Technology

jeudi 12 janvier 2023

Nvidia Broadcast can now deepfake your eyes to make you look at the camera

Image showing the same frame, once with Eye Contact off and once with it on. — *The effect is very impressive in stills, but wait until you see it in motion.* | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia’s streaming software now has an option to make it appear like you’re making eye contact with the camera, even if you’re looking somewhere else in real life. Using AI, the “Eye Contact” feature added to Nvidia Broadcast 1.4 will replace your eyes with “simulated” ones that are aligned with your camera — an effect that worked really well when we tested it ourselves, except for all the times it didn’t.

In an announcement post, the company writes the feature is meant for “content creators seeking to record themselves while reading their notes or a script” without having to look directly at a camera. Pitching it as something you’d use during a public performance, instead of something you’d use socially, does kind of sidestep the dilemmas that come with this sort of tech. Is it rude to use AI to trick my mom into thinking I’m engaged in our video call when I’m actually looking at my phone? Or, to make my boss think I’m not writing an article on my other monitor during a meeting? (I’m going to say yes, given that getting caught in either scenario would land me in hot water.)

Nvidia suggests that Eye Contact will try to make your simulated eyes match the color of your real ones, and there’s “even a disconnect feature in case you look too far away.”

Here’s a demo side by side with an unedited stream, so you can compare how my eyes are actually moving to how Nvidia’s software renders them:

Looking at the results I got, I’m not a huge fan of Eye Contact — I think it makes things just look a little off. Part of that is the animated eye movement. While it’s very cool that it’s even possible, it sometimes ends up making it look like my eyes are darting around at superhuman speeds. There’s also the odd, very distracting pop-ins that you can see near the end of the video.

There were definitely a few times when the feature got it right, and when it did, it was very impressive. Still, the misses were too frequent and noticeable for me to use this the next time I show up to a meeting (though, in theory, I could).

Nvidia does label the feature as a beta and is soliciting feedback from community members to help it improve. “There are millions of eye colors and lighting combinations,” the company says. “If you test it and find any issues, or just want to help us develop this AI effect further, please send us a quick video here, we would really appreciate it!”

Nvidia has been leaning heavily into this sort of AI generation in recent years — a major selling point of its graphics cards is DLSS, a feature that uses machine learning to intelligently upscale images, adding information that’s not there when you go to a lower (but easier to run) resolution. The latest version, DLSS 3, generates and inserts entirely new frames into your gameplay, like how Broadcast generates and adds a new pair of eyes to your face.

Broadcast also has other AI-powered features, such as background replacement that works as a virtual green screen and the ability to clean up background noises that your microphone picks up.

This isn’t the first eye contact feature we’ve seen. Apple started testing a similar feature called “Attention Correction” for FaceTime in 2018. In current versions of iOS, it’s labeled as “Eye Contact” in Settings > FaceTime. Microsoft also has a version of the feature in Windows 11 for devices with a neural processing unit.

Eye Contact isn’t the only feature Nvidia added to Broadcast version 1.4. The latest update also brings a vignette effect that Nvidia says is similar to Instagram’s and improves the Blur, Replacement, and Removal Virtual Background effects. The update is currently available to download for anyone with an RTX graphics card.

Tim Cook takes a $35 million pay cut that he recommended

Apple CEO Tim Cook is taking a big pay cut — at his own recommendation. Cook’s target compensation will be decreasing by $35 million, according to a new regulatory filing, dropping from $84 million in 2022 to $49 million in 2023. That’s a drop of more than 40 percent.

The changes come entirely from an adjustment in his equity award value, which makes up the bulk of Cook’s total compensation. In 2022, that value was estimated to be worth $75 million, but this year, that estimate drops to $40 million. His base salary of $3 million and his annual cash incentive of $6 million will remain the same. Bloomberg reported the pay cut earlier on Thursday.

To set Cook’s new pay, the compensation committee on Apple’s board “balanced shareholder feedback, Apple’s exceptional performance, and a recommendation from Mr. Cook to adjust his compensation in light of the feedback received.” In reality, his 2023 compensation could differ; Cook actually made $99.4 million in 2022, according to the filing.

While Apple continues to be quite successful, its market cap has dropped $1 trillion from its peak a year ago, and the company has been facing some production challenges with its cash cow, the iPhone. There is also some worry about the company’s future big bets. The long-rumored mixed reality headset still hasn’t been officially announced (though that may finally happen this spring). The Project Titan car project is reportedly still years away, and according to a December Bloomberg report, it will now be arriving a year later than originally planned. And Apple is facing the same economic challenges affecting other big tech firms, which have resulted in massive layoffs at companies like Meta and Amazon.

Royal Mail ransomware attackers threaten to publish stolen data

Postal service has been unable to send letters and parcels overseas since Wednesday due to hacking

Royal Mail has been hit by a ransomware attack by a criminal group, which has threatened to publish the stolen information online.

The postal service has received a ransom note purporting to be from LockBit, a hacker group widely thought to have close links to Russia.

mercredi 11 janvier 2023

‘Uh oh … boom!’: TikTok is in love with simulated shipwrecks

Fans say the use of an accurate physics engine to reimagine historic shipwrecks makes it ‘difficult to look away’

A shark swims slowly and serenely beneath the Bismarck seconds before it sinks deep into the ocean. Seemingly out of nowhere, the battleship tilts and falls; its bow crashes on to the seabed. Its hull floods before briefly resurfacing out of the water. Then the voiceover says: “Oh! Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh! Boom!” The Bismarck snaps in half and sinks.

This was not the Bismarck’s real end, but a shipwreck simulated by Alex Reifsnyder, a 27-year-old retail supervisor from Pennsylvania. Reifsnyder uses the physics simulator Floating Sandbox to sink ships with tidal waves, icebergs and lightning for between one and two hours almost every night. On his TikTok page @an_angry_flyy, 167,000 loyal followers cannot get enough.

Why we need new stories on climate | Rebecca Solnit

So much is happening, both wonderful and terrible – and it matters how we tell it. We can’t erase the bad news, but to ignore the good is the route to indifference or despair

Every crisis is in part a storytelling crisis. This is as true of climate chaos as anything else. We are hemmed in by stories that prevent us from seeing, or believing in, or acting on the possibilities for change. Some are habits of mind, some are industry propaganda. Sometimes, the situation has changed but the stories haven’t, and people follow the old versions, like outdated maps, into dead ends.

We need to leave the age of fossil fuel behind, swiftly and decisively. But what drives our machines won’t change until we change what drives our ideas. The visionary organiser adrienne maree brown wrote not long ago that there is an element of science fiction in climate action: “We are shaping the future we long for and have not yet experienced. I believe that we are in an imagination battle.”

