Kalakshar US

In one of his first all-hands meetings after taking over the company in October, Elon Musk told Twitter employees the website’s financial position was dire, warning bankruptcy was “not out of question.” Since then, it appears the situation at Twitter has become more fraught.

The New York Times reports the company is taking drastic steps to cut costs. In recent “weeks,” Twitter has reportedly not paid rent for its main headquarters in San Francisco and satellite offices in other countries. According to court documents obtained by The Times, the company has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for charter flights Musk took during his first week at Twitter. Simultaneously, the social media website has continued to cut staff – despite Musk having recently told employees the company was done with layoffs. Among the most recent casualties include Nelson Abramson, the company’s global head of infrastructure. On Monday, the company disbanded its Trust and Safety Council of external advisors.

According to The Times, Musk and other executives have also talked about the potential consequences of denying severance payments to the thousands of people who were let go from the company in recent weeks. When he first took ownership of Twitter, Musk reportedly considered dismissing many of the employees who were subsequently laid off without any severance. However, he eventually decided to give US employees at least one month of severance pay, a move that ensured the company was in compliance with state and federal labor laws.

Amid those cost-cutting efforts, Musk has reshaped Twitter’s legal team in anticipation of the legal battles the company is likely to face in the near future. He recently dismissed Alex Spiro. The criminal defense lawyer was one of Musk’s close personal allies. In 2019, he successfully defended the billionaire in his infamous “pedo guy” defamation case. Musk had charged Spiro with leading the company’s legal and policy teams but reportedly became displeased with his personal lawyer after finding out he had kept James Baker on as Twitter’s deputy general counsel. Musk fired Baker after finding out the former FBI attorney had been responsible for reviewing the company’s decision to restrict posts related to a 2020 article The New York Post published about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Since then, Musk has reportedly brought over “more than half a dozen” lawyers from SpaceX to fill the void left by Spiro and Baker. Among those who are now advising Twitter include SpaceX’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Tim Hughes. Anticipating potential litigation, Musk has also told employees not to pay travel invoices and other vendors the company owes money to for their services.

American politicians aren’t just restricting access to TikTok — they now hope to ban it outright. Members of the House and Senate have introduced matching bills that would block transactions from any social media company in or influenced by China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act (Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party) is meant to shut down access to TikTok and other apps that could theoretically funnel American user data to oppressive governments, censor news or otherwise manipulate the public.

The rationale echoes what US political leaders have argued for years. While TikTok has taken efforts to distance its international operations from those in China, such as by storing US data domestically, critics have argued that parent company ByteDance is ultimately at the mercy of the Chinese government. TikTok could potentially profile government workers and otherwise surveil Americans, according to the often-repeated claims.

Republican bill co-sponsors Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mike Gallagher tried to draw links between some ByteDance leadership and the Chinese Communist Party in an opinion piece in The Washington Post this November. At the time, 23 directors had previously worked for state-backed media, and “at least” 15 employees still did. The bill is also sponsored by House Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said it was “troubling” that members of Congress were putting forward legislation to ban the app rather than waiting for a national security review to wind down. The bills will “do nothing to advance” national security, according to the company. The firm added that it would “continue to brief” Congress on plans developed under the watch of security officials. The social network has consistently denied plans to track American users or otherwise deliberately assist Chinese surveillance efforts in the country.

TikTok already faces some legal action. The states of Maryland and South Dakota have banned TikTok on government devices over security concerns. Indiana, meanwhile, sued TikTok for allegedly deceiving users about China’s data access and child safety violations. That lawsuit would fine TikTok and demand changes to the service’s info handling and marketing claims.

Whether or not the bills become legislation isn’t certain. President Biden revoked former President Trump’s orders to ban TikTok downloads, and instead required a fresh national security review. He’s not expected to override his own order. And while the bill sponsors characterize the measure as bipartisan, it’s not clear the call for a TikTok ban has enough support to clinch the necessary votes and reach Biden’s desk. To some degree, the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act is more a signal of intent than a practical attempt to block TikTok.

Apple is reportedly preparing to open iOS to competing app stores. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company’s software and services teams are redesigning the platform to “open up key elements.” That effort is likely to end in Apple giving iPhone and iPad users the option to download third-party apps without going through the App Store. In turn, that would allow developers to avoid the company’s infamous 30 and 15 percent commissions on payments. Gurman reports the forthcoming charges are primarily designed to placate European Union lawmakers, who recently passed the bloc’s sweeping Digital Markets and Services Act, and will be initially implemented on the continent before potentially rolling out to other regions.     

Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.  

According to Gurman, Apple plans to have the changes ready to release alongside iOS 17 next year. Companies have until 2024 to be in full compliance with the Digital Markets Act. The legislation is particularly problematic for Apple, as it outlaws many of the speedbumps the company has relied on to make it difficult for consumers to leave iOS. For instance, the act calls for interoperability between different messaging platforms and equal access for outside developers to core operating system features. Critically, it also mandates that platform holders allow for sideloading. 

Apple has consistently lobbied against sideloading, calling it a security and privacy risk. Gurman reports the company is considering whether it should enforce certain security requirements on software distributed outside the App Store. “Such apps also may need to be verified by Apple — a process that could carry a free,” he suggests.  

There are other major changes that could come to iOS as a direct result of the Digital Markets Act. Apple could open up major APIs and features, including those that control the iPhone’s NFC and camera technologies, to outside developers. Historically, only the company’s Wallet app and Apple Pay service have had access to the iPhone’s NFC chip. What’s more, the company is considering whether to drop its longstanding requirement that third-party browsers must use its WebKit framework. Apple may also further open up its Find My Network to competitors like Tile.

At the same time, it appears there are some golden eggs the tech giant may be much more reluctant to give away. Specifically, Gurman reports RCS integration within iMessage is currently not on the table. Google has pushed the messaging protocol for years, going so far as to criticize Apple publically for not adopting it. How likely Apple is to make those same concessions in the US is hard to tell. Gurman notes the work the company is undertaking could “lay the groundwork” for similar changes in other markets. However, while American lawmakers are considering similar legislation to the Digital Markets Act, their version, the Open App Markets Act, has yet to pass.  

Boom has revealed more details about Symphony, the engine for the Overture jet with which it aims to bring back commercial supersonic air travel after the retirement of Concorde. Most importantly, the company has secured a new partner to develop the engine after it parted ways with Rolls-Royce in September. 

FTT, a division of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, will help design Symphony. Some of FTT’s engineers were behind the F-22 and F-35 fighter jet engines, so they have experience in powering supersonic aircraft.

Symphony is a medium-bypass turbofan engine that will have the same basic architecture as current commercial aircraft engines. However, Boom says its new propulsion system is designed to help Symphony achieve 35,000 pounds of thrust and speeds of Mach 1.7. Boom claims that Overture will be able to fly between Newark and London in under four hours and San Francisco to Tokyo in around six hours.

Boom expects Symphony to deliver a 25 percent increase in time on wing (i.e. in-flight time) and claims it will have significantly lower maintenance costs than other engines. The engine will be the first that’s optimized for fully sustainable aviation fuel, Boom says, and it will operate at net zero carbon. Symphony will also have a single-stage fan that’s designed for quiet operation.

Despite the switch in engine partners, Boom says the jet is still on track for certification in 2029. Production is set to start in 2024 at a factory in North Carolina with the first jet scheduled to leave the factory in 2026. Boom now expects test flights to start in 2027, a year later than previously planned. 

The company already has customers lined up. American Airlines placed an order earlier this year for 20 jets, with an option for another 40. United Airlines, meanwhile, has ordered 15 Overture planes with an option for another 35.

IMDb announced today that entertainment professionals can now choose whether to display their age and other demographic information on their profiles. Screen performers’ union SAG-AFTRA had pushed for the change for years, viewing it as a front in the war on ageism in Hollywood.

The new policy lets anyone with an IMDb page claim their profile and choose whether their age and birth year, birth name, alternate names and other demographic information show on their profiles. Although performers’ ages will remain on places like Wikipedia, the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA believes the policy will discourage age-based discrimination.

In a letter to union members (reported by Variety), SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said she worked closely with IMDb for several months to influence the policy shift. “This means professionals can choose how they want to represent themselves to fans and industry decision-makers,” she wrote. “And it will make it easier for casting directors, producers and others to discover and hire talent from all backgrounds for their project.” In addition, Drescher noted that the new policy covers free and paid IMDb accounts.

IMDb, which Amazon owns, spent years resisting the change. In 2016, California passed a law barring websites from publishing the ages and birthdates of performers. It was a popular law with performers, as over 2,300 people asked IMDb to remove their ages in the three months following the bill’s passage. However, IMDb refused to oblige, filed an injunction based on First Amendment rights and won. (SAG-AFTRA and the state of California appealed, but an appeals court upheld the initial ruling.) Apart from Drescher’s note about working with IMDb, it’s unclear what factors led to Amazon’s about-face.

