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Nike and connected fitness subscription platform Strava are partnering up to simplify the act of transferring activity data from one service to the other. In the past, it was fairly complicated to send Nike+ data to the Strava platform.

Sending activity data from the Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club apps to Strava allows athletes a new way to track their workouts and connect with the overall community. This move gives Nike+ users access to more than 750,000 connected clubs and 100 million fitness enthusiasts that exist within Strava.

In addition to easing the frustration of sharing data, the partnership also allows Nike to create and post curated content on Strava via Nike-branded clubs. The company says this content will feature “world-class coaches and athletes.” Another reason Strava is so popular is its robust selection of outdoor maps, powered by adventure platform FATMAP. When the integrated service launches later in the summer, Nike+ users will also have access to these 3D fly-through maps.

Nike plans on hosting curated challenges on Strava later in the summer. The company says these hosted contests will “inspire connection and engagement around a shared goal” and indicates that they will feature unlockable rewards.

Strava is using this partnership as a springboard to place a renewed emphasis on the app’s community-based clubs and groups. It says this is just the first step toward enabling “deeper and richer” community interactions. These future updates include a new interface and an easier method to integrate videos, routes and various activities. Recently, the app even got heavily-requested Spotify controls.

The fruits of this partnership will begin to show up on the Strava app throughout the summer. Strava has also announced some new features that extend beyond Nike+ integration, such as live mountainside sun and snow tracking, avalanche risk profiles for skiers and more.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nike-and-strava-partner-up-for-curated-workouts-and-original-content-183019760.html?src=rss 

Horror collection Layers of Fearalready had a concrete release date of June 15th for many platforms, but now the day one launch also includes Apple Mac computers. This is only for recently-released models with Apple-manufactured silicon chips, but it’s certainly a feather in the company’s cap, as Apple has been busy trying to further its gaming ambitions.

The collection includes full remakes of the original Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2, including DLC for both titles and an original chapter made just for this release. These remakes aren’t simple upscales, as each title was recreated in Unreal Engine 5 and include all manner of modern graphical touches, though it’s still unknown if the Mac version will handle advanced techniques like ray-tracing. Developer Bloober Team has stated that it made full use of Apple’s proprietary Metal 3 upscaling tech.

“Apple silicon has transformed gaming on Mac — delivering incredible graphics performance, new capabilities, along with extraordinary battery life,” said Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno.

In addition to the Mac platform, Layers of Fear is launching on PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. In other words, it’ll be playable on just about everything but a Switch. Bloober Team is also porting former Xbox-exclusive The Medium to Apple Macs later this summer. The number of available modern titles on Apple computers is still paltry compared to other platforms, but silicon Macs have gotten some recent high-profile releases like Resident Evil Village. Some games, like Grid Legends and No Man’s Sky, have been announced for the platform but have yet to materialize.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/layers-of-fear-remake-is-launching-on-day-one-for-mac-184727990.html?src=rss 

It’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day and Microsoft is marking the occasion by highlighting some of the steps it has taken to make the Xbox ecosystem more inclusive. For one thing, the Xbox web store now has accessibility filters for console, PC and cloud games. There are 20 options, including gameplay settings — even just being able to pause is an important consideration for many folks as they decide whether to buy a game.

You’ll also be able to filter games by audio, visual and input features. There’s the option to look for games based on supported languages as well. At the outset, you can filter games by 17 languages. The web store filters build on a similar feature Microsoft brought to the Xbox PC app earlier this month. The filters are available on Xbox consoles too.

Elsewhere, Microsoft has expanded the Xbox accessibility support pages. They now cover more than 150 accessibility features, settings and controls for PC and consoles. Recent additions include a page that details how to adjust thumbstick settings in the Xbox Accessories app.

Microsoft has been doing a lot of positive work on the accessibility front both at the system level and in individual games. For instance, it recently offered an early look at many of the accessibility settings that will be available in Forza Motorsport.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-xbox-web-store-now-includes-accessibility-filters-160002677.html?src=rss 

Twitter now allows premium subscribers to upload longer videos. The company updated its Twitter Blue perks to allow paying members to upload video files as long as two hours and as large as 8GB.

The new limits are significantly higher as the company seeks to make its platform — and subscription service — more appealing to people like podcast creators, indie filmmakers and one former Fox News propagandist. (Those sharing pirated content will likely see opportunities as well.) The two-hour limit doubles the previous maximum of one hour while quadrupling the standard 2GB file limit, as reported byTechCrunch. However, video quality is still capped at 1080p for everyone. Twitter initially added the one-hour perk for Blue subscribers in December, and it recently brought its media player up to modern standards by offering playback-speed controls.

The update also lets iOS users upload longer videos in the mobile app (after being web-only when the cap was one hour). Android users with longer-form footage will still need to use a browser. But a Blue subscription isn’t required to watch the lengthier clips; anyone can do that.

