‘The View’ is daytime TV’s champion. The talk show series will return for season 27 just in time for the 2024 election. From the co-hosts to when season 27 will actually premiere, here’s all the latest news.
‘The View’ is daytime TV’s champion. The talk show series will return for season 27 just in time for the 2024 election. From the co-hosts to when season 27 will actually premiere, here’s all the latest news.
A couple of years ago, you might have described Rode as a company that makes microphones. Today, it’s positioning itself more as a one-stop-shop for creator tools. The original Rodecaster Pro podcast mixer was the first big step in this evolution. That includes the new, gaming-focused “Rode X” sub-brand and products like the Streamer X capture card. The company, of course, still makes a microphone or two. But, with the new, smaller, more affordable and very capable Rodecaster Duo stream mixer, this move toward general creators is basically official.
The original Rodecaster Pro was the first mixing desk specifically designed for podcasters to really catch people’s attention. The build-quality, price, ease of use and simple workflow struck a chord with pros and amateurs alike. The Rodecaster Pro II ($699) went in a slightly different direction, introducing the ability to route different audio sources to different places, an essential tool for game streamers. The pads were upgraded from simple audio triggers to multi-purpose smart pads that can be used for MIDI, vocal effects and more. The second version also came in with a smaller footprint, removing two physical faders and making them “virtual.”
The Rodecaster Duo ($499) is arguably just the Rodcaster Pro II “mini.” The functionality is identical to its bigger sibling, but it comes with four physical faders (down from six); six pads (down from eight) and two XLR ports for microphones or instruments (down from four). You actually have control over seven mixing channels at any one time, but adjusting three of them is done via virtual faders. Importantly, you get to configure which inputs remain on physical faders and which are assigned to virtual controls in the companion software.
Two other small changes include the removal of the “record” button, which is now virtual/on the display, and there’s also a headphone port on the front edge. This last change solves one of my main nitpicks with Rodecaster Pro II, which only had headphone ports around the back. The port on the front is 3.5mm rather than 1/4 -inch and is compatible with headset/TRRS mics, adding another input effectively — one that’s particularly handy for game streamers.
One of the biggest upgrades from the original Rodecaster Pro is the addition of a second USB-C port around the back which can connect to a second PC. This is a massive boon for streamers who want to keep their gaming rig separate from their streaming one, and the new routing table allows you to send whatever inputs you like to either USB connection. This same port also can be used for connecting a phone, which is perfect for introducing callers or for streaming via mobile apps. You could always connect a phone via Bluetooth on the original model, which was handy but now you have multiple options (and via cable is much better quality).
The fact that there are only two XLR combo jacks speaks strongly to who this is for. While the Rodecaster Pro and its sequel were originally built for in-person, multi-guest, podcasts, it’s also a very capable tool for solo creators which has helped fuel its popularity. And with an increasing number of tools like Zencastr or Adobe Podcast, the need to host fellow flesh-sacks in the same room is no longer required for high-quality audio from all speakers. As such, the Rodecaster Duo makes a lot of sense for a broad stroke of creators from podcasters to streamers and even music producers and video editors (both the Duo and the II Pro are MIDI enabled).
Be under no illusions, the Duo — and its bigger sibling — are just as “pro” friendly as the first Rodecaster, but they both lean into the creator space a bit more than the original. This point is made most clearly by the very existence of the Duo. The smaller footprint is a clear admission that this was made to live on a desk full time alongside your other daily tools.
The Rodecaster II Pro was already a bit more manageable than the first model, but after a few weeks with the Duo, the difference is stark. It can remain nested under my monitor and easily moved into position when I go live. Before the Duo, I had the Pro II on my desk in a similar setup, but I was frequently moving it out of the way to make space for other things that it became a bit of a burden and I ended up unplugging it until show time. With the Duo it’s clear this can be a daily driver with little-to-no need to organize around it.