Although ageism isn’t limited to any single industry, Hollywood is a textbook example — especially towards women. Dame Helen Mirren hasn’t minced words on the subject, describing the practice as “fucking outrageous” in a 2015 interview. “We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today delayedHogwarts Legacy yet again, but the most demanding versions of the game are spared. Instead, the postponement pushes the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions back to April 4th, 2023, with the Nintendo Switch variant arriving on July 25th.

Previously, the last-gen versions were scheduled to launch on February 10th alongside the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC iterations. Although today’s delay will disappoint Harry Potter fans with older consoles, you need to look no further than Cyberpunk 2077 for an example of a game that just wasn’t ready for last-gen hardware. This latest reshuffling should give developer Avalanche Software time to polish the Harry Potter-themed game for older systems.

Warner Bros. initially slated the wizarding title for a 2021 launch but later pushed it back to this year and, finally, to 2023. Starting on February 7th, people who buy the Deluxe Edition for PS5, Xbox Series X/S or PC will have 72 hours of early access to start their adventure. However, the delayed versions won’t have an early-access period.

Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world action RPG set in the 1800s. You play as a custom-created Hogwarts student in the century before the events in the Harry Potter books and movies. You will craft potions, learn spells and make friends while embarking “on a dangerous journey to uncover a hidden truth of the wizarding world.”

Warner Bros. notes that the game isn’t a new story from author JK Rowling, but it collaborated with her team to ensure it remains true to her original vision. However, the RPG’s character creator may let you make transgender characters, a welcome departure from Rowling’s opinion on that topic.

Netflix has added two more titles to its (very good) stable of mobile games: Kentucky Route Zero and Twelve Minutes. They’re the first Annapurna Interactive titles to join the lineup. They’re available now for all subscribers, including those on the ad-supported plan, on iOS and Android.

It’s been a while since Netflix first said it would bring Kentucky Route Zero to its library and it’s a welcome addition. It’s a narrative-driven point-and-click adventure game that took the developers at Cardboard Computer almost a decade to see through. The first chapter debuted in 2013 and the fifth and final one arrived in 2020. It was a long journey, but the BAFTA award winner garnered strong reviews along the way.

Twelve Minutes, on the other hand, wasn’t received quite as warmly. It’s a time loop game with a trio of stars in the main roles: Daisy Ridley, James McAvoy and Willem Dafoe. However, we felt that some bad twists ruined a promising idea. You can try it out on your phone now.

Netflix also revealed a couple other games that are coming to the service in the first three months of 2023. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, which dropped on other platforms earlier this year, is an absolute joy. Tribute Games did a fantastic job of capturing everything great about the TMNT beat-’em-ups of the late ’80s and early ’90s and updating them for a modern audience. Shredder’s Revenge will only be available on mobile if you’re a Netflix subscriber.

Also on deck for early 2023 is Vikings: Valhalla from Tilting Point. This is a tie-in to Netflix’s sequel to Vikings, which debuted earlier this year. In this strategy game, you’ll lead Viking clans and build settlements. Eventually, you’ll battle against others as you try to extend your reach across the continent.

Meanwhile, Netflix recently announced Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, the first of three Ubisoft games that are coming to the service next year. It’s a sequel to Valiant Hearts: The Great War and will tell the story of the Harlem Hellfighters, who were the first African-American infantry unit to fight in World War I. Expect this one in early 2023 as well.

Apple is finishing 2022 by releasing major software updates for its devices. The upgrades are headlined by iOS 16.2, which should be particularly useful for the security-conscious. The new version adds an Advanced Data Protection option that brings end-to-end encryption to more of your iCloud data, including device backups, Messages content, notes and photos. And like it or not, Apple is limiting AirDrop sharing — you’ll now have 10 minutes to swap files with “everyone” before the feature reverts to contacts-only. The restriction first arrived in China, allegedly in a bid to appease officials trying to stymie protests, but may be useful if you’re worried someone might push unwanted content to your device.

This is also a particularly important update if you’re an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max owner. You can now hide your wallpaper and notifications when the 14 Pro’s always-on display kicks in. Yes, that makes it behave more like some Android phones, but it could also reduce distractions (some say it still looks like the phone is awake with the wallpaper on) and bolster privacy. Live Activities are now available for MLB, NBA and Premier League games on all iPhones courtesy of the TV app, although you’ll need one of the 14 Pro models to see them on your home screen through the Dynamic Island.

