Friday, March 25, 2022

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Google Fiber workers successfully Unionize in Kansas City

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 12:27 PM PDT

In a tally with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this afternoon, Google Fiber customer service workers — jointly employed by Google parent Alphabet and staffing agency BDS Connected Solutions — voted 9 to 1 to form a union. They'll be represented by the Alphabet Workers Union, an arm of the Communications Workers of America.

Workers at the store, which operates out of Kansas City, Missouri, told Engadget back in January that they were feeling left out of important workplace conversations, especially around safety and staffing. 

This story is developing...

GTA Online's upcoming monthly subscription gives perks to frequent players

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 12:21 PM PDT

Now that GTA Online is available on the latest consoles, Rockstar wants to spice up the service for its most dedicated players. The developer is launching a $6 per month GTA+ subscription that provides regular perks for GTAO players on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. You'll get $500,000 in virtual cash each month, unlocks for past game updates, vehicle upgrades and other bonuses. You can also buy improved Shark Cards with real money to get more bonus in-game cash. 

In the first month, you'll receive a supercar with an early-access upgrade, three wardrobe items, waived LS Car Meet Membership fees and multiplied bonuses for two race series, among other extras. You'll need to claim benefits before they expire.

Rockstar said events will carry on "as normal" for all players, so you won't find yourself locked out of key content if you'd rather play for free. Whether or not GTA+ is a good thing isn't clear, though. While it may represent a better value than spending real money every time you want a boost for in-game currency, it might also leave you at a disadvantage if you can't justify the monthly fee or a hardware upgrade.

Spotify will 'fully suspend' service in Russia

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 11:22 AM PDT

Spotify is shuttering more of its Russian operations in response to that country's invasion of Ukraine. In a statement to Variety, the company said it would "fully suspend" service in Russia for an indefinite period. While the music streamer initially believed it was important to keep some service running to provide "trusted, independent" information, it was concerned that recent laws restricting free speech and accurate news reporting would put the safety of staff and listeners "at risk."

The company already halted access to its paid Premium service earlier in March, and removed content from state-backed Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik. This latest move will cut off free service.

The further withdrawal likely won't hurt Spotify's finances to a significant degree, but it might limit the company's influence in Russia. While the country only represents 1 percent of Spotify's total revenue, Deloitte estimated the service was the second-largest streaming music service with 36 percent share in 2021. That's no small feat when Spotify only reached Russia in July 2020, and Sensor Tower noted that there had already been nearly 15 million installs across Apple's App Store and Google Play.

Rivals have already taken action to varying degrees. Apple halted all product sales in Russia in early March, while Deezer stopped service around the same time. Spotify was an outlier in that regard, and was facing mounting pressure to cut off all access and show its support for Ukraine.

PlayStation's answer to Game Pass may launch next week

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 10:55 AM PDT

You might not have to wait much longer to see Sony's response to Microsoft's Game Pass. Bloombergsources claim Sony is introducing its rumored "Spartacus" service, which combines PlayStation Now game access and PlayStation Plus online features, as soon as next week. The service will launch with a "splashy" collection of recent hit games, the tipsters said, but you might not see blockbuster games arrive on the service the same day as they're available for purchase. Don't expect to play the upcoming God of War Ragnarok right away.

There were no new leaks for pricing. Bloomberg previously mentioned three tiers that would include a $10 per month Essential offering identical to PlayStation Plus, a $13 Extra level with access to a Game Pass-style catalog of "hundreds" of downloadable games and a $16 Premium Tier that adds PlayStation Now's game streaming and pre-release game trials.

Spartacus might not be vital to Sony's bottom line. PlayStation console sales still comfortably outperform the Xbox, with Ampere Analysis estimating that PS5 numbers were 1.6 times higher than for the Xbox Series X/S in 2021. However, Game Pass has quickly become a major selling point for the Xbox — a monthly fee provides access to a growing selection of games, including blockbusters like Halo Infinite. The PlayStation equivalent could make Game Pass seem less appealing and keep some players from switching platforms.

‘Halo’ wishes it was ‘The Mandalorian’

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 10:17 AM PDT

Halo's TV adaptation doesn't waste any time differentiating itself from the popular game franchise. We open in a rebel village bar, where patrons are discussing the evil UNSC (United Nations Space Command) and boogey-man like Spartans. It could easily be a scene from Firefly, the short-lived series about plucky folks fighting for freedom against an authoritarian central government. In short order, a group of Covenant aliens attack, leading to a bloody massacre where limbs are blown off, skulls take serious damage and an entire room of children is murdered. It's not too long before Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber), our hero clad in glorious green armor, appears and wipes out the alien threat with a unit of super-human Spartan soldiers with brutal yet elegant efficiency.

Spoilers ahead for Halo on Paramount+.

The core Halo games were always rated M for Mature by the ESRB, but they never felt as gory as the Paramount+ show's opening. When you're playing as Master Chief, you feel like a one-man army going on a fun intergalactic adventure. The TV series instead begins by focusing on people usually ignored by the games. Only one survivor is left from that rebel village, a teenaged girl named Kwan Ah. But instead of being cared for by the Spartans and their UNSC and United Earth Government overseers, she's treated as a prisoner. While the Halo games have typically treated the UEG as a sort of benevolent authoritarian regime, the show frames the military government as controlling and villainous.

That may end up turning off the franchise's most diehard fans, but it's a more honest representation of what the UNSC represents. Master Chief quickly learns that he can't trust his leaders either. After touching an alien artifact, he begins to have flashbacks to a former, pre-soldier life. While the show isn't quick to jump into his origins, Halo fans know the history of the Spartan soldiers is rife with controversy. Master Chief, and other members of his cohort, were actually kidnapped as children, genetically modified and trained to be battle-hardened super soldiers. While the games rarely wrestled with the horrors and complexity of that program, the lore-heavy Halo novels filled in the gaps.

Halo on Paramount+
Paramount+

What's most interesting about the Halo series is that it's confronting that backstory head-on. When we first meet Master Chief, he's the ultimate soldier we're familiar with. But when the UNSC orders him to kill Kwan Ah, he hesitates and does something we've never seen in the games: He takes off his helmet. Instead of killing the defenseless teen, Master Chief goes rogue. The super soldier starts to think for himself.

Unfortunately, the interesting elements of Halo are somewhat outweighed by the show's simplistic writing, stiff acting and sometimes dodgy special effects. If it came out in 2015, when wefirst expected it to arrive on Showtime, it would be more impressive. But now we're practically living through a golden age of sci-fi TV.The Mandalorian (and to a lesser extent, The Book of Boba Fett), is giving us several episodes of big-budget Star Wars action annually!Foundation on Apple TV+ isn't the Asimov story as we know it, but it looks incredible. The Expanse skillfully brought an epic book series to life. And even Ridley Scott is dabbling in science fiction again withRaised by Wolves.

