Category: Technology

You can enjoy Disney’s subscription service for a fraction of its usual price if you haven’t tried it before or if you haven’t been paying for it for quite some time. Starting today until September 20, a Disney+ Basic subscription will cost only cost you $2 a month for three months if you’re a new or returning subscriber in the US. The ad-supported tier would typically cost you $8 a month, so that’s $18 in savings if you’ve been thinking of finally signing up or resubscribing for any of the service’s upcoming releases. 

The company launched an ad-supported plan for its streaming service back in December 2022. It hasn’t raised prices for this tier since it became available, but the ad-free options had a price hike twice over the past year. An ad-free premium tier subscription will set you back $14 starting on October 12. This promo could give you an idea whether you’re ready to commit to paying that much for the service every month, or if you could endure the ads Disney+ serves and stick to the basic option.

Of course, a subscription to Disney+ means getting access to its latest show and movie releases. Star Wars: Ahsoka dropped on August 23, while the live action reimagining of The Little Mermaid and the second season of I Am Groot are now also available. In addition, Disney and Pixar’s film Elemental will be available for streaming on September 13.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-is-tempting-new-and-returning-subscribers-with-a-2-per-month-teaser-offer-073004980.html?src=rss 

TikTok has started migrating its European users’ data to its long-promised center in Ireland. The video-focused social network has announced that its Ireland data center is finally operational as part of its larger progress update for Project Clover. TikTok announced the data privacy and security initiative back in March shortly after the European Commission banned staff members from using its app on work devices. As TechCrunch notes, though, the service revealed that it was putting up a data center in Ireland way back in 2020, with the expectation that it was going to be operational by early 2022.

Now that TikTok was able to overcome the issues that caused delays to the center’s launch, it has started data migration, which likely won’t be finished until the fourth quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, a second center in Ireland and another Norway are also under construction. The video hosting service has been under intense scrutiny over the past few years, and these are part of its efforts to get authorities to trust the app. In 2022, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance confirmed that some of its employees, whom it eventually fired, accessed the data of several users in the US, including journalists. The revelation came in the midst of state governments banning TikTok from government-owned devices.

In addition to announcing the beginning of data migration, TikTok has also revealed that it has secured the services of a company called the NCC Group. The information assurance firm based in the UK will audit its data controls and protections, monitor its data flows, provide independent verification and report any incidents if needed. TikTok says the company will monitor data coming in and out of the center so it can ensure that only approved employees can access users’ sensitive information. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-starts-migrating-european-users-data-to-its-first-local-data-center-055931632.html?src=rss 

Spotify is experimenting with the offerings of its Premium service. Over the last few days, several Spotify users on the free tier noticed they no longer had access to in-app lyrics. Instead, they were greeted by a notification bubble saying, “Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium,” along with a link to sign up. Spotify says putting the in-app lyrics behind a paywall is just a part of its routine testing.

“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests, some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning,”

Spotify’s co-head of global communications, CJ Stanley, told The Verge. “We don’t have any further news to share at this time.” It’s possible Spotify could remove the paywall and make in-app lyrics available to all users again, but there is currently no timeline for that.

This test comes at a time when Spotify has laid off employees from its podcast division, which the company poured quite a bit of money into in recent years. And despite raising its prices and actively working to grow its paid subscribers, it’s still losing significant amounts of money. Spotify’s decision to experiment with the possibility of making lyrics a Premium feature shows that the company is searching for ways to get users to pay for a subscription. However, this might not be the best way to do so as some users who have noticed the change are not happy about it.

In-app lyrics was one of Spotify’s most requested features and the company began testing in 2019. In 2021, Spotify officially rolled out the feature, which allowed users to see and sing along to the words of their favorite tracks. This was available to all users — on both free and Premium versions and on all platforms. While charging for a previously free feature will always bring about some negative feedback as people adjust, some users believe this move would be discriminatory to people with disabilities.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-puts-publicly-available-lyrics-behind-a-premium-paywall-in-routine-test-212735457.html?src=rss 

TikTok appears ready to move the platform closer to a full-fledged social network. As spotted byAxios, the company has posted new job listings for positions focused on social networking features and expanded direct messaging. A “Product manager – TikTok social” posting reads that the company wants to build “meaningful social connections between users.”