Elon Musk breaks world record for largest loss of personal fortune in history

The tech billionaire has reportedly lost $182bn (£150bn) since November 2021, largely due to the drop in Tesla’s share price

Elon Musk has broken the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history, according to a Guinness World Records report.

The tech billionaire has lost approximately $182bn (£150bn) since November 2021, although other sources suggest that it could actually be closer to $200bn, the report said.

Amazon Loses Bid to Overturn Union Victory at Staten Island Warehouse

Amazon Loses Bid to Overturn Union Victory at Staten Island Warehouse A National Labor Relations Board official found a lack of evidence to support claims of election improprieties. Amazon could appeal the decision.

Apple’s Music and TV apps for Windows are now available in preview

Illustration of the Apple TV Plus logon on a black, orange, and tan background. — Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple’s Music and TV apps for Windows have made an appearance, with preview versions of the apps being spotted on the Microsoft Store by The Verifier (via MacRumors). LAst October, Microsoft announced they were coming to the platform, letting users finally ditch the old iTunes app and Apple TV web player for native software that is closer to the experience embedded in macOS.

There’s also a third preview of an app called Apple Devices, which is meant to let you manage and sync things like iPods and iPads — functionality that’s currently handled by iTunes on Windows and Finder on the Mac. It also, apparently, contains some references to Reality OS and xrOS, two codenames that have reportedly been associated with Apple’s virtual reality headset.

The TV app is similar to the version on macOS, though you access different sections via a list to the side rather than tabs on the top. Using it, I was able to watch Apple TV Plus shows, as well as movies I’d purchased on iTunes; it even had a miniplayer mode. The Music app is a similar to the macOS version, though the iTunes store is ever so slightly harder to access.

Two Verge staffers running Windows 11 were able to install and run the apps using The Verifier’s links. You can download them yourself here: Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Devices.

When you open the apps for the first time, they warn that iTunes will stop working if you use them and that you’ll have to uninstall the previews to bring it back. It does seem like the Music app brought over my music and settings from iTunes, but if you absolutely have to sync an iPod, it may be worth holding off on trying these apps out until the Apple Devices app is out of preview. MacRumors also points out that you may want to hold off if you use iTunes for Windows to manage or listen to podcasts and audiobooks.

So far, the previews seem to be mostly stable with a lot of the basic functionality I’d expect, though the apps do say that “not all features may work as expected.”

Google strikes back in search antitrust lawsuit

Illustration: The Verge

Courts have unsealed Google’s motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit over its search engine — one that could fracture a core Google service in order to increase online competition. In a motion for summary judgment filed on December 12th, the company argues that the complaint misrepresents its agreements with browser developers and Android phone makers, unfairly punishing its success. “Requiring Google not to compete vigorously — or requiring browser developers to alter their product designs and provide a worse experience for their customers,” it says, “would turn competition law on its head.”

The US Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general sued Google in 2020, part of a multi-pronged approach to limit the web giant’s power. (The state and federal suits were filed separately but largely consolidated.) The latest complaint alleges that Google used its incumbent power and its Android operating system to lock up the search market, denying competitors “vital distribution, scale, and product recognition.” It seeks structural changes that would limit Google’s power over new entrants.

Google’s moderately redacted brief argues that its search deals — including agreements with Mozilla and Apple to feature Google search in their browsers — don’t prevent users from trying other engines and are the result of Google simply outperforming its competitors. “No evidence suggests that Google coerced Apple, Mozilla, or any other browser developer into adopting a design that includes a single default search engine,” the filing asserts. Similarly, it argues that its contracts with Android phone makers don’t constitute exclusive deals. And in a separate Colorado suit, it denies that it unlawfully stacked its search results against specialized “vertical” search engines like Yelp, which has persistently argued that Google favors its own services.

Google search has faced persistent antitrust scrutiny in Europe, which has taken a more active approach to anti-monopoly efforts. Last year, the European Union General Court upheld a €4.125 billion (roughly $4.4 billion) fine for placing “unlawful restrictions” on Android phone manufacturers to consolidate its search dominance. It was previously censured for demoting a rival shopping search engine in its own service, a move Google argued it made to reduce low-quality results.

In the US, a larger push to fundamentally reform antitrust policy — and likely create more legal risks for large tech companies — fizzled out at the end of 2022.

But Google and government agencies are still dueling over whether the company violated existing law. The company is fighting a separate lawsuit alleging that it used anti-competitive practices to dominate the ad-tech field, although a judge pared back the suit in September, throwing out claims that Google and Facebook colluded to fix the market. A more recent suit alleges that Google abused its power in Android’s Google Play Store — echoing an ongoing high-profile case brought by Fortnite developer Epic Games.

mardi 10 janvier 2023

‘I didn’t know if my mother was alive’: joy and grief as Tigray reconnects to the world

The restoration of communications to the war-torn Ethiopian region after last month’s peace deal has ended two years of extreme and destructive isolation for Tigrayans

When Lemlem read online that phone lines had been restored to parts of Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region last month, she spent the entire night trying to call her elderly mother, who lives in the Tigrayan town of Adwa.

“I tried maybe 20 or 30 times but the call wouldn’t go through,” Lemlem said from her home in Maryland in the US. “When I finally heard her voice, it was so emotional. We were crying together and I was just so happy. For two years, I didn’t know if she was alive.”

Esports and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves is laying off staff

Three people posing with 100 Thieves apparel. — *A collection of 100 Thieves apparel.* | Image: 100 Thieves

100 Thieves, a popular gaming, esports, and lifestyle brand, laid off about 30 employees on Tuesday, according to esports journalist Jacob Wolf. The cuts hit roles in sales, marketing, content and human resources as well as senior positions including chief revenue officer, director of people, director of talent, and head of partnerships, Wolf reports.

Matty Lee, the former chief revenue officer, wrote a blog post about his departure on LinkedIn. Other former staffers have been tweeting about being laid off, including one who produced and edited a splashy film released Tuesday hyping 100 Thieves’ 2023 esports jerseys.

Today was my last day at @100Thieves but not before producing and editing this piece. It's been fun and truly thankful for the past 2 years. Open to whatever the future holds for me. https://t.co/YQL8UzQEkz
— Kenny Huynh (@kencreatemedia) January 10, 2023

100 Thieves, which was founded in 2017 by streamer and former Call of Duty pro Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, has grown to be one of the most recognizable names in esports. In addition to competitive gaming, it has a major apparel business, acquired gaming peripherals company Higround in 2021, and is making a video game currently called “Project X.” Drake, Scooter Braun, and streamers Valkyrae and CouRage are co-owners.