It also doesn't help that, at its core, Halo feels like a retread of The Mandalorian's riff on Lone Wolf and the Cub in space. Kwan Ah isn't a child, but she's a defenseless innocent who's being protected by a tough-guy space loner who's forced to go against his superiors. Whatever made Halo seem unique several years ago just doesn't exist anymore.

Halo on Paramount+

Still, it's astounding that the show exists at all. The live-action adaptation wasfirst announced in 2013 as a collaboration between 343 Industries and Amblin Entertainment, with Steven Spielberg himself joining as a producer. Kiki Wolfkill, 343's head of Halo transmedia, tells Engadget that the key element to getting the series off the ground was "patience." The studio wasn't rushing to get the series on TV, instead 343 wanted to take its time to get the adaptation right.

Halo finally started to rev up in 2018 with Kyle Killen joining as a writer/showrunner, who was later joined by Steven Kane in 2019. The original director, Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), was eventually replaced by Otto Bathurst (Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders), which pushed production even further. And once they finally started shooting in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced another delay. Instead of being a premium cable highlight, it became a flagship series for Paramount+ last year.

Despite the fits and starts, Wolfkill says the pandemic delay ultimately helped the creative team regroup and discover some unsustainable aspects of production. At one point, she said, there were five directors shooting episodes at the same time. Taking a break also allowed the VFX teams to catch up on a backload of work. Now that Paramount+ has already ordered a second season, Wolfkill says the team is also better prepared to deal with bringing the world of Halo to life. For example, they know that the live-action Master Chief can't unholster his gun from his back like he does in the game – that has to be VFX work instead.

While the Halo series exists on a separate "Silver" timeline from the games, Wolfkill says we may see some crossover between the mediums eventually. But when I asked if we'll ever see an unmasked Master Chief in the games, Wolfkill was quick to say "pretty categorically no." As she says, "that's a different experience and that Chief is owned by all of us, so we'd never want to impede on that."

Roberta and Ken Williams are back after 25 years with 'Colossal Cave 3D Adventure'

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 09:30 AM PDT

Roberta and Ken Williams are back. After 25 years out of the video game industry, the legendary founders of Sierra On-Line are working on a new project with an old twist – they're rebuilding the classic text-based game Colossal Cave Adventure as a 3D experience with a VR component.

Maybe that's an old project with a new twist, but regardless, Colossal Cave 3D Adventure is a complete reimagining of the original title and it's due to come out this fall for PC and Quest 2 VR headsets. Not only will this new interpretation add graphics to the text adventure, but it'll be in first-person 3D, with details filled in by the minds that brought us King's Quest and Phantasmagoria.

In traditional Williams fashion, Ken is in charge of the code as chief engineer, while Roberta is creative director, building the narrative and working across all aspects of the project. There are 16 people on their team at Cygnus Entertainment and they've all worked together remotely through the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We've had our stressful moments," Roberta said. "There have been moments that Ken and I have said, what are we doing? Why did we do this? And other moments are just really exhilarating and exciting. I've learned a lot, Ken has learned a lot. We have a really good team and I'm just so excited to have met them – not in person – but they're very experienced in 3D graphics and programming."

Colossal Cave 3D Adventure
Cygnus Entertainment

That last bit is especially important, considering 3D development is a new arena for Roberta and Ken, who are best known for '80s and '90s narrative adventures and full-motion video titles. It's been a quarter of a century since they last stepped into the world of game development, and they're jumping straight into VR and Unity, a 3D development platform.

By her own admission, Roberta hasn't even played games for the past 25 years. She and Ken have kept tabs on the industry, but mostly, they've been checked out.

"It was like, if we thought about it too much, we could be drawn back in," Roberta said.

Instead of staring at computer screens and dreaming of digital worlds, Roberta and Ken spent 15 years traveling the planet on a 60-foot boat. They would land wherever they wanted and spend a few months, half a year, in one spot before hopping back on the trawler and sailing to a new location. Ken wrote four books about their travels during this time, plus another one about Sierra On-Line; Roberta wrote a historical novel about the Great Famine in Ireland.

"Which didn't sell as well as his book," Roberta said, laughing. "But anyway, after that we were looking for something to do and I noticed that Ken was doing a lot of YouTube tutorials on some sort of 3D engine, some sort of 3D programming language."

She didn't think much of it at first. Ken outlined a game idea he was toying with, where players would learn programming as they went, building simple experiences within his digital ecosystem. Kind of like Roblox, but with more emphasis on learning real-world programming skills.

"He was telling me this and he had some ideas on how to do it and make it fun," Roberta said. "And I said, well, will it be fun?"

Ken assured her it would be, but she wasn't convinced. That night when she was in bed, mulling over her husband's dull-sounding idea, Colossal Cave Adventure popped into her head.

"I remember laying there and thinking, why did it do that?" she said. "You know, it's like, is this a sign?" In the morning, Roberta brought her late-night revelation to Ken.

"I hadn't really wanted to get back in the industry, but I just suddenly felt this urge, almost kind of like when I sat down and did Mystery House," Roberta said. "And I don't know why, and I mentioned it to him and I saw his eyes kind of light up."

Colossal Cave 3D Adventure
Cygnus Entertainment

Mystery House was Sierra On-Line's debut game and when it landed in 1980, it was the first-ever graphic adventure. Roberta mapped out Mystery House in a quiet frenzy after playing the original Colossal Cave Adventure, a text-only game, in the late 1970s – as an avid reader, she was inspired by its interactivity and narrative heft, and her imagination got to work. She acquired a giant piece of paper from a local stationery store and started drawing rooms, connecting them and finding creative ways to get from one area to another. This ended up being the flowchart for Mystery House, and Ken, an avid programmer, brought it to digital life.

"Colossal Cave is the game that started Sierra On-Line," Roberta said. "It started my career."

Colossal Cave Adventure creators Don Woods and Will Crowther never copyrighted their work, which means anyone can do what they want with the IP, including the Williamses. Still, they got on the phone with Woods himself to ask permission, and the original developer had one request: Never try to copyright it. Keep the Colossal Cave franchise open, unowned and free for anyone to play with.

Roberta and Ken agreed, and they got to work. In June 2021, they revealed there was a new, secret game in development at their studio, Cygnus Entertainment. Colossal Cave 3D Adventure is due to come out this fall, primed to capture the imaginations of a new generation of players.