Other improvements largely focus on new apps and expected revisions. The long-promised Freeform digital whiteboard app is finally here, offering a visual collaboration tool for brainstorming sessions and meetings. Apple Music’s karaoke mode is now available and the Weather app now includes a news section. If you use your iPhone to control a smart household, you’ll be glad to know that Apple has given the Home app with a new architecture that promises to be faster and more reliable. This may be helpful now that Matter devices are ready (Apple added Matter support in iOS 16.1).

The company has simultaneously released iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1. Not surprisingly, these bring cross-platform feature additions like Advanced Data Protection, Freeform and the revised Home app. WatchOS 9.2, meanwhile, adds the Home update as a workout for cyclists and runners wanting to improve their performance on a previously-completed route. These updates won’t offer as many conspicuous changes as on the iPhone, but they should still be worthwhile if you’re immersed in Apple’s ecosystem.

iPadOS 16 launched a little later this year than its predecessors, and a few key features weren’t quite ready. With iPadOS 16.2, which just arrived this afternoon, I think Apple has caught up with what it planned. There are two major new features on board here. First, Stage Manager multitasking now works across an external display, provided you’re using an iPad with an M1 or M2 chip inside. Second, the collaborative brainstorming and productivity app Freeform is now available on the iPad (and on the iPhone and Mac, as well). 

Freeform is one of the more flexible and customizable apps Apple has made in a long time. For me, the first thing it reminded me of is a more ambitious version of Apple’s own Notes app. Over the years, Notes has become capable at handling a lot more than text — you can scan documents, add images, draw with the Apple Pencil on the iPad and more. The same can be said about Freeform, though it’s much less of a text-first app.

When you start a new document, you’re met with a ever-expanding blank canvas. At the top of the screen are just a few interface elements, most significantly the five items that let you add content to your board. Those main categories are Apple Pencil; sticky notes; a library of about 700 shapes and icons; text boxes; and a general-purpose “import” button that lets you pull in things from the Files app, your photo library or URLs you can paste in.

These features all seem pretty straightforward, but there’s a lot of underlying complexity to them. A text box opens with simple black text on the white background, but you can adjust size, fonts, colors, format and drop in three different types of lists. The shapes you can add are numerous and varied; most of them are flat, 2D representations of things like geometric shapes, animals, people, food, and so forth. But you can break apart a shape into its component pieces and move them around individually, resize them, change the colors or just use the one part of it that you really want. And any time you interact with an element in Freeform, guide lines will appear to help you line it up with the content around it. You can also group individual elements (like a text box and a photo) so that they respond as a single object.

Freeform is also pretty great at accepting different files and attachments. Links to things like articles on a web site or a YouTube video show up with the page title and a preview (unfortunately, YouTube videos don’t play right in Freeform itself). Some things, like photos and audio files, do work right in Freeform though — you can tap a photo to see it full screen or an audio file to hear what’s in it.

While Freeform works fine when using it on your own, Apple has clearly pitched it as a collaborative tool. I haven’t been able to try that yet, but now that the software is out of beta I should get a chance soon. But like the other collaboration features Apple included in iPadOS 16 this year, it’s easy to bring other people into a Freeform board. There’s a share button in the top right corner of the app, and you can invite people via email, the Messages app or just by sharing a link. 

When adding people via Messages, everyone in the thread is automatically added to the board as an editor (though you can change that if you want it to be read-only). Then, as people add their own content to the board, you can see what has changed via an activity feed. And for real-time collaboration, you can kick off a FaceTime call with everyone working on the document.

The updates to Stage Manager are more straightforward, mostly because we’ve had a chance to test them already. If you’re using an iPad with an M1 or M2 chip, you can connect an external display and extend your iPad’s screen, rather than just mirror it. This means you can have different groups of apps running on both the iPad’s built-in screen as well as the external monitor, just as you can on a Mac (or most other computers). 

When you connect to a monitor, the external display is blank by default. But if you move your cursor on to that screen and launch an app from the Dock, it’ll pop up there. You can also click any open apps on the iPad screen and send it to the other display via the three dot menu at the top of the screen. 

Just as on the iPad display, the layout of apps on your external display isn’t fully customizable. Instead, there are a wide variety of sizes you can set them to, and as you add more apps to a space they dynamically rearrange themselves. You have some flexibility to move things where you want, but pixel-perfect manipulation like you’re used to on a Mac isn’t possible. 