Forbes ranked 100 Thieves as the second-most valuable esports organization in an article published in May. But given Tuesday’s layoffs, it appears that 100 Thieves isn’t immune to the economic challenges that have affected many other companies as of late; even giants like Meta and Amazon have announced sweeping layoffs.

100 Thieves didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Tuesday’s layoff follows another from July 2022 that affected more than a dozen workers on the company’s social media and content teams.

Twitter defaults to a For You page now, just like TikTok

RIP to the Twitter star. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is changing how you move between the algorithmically-driven timeline and the reverse chronological one and making the algorithmic feed the default.

In a change rolling out to iOS users first, the company has taken away the star button at the top right that let you switch between two feeds. In its place are two tabs — one labeled “For You” and the other “Following” — and when you open the app, you’ll see the For You tab first.

Gif showing what it’s like to swipe between the “for you” and “following” timelines. — *What swiping between the two timelines looks like.*

For You, which shares a name with TikTok’s algorithmically-driven feed, is similar to the old “Home” option, which shows you tweets from the people you follow out of order, interspersed with tweets it thinks you may like. (This isn’t the first time Twitter has copied a TikTok feature.) Following is what used to be called “Latest Tweets.”

While the change makes it easier to switch between them, taking a single swipe instead of a few taps, there is something that’s been lost — if you set your app to show you the “Latest Tweets,” that would typically stick.

The “For you” and “Following” tabs replace “Home” and “Latest” and will be pinned to the top of your timeline so you can easily switch between them. Swipe to switch timelines instead of tapping the ✨ icon.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 11, 2023

Now, however, even when you close the app and reopen it, you’re shown the For You feed. That is a bit of a bummer; there are a lot of people who far prefer the reverse-chronological feed, and previous attempts to get rid of it or make it harder to access have typically sparked ire. While this change does technically make it easier to get to from the algorithmic timeline, it definitely makes the latter option harder to ignore.

The old interface with the star button is still available on Android and web, at least for now.

The change partially makes good on a promise from Twitter CEO Elon Musk. On December 20th, he tweeted that the “Main timeline should allow for an easy sideways swipe between top, latest, trending and topics that you follow,” and said that the company would be “making this change soon.” So far, there’s no option to swipe to trending and followed topics, though the trending page is only a few taps away in the search menu.

New laser lays groundwork for next-generation ethernet technology

New laser lays groundwork for next-generation ethernet technology Scientists from Japan have developed a new type of distributed feedback (DFB) laser and have shown that it can be used to transmit data at speeds of 200 Gb/s over a record distance of 10 kilometers. This research could help advance network technology that would allow internet data centers to handle unprecedented levels of data.

Winter sports are triggering false iPhone Crash Detection alerts

iPhone 14 Pro standing up on a bench outside with the homescreen on. — *The iPhone 14 Pro’s built-in Crash Detection feature is causing problems for some emergency dispatchers.* | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Despite Apple’s best efforts to ensure that its new Crash Detection feature is only triggered when there’s real trouble, winter recreation is proving to be a perfect storm for false alarms.

Minnesota Public Radio (as spotted by 9to5Mac) reports that false alarms from the new feature are a growing problem for emergency responders, particularly as people engage in winter activities like skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling. They provide a unique set of factors — fast starts, stops, and jolts that can fool iPhones and Apple Watches into thinking there’s been an accident, while winter weather gear makes it hard to know that your watch or phone is sounding an alert. It’s a tricky problem without an obvious, immediate solution.

Apple introduced Crash Detection on the iPhone 14 and Series 8 watch. It uses data from the devices’ sensors to detect when a serious car accident has occurred — at least, that’s what it’s designed to do. If it thinks there’s been a crash, it will prompt you to call emergency services or cancel if you’re alright. If there’s no response after a 20-second countdown, the device will automatically call 911.

When it works properly, it has successfully summoned emergency workers to help crash victims. But it’s also causing some problems, especially in situations where your phone isn’t easily accessible. People on rollercoasters kept inadvertently calling 911, and emergency dispatchers in ski resort towns are reporting a huge influx of automated calls from skiers’ iPhones.

One of Apple’s safeguards against false alarms is to try and get your attention so you can catch it before an unnecessary emergency call is placed — for 10 seconds of the 20-second countdown, the phone or watch will vibrate and sound a siren. But that’s apparently not very effective if your phone or watch is under layers of thick clothing or being drowned out by the sound of a snowmobile engine. When that happens, dispatchers receive a call with an automated message and the device’s coordinates and will usually send an emergency responder to the scene — even if it’s likely to be a false alarm. A dispatcher who works in Summit County, Colorado, told the Colorado Sun that they “are not in the practice of disregarding calls” and that it takes “a tremendous amount of resources” to respond to every inadvertent 911 call.

Turning the feature off — which you can do in settings — is the obvious answer if you want to avoid calling 911 by accident. But even though the vast majority of emergency calls triggered by Crash Detection seem to be false alarms, first responders have received true emergency calls this way. MPR’s report mentions that one dispatcher they spoke to received a genuine alert triggered by an Apple Watch about a severe crash just after giving an interview to the news outlet. And if you’re skiing or snowmobiling somewhere remote, that’s exactly the kind of situation where you might need this kind of feature. It would also be easy to forget to turn it back on after disabling for an afternoon on the slopes.

Part of the solution will likely have to come from Apple in the form of a software update. Apple didn’t immediately respond for comment when contacted about the issue, but it has already made a couple of adjustments to the feature: iOS 16.1.2 included “optimizations” for Crash Detection, and iOS 16.2 added a UX feature to report a false positive to Apple. Until something changes, it might be best to turn the feature off if you’re recreating in a highly trafficked area. If you’re wearing an Apple Watch, you can leave Fall Detection enabled while turning off Crash Detection, too, which might reduce the risk of a false alarm while keeping some emergency features enabled. But if you turn it off altogether, maybe set yourself a reminder to turn it back on when you’re done — just in case.

Samsung confirms February 1st Unpacked, its first in-person event in three years

Three illustrated spotlights with text “Galaxy Unpacked February 1, 2023 live on Samsung.com” — *Samsung is bringing the spotlight back in an in-person event on February 1st.* | Image: Samsung

Mark your calendar: Samsung is hosting its next Galaxy Unpacked on February 1st. The company is officially confirming a date that it kinda accidentally confirmed a few days ago. The event will take place at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, and although Samsung isn’t saying exactly what will be announced, it’s almost certainly the Galaxy S23 series.