Overcast app's big redesign helps it compete with Apple Podcasts

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 09:00 AM PDT

Marco Arment's Overcast has long served as an alternative to Apple Podcasts with features you don't often see elsewhere, but there's little doubt Apple has stepped up its game in recent years — and Arment has redesigned his app to match. The newly released (and still free) Overcast 2022.2 for iOS centers around a major interface rework that better reflects how you listen to podcast episodes. You'll now have quick access to new and recently played podcasts from the home screen, and you can pin must-listen shows. You can also filter your podcast list to look at actively updated shows, all shows or even inactive productions.

The revamp also includes a few much-needed management tools. You can finally mark a podcast as played — yes, Apple and others have provided this for a while. You can also create playlists that only show starred, downloaded and in-progress episodes. If you're fond of personalization, you can customize the look and order of playlists as well as the color of playback controls.

These additions won't necessarily persuade you to ditch Apple Podcasts if you're already heavily invested. Some of them are more catch-up features than unique selling points. However, they might make Overcast more compelling if you're either frustrated with Apple's app or didn't want to give up a few must-have features just to use Overcast-specific perks like voice boosting and dead air reduction.

Apple's AirPods Pro drop to $175, plus the rest of the week's best tech deals

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 08:45 AM PDT

A slew of gadgets went on sale this week and many remain discounted as we head into the weekend. A number of Apple devices are on sale right now, including the AirPods Pro for $175, the iPad mini for $459 and the new iPad Air with the M1 chipset for $570. Elsewhere, Amazon's Fire HD 8 table is half off, while Sony's excellent WH-1000XM4 headphones remain discounted to $278. Finally, today is Tolkien Reading Day, and both Amazon and Kobo are celebrating by discounting many of Tolkien's works in e-book format, including the entire The Lord of the Rings series. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

AirPods Pro

Apple AirPods Pro
Billy Steele / Engadget

Apple's AirPods Pro are on sale for $175, which is 30 percent off its usual price. We gave the buds a score of 87 for their solid sound quality, strong ANC and hands-free Siri capabilities.

Buy AirPods Pro at Amazon - $175

iPad Air (2022)

Apple iPad Air (2022)
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

The latest iPad Air is $29 off right now, bringing the 64GB model down to $570 and the 256GB version down to $720. The new M1-powered iPad earned a score of 90 from us for its super-fast performance, long battery life and improved front camera.

Buy iPad Air (2022) at Amazon - $570

iPad mini

Apple's latest iPad mini is on sale for $459, which is $40 off its normal price. We gave the small tablet a score of 89 for its lovely display, refined design and excellent battery life.

Buy iPad mini at Amazon - $459

12.9-inch iPad Pro

Apple iPad Pro (2021) review
Chris Velazco/Engadget

The base 202112.9-inch iPad Pro with 128GB of storage is $150 off right now thanks to an automatically applied coupon. That brings it down to $950, its best price yet, and you can also snag the 512GB model at its lowest price of $1,250, too. We gave the M1-powered iPad Pro a score of 87 for its gorgeous display, Center Stage cameras and powerful performance.

Buy 12.9-inch iPad Pro (128GB) at Amazon - $950Buy 12.9-inch iPad Pro (512GB) at Amazon - $1,250

Fire HD 8

Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020)
Valentina Palladino / Engadget

Amazon's Fire HD 8 is half off right now, bringing it down to $45. We gave the cheap tablet a score of 81 for its slimmer design, decent performance, USB-C charging and hands-free Alexa capabilities.

Buy Fire HD 8 at Amazon - $45

Fire Kids Pro tablets

Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro
Amazon

All of Amazon's Fire Kids Pro tablets are down to record low prices. All of these slabs come with a suite of parental controls, a two-year warranty, a protective case and one year of Amazon Kids+. Both the Fire 7 Kids Pro and the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro are half off and down to $50 and $70, respectively, while the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro is 30 percent less than usual and down to $140.

Buy Fire 7 Kids Pro at Amazon - $50Buy Fire HD 8 Kids Pro at Amazon - $70Buy Fire HD 10 Kids Pro at Amazon - $140

Sony WH-1000XM4

Our current favorite pair of ANC headphones, Sony's WH-1000XM4, are down to $278 right now. That's $72 off their usual price and close to an all-time low. They earned a score of 94 from us for their powerful ANC, immersive sound quality and multi-device connectivity.

Buy WH-1000XM4 at Amazon - $278

Bose QuietComfort 45

The Bose QC45 headphones are on sale for $279, which is their all-time-low price that we saw last Black Friday. We gave the cans a score of 86 for their excellent sound quality, strong ANC and comfortable fit.

Buy QC45 at Amazon - $279

Tile Bluetooth trackers

A number of Tile trackers are up to 20 percent off at Amazon. You can pick up the 2022 Tile Mate Essentials pack for $68, a two-pack of Tile Stickers for $45 or a single Tile Mate for only $20. These tiny gadgets attach to your belongings so you can keep track of them using Tile's companion mobile app.

Buy Tile Mate Essentials pack at Amazon - $68Buy Tile Stickers (2 pack) at Amazon - $45Buy Tile Mate at Amazon - $20

Google Nest WiFi

A two-pack of the Google Nest WiFi system is on sale for $189 across the web. That's only $10 more than the pack was during the holiday shopping season last year, so this is a solid sale. We gave the mesh WiFi system a score of 84 for its minimalist design, simple installation process and built-in Google Assistant smart speaker.

Buy Google Nest WiFi at Best Buy - $189Buy Google Nest WiFi at B&H - $189

Samsung T7 Touch (1TB)

The T7 Touch portable SSD in 1TB is on sale for $130 right now. This palm-sized drive works with most devices thanks to the duo of cables it comes with, and it supports 1,050 MB/s read speeds, 1,000 MB/s write speeds, AES 256-bit encryption and Dynamic Thermal Guard.

Buy T7 Touch (1TB) at Amazon - $130

Amazon Fire TV Cube

The Fire TV Cube is back down to a record low of $70, or 42 percent off its normal price. We gave it a score of 84 when it came out for its 4K streaming with Dolby Vision and HDR+, speedy performance and hands-free Alexa controls.

Buy Fire TV Cube at Amazon - $70

Tolkien Reading Day sales

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Harper Collins / Kobo

March 25th is Tolkein Reading Day, and you can find many of the famed fantasy author's works on sale at Amazon and Kobo. Both retailers have the entire The Lord of the Rings series in e-book format for $3 per title, plus other works including The Silmarillion have also been discounted to $3.

