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More than six years after its PC debut and five years after arriving on iOS and Android, Netflix is making Oxenfree freely available to those with a subscription to its streaming service. Starting today, you can download the new “Netflix Edition” of the game from the iOS and Android app stores. New to this version of Oxenfree is expanded localization support. All told, you can now play the game with subtitles in more than 30 languages.  

Oxenfree joins Netflix’s growing catalog of games but is particularly notable for being an in-house release. The company acquired Oxenfree developer Night School Studio last year. Despite what seems like little interest from subscribers, Netflix is moving forward with its gaming ambitions. The company will release Desta: The Memories Between, the latest project from Monument Valley developer Ustwo, on September 27th. It also teased that the critically acclaimed Kentucky Route Zero would “soon” be available for free as well. 

 

After 45 years of voicing one of the most iconic characters in cinema history, James Earl Jones has said goodbye to Darth Vader. At 91, the legendary actor recently told Disney he was “looking into winding down this particular character.” That forced the company to ask itself how do you even replace Jones? The answer Disney eventually settled on, with the actor’s consent, involved an AI program.

If you’ve seen any of the recent Star Wars shows, you’ve heard the work of Respeecher. It’s a Ukrainian startup that uses archival recordings and a “proprietary AI algorithm” to create new dialogue featuring the voices of “performers from long ago.” In the case of Jones, the company worked with Lucasfilm to recreate his voice as it had sounded when film audiences first heard Darth Vader in 1977.

According to Vanity Fair, Jones had signed off on Disney using recordings of his voice and Respeecher’s software to “keep Vader alive.” Lucasfilm veteran Matthew Wood told the outlet that James guided the Sith Lord’s performance in Obi-Wan Kenobi, acting as “a benevolent godfather,” but it was ultimately the AI that gave Vader his voice in many of the scenes.

While there’s something to be said about preserving Vader’s voice, Disney’s decision to use an AI to do so is likely to add fuel to disagreements over how such technology should be used in creative fields. For instance, Getty Images recently banned AI-generated art over copyright concerns. With Jones, there’s the possibility we could hear him voice Vader long after he passes away. 

 

Today marks the second instalment of Netflix’s Tudum global fan event.News, trailers, and clips from over 120 shows, movies, specials, documentaries, and games will be available on the stream.You can watch the event, which begins at 1PM ET, below.Netflix will also broadcast the event live on its Twitter, Twitch, and Facebook channels, as well as its YouTube channels worldwide.

Tudum will include, among other things, an update on season three of The Witcher, information on the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin, an appearance from the Squid Game cast, and a Stranger Things blooper reel.Tudum will also include updates on The Crown, trailers for new seasons of Outer Banks and Manifest, a first look at Jennifer Lopez’s film The Mother, and an exclusive clip from Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion.There will also be a look at the Netflix version of Oxenfree, which was acquired by the company last year.

This could be a significant event for Netflix, which has had a difficult year.Its subscriber numbers fell for the first time — it lost approximately 1.In the first six months of 2022, there will be 2 million subscribers.Netflix needs to get people excited about what it has to offer in order to keep current subscribers and attract newcomers.Tudum events can help with this.

NASA can’t seem to catch a break. After completing a successful fueling test of the Space Launch System on Wednesday, the agency had hoped to move forward with Artemis 1 on September 27th. Unfortunately, that date is no longer on the table due to Tropical Storm Ian.

The storm formed Friday night over the central Caribbean. According to The Washington Post, meteorologists expect Ian to become a hurricane by Sunday before hitting Cuba and then making its way to the Florida Gulf Coast. As of Saturday, it’s unclear where Ian will make landfall once it arrives on the mainland. There’s also uncertainty about just how strong of a storm the state should expect, but the current above-average warmth of ocean waters in the eastern Gulf Coast is not a good sign.