The company is also bringing back its preorder reservation incentives for those who are eager to claim a yet-to-be-named device. By putting in a reservation, you’ll get $50 of Samsung store credit if you follow through and preorder one device or $100 when you preorder two devices — that’s all assuming that people are actually able to place preorders, which proved tricky last year. There’s no obligation, thankfully, so you don’t have to purchase one sight unseen.

The event itself kicks off at 10am PT on Wednesday the first and will be livestreamed as well. If rumors are anything to go by, the S23 series could include some interesting camera upgrades, like the debut of a 200-megapixel sensor in the Ultra. The S22 Ultra was already one of our favorite mobile camera systems of 2022, so we’ll be eager to see what February 1st brings.

Three-Quarters of Teenagers Have Seen Online Pornography by Age 17

Three-Quarters of Teenagers Have Seen Online Pornography by Age 17 Sexually explicit content has become so prevalent online that teenagers are deluged, according to a new report by a nonprofit child advocacy group.

Improved voice typing in Google Docs is coming to more browsers

You can transcribe audio using Google Docs. It’s free, but not all that accurate. — *Google Docs’ voice-typing feature in action.* | Screenshot by Barbara Krasnoff / The Verge

Google Docs’ voice-typing feature, which lets you “type” and edit text using your voice and a microphone rather than your hands and a keyboard, is getting a couple of key upgrades.

First is that the feature is expanding to “most major browsers.” Currently, Google’s support page notes that it’s “only available in Chrome browsers.” Second is that it is being upgraded to “reduce transcription errors and minimize lost audio during transcription.”

As 9to5Google notes, voice typing has been available in Google Docs for over half a decade, allowing users to get words on the (virtual) page even if their hands are full or otherwise not in a position to be able to traditionally type. It can also work as a handy transcription tool in a pinch, though as our guide explains you might be better off with a dedicated piece of transcription software in most cases.

Frustratingly, although Google’s announcement says the feature is coming to “most major browsers,” it doesn’t specify exactly which browsers these are. At the very least, we hope that it’ll now be officially supported in other Chromium-based browsers like Microsoft Edge (where users report that it hasn’t worked in the past), but “major browsers” would presumably also include Safari and Firefox. We’ve contacted Google for clarification.

As well as the improvements coming to Google Docs, the search giant says that voice-typed speaker notes in Google Slides “will now contain automatically generated punctuation.” The enhanced voice typing features should roll out to all users by the middle of next month.

AI Is Becoming More Conversant. But Will It Get More Honest?

AI Is Becoming More Conversant. But Will It Get More Honest? At a new website called Character.AI, you can chat with a reasonable facsimile of almost anyone, live or dead, real or (especially) imagined.

lundi 9 janvier 2023

Google Docs adds a feature we thought it already had: non-printing characters

Screenshot of a Google Docs page with non-printing characters shown. — *If you’ve ever needed to see exactly where your line breaks and spaces are, I have great news.* | Image: Google

Google is adding a feature to Google Docs that lets you see non-printing characters such as spaces, tabs, and various types of breaks, the company announced in a blog post on Monday. The option, which will be available in the View menu, can help make editing a document easier by showing you exactly how its formatted rather than making you rely purely on what you can see to tell whether something is a tab or a bunch of spaces. It can also be more helpful when troubleshooting messed up formatting.

Before now, people have had to rely on third-party add-ons for Google Docs to see the non-printing characters. While it’s not a feature that many people will have much use for (more on that in a second), there was definitely demand for it. A request on Google’s IssueTracker received over 80 votes from people saying they were impacted by the inability to see the characters. Some also left impassioned comments: “My team agrees that this is a major issue with google docs,” wrote one user in 2019, while someone asked “How has this not been made available yet??” less than a week ago.

Gif showing a document with non-printing characters enabled. — *This gif shows what a document looks like with the view mode on and off.*

On the other side of the coin, I, and several of my colleagues, were surprised to hear that the app didn’t have this feature until now. Apparently, none of us had ever come across the need for it or thought to check for it — and yes, that does seem a bit odd in retrospect, given that we’re all writers, but I guess we just assumed it was there.

I was also surprised that Google Docs didn’t have it given that I remember learning about non-printing characters in an elementary school computer class; Microsoft Word has been able to show them for pretty much the entire time I’ve been alive. (One of my co-workers recalled that his parents had the feature on when he was growing up, which made him think that was just how electronic documents worked.)

Still, the addition is better late than never, and I’m sure there are some Google Docs users that are very excited by this announcement. According to the blog post, the feature will be available to all business, educational, and personal accounts, and should be fully rolled out by February 7th.

Brazil Riot and Jan. 6 Attack Followed a Similar Digital Playbook, Experts Say

Brazil Riot and Jan. 6 Attack Followed a Similar Digital Playbook, Experts Say Researchers are studying how the internet was used to stoke anger and to organize far-right groups ahead of the Brazilian riots.

YouTube will start sharing ad money with Shorts creators on February 1st

The money machine is coming. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube has announced that creators can start making ad revenue on Shorts starting February 1st, following a promise from September that the monetization option was on its way. The change is coming as part of a broader update to YouTube’s Partner Program, which will require everyone who’s currently part of it to sign new agreement terms, whether or not they’re looking to make money from Shorts.

Creators have been able to make some money from the format that rolled out in 2021 for a while via things like Super Chats and shopping integrations, as well as a creator fund that the company had set up, but that model wasn’t all that much better that TikTok’s monetization scheme. What TikTok doesn’t do, though, is directly share ad revenue with creators — something that YouTube has been doing for years for traditional videos and that it’s now bringing to Shorts.

Creators won’t necessarily have to opt in to shorts monetization if they don’t want to. YouTube says it’s introducing a modular system for the partner program’s terms — everyone in the program will have to sign a base agreement that dictates things like what you can post on the site and how payment works. That goes for creators who are already YouTube Partners; the company says they’ll have until July 10th, 2023, to accept the new terms, or else their ability to monetize with the platform will be turned off, and they’ll have to reapply to the program.

Then there are additional agreements for “Watch Page” and Shorts monetization, which you can agree to separately. The Shorts agreement, which will be available on February 1st, is basically what it says on the tin, giving you a cut of the revenue from “ads viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed.” The Watch Page agreement essentially covers the other stuff; livestreams and traditional “long-form” videos on YouTube, YouTube Music, or YouTube Kids.

Basically, content you watch on a page that looks something like this:

Screenshot of a YouTube video page. — *The Watch Page agreement covers, as the name implies, videos that use the watch page.*

There’s also an addendum for “commerce products” like memberships, Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks, though the company says that you won’t have to re-agree to those terms if you’ve already turned the features on for your channel.