Despite these caveats, there’s no doubt that using an iPad with an external display is a lot more useful than it was before. Previously, you could only mirror your iPad’s display — being able to extend your iPad to a much larger screen is another big step towards making the tablet better suited for “real work.” 

As for Freeform, its usefulness will probably depend on how many Apple users there are in your orbit. If your workplace depends heavily on devices like Macs or iPads, it could gain some traction. But breaking a new tool into a workflow that’s already been established can be difficult, so how popular Freeform will get remains a big question mark. Of course, it’s not restricted to workplace use — maybe families where two partners are already using iPads will enjoy organizing vacations or other, more mundane life events with Freeform. 

At this point it’s easier to list the features that Arturia’s Pigments doesn’t have than ones it does. The company has been rolling out regular updates for a few years now, and each new version adds something worth getting excited about. New synth engines, new effects, whole new utility sections – it’s both a place for Arturia to experiment with new ideas, and show off some of highlights from its lineup of vintage emulation.

At first blush Pigments 4 seems like a comparatively minor update. There’s some new effects, a handful of enhancements to the various oscillators, but there’s not much to reach out and demand your attention from a simple headline. This seemingly subtle upgrade hides a lot of quality of life enhancements, though.

For one, now you can simply drag and drop modulation sources to their target. Granted, clicking LFO one and then clicking on the filter cut off wasn’t particularly difficult. But now you can just drag the little tab over an LFO to whatever you want to modulate. It should make Pigments a little less intimidating to those just learning how to navigate the synth. There’s also now left and right arrows on multimode modules, like the filter, that lets you quickly change types, where previously you had to click and open a drop down menu to select a new option.

The most dramatic UI changes are thankfully optional. First is the new Play tab, which strips away most of the sound design options and focuses on a core set of tweakable parameters. You can’t change effects here, or set modulation preferences. It’s designed to just get you making noise without too many distractions. It’s fine for live performance or if you prefer to stick with the presets, but hides a lot of the depth that makes Pigments so compelling. 

The other major interface change is a bit of a head scratcher. See, while most companies are rushing to implement dark mode to save your eyes, Arturia has decided that Pigments is too dark and added a light mode. I’m sure there are those out there who will enjoy its bright gray panels, but I’m personally not a fan. Not only do I think the original theme is easier to stare at for prolonged periods of time, but it’s also just more consistent. There are many elements of the interface that remain dark even in light mode and it looks a bit cobbled together.

That’s a pretty minor nitpick though, considering that once you get past the UX, there’s a handful of new toys to play with in Pigments 4. There’s a new filter borrowed from the company’s MS-20 emulation, ring mod in the wavetable oscillator, super unison in the analog oscillator, a dedicated mod oscillator, an improved bit crusher and (wait for it) shimmer reverb!

The MS-20 filter might seem unnecessary considering Pigments already had 10 different filter options, many with multiple modes, but it does bring something special to the table. Rather than using it as you would any other lowpass filter, the MS-20 begs to be run at extremes. Crank the resonance and turn on keyboard tracking, and you can transform simple white noise into a delicate plucky key sound with a subtle crackle. Or just crank the volume on it and hit it with the hottest signal you can (though make sure to turn down the master volume or you’ll risk blowing out your ears) to get some crunchy saturation.

Ring Mod delivers some nice icy timbres. Though, this is not something that Pigments was exactly lacking before. It’s a welcome addition, but definitely not something that you’d miss too dearly if it quietly disappeared. The more exciting changes are to the Bit Crusher effect (as opposed to the one built into the sample engine). The addition of jitter, scale and new decimator options really let you fine tune the exact flavor of digital destruction you’re looking for.

Oh, then of course there’s the shimmer reverb. It does what it says on the tin. Personally I think it’s an essential effect, and I’m shocked Arturia hasn’t added one until now. There’s nothing about it that stands out particularly, but if you’re using Pigments to create granular soundscapes or ambient plucks, then you’ll be thankful it’s here.

Arturia also added 63 new wavetables, 67 new samples and 36 new noise types, plus a pile of new presets. And, if the new library of included patches isn’t enough for you, there’s also three new sound packs: Wavelengths Lo-fi, Wavelengths Neuro Bass and Wavelengths Cinematic to broaden your sonic palette.

Pigments 4 is available now as a free upgrade for existing owners. New customers have a chance to pick it up at an introductory price of $99 until January 4th, after which the price will go back up to $199.