In anticipation of Ian becoming a hurricane, NASA has decided to prepare the SLS for a rollback to the safety of the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building. The agency will make a final decision on Sunday. If the forecast worsens, the rollback will begin on Sunday night or early Monday morning. The plan gives NASA the flexibility to move forward with another launch attempt if there’s a change in the weather situation.

If Artemis 1 can’t fly before October 3rd, the next earliest launch window opens on October 17th. A rollback to the VAB would mean NASA could also test the batteries of the rocket’s flight termination system. That would give NASA more flexibility around the October 17th to October 31st launch window.

 

The Witcher: Blood Origin, a prequel to Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novel series, will debut on December 25th, the streamer announced today during its Tudum event. Netflix also revealed that English actress Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting, Starstruck) is part of the cast. Driver will narrate the events of the series and appear in The Witcher, which will return next summer.     

Set thousands of years before the story of Geralt, Blood Origin will center on the Conjunction of the Spheres, the moment in the Witcher universe where humans, elves and monsters all come to inhabit the fantasy world of the series. Actress Michelle Yeoh stars as Scian, the elven protagonist of the tale. 

Developing…

 

Back in August, Deadline reported that Vince Gilligan was pitching his next series after Better Call Saul to around eight or nine networks and platforms. Now, the upcoming show has found a home: It will stream on Apple TV+, which has already put in an order for two seasons. The still-untitled project will star Rhea Seehorn, who also played Saul Goodman’s wife Kim Wexler in the Breaking Bad prequel. “After fifteen years, I figured it was time to take a break from writing antiheroes… and who’s more heroic than the brilliant Rhea Seehorn?” Gilligan said in a statement. 

While official details about the upcoming show have yet to be released, previous reports said it’s completely unrelated to the Breaking Bad universe. Deadline described it as something more akin to The Twilight Zone in that it will be set in our world but will bend reality as we know it. Gilligan will be heavily involved in the show’s creation as showrunner and executive producer. And while the series may not be connected to Breaking Bad and its prequel, it will still be part of Gilligan’s overall deal with Sony Pictures Television.

In his statement, Gilligan pointed out that the upcoming project will reunite him with Zack Van Amburg, Jamie Erlicht and Chris Parnell. All three used to be Sony TV co-presidents who left the company to work at Apple. The tech giant hired Van Amburg and Erlicht back in 2017 to give its TV ambitions a boost by making them its video programming division leaders. They’re “the first two people to say yes to Breaking Bad all those years ago,” Gilligan said. It’s still very early days for his next project, though, so you may have to wait a while for a streaming date.

 

The ungodly surveillance of anti-porn ‘shameware’ apps

Dhruv Mehrotra, Wired

Some churches ask congregants to install activity-tracking apps on their phones in the name of accountability. Many churchgoers aren’t aware some software monitors a lot more than internet history. Some even take screenshots every minute before sending them to an “accountability partner.” When asked about the apps, Google told Wired two of the most popular ones violate its policies. 

Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled a new generation of social media influencers

Elizabeth Dwoskin and Jeremy B. Merrill, The Washington Post

Following the 2020 election, a wave of new influencers burst on the scene, amassing big follower counts by echoing former President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud. 

The dark side of frictionless technology

Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic

“There is a fundamental tension in the tech industry between the desire to build at all costs, because building is a universal virtue, and the less flashy value system of maintaining structures that already exist so that they may flourish,” Warzel writes in his Galaxy Brain newsletter. 

 

The Japanese government has earmarked $2 billion in funding for vaccine research in an effort to make sure its country is better prepared for any future pandemic, according to Nature. Japan lagged behind other countries not just in developing vaccines, but also in approving them when it came to COVID-19. As the publication points out, three of Japan’s most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidates are still undergoing clinical trials. To prevent a repeat, the country established the Strategic Center of Biomedical Advanced Vaccine Research and Development for Preparedness and Response (SCARDA) back in March. 