YouTube says this modular approach will let it “add new monetization opportunities in the future without having to update or amend the entire monetization agreement.” The company also says that you can opt out of certain monetization modules after you sign up for them, though I’m struggling to come up with reasons why anyone would — it feels like doing so would just arbitrarily limit your monetization options.

The announcement comes as YouTube is revising the requirements to join the YouTube Partner Program. One of the requirements used to be that you had to get 4,000 public watch hours on your content within the past 12 months. Starting in October 2022, Shorts counted toward that number. As of January 2023, though, that’s no longer the case, according to the YouTube Partner Program overview & eligibility support page. Instead, that part of the eligibility requirement has been tweaked; you now have to get the 4,000 hours on non-shorts content or get 10 million views on your public Shorts within the past 90 days. (Either way, you also have to have at least 1,000 subscribers to be eligible.)

‘He gives us every bit of himself’: how God of War’s actors hold the whole game together

The father-son relationship in Sony’s smash hit shows how important actors have become to video games. Its creators discuss their blockbuster success – and the future of gaming

In Los Angeles last month, Al Pacino walked on stage at the Microsoft theatre in front of an audience of video game developers and performers to present a trophy at the Game awards. Looking pleased but mildly baffled, and struggling to read his autocue, he announced the winner: Christopher Judge, for his performance as Kratos in the video game God of War: Ragnarök. Dressed in a sparkling gold suit, Judge enveloped a surprised-looking Pacino in a giant hug before embarking on a 10-minute acceptance speech. “I was the last actor in California to read for this role,” he says. “Back then, if I’d known it was for a video game, I might not have taken it. Boy, how things have changed.”

Back in the 00s, Sony’s God of War games were notable for several reasons – their jaw-dropping scale, the bite and immediacy of their combat, the sheer spectacle of their fantasy violence – but they were not exactly famed for their characters. Kratos, the protagonist, was an angry lump of muscle whose narrative arc mostly involved killing bigger and bigger things and getting more and more furious. So when Kratos and God of War returned in 2018 after a long hiatus, it was a surprise to find that not only had he left the realm of Greek mythology for Scandinavia, but he was now a widower, accompanied by a young son with whom he struggled to connect.

A.I. Turns Its Artistry to Creating New Human Proteins

A.I. Turns Its Artistry to Creating New Human Proteins Inspired by digital art generators like DALL-E, biologists are building artificial intelligences that can fight cancer, flu and Covid.

Behind the scenes of TV’s first deep fake comedy: ‘None of it is illegal. Everything is silly’

Is that Harry Kane and Stormzy arguing over a broken patio tile? This new, CGI-assisted comedy is astonishing to watch – but is it ethically OK?

Spencer Jones beckons me into a Soho editing suite. “Do you want to see some of the stuff we’ve done so far?” he asks, readying a clip of his new ITV sketch show. It’s funny enough; a young impressionist does an impersonation of Tom Holland griping about something in his flat.

But then Jones stands up and walks me through to a different room. He closes the door and opens up a laptop. “Now watch this,” he says, grinning. It’s the same clip: same script, same flat, same line delivery. But there’s one small difference – this time, incredibly, the sketch is being performed by Tom Holland. Except it isn’t. My jaw drops open, and my eyes start flitting around wildly, unable to compute what I’m seeing. In other words, I have just had my first experience of Deep Fake Neighbour Wars.

UK car loans: the little-known clause that means you could walk away from your deal

The right to voluntary termination allows the buyer to escape the agreement provided they have repaid 50% of the total amount due

If you are one of the thousands of people across the UK struggling to meet their car finance repayments, are you aware you can give the vehicle back and walk away debt-free once you have repaid half the amount owed?

Car finance payments are typically the second-largest household expense after mortgage costs, and the car industry is nervously waiting to see how many people struggling with the cost of living default on loans, or use a little-known clause to voluntarily terminate their agreement.

Silvergate forced to cover $8bn worth of crypto-related withdrawals

The US bank was forced to sell $5.2bn worth of assets for cash and booked a loss of $718m on those sales

Customers of the US bank Silvergate, one of the few mainstream financial organisations that focuses on providing services to the cryptocurrency sector, have pulled more than $8bn (£6.7bn) of their crypto-related deposits from the lender.

More than two-thirds of customers’ deposits were withdrawn in the final three months of 2022, as the collapse of the FTX exchange reverberated around the cryptocurrency world.

dimanche 8 janvier 2023

Apple could soon open its first brick-and-mortar stores in India

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple has already started hiring to fill out its not-yet-announced stores in India, as first reported by The Financial Times. The company’s recent job listings show new openings for 12 retail roles at “various locations” throughout the country, including store leaders, senior managers, Genius Bar workers, and more.

The job listings, which include both full-time and part-time positions, directly refer to the Apple Store, although there’s no indication of how many roles are available. According to The Financial Times, at least five employees located in Mumbai and New Dehli shared on LinkedIn that they have already been hired for the upcoming stores, while Apple’s head of recruiting in India, Renu Sevanthi, “celebrated” the news of their hiring in a post on the network.

This tracks with a July 2022 report from The Economic Times, which indicates that Apple’s planning to open a 22,000-square-foot store in Mumbai at the beginning of this year. The company’s also reportedly working on a 10,000 to 12,000-square-foot store in New Dehli, along with several other stores in the country, but it’s unclear when they will open their doors. Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Apple first made its online store available to customers in India in 2020, with CEO Tim Cook hinting at establishing a physical presence during a shareholder meeting around the same time. “I don’t want somebody else to run the brand for us,” Cook said, referring to the third-party retailers that currently sell iPhones to customers at brick-and-mortar stores in India. While Cook initially said Apple would open its first store in India in 2021, these plans were delayed due to the covid pandemic and got pushed back a second time last year.

As Apple looks to expand its retail footprint in the country, it’s bringing more production to India as well. The company first started making iPhones in India in 2017 and shifted production of the iPhone 14 from China to India in the weeks following its release. With Apple trying to distance itself from China due to political reasons, as well as cut costs amidst rough economic conditions, India may be starting to look like an increasingly attractive manufacturing hub. It beats both China and Vietnam as the country with the cheapest manufacturing costs and has a massive smartphone market that Apple has only begun to tap into.

Elon Musk wants to move trial away from San Francisco over ‘local negativity’

An image of Elon Musk in front of trial scales. — Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk has asked a judge to move an upcoming trial for a shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco, citing concerns that the jury may have a bias against him, as reported earlier by CNBC. In a Friday filing, Musk requests that the judge relocate the trial to West Texas due to the “local negativity” in the Bay Area surrounding Elon Musk and his businesses, preventing a fair trial.