Shop Tolkien e-books at Amazon starting at $3Shop Tolkien e-books at Kobo starting at $3

New tech deals

55-inch Sony A90J Bravia XR OLED 4K TV

Sony's 55-inch Bravia XR OLED set is $600 off right now, bringing it down to $2,200. In addition to deep blacks and the improved contrast that comes with OLED TVs, this set also supports XR Motion Clarity, HDMI 2.1, Acoustic Surface Audio+ and Alexa voice commands.

Buy 55-inch Sony A90J Bravia OLED at Amazon - $2,200

Eero 6

A few Eero WiFi bundles are on sale right now, including the Eero Pro three-pack, which is down to $314 for Prime members (or $337 for everyone else). The Eero 6 Pro tri-band system is 20 percent off and down to $479, and you can pick up an Eero beacon for only $79.

Buy Eero Pro (3 pack) at Amazon - $314 (Prime members)Buy Eero 6 Pro at Amazon - $479Buy Eero Beacon at Amazon - $79

ThermoWorks ThermoPop

ThermoWorks has knocked 30 percent off its blue and yellow ThermoPop instant-read thermometers, bringing them down to $24.50 each, and all proceeds go to Ukraine refugee assistance efforts. Simultaneously, the company's warehouse sale slashes up to 60 percent off a bunch of products, including the classic Thermapen, the Dot thermometer and the Smoke X4 long-range BBQ thermometer.

Buy ThermoPop at ThermoWorks - $24.50Shop ThermoWorks warehouse sale

NordVPN

NordVPN's latest deal knocks 72 percent off a two-year plan, bringing it down to $79, and it includes anti-malware protection, too. In addition to a solid VPN, you'll get the company's Threat Protection feature that works independently from the VPN to block trackers, malware and intrusive ads.

Buy NordVPN (2 years) - $79

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

Roland’s iconic RE-201 Space Echo returns in two new Boss pedals

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 07:19 AM PDT

It's a good week for guitarists who love a classic echo effect. Just a few days ago, Line 6 released the DL4 MkII, a long-awaited update to its DL4 delay and looper pedal, one of the more widely-used effects pedals of the last 20 years. And now Boss, one of the most prolific and well-known manufacturers of guitar effects pedal out there, has just announced the RE-202 and RE-2 Space Echo pedals, both of which are inspired by Roland's iconic, tape-based RE-201 Space Echo unit that was originally released way back in 1974. 

For the uninitiated, the RE-201 Space Echo used three analog tape heads to record and repeat an instrument's signal. The analog nature of the device meant that it had a number of sonic characteristics that made it unique and highly coveted. That's still the case — original RE-201 units regularly sell for several thousand dollars.

The new RE-202, on the other hand, retails for $399.99 and offers the exact same set of controls as the original. Given that it's 2022, we're dealing with digital modeling recreating all the quirks of the original, rather than analog tape. But Boss built in options to "age" the virtual tape, which means you can recreate the sounds of the RE-201 as it was out of the box, or give it the worn nature and quirks that come with an older unit. The RE-202 has essentially the same front controls as the original, as well, with the 12-position mode selector dial prominently featured.

Boss RE-202 and RE-2 pedals
The new RE-202 and RE-2 pedals, pictured with the original Roland RE-201 unit.
Boss

Naturally, there are a lot of modern conveniences here, too. The delay length you can dial in is twice as long as the original, and there's a footswitch so you can tap out the delay tempo, something that's pretty common these days on pedals like this. There's also a fourth virtual tape head, compared to the three found in the original; this unlocks five additional sound options. 

The RE-2 is a less expensive and and slightly less capable version of the RE-202. It's a smaller, single-footswitch pedal that Boss says captures the same tones as the RE-202 in a more compact design. It's not quite as full-featured and customizable as the RE-202, but it should provide the same sonic characteristics as the bigger and more expensive pedal. It's also a good choice if you don't want to take up quite so much space on your pedalboard. 

The RE-2 costs $249.99, $150 less than the RE-202. Both of these pedals are definitely priced in boutique territory. But a faithful recreation of the RE-201 might be worth it for a lot of players, as the original Space Echo has been used on thousands of recordings by some of the most popular artists in history, from Pink Floyd and Radiohead, to Lee Scratch Perry, Underworld and Lauryn Hill. If you want to get the same sound without breaking the bank for a wonky, tape-based original unit, these new pedals are probably worth a look. 

Wolverine's Master Chief boots are for true Halo fanatics

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 06:00 AM PDT

Wolverine wants to help Halo fans finish their fight in style. The boot company has teamed up with Microsoft to create rugged limited-edition footwear inspired by Master Chief.

Halo developer 343 Industries worked with Wolverine for over a year to design the boot, which is based on the company's Hellcat footwear. Wolverine says when it revealed the Hellcat in August 2020, many people noted that the safety toe made the boot look like it was straight out of the Halo universe. 

The snappily named Wolverine x Halo: The Master Chief boot has rubber lug outsoles for grip and an UltraSpring high rebound midsole, which Wolverine claims will provide wearers with a "lightweight, energized ride." It's made with full-grain leather and there's a hook and loop cover for the laces.

Wolverine x Halo: The Master Chief boot
Wolverine

The footwear comes in the green of Master Chief's armor and has his Spartan number, 117, on the heel of the left boot. The boots also feature the United Nations Space Command and the logo of the Materials Group, which made Master Chief's armor. For better or worse, the footwear certainly catches the eye.

A pair will cost $225 and you'll be able to buy them at noon Eastern time on March 29th from Wolverine's website. You'll probably need to act fast (and get lucky) if you want to wear the boots while racking up frags in Halo Infinite or kicking back and watching the Halo TV show. Wolverine is only making 117 pairs of them.

These boots aren't the only Xbox-related footwear to hit the streets in recent months. At the tail end of 2021, Adidas releasedseveral models of sneakers modeled after Xbox consoles to mark the brand's 20th anniversary.

NVIDIA's NeRF AI instantly turns 2D photos into 3D objects

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 06:00 AM PDT

A new technology called Neural Radiance Field or NeRF involves training AI algorithms to enable the creation of 3D objects from two-dimensional photos. NeRF has the capability to fill in the blanks, so to speak, by interpolating what the 2D photos didn't capture. It's a neat trick that could lead to advances in various fields, such as video games and autonomous driving. Now, NVIDIA has developed a new NeRF technique — the fastest one to date, the company claims — that only needs seconds to train and to generate a 3D scene. 

