any rival camera. That allowed me to get sharp shots handheld at low shutter speeds when shooting in low light. And thanks to the sensor's fast readout speeds, rolling shutter is well controlled and only noticeable on fast-moving subjects or quick pans.

Image Quality

The EOS R3 may be Canon's best mirrorless camera yet for image quality, particularly when it comes to dynamic range. The new 24-megapixel sensor offers at least a stop more dynamic range than the EOS R5, giving you more room for adjustment with RAW images. JPEGs also look great straight out of the camera, with sharpness and noise reduction well balanced.

Canon's color science is still the best out there, delivering stellar color accuracy and natural skin tones. As usual with Canon, it has a slight bias toward warm tones.

The R3 really shines in low light, too. Noise is nearly non-existent up to ISO 3200, with hardly any noticeable drop in dynamic range. It remains well controlled up to ISO 12,800, and images are usable at ISO 25,600 and even higher if you expose them perfectly.

The biggest downside is the lowish 24-megapixel resolution. With the 45-megapixel EOS R5 or 50-megapixel Sony A1, you can shoot birds or wildlife at a longer distance and still have room to crop in. The R3 is far more limited if you want to retain detail.

Canon EOS R3 camera sample images

Along with my own testing, I loaned the EOS R3 to professional photographer Samuel Dejours from Studio NathSam in Gien France, to get his opinion. "The EOS R3 really handles great, though it's quite heavy. The Sony A1 is our usual camera and it's much lighter," he told me. "However, it does feel better balanced when you use a large telephoto lens. I really liked the infrared autofocus control button; I found it to be much quicker than using the joystick."

"I was excited to try the eye autofocus. However, despite all attempts of calibration, etc., it simply didn't work for me. Perhaps with my light-colored eyes, it didn't work. Hopefully that's something they can fix with a firmware update."

"It was nearly at the same level of the A1 for autofocus, though the A1 was perhaps more rapid for certain types of shooting. It was great for sports, with pretty astonishing speed and AF that almost always nailed focus. In terms of image quality, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the A1 and EOS R3 apart if I didn't know which was which. That makes other things become more important, like the resolution, speed, etc. Overall, it was an excellent experience, and it shows that Canon is really close to Sony for speed, autofocus, video and image quality."

Video

For a sports camera, the R3 is a surprisingly strong for video. You can shoot DCI 6K RAW at up to 60 fps using the full width of the sensor. It also supports full-frame 4K shooting at up to 120 fps using All-I capture, albeit with subsampling that can reduce detail. Both of these modes also require a CFexpress card as SD-UHS II is too slow.

All other 4K modes at 60p, 30p or under support full sensor oversampling, allowing for extremely sharp video with fine detail. You can also use an APS-C crop for natively sampled (pixel-for-pixel) 4K footage that's just a touch less sharp, if you need to zoom in slightly for example.

What about overheating? Luckily, the EOS R3 has far fewer restrictions in that regard than the R5 or R6. Regular, oversampled 4K is not temperature limited, and 6K RAW or 4K 60p is good for at least an hour. 4K at 120 fps does have a 12-minute limit, but that's an exotic use case that would affect very few users. While using the camera, albeit in coldish weather, I received no temperature warnings – even during long takes.

Canon EOS R3 RAW video framegrab
Steve Dent/Engadget

The camera's excellent high ISO performance is handy for video, allowing more flexibility for indoor shooting. Skin tones are natural and colors accurate, even in relatively low light. The R3 also supports Canon Log 3 or PQ, along with RAW or RAW light, letting you max out the dynamic range. That in turn gives you options to create HDR videos or adjust images in post.

Complimenting all that is the Dual Pixel, AI-powered AF. As we've seen before with Canon's system, it reliably nails focus without any hunting or other annoying issues. Eye tracking is generally fluid and reliable as well.

It's not quite as sticky as the AF on Sony's A1, however. It occasionally focused on the background rather than foreground subjects or missed focus altogether. This might be fixable in a future update, though. Keep in mind that the eye control AF function only works with photos and not video.