The shareholder class action lawsuit, which accuses Musk of manipulating Tesla’s stock, stems from the billionaire’s now-infamous 2018 tweet that claimed he had the “funding secured” to take Tesla private. Tesla’s stock reached extreme highs and lows in the weeks following the tweet, and resulted in a $40 million fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to CNBC, the upcoming trial is supposed to determine whether Musk’s 2018 tweet affected Tesla’s stock price, as well as if Tesla and Musk should be held accountable for the alleged damages.

“The recent local media coverage has created an environment that encourages the District’s jury pool to hold negative biases against Mr. Musk’s use of Twitter,” the filing reads. “Potential jurors that hold negative opinions about Mr. Musk’s use and relationship with Twitter generally as a result of this coverage will be unable to separate this baseline bias from the facts in this case and thus be unable to impartially evaluate Musk’s conduct.”

In addition to blaming “inflammatory” local media coverage, the filling adds that Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter, which included mass layoffs at the company’s San Francisco headquarters and other locations “already created substantial bias” in those who have (or know someone who has) been impacted by the job cuts.

It also claims that Musk and his San Francisco offices are often subject to protests that are “encouraged” by local politicians, further cementing this “prejudice” and resulting in an unfair trial. If the judge decides not to move the trial to Texas, where Tesla’s based, Musk and his lawyers ask that the trial get delayed to let the “negative sentiments” surrounding Musk dissipate.

Federal Judge Edward Chen, who’s in charge of this case, ruled last year that Musk knowingly made false statements about taking Tesla private on Twitter. While Musk continues to reaffirm that he struck a deal with investors from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), recently disclosed text messages show Musk’s outrage over the PIF’s lack of support. Musk has subpoenaed Yasir al-Rumayyan, the head of the PIF, for this trial, which was originally set to take place on January 17th. The hearing for the trial’s relocation will happen on January 13th.

Apple may finally debut its mixed reality headset this spring

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple’s getting ready to launch its long-rumored mixed reality headset this spring, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company’s reportedly planning to reveal the device ahead of the Worldwide Developers Conference in June and will start shipping it this fall.

The headset, which could cost as much as $3,000, is expected to provide both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences using Apple’s new xrOS operating system. Gurman says Apple has already shown off the Reality Pro-branded device to “a small number of high-profile” developers so they can start creating third-party apps for it.

(2/3)
As a result, it is increasingly unlikely that Apple will hold a media event for the new device in January. At this point, it seems more likely that Apple will announce the AR/MR headset at a spring media event or WWDC based on the current development progress.
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) January 6, 2023

Gurman’s prediction corroborates rumors from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said last week that the development of the headset is delayed “due to issues with mechanical component drop testing and the availability of software development tools.” He added that it “seems more likely” that Apple will announce the headset at a media event in the spring or at WWDC.

In recent months, numerous reports have emerged about the headset’s potential capabilities, including iris scanning for logins and payments and a physical dial that will let you switch out of VR. According to a report from The Information, it could also feature an AirPods Pro integration that can enable “an ultra-low-latency mode” when wearing the earbuds with the headset. It may also focus more on work rather than gaming, sort of like the $1,499 Meta Quest Pro, and might not come with a gaming controller.

But there are still “many kinks to work out” with the device’s hardware, software, and services, Gurman says, and this is slowing down Apple’s other projects. We may see a more low-key year for new releases as a result, and it also may be why Apple missed its goal of transitioning away from Intel-powered chips within two years.

Now, Apple’s expected to release a new lineup of MacBook Pros with marginal improvements this year, along with a 15-inch MacBook Air, and a new Mac Pro that will no longer come with the option for an M2 “Extreme” chip with 48 CPU cores and 152 graphics cores. Apple’s instead planning to release a Mac Pro variation with the M2 Ultra chip that eliminates user-upgradeable RAM, as Gurman notes that “the memory is tied directly to the M2 Ultra’s motherboard.” It could also ship with a design that’s “identical” to the $5,999 2019 model, which doesn’t make it much more attractive than the far cheaper (and far less bulky) $1,999 Mac Studio.

Apple’s also expected to reveal a new HomePod this year, but Gurman says not to “expect anything revolutionary about it.” It may just come with a lower price, an updated touch control panel, and an S8 chip. Other devices, like an updated 24-inch iMac and a new round of iPad Pros equipped with OLED displays, aren’t expected to arrive until next year, while iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 could feature more subdued upgrades.

Musk seeks to move trial out of San Francisco, claiming he can’t get fair trial

Musk says negative local media coverage of shareholder lawsuit over 2018 Tesla tweet has biased jurors against him

Elon Musk has urged a federal judge to shift a trial in a shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco because he says negative local media coverage has biased potential jurors against him.

Instead, in a filing submitted late Friday – less than two weeks before the trial was set to begin on 17 January – Musk’s lawyers argue it should be moved to the federal court in the western district of Texas. That district includes the state capital of Austin, which is where Musk relocated his electric car company, Tesla, in late 2021.

samedi 7 janvier 2023

Death of the narrator? Apple unveils suite of AI-voiced audiobooks

Exclusive: tech firm quietly launches new audiobook catalogue narrated by AI – but move expected to spark backlash

Apple has quietly launched a catalogue of books narrated by artificial intelligence in a move that may mark the beginning of the end for human narrators. The strategy marks an attempt to upend the lucrative and fast-growing audiobook market – but it also promises to intensify scrutiny over allegations of Apple’s anti-competitive behaviour.

The popularity of the audiobook market has exploded in recent years, with technology companies scrambling to gain a foothold. Sales last year jumped 25%, bringing in more than $1.5bn. Industry insiders believe the global market could be worth more than $35bn by 2030.

Twitter reportedly makes more cuts to online safety teams

A dozen people based in Dublin and Singapore who moderate content and monitor hate speech believed to have been let go

Twitter has made more cuts to its trust and safety team in charge of international content moderation, as well as a unit overseeing hate speech and harassment, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The move adds to longstanding concerns that new owner Elon Musk is dismantling the company’s regulation of hateful content and misinformation.

Disney’s Magical Companion debuts at CES with some help from Amazon

Photo shows a smart display with Mickey Mouse ears sitting on a table, waiting to respond to the “Hey Disney!” command. — *“Hey Disney!” is a smart voice assistant that wants to bring some magic into your home.* | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Alexa’s got some company. I met Disney’s new voice assistant at CES this week, and it’s pretty cute. Called “Disney’s Magical Companion,” the disembodied voice is born from fairy dust and lives inside Amazon’s Echo smart speakers and displays. Its purpose is to call up various characters — including Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars faves — to help you out with common voice assistant chores (timers, alarms, weather), as well as entertain with stories, games, and other sprinkles of Disney magic.