It only takes seconds to train the model, called Instant NeRF, using dozens of still photos and the camera angles they were taken from. After that, it's capable of generating a 3D scene within just "tens of milliseconds." Like other NeRF techniques, it requires images taken from multiple positions. And for photos with multiple subjects, pictures taken without too much motion is preferred, otherwise the result would be blurry. 

Check out Instant NeRF in action below:

NVIDIA explains that early NeRF models don't take too long to produce results either. It only takes them a few minutes to render a 3D scene, even if the subject in some of the images is obstructed by things, such as pillars and furniture. However, training them took hours. NVIDIA's version only takes seconds to train, because it relies on a technique the company developed called multi-resolution hash grid encoding that's optimized to run efficiently on its GPUs. It can even run on a single GPU, though it's fastest on cards with tensor cores that provide a performance boost for artificial intelligence. 

The company believes that Instant NeRF could be used to train robots and to help autonomous driving systems understand the sizes and shapes of real-world objects. NVIDIA also sees a future for the technique in entertainment and architecture, where it can be used a way to generate 3D models of real environments that creators can modify during the planning process.

Engadget Podcast: Apple’s confounding Studio Display and the great new iPad Air

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 05:30 AM PDT

It's time to talk about all of those other new Apple gadgets. This week, Engadget Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham joins Devindra to dive into Apple's Studio Display, a nice looking 5K monitor that's really only meant for the Mac faithful. Also, they discuss why the new iPad Air is a fabulous tablet, and explore what could be the best 5G laptop for RV nomads. Stay tuned to the end for a chat with Dan Erickson, the creator of the excellent Apple TV+ series Severance.

Listen above, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!


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Topics

  • Apple's confounding Studio Display – 1:28

  • The M1 iPad Air, however, is great – 16:05

  • Snap buys brain interface company NextMind – 28:37

  • Apple acquired UK banking startup Credit Kudos – 33:27

  • The saga of the LA Tesla jump TikTok stunt – 40:23

  • Ask Engadget: The best setup for retiree trailer life – 44:54

  • Working on – 52:40

  • Pop culture picks – 55:58

  • Interview with Severance creator Dan Erickson – 1:02:44

Video livestream

Credits
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Nathan Ingraham
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks

US and EU aim to revive transatlantic data flows in new privacy deal

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 05:10 AM PDT

The US and the European Union have struck a preliminary agreement on an updated Privacy Shield framework to re-enable the flow of data between the two regions. A previous agreement was struck down by the EU's top court in 2020 over concerns that Europeans would not be fully protected from mass surveillance by the US.

"We have found an agreement in principle on a new framework for transatlantic data flows," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden. "This will enable predictable and trustworthy data flows between the EU and US, safeguarding privacy and civil liberties."

"Privacy and security are key elements of my digital agenda," Biden said. "And, today, we've agreed to unprecedented protections for data privacy and security for our citizens. This new arrangement will enhance the Privacy Shield framework, promote growth and innovation in Europe and the United States and help companies, both small and large, compete in the digital economy."

Biden added that should the new deal come into force, it will "allow the European Commission to once again authorize transatlantic data flows that help facilitate $7.1 trillion in economic relationships with the EU." He said the US and EU reached other agreements on bolstering renewable sources of energy and reducing Europe's reliance on fossil fuels from Russia.

The provisional deal on data privacy comes one day after the European Union reached an agreement on adopting the Digital Markets Act (DMA), legislation aimed at reining in the power of the biggest tech companies and giving smaller players more of a chance to compete. One provision could force the likes of Meta and Apple to make their messaging services interoperable with other platforms.

At a separate press conference on Friday, Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's executive vice president for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, said the DMA will come into force in October.

Google is reportedly planning a Nest Hub that features a detachable tablet

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 04:35 AM PDT

Google is working on a new Nest Hub with a removable tablet that's due to be released in 2022, according to a report from 9to5Google. The screen could be detached from the hub/speaker base, then presumably be used like any other tablet. The idea would make a lot of sense in terms of boosting Nest functionality, especially since Google recently made the 2nd-gen Nest screen more tablet-like with a new shortcut launcher for web apps and games. 

It's not yet clear which operating system the device would run, as the 2nd-gen Nest Hub runs the lightweight Google Cast system, and the original Nest Hub was recently updated to Google's mysterious Fuchsia OS. However, a detachable tablet would likely have the most functionality with Android. As 9to5Google points out, Lenovo offers an Android tablet that docks to a speaker bar, runs Alexa and sells for $270. 

The latest 2nd-gen Nest Hub ($100) and Nest Hub Max ($230) come with 7-inch and 10-inch screens, respectively. Both offer features like sleep tracking, media playback and, of course, control of connected home devices. The Nest Hub Max also comes with a camera that allows for video calls (Duo only) and lets you use it as a Nest camera. The new Nest Hub with a detachable tablet will reportedly launch in 2022, but until it's official, take this rumor with a megadose of salt. 

The Morning After: The inventor of the GIF has died

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 04:18 AM PDT

GIF inventor Stephen Wilhite has died from COVID-19 at the age of 74, NPR has reported. He worked at CompuServe when he developed the Graphics Interchange Format, designed to allow photo transfers over slow modem connections, inventing the format in 1987 virtually on his own, according to his spouse.

With limitations like 256 colors per animation, the format could easily have died out long ago. However, it was designed by Wilhite to store multiple frames, making it easy to share animated snippets without the demands of a video format. After AOL purchased CompuServe and let the patent expire, the GIF renaissance began with artists and Tumblr users. And on and on it went.

Oh and it's "JIF" with a soft "G," according to Wilhite, which I consider the final word on the matter.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Apple is reportedly planning an iPhone hardware subscription service

The rumors are back.

Bloomberg sources claim Apple is developing a subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware. Akin to the iPhone upgrade program, you'd pay a monthly fee rather than an up-front cost or financed installments. The service may include regular upgrades and launch in either late 2022 or early 2023. Pricing is also unknown. Apple's current upgrade program requires $35 or more per month to get both yearly iPhone upgrades and continuous AppleCare+ coverage. Given that Apple's top phones now circle above the $1,000 mark, it might make a lot of sense.

Continue reading.


The OnePlus 10 Pro will finally launch in the US on March 31st

It's long been out in China.

OnePlus' latest flagship phone will launch in Europe, North America and India on March 31st. The company promised that the OnePlus Pro 10 would arrive in those markets by the end of March, so that's right on schedule — if calling it a little close. It released the smartphone in China back in January. It'll back a three-camera array, similar to last year's OnePlus 9 Pro, and match its predecessor's screen size and resolution. However, there are some screen upgrades in the background and a larger battery on board as well. You'll be able to pre-order the OnePlus Pro 10 from the OnePlus website and Amazon on March 31st at 10:20 AM ET, though pricing is still TBC. Expect a review from Engadget soon.