As for the in-body stabilization with video, it's only really good for stable handheld shooting and you'll need a gimbal for anything else. If you try any sudden moves, the system has a tendency to jolt the image, potentially ruining shots. The electronic IBIS mode helps, but it's not quite as smooth as I've seen on cameras like the A1. Meanwhile, rolling shutter is present, but it's better controlled than on the R5.

Wrap-up

Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera review
Steve Dent/Engadget

The EOS R3 is a speed demon with lowish resolution, solid video chops and a high $6,000 price tag. With that odd mix, it's mainly designed for news or sports journalists. Other users would do better with higher megapixel cameras like the $6,500 Sony A1 or Canon's $3,900 EOS R5.

It's actually Canon's best mirrorless camera yet for video, which is something I didn't expect. Though it doesn't have 8K like the R5, it does offer 6K 60p and has far fewer limitations. It's hard to justify the price for video alone, however, considering other options out there like the A1, $2,500 EOS R6 or Canon's all-new $4,500 EOS R5C cinema camera.

Still, it could be a hit in the pro market if Canon can pry the 1DX Mark III and other DSLRs out of photojournalists' hands. For the rest of us, the EOS R3's awesome speeds and video capabilities are hopefully a preview of what's to come in more affordable models down the road. Most importantly, the innovative eye control AF feature, while limited, shows us that Canon can beat Sony at the technical innovation game when it tries.

How to watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics: A comprehensive streaming guide

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 06:30 AM PST

Due to the delay of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, we're getting two installments of the international games in quick succession. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics begin this week, bringing all of the excitement of cold-weather sports to the warmth of your living room. Every event will be available to watch or stream, and we're here to help you find them.

When do the Olympics start?

NBC's full primetime coverage of the Winter Olympics begins today at 8PM ET (February 3rd). However, competition actually began yesterday with Curling, Alpine Skiing and Hockey events. NBCUniversal's 24/7 highlights channel will also start streaming today at 12AM ET.

While the action kicked off on Wednesday, the opening ceremony doesn't happen until Friday, February 4th at 6:30AM ET. NBC will show it live for the diehards and early risers, but you can also catch the re-air at 8PM ET. The games continue through February 20th when NBC will show the closing ceremony live at 7AM ET with a primetime replay at 8PM ET. These festivities will be broadcast on NBC proper, Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.

How to watch

BEIJING, CHINA - FEBRUARY 02: Victoria Persinger of Team United States competes during the Curling Mixed Doubles Round Robin ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at National Aquatics Centre on February 02, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Justin Setterfield via Getty Images

Like the summer games, NBCUniversal has the broadcast rights in the US. The company has an exclusive deal in place for both summer and winter installments through 2032, thanks to a $7.75 billion extension signed in 2014. As is the case with any Olympics, there are too many events for one network. You can find most of the broadcast coverage on CNBC and USA, which are also NBCU networks.

While USA will host many "high-profile events," NBC says CNBC will primarily show curling and ice hockey. The company also says that since NBC proper has Super Bowl LVI on February 13th, USA will carry the bulk of the coverage that day (Super Bowl coverage begins at noon ET on NBC). If you're looking for primetime viewing, NBC is where you'll want to go. There's also the option to bypass traditional channels entirely and just stream everything on Peacock, NBCU's streaming service.

NBCUniversal says every event will be available live on Peacock at the same time as they air on NBC networks. You'll also be able to watch full-event replays on-demand if the live schedule doesn't work for you, and they'll be available "immediately upon conclusion." Some "must-see moments" will be available on Peacock for free, but for access to everything, you'll need Peacock Premium for either $5 per month (with ads) or $10 a month (ad free). Peacock is available on a host of streaming devices including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast and Roku. You can stream it on smart TVs from LG, Samsung and Vizio as well as Comcast's Xfinity gear and Cox's Contour devices. In terms of game consoles, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro will all give you access to the service.

Germany's bobsleigh team members practice at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Yanqing district on February 2, 2022, ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty Images)
DANIEL MIHAILESCU via Getty Images

You can also stream on the web via NBCOlympics.com or on mobile devices and connected TVs through the NBC Sports app (authentication required). In addition to live coverage from the three networks showing events, NBC says it will offer "enhanced viewing experiences" for select events on these mediums. What's more, livestreams of practice and warm-up sessions will be available alongside highlights, interviews, recaps, "viral moments" and more. NBCOlympics.com will display results, schedules, medal counts, athlete profiles and other info throughout the games.

NBCUniversal also announced it would offer the Winter Olympics in 4K HDR for the first time this year, with immersive Dolby Atmos audio to go along with it. The higher-resolution broadcasts will only be available during primetime and Prime Plus, but will include figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, hockey, bobsled and other sports. In most NBC markets, Prime Plus follows the late local news and shows live events. The company says it will provide the 4K HDR coverage for US distribution partners and allow them to decide how to offer it to customers, so you'll need to check with your television provider to see if it's available. But as you might expect, Comcast, which owns NBCU, will offer 4K HDR and Atmos through its Xfinity X1 service.

Speaking of Comcast, the cable provider is doing its usual Olympics viewing tools for this year's games. Customers can select their favorite sports so that they can find events quickly when the time comes. There's also an interactive schedule with filtering features to assist with any searches and over 50 playlists with highlights, news and more. Comcast says "the viewing experience" will be available on Xfinity X1, Xfinity Flex and XClass TV. What's more, all customers will be able to stream every event through Peacock at no additional cost.

YouTube TV also had a robust streaming hub for the Tokyo Olympics last summer, including the ability to pick your favorite sports and more. So far, the service has only announced that it will offer NBC's 4K broadcasts.

Studio shows and docuseries

Big Air Shougang, a competition venue for freestyle skiing and snowboard is pictured ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, January 30, 2022. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
Fabrizio Bensch / reuters

In addition to mirroring much of the NBCU's network coverage, Peacock will also stream four exclusive daily shows for more in-depth viewing. The Olympics Show will highlight all of the "must-see moments" each morning, with athlete interviews and event previews mixed in. Olympic Ice is what NBCU is calling "essential viewing for figure skating fans." From 10AM-11AM ET each day, you'll get detailed analysis that includes score breakdowns, practice reports and more. Winter Gold follows immediately after, with an hour-long "comprehensive look at the most compelling performances of the day." Lastly, Top Highlights streams from 8PM to 8AM ET to catch you up on anything you might have otherwise missed.

NBCU has also produced several Olympics-theme docuseries that are available on Peacock. Meddling goes inside the figure skating scandal during the 2002 games in Salt Lake City while Picabo tells the story of gold-medal skier Picabo Street. The US Men's Curling team, fan favorites during the 2018 Olympics, are profiled in American Rock Stars.

For a look at the full schedule of events for watching in the US, visit NBCOlympics.com.

2022 Paralympic Winter Games

People walk past a display of the logos of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing, China, January 14, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Thomas Peter / reuters

NBCUniversal also has the US broadcast rights to the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games and the company says it's planning "its most ambitious effort ever" for the cold-weather event. That includes over 230 hours of coverage, and 120 of those will be broadcast on television. Once again, Peacock will stream every event while USA and Olympic Channel will show "daily coverage." USA will also broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies live. NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app are alternative spots to view every event on desktop, mobile devices, tablets and connected TVs (authentication required). The Paralympic Winter Games begin March 4th.

BBC in the UK

As is the case with the summer games, BBC owns the rights to the Olympics in the UK. The broadcaster has over 300 hours of live coverage planned on BBC One and BBC Two with a secondary livestream on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and on the web. You can expect daily highlights on BBC Two and BBC Three while the BBC Sport app and website will offer on-demand clips, news and Radio 5 Live updates for all of the "big moments." Coverage begins at 12:00 GMT on February 2nd via BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and the BBC Sport website and mobile app. BBC One coverage begins February 4th at 11:30 GMT with the opening ceremony.

Elsewhere around the world

For broadcasters carrying the Olympics outside of the US and UK, see the full list here for where you can watch in your country.