You conjure the assistant with the phrase “Hey Disney!” — here’s a quick demo I did at CES this week:

“Hey Disney!” showing some of its tricks which include jokes, trivia, and stories.

One neat thing about the integration is you never know which character will answer your query — it could be Dory from Finding Nemo or Olaf from Frozen one moment, then Mater from Cars or Animal from The Muppets the next.

First announced in 2021, “Hey Disney!” was built using the Alexa Custom Assistant voice AI foundation, which allows third parties to create custom voice assistants that can coexist with Amazon’s Alexa assistant in Echo speakers. It’s similar to the celebrity voices you can download from the likes of Samuel Jackson, but with more customized games and integrations.

Currently, “Hey Disney!” is in limited hotel rooms at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort as part of a phased rollout across Disney’s hotels, where it also helps as a sort of virtual concierge. But the Magical Companion is also coming to your home in 2023, through the Alexa Skills store. No pricing has been announced, but it will be included free with an Amazon Kids Plus subscription.

The Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola is a ThinkPad owner’s dream

Close up of the lower rear case of the Motorola ThinkPhone. — *I can’t be the only one who appreciates how similar the logo is.* | Image: Motorola

I’m generally a Windows user, but one of the things that’s always sorely tempted me about the Apple ecosystem is the interconnectedness. Not only are macOS and iOS comfortably similar in form and function (and getting moreso every year), but there are so many easy ways to transfer content between a Mac and an iPhone. That’s why I enjoyed testing out Lenovo’s ThinkPhone by Motorola, which is supposed to be — and I never thought I’d be writing this phrase — the smartphone version of a ThinkPad.

The ThinkPhone has a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, a 6.6-inch OLED screen, a 5,000mAh battery, a bunch of fancy enterprise security features (a phrase ThinkPad enthusiasts will certainly be familiar with) and two rear cameras including a 50-megapixel stabilized standard wide and a 13-megapixel ultrawide (plus a depth sensor). It’s MIL STD 810H certified and IP68 rated for dust and water resistance. It ships with Android 13. But the coolest part, and the differentiating feature in my opinion, is how much fun it is to use with a ThinkPad.

My favorite software feature is called Unified Clipboard. When you have this enabled, any photo you take, text you copy, documents you scan, or video you take with the ThinkPhone is automatically copied to a clipboard that your ThinkPhone shares with your ThinkPad. You can then paste that media instantly on your connected ThinkPad, which seems very handy for dropping photos into presentations and documents as you’re creating them. This was fun to use, and worked perfectly each time I tried it. (And I did try many times...it was really fun.)

Image of ThinkPad, ThinkPhone, charging brick, and USB cable on a table top. — *These can use the same charging brick as well.*

This Unified Clipboard feature is part of a whole suite of features called the Think 2 Think connectivity (come on, that’s cute) that connects the ThinkPhone and the ThinkPad. You can also drag and drop files, and the two devices can quickly discover each other and connect over Wi-Fi while nearby.

You can even use the ThinkPhone as a webcam while taking conference calls on the ThinkPad. The latter works with any video conferencing software, Lenovo told me, so it’s not like some other fancy webcam features companies have come out with this year where your company’s conferencing software of choice needs to decide to support them.

I was able to fairly easily set the ThinkPhone as the ThinkPad’s conferencing webcam directly from Lenovo’s software settings, but I’m told that you can do it from individual applications (Zoom, etc.) as well.

The Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola on a white background. — *See the red?*

Physically, there are some other touches that make this phone look blissfully ThinkPad-y. The black textured back... come on, you can’t miss that similarity. But the most striking homage to Lenovo’s premium business laptops is the red button on the side of the ThinkPhone — which isn’t quite a keyboard nub but, you know what, it’s close. You can map both a single and double tap of this button to shortcuts of your choice, which I’m sure some ThinkPad users (who may, for example, have experience remapping some of the ThinkPad’s unconventionally placed keyboard keys) will appreciate.

All in all, this phone seems like a fun idea to me. There are lots of ThinkPad lovers out there. Why not give them a phone to match?

The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera

The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera Young people are opting for point-and-shoots and blurry photos.

‘Alexa, Why Do We Keep Buying You?’

‘Alexa, Why Do We Keep Buying You?’ With questions swirling about the utility of voice assistants, we asked readers how they use one of the most popular, Amazon’s Alexa. Here’s what they answered.

vendredi 6 janvier 2023

Creative founder Sim Wong Hoo, the man behind Sound Blaster, has died

Creative Technologies founder, CEO and chairman Sim Wong Hoo has died, his company has confirmed. He “passed away peacefully on 4 January 2023,” according to a press release. He was 67 years old.

It might seem hard for younger readers to believe, but there was a time that computer sound wasn’t guaranteed. If you wanted to plug in headphones or speakers that could do more than bloops or bleeps, you probably needed a sound card — and none were as successful as Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster. It sold over 400 million units as of its 30th anniversary in 2019.

In the pre-Windows 95 / DirectX era, few words in PC gaming were as important as the phrase “Sound Blaster compatible,” allowing players to hear the dogs bark in Wolfenstein 3D, or mess around with the synthesized voice in Creative’s Dr. Sbaitso demo (you can play it on the web these days).

The company was also huge in the MP3 player space with its Creative Nomad and Zen line of players and successfully sued Apple over its iPod, obtaining a $100 million settlement.

Success wasn’t immediate. Originally, Hoo set out to build an entire computer that could talk, according to 1993 and 1994 profiles of the man at Bloomberg and The New York Times. He founded Creative Technologies in Singapore in 1981, and yet by 1986 — two years after Steve Jobs let the Macintosh “speak for itself” — the company’s PCs had sold so poorly that he was reportedly down to just a handful of engineers.

*The Cubic CT, next to an original Sound Blaster. It was actually the company’s second PC, after the Cubic99 that launched in 1984 that was* *known as “the first made-in-Singapore personal computer.”*

But when they took the Cubic CT’s music board to a computer exhibit in the United States, the company found its footing. “The money we made on a few hundred boards was the equivalent to the money we made on the PC,” he told the NYT.

Even then, the idea hadn’t quite congealed. Creative’s first sound card was sold as the Creative Music System before it realized that PC gamers would become its biggest audience. In 1987, Sierra On-Line wowed the gaming industry by releasing King’s Quest IV with an actual soundtrack score, designed to be played on early sound cards like the AdLib and Roland MT-32, and the publisher went on to advertise those PC parts for sale in its own catalog of games.