Elon Musk announced last week that former NBCUniversal ad sales exec Linda Yaccarino would start as the company’s new CEO, replacing Musk in the coming weeks. She “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology,” he said on Friday.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-blue-subscribers-can-now-upload-videos-as-long-as-two-hours-161504628.html?src=rss 

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has issued two rulings in favor of tech companies that will continue to shield them from liability for what users post on their platforms. In the first case, the justices unanimously agreed that Twitter will not have to contend with claims that it aided and abetted terrorism over tweets that terrorist group ISIS posted.

SCOTUS reversed a lower court decision that allowed a lawsuit against Twitter to proceed after another judge initially dismissed it. The lawsuit was filed by US relatives of Nawras Alassaf, a man who was killed in a 2017 Istanbul attack that was claimed by ISIS. The justices determined that hosting general terrorist speech doesn’t create indirect legal responsibility for specific terrorist attacks, as CNN reports. That is likely to make it more difficult for victims of terrorist attacks or their relatives to make a similar case against online platforms in the future.

“To be sure, it might be that bad actors like ISIS are able to use platforms like defendants’ for illegal — and sometimes terrible — ends. But the same could be said of cell phones, email or the internet generally,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court’s opinion. “We conclude that plaintiffs’ allegations are insufficient to establish that these defendants aided and abetted ISIS in carrying out the relevant attack.”

The justices also dismissed the case of Gonzalez v. Google, which accused the company of violating US anti-terrorism laws. As such, they left intact a lower court decision to throw out a suit against YouTube brought by the family members of a victim of the 2015 terror attack in Paris. They argued that Section 230 protections should not apply to Google and YouTube in this case, as the latter’s algorithms surfaced ISIS videos in recommendations.

“We decline to address the application of Section 230 to a complaint that appears to state little, if any, plausible claim for relief,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “Instead, we vacate the judgment below and remand the case for Ninth Circuit to consider plaintiffs’ complaint in light of our decision in Twitter.”

Section 230 refers to a clause in the Communications Decency Act of 1996. In essence, it protects online platforms from being liable for what their users post as well as the ability of companies to moderate third-party material. 

The clause has faced opposition from both sides of the aisle over the years, with both Democrats and Republicans seeking to reform or scrap it. President Joe Biden claimed during his campaign that he would see Section 230 “revoked, immediately” if he were elected, but that obviously hasn’t come to pass. In relation to Gonzalez vs. Google, Biden’s administration argued that Section 230 protections don’t extend to Google’s algorithms, as the clause does not “bar claims based on YouTube’s alleged targeted recommendations of ISIS content.”

Engadget has contacted Google for comment. Twitter does not have a communications team that can be reached for comment.

Digital rights groups are among those who have welcomed the SCOTUS rulings. “We are pleased that the Court did not address or weaken Section 230, which remains an essential part of the architecture of the modern internet and will continue to enable user access to online platforms,” Electronic Frontier Foundation civil liberties director David Greene said in a statement to Engadget. “We also are pleased that the Court found that an online service cannot be liable for terrorist attacks merely because their services are generally used by terrorist organizations the same way they are used by millions of organizations around the globe.”

“With this decision, free speech online lives to fight another day,” Patrick Toomey, deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said. “Twitter and other apps are home to an immense amount of protected speech, and it would be devastating if those platforms resorted to censorship to avoid a deluge of lawsuits over their users’ posts. Today’s decisions should be commended for recognizing that the rules we apply to the internet should foster free expression, not suppress it.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/supreme-court-rules-in-twitter-and-youtubes-favor-in-terrorism-liability-cases-162246181.html?src=rss 

Two full years after being recalled and stripped from store shelves, Peloton’s beleaguered Tread+ treadmill has finally been issued an approved repair process from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSC has approved the installation of a rear guard to prevent accidents.

“The approved rear guard repair eliminates the potential for entrapment near the rear roller of the treadmill,” a CPSC rep said in a statement. “The rear guard repair features a breakaway design that pivots away from the treadmill when it comes into contact with a person or object, shutting off power to the unit and decelerating the belt.”

Peloton is offering the rear guard for free to anyone who still owns a Tread+, as the original recall was voluntary. It remains to be seen if the company will start selling the treadmill again. This all started back in 2021 with the CPSC receiving over 350 incident reports detailing the treadmill pulling users down and under the device. This caused injury to 90 people and the accidental death of a child. Along with the initial recall, Peloton issued a software update that locked the treadmill after each use, requiring a passcode to unlock the device.

Of course, this is not Peloton’s only ongoing safety issue. The company recalled over two million exercise bikes last week over safety concerns. In this case, the seat post can break during use, leading to accidental injury. It issued a repair for this as well, asking Peloton Bike owners to contact the company for a replacement seat post.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/peloton-finally-gets-approved-repair-for-treadmill-line-after-90-injuries-and-one-death-163014531.html?src=rss