Tesla recalls more than 817,000 cars over faulty seat belt chimes

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 06:16 AM PST

Tesla is once again grappling with large-scale software quality issues. The Associated Pressreports Tesla has issued a recall for 817,143 cars over a flaw in seat belt chime functionality. All Model 3 and Model Y cars, as well as 2021 and newer Model S and Model X cars, have a "software error" that prevents the chime from sounding on startup if the chime was interrupted and the seat belt wasn't fastened. You could run into the problem just by closing the door just after leaving the vehicle, according to the recall notice.

The automaker plans to fix the seat belt chime bug by releasing an over-the-air update sometime in early February. There are no reports of injuries, and the visual seat belt alert still appears properly. South Korean testers first discovered the problem on January 6th, and Tesla decided a recall was necessary on January 25th following an investigation.

While this recall is relatively minor, its timing couldn't be much worse for Tesla. It comes just a few days after a recall for a Full Self Driving bug, and while the NHTSA is investigating a string of incidents where cars using Autopilot crashed into emergency vehicles. A driver is facing felony charges for an Autopilot-related crash, too. That's on top of recalls for physical problems like camera, trunk and suspension defects. Tesla doesn't have a stellar reputation for quality at the moment, and the seat belt chime fault only reinforces that image.

With its mid-season finale, ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ charts a new course

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 06:00 AM PST

The following contains minor spoilers for episode ten of 'Star Trek: Prodigy.'

One thing that's become increasingly common among genre shows is the idea of the "mid-season finale," where a program goes on hiatus for a bit, but not before shaking things up for the rest of the year. Even children's shows like Star Trek: Prodigy can't escape from this phenomenon, as the Paramount+ cartoon takes a break (again) after a huge two-parter with big changes for the characters and central conflict.

The first season has so far been a long chase between the escaped prisoners aboard the USS Protostar and their former captor, the Diviner. Last week's cliffhanger forced the crew to surrender their ship to the Diviner in exchange for the lives of their fellow prisoners from the prison colony Tars Lamora, leaving them stranded on the Diviner's sabotaged ship, the REV-12. But it turned out that our erstwhile teens had a plan to take their ship back, and this week's installment sees that plan come to fruition. It's an enjoyable, though largely unsurprising, adventure.

STAR TREK: PRODIGY: Ep#110 -- Ella Purnell as Gwyn, Kate Mulgrew as Janeway and John Noble as The Diviner in STAR TREK: PRODIGY streaming on Paramount+. Photo: Nickelodeon/Paramount+©2022 VIACOM INTERNATIONAL. All Rights Reserved.
Nickelodeon

Where the show upends things is when it comes to our villain, whose mission is finally revealed to his daughter Gwyn and thus, the audience. And yes, it involves time travel. Most interesting of all is that the Diviner's storyline is backburnered if not completely scuttled now, with the Protostar crew instead focused on getting to the Federation. And it was intended that way all along — these episodes were written over two years ago, before the pandemic started. In fact, showrunners Kevin and Dan Hageman revealed this week in an interview with Engadget that they just wrote episodes 39 and 40. That would be the end of season two, which was only announced back in November.

The long lead time is due to the lengthy animation process, though it also has the knock-on effect of making the show unresponsive to fan concerns, which is exactly how the Hagemans prefer it. The lengthy production time keeps them beholden to the writer's room and not a vocal online minority, a phenomenon that has derailed other franchises (most notably Star Wars). For the Hagemans, their most important audience is kids, but not in a way that talks down to children. The decision to set the series so far from explored Federation space is part of keeping it accessible to newcomers, while also freeing it from any constraints imposed by any of the concurrently running Trek programs on Paramount+ like Picard.

STAR TREK: PRODIGY: Ep#110 -- Jimmi Simpson as Drednok in STAR TREK: PRODIGY streaming on Paramount+. Photo: Nickelodeon/Paramount+©2022 VIACOM INTERNATIONAL. All Rights Reserved.
Nickelodeon

But even as it remains kid friendly, the Hagemans told Engadget that they want to create the kind of moments that "[stick] to your bones," like seeing "ET dead on the table." They want the show to have an impact, and this week's scene with Zero is hopefully one of those.