The job listings are reportedly connected to worries within the organization about retaining and growing user engagement. “Inside TikTok, there’s concern that users are sharing TikTok videos externally on other social media and messaging apps when they want to discuss them with friends,” Axios reported, citing sources within the company. Job postings for mobile engineers say the candidates will focus on “building a reliable and adaptive platform that enables users to meet and interact with their real-life friends seamlessly on TikTok, and encourage them to share their life moments with each other and stay connected regardless of where they are.”

Expanding TikTok’s messaging features appears to be of primary importance. One job listing for a backend tech lead admits that the company’s messaging capability is in “its infancy,” according to Axios. That posting said the person hired will “explore and implement diversified social solutions” while referring to creating messaging that’s a “distinctive TikTok social solution.”

TikTok made its bones on viral videos — with social features mostly limited to peripheral interactions such as likes, comments and reposts. As rival platforms like Instagram integrate more TikTok-like features, it seems logical the company would return the favor by expanding its social capabilities. However, it stressed that video remains at the heart of its identity when trying new things. A TikTok spokesperson told Axios: “Being an entertainment channel has always been and remains the core of TikTok’s business model even as we experiment with new features to enhance the user experience.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-job-postings-point-to-social-features-to-help-it-compete-with-meta-194332559.html?src=rss 

The attorneys general from all 50 states have banned together and sent an open letter to Congress, asking for increased protective measures against AI-enhanced child sexual abuse images, as originally reported by AP. The letter calls on lawmakers to “establish an expert commission to study the means and methods of AI that can be used to exploit children specifically.”

The letter sent to Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate also urges politicians to expand existing restrictions on child sexual abuse materials to specifically cover AI-generated images and videos. This technology is extremely new and, as such, there’s nothing on the books yet that explicitly places AI-generated images in the same category as other types of child sexual abuse materials.

“We are engaged in a race against time to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI,” the prosecutors wrote in the letter. “Indeed, the proverbial walls of the city have already been breached. Now is the time to act.”

Using image generators like Dall-E and Midjourney to create child sexual abuse materials isn’t a problem, yet, as the software has guardrails in place that disallows that kind of thing. However, these prosecutors are looking to the future when open-source versions of the software begin popping up everywhere, each with its own guardrails, or lack thereof. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stated that AI tools would benefit from government intervention to mitigate risk, though he didn’t mention child abuse as a potential downside to the technology.

The government tends to move slowly when it comes to technology, for a number of reasons, as it took Congress several years before taking the threat of online child abusers seriously back in the days of AOL chat rooms and the like. To that end, there’s no immediate sign that Congress is looking to craft AI legislation that absolutely prohibits generators from creating this kind of foul imagery. Even the European Union’s sweeping Artificial Intelligence Act doesn’t specifically mention any risk to children.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson organized the letter-writing campaign and has encouraged colleagues to scour state statutes to find out if “the laws kept up with the novelty of this new technology.”

Wilson warns of deepfake content that features an actual child sourced from a photograph or video. This wouldn’t be child abuse in the conventional sense, Wilson says, but would depict abuse and would “defame” and “exploit” the child from the original image. He goes on to say that “our laws may not address the virtual nature” of this kind of situation.

The technology could also be used to make up fictitious children, culling from a library of data, to produce sexual abuse materials. Wilson says this would create a “demand for the industry that exploits children” as an argument against the idea that it wouldn’t actually be hurting anyone.