The number of tools for creators and streamers is expanding exponentially, and with that are more direct rivals to the Rodecaster series. In fact, just days after the Rodecaster Duo was announced, Boss unveiled its own take on the category with the Gigcaster 8 ($699) and Gigcaster 5 ($459). Both offer very similar features to Rode’s products in a generally smaller footprint. The Gigcaster 8 is a near 1:1 in terms of functionality to the Pro II, while the Gigcaster 5 sacrifices the physical trigger pads to make way for two more physical faders — six total — over the Duo’s four to create an even smaller footprint. Though it has a slight focus on musicians via some sound presets and effects, and doesn’t quite match the overall build quality and polish as the Rode.
Rode’s audio chops are also not to be underestimated. The pre-amps and headphone outputs on the Duo are capital-L loud and squeaky clean with a very low noise floor. When the products were announced, Rode went out of its way to show how well it could power the notoriously quiet (and insanely popular) SM7B microphone. When you’re giving a shout out to a rival company’s product to demonstrate a feature, you better be confident that the feature you’re touting does the goods. And surely it does. The amount of clean gain to drive microphones such as the aforementioned Shure classic is impressive and a step up from the already-decent Rodecaster Pro before it.
In short, the Rodecaster Duo feels like a product that Rode maybe didn’t initially think was the main event. It’s the smaller, more affordable version of its flagship mixer after all. It turns out that this is likely the one that most solo creators will actually want. Even pros might want to consider the Duo over the Pro II if they don’t absolutely need the capacity to run four microphones in tandem.
It’s worth mentioning that if you’re considering moving over to the Duo from something like the GoXLR or the Razer Audio Mixer know that Rode’s take on a routing table is a little different to what you might be used to. The Duo’s companion software is generally pretty good, but it doesn’t use the conventional “table” format many streamers will be used to. Instead it’s a little bit convoluted, but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite powerful. This is particularly handy if you’re in the business of recording audio from multiple sources. I often just use the routing options so I can record either one or both sides of a phone call or online meeting depending on my needs, but it’s also good for feeding PC audio — including Zoom calls or YouTube videos etc. — into, well, wherever you want it to go, including your phone.
If you do any kind of live audio production or recording, especially podcasts, the Rodecaster Duo is an easy sell. For streamers, it’s also a very capable device, one that’s also easy to recommend, but with a small asterisk. Streaming setups and their associated platforms are often a little more to their host’s tastes and preferences. As such, the Duo’s suitability will depend on what you’re used to and the specifics of what you want to do. But for most creators, the Duo is the better option over the Pro II at the very least.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rodecaster-duo-review-153032883.html?src=rss
The actor clapped back at trolls saying his ‘Blind Side’ co-star should return her Oscar, saying that her performance had nothing to do with the real story unfolding between Michael Oher and the Tuohys.
The actor clapped back at trolls saying his ‘Blind Side’ co-star should return her Oscar, saying that her performance had nothing to do with the real story unfolding between Michael Oher and the Tuohys.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s youngest daughter showed off a new hairstyle while out with her famous mom on Aug. 15.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s youngest daughter showed off a new hairstyle while out with her famous mom on Aug. 15.
Despite being publicly available for less than a year, generative AI technology can already be found all around us, helping us browse the internet, taking the drudgery out of computer coding, and even improving the dialog in popular video game franchises. On Wednesday, NCSoft, the South Korean game developer and publisher behind long-running MMORPG Guild Wars, announced that it has developed four new AI large language models, dubbed VARCO, to help streamline future game development.
VARCO (“Via AI, Realize your Creativity and Originality,” if you squint just right) is both the quartet of language models the company has developed, as well as all of the products and services the company plans to build atop them. Those potential products include, “digital humans, generative AI platforms, and conversational language models,” per an NCSoft release.
The four models are VARCO the base LLM, as well as Art, Text and Human. LLM will be the first released — the Korean-language version is available August 16, while the English and bilingual iterations will arrive by the end of the month. LLM be trained with 1.3B, 6.4B and 13B parameters to start with larger versions made available later in the year.