Another inspiration for this season of Prodigy comes from a less sci-fi, more action-oriented source: the 1993 film The Fugitive. Not so much in the idea that we'll see a lot of train explosions, but more in the sense that there's no real villain in the central conflict. The plot arc will involve Starfleet trying to get the Protostar back, and the kids having to keep it away due to what happened in this week's episode. It's just two well-meaning groups with different goals, something I've personally noticed in a lot of media lately and a premise that the Hagemans believe it's important for kids to see.

STAR TREK: PRODIGY: Ep#110 -- Brett Gray as Dal in STAR TREK: PRODIGY streaming on Paramount+. Photo: Nickelodeon/Paramount+©2022 VIACOM INTERNATIONAL. All Rights Reserved.
Nickelodeon

It's also important to them to see the kids grow and adapt to their situation, especially as they're being tasked with situations that even Starfleet-trained officers would struggle with: "You see kids dealing with a lot of emotions; a lot of things are coming at them, and there's times when you feel crippled, and that's something you see in adolescence." We've already seen some significant character growth for Rok-Tahk, and the Hagemans promise that the characters will age for whatever number of seasons the show gets. And even Murf gets a plot arc, one that "is not about what Murf is … more like where does Murf go; what does Murf become?"

Murf fans only have to wait for the next 10 episodes, at least. The rest of the season will see the crew finding out what the Diviner did to their ship, and how it puts the Federation out of reach. I've previously noted how the series showcases its technology by focusing on the have-nots, something on display this week as the prisoners of Tars Lamora finally get access to the universal translator tech that so impressed the Protostar crew early on. And, while the ship has seemed a bit overpowered compared to the other 24th century tech we've seen in other shows, the Hagemans promise it will still be limited in some ways, and the ship won't be "zapping around at their will." 2383 technology may have proved life-changing for Prodigy's crew, but going forward the program can now showcase how it can also be fun.

Apple's AirPods Pro are on sale for $180 today only

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 05:40 AM PST

The AirPods Pro may not have received the major update that the standard earbuds did last year, but they're still the model with the best sound quality. Plus, they now come with a MagSafe charging case, which is a great perk. Today only, you can grab a pair of AirPods Pro for $180, or 28 percent off their normal price. While not the all-time low we saw last Black Friday ($159), it's still a good deal for this time of year — and lower than Amazon's current going rate of $197.

Buy AirPods Pro at Woot - $180

You probably know the deal about AirPods Pro by now, but in case you need a refresher: these earbuds have a more comfortable design thanks to their interchangeable tips and the sound quality is much better than other Apple earbuds. They have a built-in amplifier and support Adaptive EQ, which automatically tunes frequencies to each user's ear. Their active noise cancellation does a good job of blocking out most surrounding noises and you can use Transparency mode to jump in and out of conversations when necessary. We also like that audio automatically pauses when you take one of the buds out of your ear, so you won't miss a beat.

And like other Apple earbuds, the AirPods Pro have the H1 chip inside, which enables things like hands-free Siri access and quick pairing. If you use a lot of Apple devices, the AirPods Pro will also automatically switch to the gadget you're currently using — that means you can take a call from your iPhone and go back to listening to music from your Mac seamlessly. You can expect the Pros to last about five hours before needing a recharge, and their MagSafe case lets you use magnetic wireless chargers to power them up.

They may not be as cheap as they were on Black Friday, but those deep discounts are hard to come by outside of the holiday shopping season. Woot's one-day sale is a good one to consider if you've had your eye on the Pros for a while. Just remember to check out the site's return policy, as it differs greatly from that of its parent company, Amazon.

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

Amazon workers at second New York location move to unionize

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 05:19 AM PST

Workers at LDJ5, an Amazon warehouse facility on New York's Staten Island, have filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board. It's the second facility Staten Island to make an attempt at forming a union after JFK8, and it's also seeking to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union, an independent group comprised of current and former company employees. According to CNBC, the ALU filed the petition on Wednesday. 

The ALU originally filed to form a union last year for JFK8 and three other nearby facilities, but it had to withdraw its petition after it failed to gather enough votes to proceed. It refiled its application in December, however, and focused only on JFK8. Former Amazon employee and ALU leader Christian Smalls said back then that the group was "taking a different approach" and hoping that it has "more than enough" support from employees in the facility. Smalls led a walkout at JFK8 over the e-commerce giant's handling of COVID safety at the warehouse. Amazon said he was fired after "multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines."

In late January, the ALU collected enough signatures to proceed with a union election vote at JFK8, a feat the e-commerce giant doubts. Reaching the threshold means the ALU was able to secure the support of 30 percent of the warehouse's workforce. Amazon told Engadget in a statement when the news broke that it's "skeptical that there are a sufficient number of legitimate signatures" and that it's "seeking to understand how these signatures were verified." An election has been set for JFK8 on February 16th. As for LDJ5, the ALU still will have to collect enough signatures from its 1,500 workers for an election to be able to proceed.

Anyone can sign up for Google's Workspace Essentials using their work email

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 05:00 AM PST

Google thinks it has a way to break the lock rivals like Microsoft have on the office landscape: let employees take (some) matters into their own hands. The company has introduced a free Workspace Essentials Starter Edition you can use just by signing up with your work email. You won't get Gmail services, but you will get access to Chat, Docs, Drive, Meet, Sheets and Slides.

There's no subtlety involved in Google's rationale. It's betting Workplace Essentials Starter will help teams improve collaboration, even if their employers use "legacy productivity tools" that weren't designed for remote and hybrid offices. To put it another way, Google is hoping you'll skip your company's old Microsoft Office suite in favor of Workspace the next time you start a project.

This might not be very persuasive if your company already relies on a cloud-based service like Microsoft 365. It's also safe to say this won't fly if your employer has strict policies on the tools you're allowed to use — your boss might not appreciate you going rogue to finish a quarterly report. Google clearly hopes at least some workers will be tempted, though, and it wouldn't be surprising if the Starter Edition leads to some companies supplementing or even replacing existing tools following demand from rank-and-file staff.

The Morning After: The verdict on Samsung's Galaxy S21 FE

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 04:15 AM PST

While we're all waiting for the Galaxy S22 to break cover, Samsung's latest Fan Edition smartphone seems a little late to the party. The Galaxy S21 FE lands a full year after the original S21, with similar looks and specs — if a reduced price of entry. The camera isn't quite as capable as the S21, but the FE has a bright 120Hz screen and decent battery life. You win some, you lose some.

TMA
Engadget

The big issue remains that Samsung is so close to revealing its next flagship. Even if you're a huge fan of these Fan Editions, a true fan would wait to see what the S22 has to offer. Check out our full review of the S21 FE right here.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Mark Zuckerberg's bet on the metaverse is off to an expensive start

Meta's Reality labs division lost $10 billion in 2021.

The company formally known as Facebook lost just over $10 billion on its Reality Labs division in 2021, according to its Q4 earnings report. "This fully realized vision is still a ways off," Zuckerberg said of Meta's metaverse investments. It's the first time the company has shared the financial performance of the AR and VR division central to its metaverse ambitions (Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014).

Combined with flat user growth and continued hits to its advertising business, the company's Q4 results sent Meta's stock into a nosedive yesterday.

Continue reading.

SpaceX launches premium satellite internet ​​with speeds up to 500 Mbps

You'll pay for the privilege, however.

TMA
SpaceX

SpaceX has revealed a new tier for its Starlink satellite internet service, with higher performance but costing $500 a month compared to $99 per month for the standard plan. You'll also pay $2,500 for the antenna and other hardware, compared to $499 for base plan. Starlink Premium will offer speeds between 150 and 500 Mbps with 20 to 40 milliseconds of latency, up from 50 to 250 Mbps with the same latency.

Continue reading.

Sony drops PlayStation 5 sales forecast again due to chip shortage

It's well behind where the PS4 was at the same stage.

Sony is still struggling to make enough PlayStation 5 consoles to keep up with demand. During its key holiday fiscal quarter, it shipped 3.9 million units for a total of 17.3 million since launch, the company said in its earnings report. That's considerably behind the 20.2 million units the PS4 had managed at the same point in its life cycle.

Continue reading.

Spotify CEO admits content policy should've been public before now

"While Joe has a massive audience, he also has to abide by those policies."

TMA
Engadget

Spotify reported its Q4 2021 earnings today, and while the numbers showed a strong close to last year, the issue at the front of everyone's mind is Joe Rogan. CEO Daniel Ek began his prepared remarks by broadly addressing the company's "few notable days." Ek explained Spotify is working to combat misinformation and that there's still work to be done.

During the Q&A portion of the earnings call, he was directly asked about The Joe Rogan Experience. "We're trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users," Ek said. He also admitted that Spotify was late in publishing its content policy and took sole responsibility for not doing so sooner: "We should've done it earlier and that's on me."

Continue reading.

The pandemic is bringing out the worst in Yelp reviewers

The site has shared new stats on 'review bombing.'

Yelp is sharing new stats on the backlash some businesses have faced due to pandemic safety measures, like mask requirements. The company says it took down more than 15,500 reviews for violating the company's COVID-19 guidelines in 2021. That's a 161 percent increase compared with the same period in 2020, when the company first implemented new policies regarding COVID-19 related content.

Yelp has had to navigate a big spike in "review bombing" due to pandemic-related restrictions. Nearly 25 percent of all "unusual activity alerts" — when a business' page sees a sudden influx of reviews that "appear motivated by a recent news event rather than actual consumer experiences" — were related to the pandemic.

Continue reading.

Twitter is testing a new 'Articles' feature

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 03:45 AM PST

Twitter increased its character limit over the years from 140 to 280 to give users more leeway with what they want to say. That's not always enough, though, which is why the term "tweetstorm" to indicate a series of interconnected tweets was coined. People also sometimes post images of lengthy statements instead. Based on a new discovery by Jane Manchun Wong, though, Twitter is working on a new feature that would cater to the needs of those who want to share their thoughts on the website in one lengthy article. 

Manchun Wong, known for finding experimental features within apps, discovered the existence of a "Twitter Articles" tab. The name itself signifies a long-form format for the social network that has long only allowed people to post bite-sized text messages, but its exact nature is a mystery for now. It's also unclear whether it will be available to everyone, if it does make it to wide release, or if it will be exclusive to Twitter Blue subscribers. 

Not everyone's keen on the idea either. Someone pointed out that it might reduce engagement on Twitter, since a thread of tweets often get multiple reactions and responses from the same users. A Twitter spokesperson told CNET that the company is "always looking into new ways to help people start and engage in conversations" and that it will share more soon. 

HitPiece takes its NFT music platform down following artist outrage

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 03:09 AM PST

A website called HitPiece that has been selling music-related NFTs has temporarily closed after artists accused it of appropriating their work without permission, Rolling Stone has reported. Outraged social media posts were issued recently from artists including Jack Antonoff, Eve 6, and Sadie Dupuis. "Any [Bleachers] NFTs are fake," Tweeted Jack Antonoff. "I do not believe in NFTs so anything you see associated with me isn't real."

The HitPiece website is apparently built on top of Spotify's API. Before shutting down, it appeared to be offering NFTs of songs and albums from the likes of John Lennon and BTS, including photos and album artwork, according to the Internet Archive. 

Like many other NFT business models, however, it's not clear what HitPiece was selling, exactly. "This particular grift doesn't really affect artists in that HitPiece wasn't even selling files of the songs — just the receipt of purchase to the general idea of them," Infant Island guitarist and grad student Alex Rudenshiold told Rolling Stone. "It's still copyright infringement. It's re-commodifying the metadata (art, song and album titles, etc.) to make money without permission." 

HitPiece, founded by former indie label owner Rory Felton, issued a statement. "Clearly we have struck a nerve and are very eager to created the ideal experience for music fans," it said on Twitter. "To be clear artists get paid when digital goods are sold on Hitpiece. "We are continuing to listen to all user feedback and are committed to evolving the product to fit the needs of the artists, labels and fans alike." 

However, artists are skeptical of HitPiece's claim that they will be paid. "They steal your music, auction NFTs of it on their site, and when they get caught they say don't worry you 'get paid,'" the group Deerhoof tweeted. "I get that corporate types are simply greedy and cruel on principle but what kind of mind could even imagine that doubletalk like this could somehow make it OK?"
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