SCARDA’s central research center will be based in Tokyo, but it will be supported by four core institutes, namely Osaka University, Nagasaki University, Hokkaido University and Chiba University. The $2 billion funding is supposed to keep it running for five years. $1.2 billion will go towards the center’s vaccine research and development projects, while $400 million will be spent on supporting start-ups in drug development. The other $400 million will go towards setting up a network of research centers across the nation, as well as towards vaccine testing.

SCARDA will initially focus on developing vaccines for eight infectious diseases, including COVID-19, monkeypox, SARS, dengue and Zika virus. Its researchers will look into various types of vaccine technologies, as well, such as mRNA and viral vectors. The center aims “to find seeds for future vaccines,” but its ultimate goal is to be able to conjure up diagnostic tests, vaccines and treatments within 100 days of the identification of a pathogen that has the potential to become a pandemic. 

It was the UK government that first proposed the 100-day response goal, based on what it learned from COVID-19. “The first 100 days when faced with a pandemic or epidemic threat are crucial to changing its course and, ideally, preventing it from becoming a pandemic,” the UK wrote in its pandemic preparedness report to the G7. According to the World Health Organization, it recorded over 2.5 million cases and 200,000 deaths 100 days after it declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. A swift response from the start could’ve prevented those numbers from getting any higher. 

 

Google Home no longer needs to lean solely on smart home devices like thermostats to know whether or not you’re around. Home’s optional presence sensing feature can now use interactions with Nest speakers and smart displays to help detect activity in your abode, letting it perform automated actions. If you talk to your Nest Audio or tap your Nest Hub, for instance, Google may know to turn the lights on. Second-gen Nest Hubs can also use their Soli radar sensor to tell when you’re close.

You can enable presence sensing in the Google Home app for Android and iOS by visiting the Features section in the settings. Detection is strictly opt-in, and Google stresses that ambient noise won’t trigger presence cues. Cameras, doorbells and the Nest Hub Max won’t switch devices between “home” and “away” modes.

The expansion makes presence detection considerably more useful. Until now, you needed a Nest Guard, Nest Protect, Nest Thermostat or Nest x Yale smart lock in tandem with your phone’s location. While those are frequently good indicators, they don’t always tell the full story — you might lock the door when someone is still at home. The use of speakers and displays could make Google’s smart home automation more reliable, particularly in unusual scenarios.

 

Don’t panic that you might miss out on tonight’s potentially legendary match-up between the Yankees and Red Sox just because it’s on Apple TV+ — there’s a good chance you can tune in for free. Apple is streaming the game at no charge as part of its weekly Friday Night Baseball feature, with coverage starting at 6:25PM Eastern and the action starting in earnest at 7PM. It’ll require a little bit of work and a compatible device, but you too can see if Aaron Judge will break Roger Maris’ American League home run record. Here’s how to watch.

You’ll need to either sign into or create a free Apple ID account at the Apple TV+ website or a supporting app. You may be prompted to add a credit card, but Apple won’t charge you for this or any Friday Night Baseball game. The service is available on the web for Android- and computer-based viewers. iPhone, iPad and Mac users can also try the native app.

You also have many choices for watching in the living room. On top of Apple TV boxes, you can also tune into the Yankees-Red Sox game using the app for recent smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, HiSense, Panasonic and Vizio. PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S owners can also watch, as can people with Fire TV, Google TV and Roku media players. Receivers for Comcast’s Xfinity and T-Mobile’s Magenta TV similarly offer Apple TV+ apps.

The free viewing might just head off some controversy. New York State Attorney General Letitia James has been worried enough about the TV+ exclusive to issue a statement asking Apple and the MLB to make the game available on the Yankees-oriented YES Network, calling the deal “wrong and unfair.” However, James incorrectly claimed people need to “pay extra” to watch — if you’re reading her press release or tweet (i.e. you have internet access), you can stream the potentially history-making showdown at no charge. The exclusive is only really a problem if all your devices are too old to use either the app or the web client.