“Our LLM is trained with datasets that are either publicly available for pretraining, collected from the Internet or internally constructed,” Jehee Lee, CRO of NCSOFT, told Engadget via email. “We are putting efforts to improve the performance of LLM and generate text that does not undermine the universal values of society.”
“Bias is one of our biggest concerns in the process of constructing data,” Lee continued, “ In order to build high-quality datasets, NC utilizes a pipeline where collected data are analyzed and evaluated in various aspects (e.g. format, content, ethics) and are refined based on our own criteria.”
Larger-parameter versions of LLM will arrive later in the year, allowing for more nuanced and complete responses from the system. “As the size of the model increases, the performance increases,” Lee notes, “but the operating cost also increases accordingly.” As such ensuring that models are developed to be both computationally powerful and computationally lightweight is of tantamount importance, he continued.
“NC has accumulated technologies for model weight reduction and optimization as we have been applying real-time machine translation and NLP-based technologies to our games that require large-scale traffic processing in real-time,” Lee explained. “Based on our experiences, we plan to develop and sequentially release high-performance lightweight models specialized for various individual tasks in the future.”
The three additional services will be based upon that foundational model. VARCO Art, the text-to-image generator, will reportedly be capable of closely matching the work of specific artists (with their permission of course). “With dozens of illustrations worked consistently by an artist, generative models can be trained to reveal enough of a particular style, such as coloring, touches, and outlines,” Lee said. “ Thus far, artists or experts can spot the difference, but it is not easy for ordinary people to distinguish if it is generated by AI or not.”
Additionally, VARCO Text does just that, generating and managing the core settings of a game including the plot scenarios and character worldviews, while VARCO Human, “an integrated tool for creating, editing, and managing digital humans,” per the release. Art, Text, and Human can all be used and managed within the company’s VACRO Studio suite, which will be available in 2024.
The VARCO models will initially be used to help streamline game development efforts, much in the same way as Ubisoft’s Ghostwriter. However, VARCO sets itself apart, Lee explains, in that it is a “special Vertical AI that can directly solve specific pain points regardless of industry and domain.”
“The generative model can be used for the planning, development, and operation of games.,” Lee said. “The worldview of the game, character name, type, and attributes can be created and edited. Also, it creates conversations for specific situations and quests tailored to regions,” as well as accompanying images.
And like Ghostwriter, VARCO cannot operate in isolation. “We need final human judgment and additional work in order to produce sophisticated results,” Lee said. He argues that, ”generative AI technology will contribute to further increasing the value of human labor,” by distinguishing between the two.
In allowing AI to handle the low level repetitive tasks that perpetually slow game development, human designers will be freed to “focus on more complex tasks,” Lee said. “The results of generative AI will not be the final product, but rather it will serve to inspire humans and help them quickly reach higher goals with the help of AI’s emergent and large-scale creation capabilities.”
But games are only the beginning for NC’s AI aspirations. “we want to create new high value-added businesses by entering different fields beyond games,” Less said. “I think we can advance with our AI in any industrial field rather than just one field. NC plans to pay attention to new growth fields that we can expect greater potential and synergy when combined with AI, such as fashion, life, health, mobility, bio, robotics, and content.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ncsofts-new-ai-suite-is-trained-to-streamline-game-production-141653946.html?src=rss
Netflix is getting the band back together with Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, an anime adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series. The company has dropped the first teaser for the eight-episode show, which centers around the titular character and his attempt to win a battle of the bands contest while facing off against the seven evil exes of his new girlfriend.
The anime follows on from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a 2010 film based on the graphic novels. The main cast of Edgar Wright’s movie are reprising their roles in the series, including Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Ramona Flowers), Kieran Culkin (Wallace Wells), Chris Evans (Lucas Lee) and Brie Larson (“Envy” Adams).