Though the idea of deepfake child sexual abuse is a rather new one, the tech industry has been keenly aware of deepfake pornographic content, taking steps to prevent it. Back in February, Meta, OnlyFans and Pornhub began using an online tool called Take It Down that allows teens to report explicit images and videos of themselves from the Internet. This tool is used for regular images and AI-generated content.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/attorneys-general-from-all-50-states-urge-congress-to-help-fight-ai-generated-csam-184938825.html?src=rss 

We’re getting into the last days of summer in the northern hemisphere. As fall comes into view, many of us will be spending more time at home cooking. Having high-quality equipment (and ingredients) can help ensure you make the best food possible. To that end, you may want to consider picking up a KitchenAid stand mixer and/or immersion blender during a current Amazon sale. The KitchenAid Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender, for instance, has dropped from $100 to $80. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for it all year.

This is our pick for the best cordless immersion blender. It could come in very useful if you want to make soups, sauces, smoothies and drinks even if you don’t have much counter space for a full-sized blender.

If you do have some space to plunk down a new gizmo in your kitchen, however, there’s always the option of snagging one of KitchenAid’s classic stand mixers. The KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer is on sale too. Depending on which color you opt for (Ice Blue and Kyoto Glow are particularly fetching), the mixer can be yours for as little as $380 during this sale. That’s $70 off the regular price and close to the cheapest we’ve ever seen it.

This is our choice for the best stand mixer you can own. It’s a powerful and durable machine, plus it looks gorgeous. It makes baking much easier than having to mix dough by hand. Best of all, it works with a variety of attachments. Given the glut of late-summer produce, it might still be worth picking up the ice cream maker attachment as well. Trust me, you can make some delicious mint choc chip and strawberry-basil ice cream with this thing.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/kitchenaid-stand-mixers-and-immersion-blenders-are-up-to-25-percent-off-191228110.html?src=rss 

The critically-acclaimed cat-based adventure gameStray is getting an actual animated movie. Even cooler? The title’s original publisher Annapurna is making the flick, after it scored a surprise hit on Netflix with its first animated feature Nimona. The creative team is still under wraps, but Annapurna Animation head Robert Baird told Entertainment Weekly that the film is in active development and that it’ll be the “greatest hopepunk movie that’s ever been made.”

Baird defines “hopepunk” as a narrative concept that deems optimism as a form of resistance against tyranny. That just about describes the emotional tenor of the game, so Annapurna’s on the right track. Additionally, it’s been confirmed that the game’s companion drone B-12 will be a large part of the film, with Baird stating it’s a “buddy comedy about a cat and a robot” going on to cite the pair’s “hilarious dynamic.”

The original game was released last year and put players in control of a curious cat in a cyberpunk landscape. There’s plenty of platforming, stealth-based traversal and, uh, meows. The title was praised for giving players a cat-level perspective on the world and has been a huge hit on just about every platform.

As for Annapurna, the Stray movie is only a single step in its plans for Hollywood domination. The animation arm of the company announced a few more films and teased plenty more. Chris Wedge, the creator of Ice Age, is directing a movie called FOO, short for fish out of water, and Nimona’s co-director Nick Bruno has signed on to helm an unnamed project that’s only been described as “high concept” and “Spielbergian.”

The company also teased that other games under its umbrella could receive the movie treatment, stating that Stray was chosen as the first adaptation due to it being “wildly popular.” Other titles in the publisher’s roster include the time-loop thriller Twelve Minutes, starring Daisy Ridley and James McAvoy, the Starfield-before-Starfield sci-fi romp Outer Wilds, the narrative mystery Kentucky Route Zero and many more. Each of these would make for a decent movie.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cyberpunk-adventure-game-stray-will-be-adapted-as-an-animated-movie-174606306.html?src=rss 

Microsoft is set to launch its abusive-voice reporting feature for Xbox consoles. Announced in July, it lets gamers submit inappropriate remarks heard while playing multiplayer titles. The system captures a 60-second clip saved to the console; you then have 24 hours to complete the report. The feature arrives this week in the September update for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. However, it’s initially limited to the “select English-language markets” of the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Microsoft says it tailored voice reporting to balance ease of use with minimal gaming interference. “Our feature is designed so that only you, the player, can initiate the capture of the last 60 seconds of gameplay activity that occurred for content moderation purposes,” the company wrote. It works similarly to capturing standard gameplay clips, but content recorded for moderation review is only used for that purpose. “They will not appear in your recent captures, and clips cannot be downloaded, modified, or shared,” Microsoft wrote.

The company stressed that the console won’t save or upload any clips unless you start the reporting process. After capturing a clip of spoken chat that you believe breaks Xbox’s community standards, the sample will remain on your console for “24 online hours,” and you can choose to submit it immediately or wait for your gameplay session to end. In addition, your Xbox will alert you as a final reminder to send the report if the 24-hour period is about to expire. Finally, you’ll receive a notification later telling you whether the company took action against the perpetrator.

Also included in the Xbox September update is the ability to quickly stream Xbox gameplay to Discord. After updating your console, you can link your Discord account and join voice channels on the platform directly from the console. You’ll find the activation controls in the Xbox guide by navigating to Parties & Chats and choosing Discord.

The September update also lets users toggle the console’s variable refresh rate (VRR). You can now turn the feature off or back on by navigating to General > TV & display options > Video. You’ll see options to leave VRR “always on,” switch it to “gaming only” or disable it altogether.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xboxs-reporting-system-for-abusive-voice-chat-arrives-this-week-175806184.html?src=rss 

You might be in for a lengthy wait if you were planning on catching a United Airlines flight today. The company has issued a nationwide ground stop because of a “computer issue,” according to ABC News.

The nature of the problem is unclear as yet. Engadget has contacted United for comment. “United Airlines asked the FAA to pause the airline’s departures nationwide,” the Federal Aviation Administration told Engadget.

United has grounded flights following a similar issue in the UK just last week. An air traffic control glitch led to the cancellation of a fifth of UK departures and 27 percent of flights that were due to arrive into the country last Monday, when the issue occurred. 

This story is developing, please refresh for additional updates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/united-airlines-has-grounded-all-flights-due-to-a-computer-issue-174007552.html?src=rss 

Android 14 is fast approaching. But before Google publicly releases the next big version of the mobile operating system alongside its latest Pixel devices, the company has revealed a refreshed Android logo.

In a blog post, Android consumer brand management director Jason Fournier wrote that the company wanted the bugdroid to “appear as dynamic as Android itself.” By overhauling the full-body look of the mascot, the hope is that it will be easier for the bugdroid to look consistent across both digital and real-world environments. The refreshed bugdroid and updated logo will start appearing on Android devices and elsewhere later this year.

Along with the rebrand, Google has revealed the details of the quarterly Android feature drop. The headline feature is a new widget called Assistant At a Glance. The aim of this is to bring helpful information such as weather alerts, event reminders and travel updates. The widget uses AI to surface these details.

There’s a very useful-sounding accessibility feature coming to Android imminently. It’s called Image Q&A on Lookout. You’ll be able to use voice commands or type questions to find out more details about AI-generated audio descriptions of visual content. Google designed the feature with blind and low-vision people in mind.

You’ll soon be able to add passes with barcodes and QR codes (such as your library and gym cards) to Google Wallet to save you having to carry those around. There will be the option to add Fitbit/Google Fit activity and sleep data to personal routines to help you keep track of your wellness goals. Meanwhile, Google has redesigned the Personal Safety app with the goal of making it easier for users to share their live location, record surroundings and call 911.

Last but not least is an Android Auto update. Webex and Zoom support is coming soon. You’ll be able to join conference calls via audio and view meeting schedules on the car’s display. We’ve seen automakers bring meeting apps to their infotainment systems, but Android Auto support may mean that there’s no escape from a conference call.

These features, which Google will roll out gradually, will start arriving today on Pixel 5, Pixel 5a and Pixel 4a. They’ll land on Pixel 6 and Pixel 7-series phones as well as Pixel Fold over the next few weeks. You can expect all of these features on the latest batch of Pixel devices that Google will announce next month too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-android-logo-gets-a-new-look-and-a-3d-bugdroid-170037292.html?src=rss