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Positive Grid has already proven its aptitude for guitar amps with increasingly small entries in its Spark line. But for NAMM 2024 its going big with the Spark Live, a 150 watt portable PA system with four speakers and four channels of audio inputs. Rather than quiet solo practice, the Spark Live is meant for band practices or small gigs. 

The first channel is dedicated to guitar and has pretty much the full power of Positive Grid’s modeling technology at its disposal. There are 33 amp models and 43 effect builtin that can be combined into eight different presets that are easily accessible from the main control panel. 

Channel two has a combo 1/4-inch / XLR input and has presets and effects customized for bass, vocals and acoustic guitar. There are preamp models as well as new effects unique to the Spark Live. Channel three and four are a stereo pair of direct ins. There are amp models or effects here, but you can run straight in from a synth, a amp simulator pedal or even just a backing track from a computer. 

There’s also a sensor inside that allows it to dynamically change its EQ based on position. When vertical the Live has a more direct and punchier tone. But when laid on its side, it delivers a wider, softer stereo field. There’s even a built in tilt stand so you can direct the sound where necessary. It can also adjust volume automatically based on incoming signals. There’s even an option battery pack for $79 that can power the Spark Live for up to eight hours.

In addition to the Live, Positive Grid also announced the Spark Control X, a Bluetooth foot controller for its Spark line of amps. It can connect to the Spark Live all the way down to the minuscule Spark Go. It has six customizable foot switches, MIDI support, an expression pedal jack and a builtin rechargeable battery. Positive Grid even includes three clear overlays that you can write on with a dry erase marker so you know what each switch does. 

To round out it deluge of announcements for NAMM 2024, Positive Grid also unveiled the Spark Link wireless guitar system. Wireless guitar transmission systems are nothing new, but Positive Grid undercuts other players in the field with a price of $129. And it claims the Link has a range of 70 feet, 20 feet more than most. 

All of Positive Grid’s new products are available for pre-order direct from the company. Spark Live will retail for $549, but there’s a $50 off coupon available during the pre-order period. The Spark Control X and Spark Link can be preordered for $149 and $129, respectively.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/positive-grid-spark-live-is-a-4-channel-all-in-one-pa-and-guitar-amp-231741696.html?src=rss 

Netflix said that user engagement with games on the service tripled in 2023. “[Despite] games still being small, and certainly not yet material relative to our film and series business, we’re pleased with this progress,” the company said in its earnings report on Tuesday. As an example, the company pointed to the addition of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy to the service last year, although it isn’t clear how much the trilogy, which only arrived on Netflix on December 14, helped drive engagement in the final two weeks of the year. 

Netflix said that Grand Theft Auto has become its “most successful launch to date” in terms of installs and engagement. It didn’t say how many people had downloaded the trilogy since it was released on the platform, however. Some customers had signed up for Netflix just to play the Grand Theft Auto games, the company said.

That’s a big change from 2022, when and analysis from Apptopia and CNBC revealed that less than one percent of Netflix’s customers were playing games, which the company had made available to anyone with a Netflix subscription a year earlier. Despite the slow uptake, Netflix continued adding games to the platform. It’s growing gaming library includes popular titles like Hades, Dead Cells, Braid, Death’s Door and Katana Zero, as well as games such as Oxenfree II: Lost Signal, which it developed on its own after buying indie developer Night School. The platform also includes games based on its own popular original shows like Money Heist and The Dragon Prince.

Beyond gaming, Netflix said that it added 13.1 million subscribers in the last three months of 2023, the highest number of subscribers it has added since the explosive growth it experienced during the pandemic. The total number of Netflix subscribers around the world is now 260 million.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-says-that-game-engagement-tripled-in-2023-224130242.html?src=rss 

Slowly but surely, some platforms are embracing passkeys to provide an easy and more secure login alternative to passwords. The latest notable company to enable passkeys is X (formerly Twitter), though only for US-based users on iOS for now.

When you set up passkeys for an account, your device generates one public key and one private key. The private key stays on your device, while the shared public key is stored on the platform you want to sign into (in this case, X). Once you’re all set up, you can choose a passkey option instead of a password to log in to an X account. Your device will authenticate your identity using the public key. The same passkey will work across all devices that are signed into the same iCloud account.

Logging into a supported account is akin to unlocking your phone — you’ll simply use a PIN, fingerprint or face scan for authentication. You wont need to remember any passkeys and they’re broadly secure. For one thing, passkeys make phishing attacks far more difficult to pull off.

To set up a passkey in X, log into the iOS app with the account you’d like to use it on. Navigate to Your account > Settings and privacy > Security and account access > Security > Additional password protection. In this menu, select Passkey. You’ll then need to enter your password and follow the prompts.

If you change your mind and wish to delete your passkey, follow the same steps. After you enter your password, you’ll see the option to Delete a passkey.

X says it won’t require users to sign up for passkeys, but it’s not a bad idea to do so if you find other multi-factor authentication methods (such as inputting a code from an authenticator app cumbersome). Passkeys also effectively nullify X’s SMS-based two-factor authentication method, which the company has paywalled behind X Premium.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-now-supports-passkeys-on-ios-in-the-us-211233864.html?src=rss