The teaser apes many of the visuals of the movie and graphic novels, such as Scott blocking a flying attack from Matthew Patel with his arm and the rehearsal space of his band, Sex Bob-Omb. You’ll also see Ramona dragging Scott through space toward a door with a star on it and the lovebirds sitting next to each other on a swing set. I don’t remember seeing any dinosaurs in the film, though.
Bryan Lee O’Malley, the creator of the graphic novel series, is one of the showrunners, while Wright is an executive producer. Abel Gongora of animation studio Science Saru (Star Wars: Visions, Devilman Crybaby) is the director of the show. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off also includes new music from Anamanaguchi, the terrific chiptune band behind the soundtrack of the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World video game.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is my favorite movie of the 2010s, and this teaser gets the look and the spirit of the universe spot on. I’m already counting down the days until Scott Pilgrim Takes Off hits Netflix on November 17th.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflixs-scott-pilgrim-takes-off-teaser-hits-all-the-right-notes-142355204.html?src=rss
Keke Palmer and Usher both star in the ‘Boyfriend’ music video that includes an epic dig at Darius Jackson. Watch it here!
Keke Palmer and Usher both star in the ‘Boyfriend’ music video that includes an epic dig at Darius Jackson. Watch it here!
The ‘Van Helsing’ actress shared a series of photos of her mother in the hospital, receiving treatment, as she penned an emotional message on social media.
The ‘Van Helsing’ actress shared a series of photos of her mother in the hospital, receiving treatment, as she penned an emotional message on social media.
Robot vacuums may seem like mindless suction machines with wheels. But today, “basically these devices are like smartphones,” Dennis Giese, PhD student at Northeastern University who researches robot vacuum security, said. From internet capabilities to video recording to voice control, robot vacuums have become an advanced Internet of Things technology, but the security upkeep hasn’t caught up.
“You don’t have any insight, what kind of data they’re recording, what kind of data is stored on the device, what kind of data is sent to the cloud,” Giese told Engadget. That might seem harmless for a device that sweeps your floors, but the real-life consequences have already taken effect.
Like in 2022 when the iRobot Roomba J7 captured private moments including photos of a woman on the toilet that the company sent to startup Scale AI to label and train AI algorithms. Amazon, which has experienced countless surveillance and data privacy scandals, is currently attempting to acquire iRobot for over $1.4 billion.
With all these features, robot vacuums can act as a surveillance system in your own home, meaning there’s a world where someone can access live view functions and spy on you. Companies can say this information is secure and only used when needed to improve your experience, but there’s not enough transparency for reviewers or consumers to figure out what’s actually going on. “People like me are catching the companies basically lying,” Giese said.
So, Giese is on a mission to give people more control over the robot vacuums in their homes because every device he’s tested has some sort of vulnerability. He spoke at DEF CON on Sunday about how people can hack their devices to disconnect from the cloud. Not only does this help protect your data from being used by the company, but it also gives access to the device so that you can repair it on your own terms. The “right to repair” ethos means that even if the warranty ends or the company goes bankrupt and stops supporting it, you can still use it.
Unfortunately, hacking into your robot vacuum’s firmware isn’t for newbies. It requires a level of technical expertise to figure out, according to Giese, but owners of robot vacuums can take steps to improve on-device data security. What you can do is make sure that you wipe all of the data before selling or getting rid of a robot vacuum. Even if the device is broken, “as a malicious person, I can just repair the device and can just power it on and extract the data from it,” Giese said. “If you can, do factory resets.”
Or, for full data privacy control but none of the convenience, stick to the standard push vacuum.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/robot-vacuum-security-privacy-irobot-cloud-133008625.html?src=rss
The ‘I’m Comin’ Over’ singer posted a shirtless photo to celebrate his weight loss, revealing how far he’s come, even though he said he’s ‘still not done.’
The ‘I’m Comin’ Over’ singer posted a shirtless photo to celebrate his weight loss, revealing how far he’s come, even though he said he’s ‘still not done.’