Continue reading.

Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro M1 falls to a new all-time low price of $950

That's on top of ongoing sales for the iPad Air and iPad mini.

Amazon is selling the M1-based WiFi model with 128GB of storage for a new all-time low price of $950 after you attach an instant coupon at checkout. That's $149 less than usual. The 512GB version is back to a best-ever $1,299 price (down from $1,399). It might be worth checking our other picks from Amazon, as there are discounts on other iPad sizes, too.

Continue reading.

Google seeks FDA approval for Fitbit's passive heart rate monitoring tech

Google says its algorithm accurately spots undiagnosed AFib 98% of the time.

TMA
Engadget

Following a large-scale virtual health study, Google has submitted Fitbit's passive heart rate monitoring algorithm for review by the US Food and Drug Administration. The study tested how accurately the device could detect atrial fibrillation, or irregular heart rhythms. The system uses photoplethysmography to passively track the blood flow in a user's wrist and determine if there are any concerning irregularities. Google said its algorithm correctly identified undiagnosed AFib 98 percent of the time. Fitbit's Sense Smartwatch was approved by the FDA in 2020 for its ability to assess AFib using built-in electrocardiogram technology. However, that method requires active input from the user.

Continue reading.

Google says it thwarted North Korean cyberattacks in early 2022

It apparently targeted US news media, IT, crypto and fintech.

Google's Threat Analysis Group announced on Thursday it had discovered a pair of North Korean hacking groups leveraging a remote code execution exploit in the Chrome web browser. Google found evidence of their attacks going back as far as January 4th, 2022, though the Threat Analysis Group notes organizations outside the US could have been targeted as well.

One group targeted 250 people across 10 companies, making fraudulent job offers from the likes of Disney and Oracle, sent from accounts spoofed to look like they came from Indeed or ZipRecruiter. Clicking on the link would launch a hidden iframe that would trigger the exploit.

Continue reading.

Gran Turismo 7's April update aims to appease angry fans and fix the grind

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 04:05 AM PDT

A recent Gran Turismo 7 update sparked outrage, not just because it raised the prices of in-game cars, but also because it led to a server outage than lasted for over a day. Now Polyphony Digital President Kazunori Yamauchi has issued an apology "for the frustration and confusion" caused by the patch, along with the announcement of a big update rolling out in early April to "improve player experience." 

Players complained that the presence of microtransactions and higher car prices made it harder to obtain new vehicles and upgrades without paying real money and spending a lot of time grinding for in-game currency. Yamauchi said back then that he believes it's important for the cars' prices to be linked with their real-world counterparts to convey their "value and rarity." 

That obviously didn't go over well with fans, who also had to deal with downtime because the update came with an issue that prevented the game from starting properly on the PS4 and the PS5. The game ended up being review bombed on Metacritic, where it currently has a score of 1.5 that translates to "overwhelming dislike."

The updates coming in early April include higher rewards for events, as well as more events and opportunities to earn in-game currency. Polyphony is also working on more additional features that don't have a release date yet, such as the ability to sell cars. At the moment, there's no way to do so in GT7, even though its predecessors had the feature. 

Unfortunately, Yamauchi didn't mention whether the company is exploring the possibility of making the game available to play offline, so it will likely continue requiring an internet connection for the foreseeable future. He did say, however, that Polyphony is giving players who may have been affected by the server outage a credit pack of 1 million Cr. Only those who already own the game before his post had been published and who log in between March 25th and April 25th will get the free credit pack. 

UK promises a network of 300,000 EV chargers by 2030

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 03:25 AM PDT

The UK plans to increase the number of electric vehicle charging stations to 300,000 by 2030. That would increase the current number of charge points in the country by tenfold. The government has committed £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) to the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy.

The effort to upgrade the charging network includes a focus on fast-charging stations for longer journeys and making EVs more viable for people without access to off-street parking. A previously announced Rapid Charging Fund has put £950 million ($1.25 billion) toward establishing a network of more than 6,000 fast-charging stations along England's motorways by 2035. Under the strategy, £500 million ($658 million) has been earmarked for setting up charging stations in communities, including on-street locations.

New rules will mean that EV drivers can use contactless payments for charging, compare pricing and use apps to find stations. The UK will ban the sale of new fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2030, so a more expansive charging network will be vital to ease the transition to EVs.

Along with the environmental benefits of EVs, the government touted the plan as a way to create jobs and reduce the UK's dependency on foreign sources of energy and oil. As is the case elsewhere, prices of gas and home energy have increased dramatically in the UK since Russia invaded Ukraine last month. Access to Russian oil and energy suppliers has been nixed in the wake of sanctions against the country.

Apple's 10.2-inch iPad with 256GB storage falls to a new Amazon low

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 02:13 AM PDT

With an improved camera, boosted performance and excellent battery life, Apple's 2021 256GB 10.2-inch iPad is already a solid deal at the regular $479 price. However, you can now pick one up at Amazon in silver or space gray for $429, an all-time low and a full $20 less than the lowest price we've seen so far. 

Buy 10.2-inch 256GB iPad at Amazon - $429

Sure, the 2021 iPad has rocked the same design for quite some time now, but that also means Apple has had a long time to polish and refine it. At the same time, there are some significant improvements. The wide-angle front camera works better for video calls, performance gets a big boost thanks to the A13 Bionic chip, and it delivers a solid 10-plus hours of battery life. It even has a headphone jack, and best of all, it's relatively cheap compared to other iPad models. 

The drawbacks are the lack of a USB-C port, a rather stodgy design (those thick bezels) and no second-gen Pencil support — for that, you'll need an iPad Air, mini, or Pro. But most of us use an iPad for browsing the web, reading and watching video content. The 256GB model is a better choice than the 64GB version for things like that, so the $50 discount makes it an easy choice. 

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

'Mystery Science Theater 3000' is back on a dedicated streaming platform

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 12:05 AM PDT

The world never run out of bad 'B' movies to mock, apparently, because Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is back for a 13th season, Variety has reported. Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign last year that raised $6.52 million, a full 13-episode season of the series will arrive on a dedicated streaming platform called Gizmoplex starting on May 6th.

As usual, some ordinary humans have been kidnapped by mad scientists (played by Felicia Day, Patton Oswalt and Mary Jo Pehl) and are forced to watch some terrible B-movies. To survive the process, they create companion robots to help provide a continuous stream of taunting and jokes throughout the entire running length of the films. 

This year there will be three hosts: Jonah Heston, Emily Connor, and original host Joel Robinson. They'll "be forced to endure some of the cheesiest movies ever to appear on MST3K, including our first-ever Halloween special, our first-ever 3D movie, and a holiday special finale so big it'll take all three hosts to riff it," according to the team. The B-movies on the slate include Robot Wars, Santo in the Treasure of Dracula and The Million Eyes of Sumuru. 

The show was created by Joel Hodgson and debuted in 1988. It ran for 10 seasons on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel until 1999, and was later revived by Netflix in 2017 for two seasons, following another Kickstarter campaign. However, Netflix declined to pick it up for a third season. 

The latest revival will thus air independently on a dedicated MST3K platform called Gizmoplex, which offers a website and apps (iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon FireTV). It'll premiere on May 6th with three episodes released daily from Friday to Sunday. After that, new episodes and one of 12 shorts will arrive every two weeks. The platform will also offer classic MST3K episodes from season 1-10, and for a limited time, they'll be free and ad-free.

If you want the new episodes, though, you'll have to sign up (unless you pledged support on Kickstarter). Individual episodes will cost $10, a three-month pass is $50, and a full season from May 22 to February 23 is $135. The latter includes a digital download of season 13. 

Reddit is reportedly exploring the addition of TikTok-like video features

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 10:01 PM PDT

Reddit is looking into the possibility of introducing some video features reminiscent of TikTok's, according to TechCrunch. While the project is still in its very early stages and hasn't even entered the testing phase yet, TechCrunch says it could include TikTok-like video editing tools that make it easy for you to "react" to another person's post or to incorporate it into your content.

On TikTok, you can use a feature called Duet to put your video side by side with another user's to create remixes, parodies and the like. In 2020, the service also introduced Stitch, which lets you integrate scenes from another video into your own. It enabled the quick creation of funny responses to viral videos and even responses that fact check wrong information going around on the platform. Reddit does allow you to post videos on its website, but it doesn't have features like Duet and Stitch yet.

You probably wouldn't think of Reddit if you're made to list social networks with a focus on video. And the goal of this project isn't to create a TikTok competitor, but rather to provide its users another way to engage in discussions, especially if the original post is also a video. Reddit did purchase TikTok rival Dubsmash back in 2020, but it shut down the service in February this year and incorporated video features from the defunct video-sharing platform. This particular project will also use video technology from Dubsmash. 

A spokesperson told TechCrunch that Reddit is now reaching out to individual communities to see if they're interested in the new video features. It will only take steps to begin initial testing after they receive (most likely positive) feedback from the communities:

"In line with our work to help people engage in the topics that matter to them through social audio, video, text, memes, and more, we're in the process of reaching out to a few Reddit communities to see if a new video feature we're working on is something they find useful and fun. After getting feedback from Redditors, we'll explore an initial test for this new capability."

European Union reaches provisional agreement on antitrust law targeting tech giants

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 05:57 PM PDT

The European Union has reached an agreement to adopt the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a sweeping antitrust law meant to rein in Apple, Google, Meta and other tech giants. Lawmakers reached a "provisional" agreement on the law Thursday, following hours of negotiations, the European Parliament wrote in a statement.

The law could have far-reaching implications, some of which could extend beyond Europe. Most notably, one of the primary provisions of the DMA is that messaging providers would need to make their services interoperable with other services, "EU lawmakers agreed that the largest messaging services (such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage) will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms, if they so request," the EU Parliament said following the agreement.

It's unclear for now if this requirement would also apply to interoperability between the large messaging platforms themselves. Parliament wrote that the interoperability provisions for social networks "will be assessed in the future."

In a statement, an Apple spokesperson said the company was "concerned" about some aspects of the law. "We remain concerned that some provisions of the DMA will create unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities for our users while others will prohibit us from charging for intellectual property in which we invest a great deal," the spokesperson said. "We believe deeply in competition and in creating thriving competitive markets around the world, and we will continue to work with stakeholders throughout Europe in the hopes of mitigating these vulnerabilities."

Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, wrote on Twitter that he hoped the law was "extremely thoughtful." "Interoperability can have benefits, but if it's not done carefully this could cause a tragic weakening of security and privacy in Europe," he said. 

The DMA also prohibits companies from "combining personal data for targeted advertising" without explicit consent, a move that could limit Meta and others' ability to serve targeted ads to users. As The New York Times points out, there are still many questions about how European lawmakers will enforce these new rules and the companies in question are likely to raise legal challenges.

Earlier proposals of the law also included provisions that would change how Apple and Google ran their app stores. Under the proposed rules, Apple would have to allow users to install apps from other stores, and both Apple and Google would be required to allow developers to bypass their companies; storefronts and use their own billing. It's unclear if those provisions were included in the latest agreement. The European Parliament will hold a press conference Friday, when they are expected to share more details.

Updated to include a comment from Will Cathcart.

Ex-TikTok moderators sue over 'emotional distress' from disturbing videos

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 05:07 PM PDT

Two former TikTok moderators filed a federal lawsuit seeking class-action status today against the platform and parent company Bytedance, reportedNPR. The plaintiffs, Ashley Velez and Reece Young, worked for the social video platform last year as contractors. To fulfill their role as moderators, they witnessed "many acts of extreme and graphic violence", including murder, bestiality, necrophilia and other disturbing images. The lawsuit accuses TikTok of negligence and violating labor laws in California, the state where the platform's US operations is based.

Both plaintiffs said they were tasked with viewing hours of disturbing footage, often working 12-hour days. They both paid for counseling out-of-pocket in order to deal with the psychological toll of the job. The lawsuit accuses TikTok of imposing high "productivity standards" on moderators, which forced them to watch large volumes of disturbing content without a break. Both employees were also forced to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of their employment.

"We would see death and graphic, graphic pornography. I would see nude underage children every day," Velez told NPR. "I would see people get shot in the face, and another video of a kid getting beaten made me cry for two hours straight."

Moderators at Facebook and other platforms have spoken out in the past about the severe psychological toll of their jobs. Employees have alleged they're given a short period of time, usually only seconds, to determine whether a video violates the platform's policies. The job has often been called "the worst job in technology," and workers regularly suffer from depression, PTSD-like symptoms and suicidal ideation. In a 2020 settlement,Facebook paid over $52 million to a group of former moderators who said they developed PTSD from the job.

This is not the first lawsuit of this type for TikTok, which currently has a base of 10,000 content moderators worldwide. Last December another content moderator for TikTok also sued the platform for negligence and violating workplace safety standards. According to NPR, the lawsuit was dropped last month after the plaintiff was fired.

Justice Department indicts four Russian government workers in energy sector hacks

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 03:45 PM PDT

The US Justice Department today announced indictments against four Russian government employees, who it alleges attempted a hacking campaign of the global energy sector that spanned six years and devices in roughly 135 countries. The two indictments were filed under seal last summer, and are finally being disclosed to the public.

The DOJ's decision to release the documents may be a way to raise public awareness of the increased threat these kinds of hacks pose to US critical infrastructure in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. State-sponsored hackers have targeted energy, nuclear, water and critical manufacturing companies for years, aiming to steal information on their control systems. Cybersecurity officials noticed a spike in Russian hacking activity in the US in recent weeks.

"Russian state-sponsored hackers pose a serious and persistent threat to critical infrastructure both in the United States and around the world," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco in a statement. "Although the criminal charges unsealed today reflect past activity, they make crystal clear the urgent ongoing need for American businesses to harden their defenses and remain vigilant.

The indictments allege that two separate campaigns occurred between 2012 and 2018. The first one, filed in June 2021, involves Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh, a computer programmer at the Russian Ministry of Defense. It alleges that Gladkik and a team of co-conspirators were members of the Triton malware hacking group, which launched a failed campaign to bomb a Saudi petrochemical plant in 2017. As TechCrunchnoted, the Saudi plant would have been completely decimated if not for a bug in the code. In 2018, the same group attempted to hack US power plants but failed.

The second indictment charges three hackers who work for Russia's intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), as being the members of the hacking group Dragonfly, which coordinated multiple attacks on nuclear power plants, energy companies, and other critical infrastructure. It alleges that the three men, Pavel Aleksandrovich Akulov, Mikhail Mikhailovich Gavrilov and Marat Valeryevich Tyukov engaged in multiple computer intrusions between 2012 and 2017. The DOJ estimates that the three hackers were able to install malware on more than 17,000 unique devices in the US and abroad.

A second phase known as Dragonfly 2.0, which occurred between 2014 and 2017, targeted more than 3,300 users across 500 different energy companies in the US and abroad. According to the DOJ, the conspirators were looking to access the software and hardware in power plants that would allow the Russian government to trigger a shutdown.

The US government is still looking for the three FSB hackers. The State Department today announced a $10 million award for any information on their whereabouts. However, as the Washington Postnotes, the US and Russia do not have an extradition treaty, so the likeliness of any of the alleged hackers being brought to trial by these indictments is slim.

MIT's new simulation reveals crucial insights into the birth of the universe

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 02:22 PM PDT

Spontaneously generating reality is a messy affair.

Our Big Bang, for example, unleashed a universe's worth of energy and matter in an instant, then flung it omnidirectionally away at the speed of light as temperatures throughout the growing cosmos exceeded 1,000 trillion degrees Celsius in the first few nanoseconds of time's existence. The following couple hundred million years, during which time the universe cooled to the point that particles beyond quarks and photons could exist — when actual atoms like hydrogen and helium came into being — are known as the dark ages, on account of stars not yet existing to provide light.

Eventually however, vast clouds of elemental gasses compressed themselves enough to ignite, bringing illumination to a formerly dark cosmos and driving the process of cosmic reionization, which is why the universe isn't still just a whole bunch of hydrogen and helium atoms. The actual process of how the light from those new stars interacted with surrounding gas clouds to create the ionized plasma that spawned heavier elements is not fully understood but a team of researchers at MIT have just announced that their mathematical model of this turbulent epoch is the largest and most detailed devised to date.

The Thesan simulation, named in honor of the Etruscan goddess of dawn, simulates the period of cosmic reionization looking at the interactions between gasses, gravity, and radiation in a 100 million cubic light year space. Researchers can scrub through a synthetic timeline extending from 400,000 years to 1 billion years after the Big Bang to see how changing different variables within the model impacts the generated outcomes.

"Thesan acts as a bridge to the early universe," Aaron Smith, NASA Einstein Fellow in the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, told MIT News. "It is intended to serve as an ideal simulation counterpart for upcoming observational facilities, which are poised to fundamentally alter our understanding of the cosmos."

It boasts higher detail at a larger volume than any previous simulation thanks to a novel algorithm tracking light's interaction with gas that dovetails with separate galaxy formation and cosmic dust behavior models.

"Thesan follows how the light from these first galaxies interacts with the gas over the first billion years and transforms the universe from neutral to ionized," Rahul Kannan of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which partnered with MIT and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics on this project, told MIT News. "This way, we automatically follow the reionization process as it unfolds."

Powering this simulation is the SuperMUC-NG supercomputer in Garching, Germany. Its 60,000 computing cores run the equivalent of 30 million CPU hours in parallel to crunch the numbers needed by Thesan. The team has already seen surprising results from the experiment as well.

"Thesan found that light doesn't travel large distances early in the universe," Kannan said. "In fact, this distance is very small, and only becomes large at the very end of reionization, increasing by a factor of 10 over just a few hundred million years." 

That is, light at the end of the reionization period traveled further than researchers had previously figured. They have also noticed that the type and mass of a galaxy may influence the reionization process, though the Thesan team was quick to point out that corroborating real-world observations will be needed before that hypothesis is confirmed.

Grimes claims responsibility for 2012 hack of culture blog Hipster Runoff

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 01:52 PM PDT

Grimes' connections to hacking extend beyond a Cyberpunk 2077 cameo, apparently. Cybersecurity expert Jackie Singh and Pitchfork report the electropop star (aka Claire Boucher) confessed to hacking the culture blog Hipster Runoff in a Vanity Fairinterview. She said she coordinated a distributed denial of service attack against the site in 2012 after its anonymous author Carles posted an allegedly "mean" story including a photo of her kissing a friend at a party.

At the time, Carles told Motherboard there was evidence of "foul play" on the server, including a disk crash and sabotaged backups. Grimes said she and her fellow, still-anonymous perpetrator (from the games industry) "basically blackmail[ed]" Carles into removing the story before they would let him restore Hipster Runoff.

The admission might be more than just an interesting anecdote. As Pitchfork explains, DDoS attacks have long been illegal in both the US and Grimes' home country of Canada — both nations can sentence culprits to as many as 10 years in prison. Blackmail, of course, has been illegal for longer. Law enforcement could theoretically charge Boucher and her accomplice based on the interview. Current Hipster Runoff owner Trevor McFedries has asked Twitter followers if anyone has a backup of the site under Carles, so the story might not be over yet.
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