Archival image of an ad for the Game Blaster PC Music Board. It reads, in part: Sierra presents Game Blaster by Creative Music Systems. The mid-range music card everyone can afford. A full 12-voice synthesizer, the Game Blaster card easily plugs into any internal slot in your computer. Includes built-in power amplifier, built-in volume control, stereo output and connectors for headphones, external speaker, or your stereo system. — *Sierra advertised the Game Blaster directly to its PC gaming fans.*

Creative got a piece of that action by rebranding its card the “Game Blaster” in 1988, and in 1989, the company’s first Sound Blaster added a dedicated game port to plug in a joystick. That’s something that PC gamers usually had to buy separately and helped make the Sound Blaster look like an excellent deal over the AdLib.

Hoo’s determination made him a rare symbol of Singaporean startup success, as Creative became the first Singapore company to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. In 1994, The New York Times’ headline was literally “Entrepreneurial Company Defies Singapore Model,” and he went on to author a book called Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium where he coined a phrase, No U-Turn Syndrome, to describe an underlying difficulty in becoming an entrepreneur in that era of Singapore culture.

Was incredibly shocked to hear about the passing of Sim, founder of @CreativeLabs this morning.
I just met him 2 weeks ago, like all our meetings, we talked for hrs about audio technology and products. Will miss him - the technology world and Singapore has lost a legend. pic.twitter.com/By1kZstelh
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) January 5, 2023

Razer CEO and co-founder Min-Liang Tan, who turned Razer into a Singaporean company, took to social media to say that “the tech world and Singapore have lost a legend.” Razer purchased an audio company of its own, the George Lucas-founded THX, back in 2016.

Even after PCs began to be able to play quality audio by themselves — every modern consumer motherboard comes with integrated sound — Creative kept gamers interested with features like the Sound Blaster Crystallizer, a dynamic range enhancer that “applies the audio boost (an audible effect) to the lower, transient, and higher frequency regions on demand.”

Image of the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro sound card with its external box and remote control. — *The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro was a Windows Media Center beast with its own remote control. It still came with a game port, too.*

I still remember how proud I was to install a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro in a desktop gaming PC and what it unlocked for me at the time — I ran three game consoles into my PC monitor, using the card to handle sound, and marveled at how this one gadget could take an optical audio signal from my PlayStation 2 and convert it into great-sounding analog audio for my headphones and digital 3.5mm audio for my Boston Acoustics 4.1 surround sound speakers, all at the same time. (Yes, I had those Gateway pack-in speakers that only accepted digital input over a 3.5mm jack and the Audigy was very handy.)

Creative hasn’t exactly been a household name in recent years, but it still sells popular soundbars like its Sound Blaster Katana, speakers, webcams, and earbuds. There’s even still a dedicated Sound Blaster sound card in its lineup.

And, I hear, the Audigy 2 is still going strong in some people’s PCs.

Update, 8:32PM ET: Added more images and info about the Cubic99, an earlier Creative computer.

What Are Your Tech Resolutions for 2023?

What Are Your Tech Resolutions for 2023? The Times wants to know how you plan to use technology differently this year.

The LG Gram Style might be the prettiest laptop of 2023

Where’s the touchpad?

For the past few years, I’ve been a big fan of the LG Gram 17. It’s got great battery life, a massive screen, and it feels like it weighs basically nothing. But if there’s one hesitation I sometimes have about the line, it’s the aesthetic. The Grams of the past have just looked a bit... boring. Which is fine — many laptops are — but also means there’s a fashion-conscious audience out there they potentially aren’t reaching.

Enter the LG Gram Style. This, as the name implies, might be the first LG laptop I’ve ever seen that I’d really consider calling “stylish.” It’s unbelievably thin, it’s mind-blowingly light, and it’s covered in a lustrous color-changing finish. My hands-on time with this device was in LG’s very dimly lit booth at CES 2023, but it was certainly one of the most unique-looking laptops I’ve had the opportunity to try so far this year.

That does not mean that this is a laptop that will work for everyone. But it’s certainly one that might turn heads at the coffee shop. And it’s a bold new look for an established line, which is always fun to watch unfold.

The LG Gram Style lid. — *This looks silvery-white-ish when not under this colored light.*

The LG Gram Style lid up close. — *Looks like a sunset, maybe?*

The first thing to talk about is that finish. It’s iridescent, changing color depending on lighting and viewing angle. In LG’s words, the laptops “shine and shift dynamically; moving and changing depending on the light and angle.”

Up close, this looks like a silvery white. But I can confirm that as I moved the device around, it flashed and signed in different hues, looking blueish and even orange at times. I wish I’d been able to better capture that on camera — again, a challenge with the lighting.

The LG Gram Style keyboard seen from above with the touchpad LEDs illuminated. — *I had to try several times to get this shot before the lights disappeared.*

That luster extends to the bottom part of the Style’s keyboard deck, which is one smooth surface — there is no touchpad visible. There is a touchpad under there, in the location where you’d expect a touchpad to be, but it’s haptic and hidden.

We’re seeing more and more of these types of trackpads on laptops this year, and they generally help companies get them thinner (which remains a major draw of the Gram line). Dell’s XPS 13 Plus also had a hidden touchpad last year, and I had mixed results with it. In general, my right hand (I’m right-handed) knew where to click from experience without needing the touchpad delineated, but my less experienced left hand had misclicks here and there when it needed to sub in.

What the Gram Style does have (that the XPS 13 Plus didn’t) is LEDs around the touchpad that illuminate after you touch the area. They stay on for what can’t be more than a few seconds after you click, and then they disappear. So, I mean, that’s better than nothing, but still doesn’t help you find the thing when you need to click it. The lights do look pretty, though. I’m not sure why there couldn’t be an option to leave them on.

The LG Gram Style half open seen from the left side. — *See? Thin.*

A third very pretty thing: the screen. Each Style model (there’s 14-inch and a 16-inch options) has a 16:10 OLED display, and despite the odd lighting, they looked great in LG’s demo area. The keyboard was also fun, with quite a nice click. I like Gram keyboards in general, but there’s always a worry that a super thin laptop might not have room for great switches.

Oh, and this thing is so light. It’s one of those devices that messes with your mind when you pick it up. At 2.2 pounds (999 grams), you could fool me into thinking that this was an empty chassis. That’s nothing new for LG laptops but is a nice assurance that the Style, despite its various oddities, remains very much a part of the Gram line.

One other hot tip: There are even wilder designs coming. LG had a bunch of patterned Gram Style lids on display — purples, pinks, polka dots galore — and was taking a poll at their booth where attendees could vote for their favorite one. Representatives claim that the company will bring the winner to market. I voted for the purple one, so I hope that one wins. Stay tuned.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge