Squid Game Season 2’s First Clip Brings Bullets, Fire, and Fresh Meat
Netflix has started lifting the lid ever so slightly on Squid Game season two—knowing that millions of fans worldwide are dying to know what’s going on with Lee Jung-jae’s Seong Gi-hun. Like, for instance, why is he back in the game that nearly took his life in season one? You won’t find that answered in the clues so far (the new poster, the video of cast members debunking fan theories), but this brand-new clip, a “special teaser” shared as part of Geeked Week, conveys tiny bit more detail.
There’s not even enough there for a breakdown; it’s more imagery designed to build tension and remind you why you couldn’t get enough of season one. We’ve got a freaked-out Gi-hun answering his door with a gun drawn to “greet” a masked visitor (is that you, Front Man?), a countdown clock, pink jumpsuits galore, a fireball, bullets flying, that money-stuffed giant piggy bank, and another look at Gi-hun: this time, back as Player 456, surveying a room full of tracksuit-clad competitors destined for horrific ends.
The official synopsis is: “Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 gave up going to the states and comes back with a new resolution in his mind. Gi-hun once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death game with new participants gathered to win the prize of 456 billion won.”
With director-writer-producer Hwang Dong-hyuk once again running the show, the cast includes the returning Lee as well as Lee Byung-hun (the Front Man), Wi Ha-jun (the detective), and Gong Yoo (the Salesman). New cast members include Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-uk, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, Jo Yu-ri, and Won Ji-an.
Squid Game season two arrives December 26 on Netflix. A third and final season is also on the way in 2025.
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Say Hello to Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s New Toph
We’ve known pretty much since it became an immediate smash hit for the streamer that Netflix has been working on a second (and third) season of its live-action re-imagining of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but now Netflix is ready to give you your first tiny look at what’s to come in Aang and the gang’s continuing adventures… mostly in the form of a very familiar face.
During tonight’s Geeked Week Live event in Atlanta, Netflix confirmed that season two of the live-action Avatar is in production, with a brief teaser announcing that Miya Cech has joined the main cast as beloved Last Airbender character Toph Beifong. Similarly introduced early on in the second season of the animated series (initially in a brief vision before making her full appearance in “The Blind Bandit”), Toph is a young blind girl who uses her earthbending abilities to connect to the world around her and extend her senses. Initially joining Aang, Katara, and Sokka on their journey to teach the young Avatar how to hone his own earthbending skills, Toph eventually becomes one of the most powerful and famous earthbenders around, going on to discover its sub-type metalbending and eventually help to train the next Avatar, Korra, during the series’ successor, The Legend of Korra.
Cech, who is of Chinese and Japanese American descent, is not blind, but will work “with a producer and consultant, who is blind and a professional from the blindness community, to make sure the blindness community is represented appropriately” in portraying the character, according to a press release provided by Netflix.
For all its tweaks to the source material, controversial or otherwise, no one is going to be too surprised that the next season of Avatar will bring Toph into the fold. After all, Netflix is calling the show’s second season “Earth” much like the animated series did. Time will tell, Toph or otherwise, just what else Avatar will manage to adapt in its sophomore season in contrast to the animated series. Even as it shot up the streaming charts to success, one of the consistent criticisms of the first season was its choice to condense the story of the animated show’s 20-episode debut season into just eight episodes. While Netflix has yet to confirm just how long either season two or season three of the live-action show will pan out to be, fingers crossed it’s a lesson the series has learned to handle a bit better this time round.
We’ll bring you more on Netflix’s plans for The Last Airbender as we learn them—but with season two only just entering production, it’s likely going to be a good while yet before we get to see more of Toph and her new friends in action again.
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Here is what’s illegal under California’s 8 (and counting) new AI laws
California Governor Gavin Newsom is currently considering 38 AI-related bills, including the highly contentious SB 1047, which the state’s legislature sent to his desk for final approval. These bills try to address the most pressing issues in artificial intelligence: everything from futuristic AI systems creating existential risk, deepfake nudes from AI image generators, to Hollywood studios creating AI clones of dead performers.
“Home to the majority of the world’s leading AI companies, California is working to harness these transformative technologies to help address pressing challenges while studying the risks they present,” said Governor Newsom’s office in a press release.
So far, Governor Newsom has signed eight of them into law, some of which are America’s most far reaching AI laws yet.
Deepfake nudes
Newsom signed two laws that address the creation and spread of deepfake nudes on Thursday. SB 926 creates a new crime in California, making it illegal to blackmail someone with AI-generated nude images that resemble them.
SB 981, which also became law on Tuesday, requires social media platforms to establish channels for users to report deepfake nudes that resemble them. The content must then be temporarily blocked while the platform investigates it, and permanently removed if confirmed.
Watermarks
Also on Thursday, Newsom signed a bill into law to help the public identify AI-generated content. SB 942 requires widely used generative AI systems to disclose they are AI-generated in their content’s provenance data. There are several free tools out there that can help people read this provenance data and detect AI-generated content.
Election deepfakes
Earlier this week, California’s governor signed three laws cracking down on AI deepfakes that could influence elections.
One of California’s new laws, AB 2655, requires large online platforms, like Facebook and X, to remove or label AI deepfakes related to elections, as well as create channels to report such content. Candidates and elected officials can seek injunctive relief if a large online platform is not complying with the act.
Another law, AB 2839, takes aim at social media users who post, or repost, AI deepfakes that could deceive voters about upcoming elections. The law went into effect immediately on Tuesday, and Newsom suggested Elon Musk may be at risk of violating it.
AI-generated political advertisements now require outright disclosures under California’s new law, AB 2355. That means moving forward, Trump may not be able to get away with posting AI deepfakes of Taylor Swift endorsing him on Truth Social (she endorsed Kamala Harris). The FCC has proposed a similar disclosure requirement at a national level and has already made robocalls using AI-generated voices illegal.
Actors and AI
Two laws that Newsom signed on Tuesday — which SAG-AFTRA, the nation’s largest film and broadcast actors union, was pushing for — create new standards for California’s media industry. AB 2602 requires studios to obtain permission from an actor before creating an AI-generated replica of their voice or likeness.
Meanwhile, AB 1836 prohibits studios from creating digital replicas of deceased performers without consent from their estates (e.g., legally cleared replicas were used in the recent “Alien” and “Star Wars” movies, as well as in other films).
What’s left?
Governor Newsom still has 30 AI-related bills to decide on before the end of September. During a chat with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on Tuesday during the 2024 Dreamforce conference, Newsom may have tipped his hat about SB 1047, and how he’s thinking about regulating the AI industry more broadly.
“There’s one bill that is sort of outsized in terms of public discourse and consciousness; it’s this SB 1047,” said Newsom onstage Tuesday. “What are the demonstrable risks in AI and what are the hypothetical risks? I can’t solve for everything. What can we solve for? And so that’s the approach we’re taking across the spectrum on this.”
Check back on this article for updates on what AI laws California’s governor signs, and what he doesn’t.
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Gaming Lyft’s Citi Bike algos was a lucrative side hustle for a while
A New York Times article Thursday highlighted a lucrative side hustle that is emblematic of the times we live in: gaming algorithms to earn money. In this case, folks figured out they could maximize the payout from Lyft’s Citibike “bike angels” program by taking advantage of a company algorithm used to meet its supply-and-demand needs.
The practice of “station flipping” — when one or more bike angels move docked Citibikes to a nearby empty station, waited 15 minutes and then moved them back — was quashed over the summer, according to Lyft. The company sent an email to the offenders reminding them that earning Bike Angel points through station flipping went against the spirit of the program. “Continued instances of station flipping could result in removal from the Bike Angels program,” the email read.
The practice lasted long enough, however, for some bike angels to earn thousands of dollars every month.
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The New Dragon Ball Game’s Massive Roster Size Is a Very Specific Easter Egg
In case you’re living under a rock, Bandai Namco is on the precipice of releasing the latest entry of the fan-favorite Budokai anime fighting video game series, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Previews (including one from yours truly) are raving about it as the definitive Dragon Ball game for its attention to detail, callbacks to both the anime and its gaming predecessors, and its humongous roster. As fate would have it, even the game’s immense roster number is an Easter egg reference hiding in plain sight to the late Akira Toriyama‘s OG Dragon Ball manga.
In a new trailer video, Bandai Namco confirmed that Sparking! Zero will have the most extensive Dragon Ball game history, a roster with a staggering 182 characters. While the number is as overwhelming as it is specific, it’s also a deep-pull reference to the 113 chapter in Dragon Ball, aptly titled Return to the Tournament. In it, Goku makes his grand return from his training sabbatical to participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament alongside Krillin, Yamcha, and Master Roshi (in disguise as Jackie Chun).
© Shonen Jump
Here’s where the reference number comes in. In the chapter, the proctor announces that this year’s Tenka’ichi Budokai has seen the largest increase in participants, and they’ve had to hold tournaments every three years. How many participants do you ask? “An astounding 182.” Unlike the manga, which held preliminary matches to cull the herd of fighters, Bandai Namco is going further beyond by increasing its already overwhelming pool of anime characters, much to the fans’ excitement.
Today’s full roster reveal shocked fans because of how Bandai Namco drip-fed character reveals every month while slowly filling in the full grid. With each passing month, fans took to social media theorizing who Bandai Namco and developer Spike Chunsoft would slot into the game that wasn’t another Super Saiyan form of Goku and Vegeta (to which there are many). It turns out that character grid was a lie too, because today’s trailer showed new pips outside of the hexagonal beehive grid’s character pool to reveal that characters from movies, like Cooler, Tapion, and OG Broly, will be playable on launch alongside kid Goku from the upcoming anime series, Dragon Ball Daima.
Sparking! Zero‘s neat manga reference will have a shelf life because there are plans in motion for the game to add even more characters from the Dragon Ball mythos. Speaking to GamesRadar+, producer Jun Furutani confirmed that Sparking! Zero will have three waves of characters releases from Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and Dragon Ball Daima as post-launch DLC.
Nifty manga reference notwithstanding, Dragon Ball fans can look forward to playing Sparking! Zero when it releases on October 11 on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
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Chipmaker Qualcomm lays off hundreds of workers in San Diego
Qualcomm, which makes chips for smartphones, said it will lay off 226 workers in San Diego later this year, according to a California WARN notice published this week. The layoffs, which were first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, will take effect the week of November 12.
The layoffs affect employees at 16 facilities across San Diego, including the company’s headquarters, which has a cybersecurity presence. It’s unclear if the cybersecurity team is affected, and a Qualcomm spokesperson declined to say when asked by TechCrunch.
In a statement, Qualcomm spokesperson Kristin Stiles said: “Our leading technology and product portfolio has positioned us to execute on our diversification strategy. As part of a normal course of business, we prioritize and align our investments, resources, and talent to ensure we are optimally positioned to take advantage of the unprecedented diversification opportunities in front of us.”
The decision by Qualcomm to lay off hundreds of employees comes less than a year after the chipmaker let go of more than 1,250 workers. During 2023, Qualcomm recorded $35.8 billion in annual revenue and its chief executive Cristiano Amon took home $23.5 million in total executive compensation.
Are you affected by the Qualcomm layoffs? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email. Zack Whittaker can be reached on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849. You can send files and documents via SecureDrop.
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SpaceX disputes $633K FAA fine, citing ‘systematic challenges’ with agency
SpaceX sent a letter to top congressional leaders on Wednesday denying allegations that it violated its launch licenses on two separate occasions last year, which has resulted in regulators seeking $633,009 in penalties from the company.
Instead, the company asserts that the inability of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) to process “relatively minor” license updates is further proof that the agency is unable to keep pace with the space industry’s — but chiefly SpaceX’s — rapid growth.
The FAA announced that it was proposing the fines against SpaceX after the company allegedly failed to follow requirements set out in its launch license on two separate occasions in 2023. In the first instance, the FAA said that SpaceX executed a launch using a new control room and without conducting a launch readiness poll two hours before liftoff; in the second instance, during a Falcon Heavy launch, the FAA alleges that the company used an unapproved rocket propellant farm to fuel the launch vehicle.
These changes require amendments to the company’s launch licenses, which the FAA did not approve prior to the launches taking place, the agency says. The combined fines are the largest civil penalty yet levied by the agency against a commercial launch provider.
But SpaceX said in its letter that it had separate approval from a U.S. government range safety authority to use the new rocket propellant farm, and that the other changes, like removing the T-2 hour readiness poll or changing the location of the launch control center from one location at Kennedy Space Center to another, are unrelated to public safety and thus not under the regulatory authority of AST.
When sent specific questions related to SpaceX’s response letter, an FAA representative directed TechCrunch to the two enforcement letters the agency issued to the company, which site the specific FAA regulations that state that a launch operator must follow the launch plan to the letter.
In response to follow-up questions sent by TechCrunch, the representative said, “The FAA does not comment on active enforcement issues.”
It is unclear why the FAA is only seeking the fines now, over a year after the alleged violations took place, but SpaceX says in its letter that it’s “notable” that they were announced in the midst of increased scrutiny from Congress over AST’s licensing processes. That includes a meeting earlier this month of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, which questioned industry leaders, including the FAA head, on the speed and burden of regulations to commercial companies.
The FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, Kelvin Coleman, told the committee that AST currently employed 158 people, the largest ever headcount, after bringing on 35 people in the last year alone. In the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2025, the division is seeking money for additional staffing, Coleman said.
This latest quarrel has only intensified SpaceX’s increasingly public campaign against what it sees as ineffectual and untimely regulatory processes. The company has taken to its blog to call out the “superfluous” regulatory delays holding up its next Starship flight, while CEO Elon Musk uses his platform on X to put his perspective more plain: “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA.”
But regardless of timing, Billy Nolen, the former acting administrator of the FAA until 2023, pushed back against Musk’s assertion that the regulatory scrutiny was related to “politically-motivated behavior.”
As an agency, the FAA “is about as apolitical as it gets,” Nolen said.
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Elon Musk’s reposts of Kamala Harris deepfakes may not fly under new California law
California’s newest law could land social media users who post, or repost, AI deepfakes that deceive voters about upcoming elections in legal trouble. Governor Gavin Newsom suggests that AB 2839, which went into effect immediately after he signed it on Tuesday, could be used to reel in Elon Musk’s retweets, among others who spread deceptive content.
“I just signed a bill to make this illegal in the state of California,” said Newsom in a tweet, referencing an AI deepfake Musk reposted earlier this year, appearing as if Kamala Harris called herself an incompetent candidate and a diversity hire (she did not).
“You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content — including deepfakes,” Newsom said later in the tweet.
California’s new law targets the distributors of AI deepfakes, specifically if the post resembles a candidate on California ballots, and the poster knows it’s a fake that will cause confusion. AB 2839 is unique because it doesn’t go after the creators of AI deepfakes, nor the platforms they appear on, but rather those who maliciously spread them. Anyone who sees an AI deepfake on social media can now file for injunctive relief, meaning a judge could order the poster to take it down, or issue monetary damages against the person who posted it.
It’s one of America’s strongest laws against election-related AI deepfakes heading into the 2024 presidential election.
A sponsor which helped draft AB 2839, California Initiative for Technology and Democracy (CITED), tells TechCrunch this law can impact any social media user — not just Musk — who posts or reposts election-related AI deepfakes with malice. “Malice” means the poster knew it was false and would confuse voters.
“[AB 2839] goes after the creators or distributors of content, if the content falls within the terms of the bill,” said CITED’s policy director, Leora Gershenzon, in an interview with TechCrunch. “This is materially deceptive content that is distributed knowing it’s false, with reckless disregard of the truth, and is likely to influence the election.”
When asked whether Musk could face legal action for reposting deepfakes, Newsom did not rule out the possibility.
“I think Mr. Musk has missed the punchline,” said Governor Newsom at a press conference Thursday. “Parody is still alive and well in California, but deepfakes and manipulations of elections — that hurts democracy.”
Specifically, the new law bans election-related AI deepfakes from TV, radio, phone, texts, or any communication “distributed through the internet.” The bill is not exclusive to political campaign ads, which other laws have focused on, but also posts from everyday people. AB 2839 creates a window –120 days before a California election and 60 days after — where there are stricter rules about what you can, and can not, post about political candidates on social media.
“The real goal is actually neither the damages or the injunctive relief,” said Gershenzon. “It’s just to have people not do it in the first place. That actually would be the best outcome… to just have these deepfakes not fraudulently impact our elections.”
This law pertains to candidates for state and local elections in California, as well as federal candidates that will appear on California’s ballot, such as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. If there’s an obvious disclaimer on an AI deepfake, stating that it has been digitally altered, then AB 2839 does not apply to it.
Musk is already trying to test the will to enforce California’s new law. Musk reposted the deepfake resembling Kamala Harris that Newsom referenced in his tweet on Tuesday, amassing more than 31 million impressions on X. Musk also reposted an AI deepfake resembling Governor Newsom on Wednesday, which received more than 7 million impressions.
Musk and X are facing other legal problems related to moderation. For instance, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge fined the X Corporation on Thursday for skirting the country’s ban on the platform. The judge previously said X’s failure to combat fake news and hate speech is harming Brazil’s democracy.
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Before Chappell Roan Became a Superstar, She Composed the Score for This Horror Short
Anna Diop—so haunting in 2022’s Nanny—made another chilling horror film that same year: Posies, a short from writer-director Rachel Stavis. While Posies received positive reviews upon its first release, it’s getting a re-promotion on horror streamer Alter because of a certain name in its credits: pop superstar Chappell Roan, who composed its score before breaking big with her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Roan’s 2018 song “Bitter” is also in the movie.
Here’s the premise for Posies: “As people begin to ‘devolve’ into monsters, one woman attempts to hide her transformation by placing flowers under her skin.” You can watch the trailer below.
“Having Chappell Roan’s creativity and intensity strewn throughout Posies by way of the score that she so eloquently created was a dream come true,” Stavis, who wrote Posies and co-directed with Katherine Fisher (and is also a “non-denominational exorcist,” according to her official bio) said in a press release. “Our earliest discussions about this project centered around using her greatest instrument—her voice—to create a haunting, emotional, and atmospheric depth to the film. She captured exactly what we envisioned for this and did it virtually on her first try. It was extraordinary. She has an amazing gift of storytelling through music, and her composition remains one of the most unique and unforgettable elements of the film. We’re beyond grateful that she was able to create something so special—specifically for me and my audience—before her inevitable rise to fame.”
In 2022, Roan was on the cusp of the major fame she’s now currently experiencing, with bangers like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Hot to Go!” becoming staples on pop radio, and the star herself grabbing headlines for her appearances at music festivals. It was just announced that she’ll make her Saturday Night Live musical debut as part of the show’s upcoming 50th season. Could creating more film scores be in her future? From what Stavis said above, it’s clearly a branch of her talents that she enjoys and has an innate knack for. As for other endeavors in Hollywood, in a recent Interview piece Roan admitted that while she’d originally planned on pursuing an acting career, she’s definitely veered off that path in favor of music—so don’t hold your breath to see her onscreen as a final girl anytime soon, as cool as that sounds.
Head to Alter’s YouTube platform starting October 9 to watch Posies in its entirety.
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MIT develops recyclable 3D printed glass blocks for construction
3D printing has been praised as an alternative to traditional construction. It promises to deliver faster construction times, creative design, and fewer construction errors, all while reducing carbon footprints. New research out of MIT points to a compelling new take on the concept, relying on 3D printed glass blocks shaped like a figure 8 that snap together like Lego.
The team points to glass’ optical properties and its “infinite recyclability” as reasons for turning to the material. “As long as it’s not contaminated, you can recycle glass almost infinitely,” says mechanical engineering assistant professor Kaitlyn Becker.
The team relied on 3D printers designed by Evenline — itself an MIT spinoff.
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FTC report on predatory social media data hoarding hints at future regulations
A new FTC report on how social media and streaming sites collect and monetize their hoards of user data doesn’t really feature a lot of surprises for anyone who’s followed the space. It’s more helpful to consider this part of a paper trail the agency is laying down in order to justify new regulations in the space.
The report has its roots way back in late 2020, when the FTC ordered nine of the tech companies with the biggest data collection apparatus to disclose numerous aspects of how their surveillance capitalism business models worked. (The companies: Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, ByteDance, Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp.)
What data do you collect, on whom, and how long is it kept? If asked to delete, do you do so? What do you use it for, who do you sell it to, and what do they use it for? The questions are quite comprehensive, the better to avoid the possibility of prevarication or obscuration through withholding of important data.
The responses of the companies were, predictably, evasive, as the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine notes in the preface:
Echoing the way that firms conceal and hide their collection practices, many of the Companies provided the Commission with limited, incomplete, or unhelpful responses that appeared to have been carefully crafted to be self-serving and avoid revealing key pieces of information.
The resulting report details all manner of shenanigans, representing both malice and incompetence. Few of the practices disclosed will surprise anyone at this point, but the executive summary starting on page 9 is a great refresher on all the skulduggery we have come to expect from the likes of these.
Of course, it has been nearly four years since then, and many of the companies have made changes to their practices, or have been fined or otherwise chastised. But despite the elevation of Lina Khan to Chair of the FTC subsequent to this inquiry, there has been no large revision or expansion of rules that lay down bright lines like “thou shalt not sell data on a user’s health challenges to advertisers.”
One exception you might hope for, compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, also seems to be an afterthought. As the FTC writes:
…In an apparent attempt to avoid liability under the COPPA Rule, most [social media and video streaming services] asserted that there are no child users on their platforms because children cannot create accounts. Yet we know that children are using SMVSSs. The SMVSSs should not ignore this reality…Almost all of the Companies allowed teens on their SMVSSs and placed no restrictions on their accounts, and collected personal information from teens just like they do from adults.
Meta allegedly ignored obvious violations for years; Amazon settled for $25 million after “flouting” the law; TikTok owner ByteDance is the target of a similar lawsuit filed just last month.
So what’s the point of the report, if all this is known?
Well, the FTC has to do its due diligence too when considering rules that could restrict a bunch of multi-billion-dollar global tech companies. If the FTC in 2020 had said, “These companies are out of control, we propose a new rule!” then the industries impacted would quite justifiably challenge it by saying there is no evidence of the kind of practices the rule would prohibit. This kind of thing happened with net neutrality as well: the broadband companies challenged it on (among other things) the basis that the harms were overstated, and won.
Though Chair Khan’s statement accompanying the report suggests it will help inform state and federal lawmakers’ efforts (which is likely true), it is almost certain that this will provide a foundational fact basis on which to build out a new rulemaking. The very fact that the companies both admit to doing these things, and that they have been caught red-handed doing others in the meantime, would strengthen any argument for new regulations.
Khan also fends off dissent from within, from Commissioners who (despite voting unanimously to issue the report) accuse it of attempting to regulate speech or dictate business models. She dispatches these arguments with the confidence of someone already drafting a proposal.
That proposal (should it exist) would likely be aimed at trimming the wings of those companies that have come to embody entire industries within themselves. As Khan puts it:
…It is the relative dominance of several of these platforms that gives their decisions and data practices an outsized impact on Americans. When a single firm controls a market and is unchecked by competition, its policies can effectively function as private regulation. A consolidated market is also more susceptible to coordination with–or cooptation by–the government. Unchecked private surveillance by these platforms creates heightened risk of improper surveillance by the state. How these markets are structured can result in greater risks to—or greater protections of—people’s core liberties.
In other words, let’s not leave it to them, and the FTC likely doesn’t intend to.
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Looking for AirPods Alternatives? You Can Save 20% on a Pair of Noise-Canceling Beats Fit Pro
Do you earbuds have noise canceling? Well if not, it’s about time you get yourself a pair. Amazon has the Beats Fit Pro on sale for 20% off. That’s just $159 for a set of true wireless Bluetooth noise canceling earbuds.
The Beats Fit Pro are designed with flexible wingtips that securely fit into ears of all sizes. Stay comfortable all day long, without any worry of them falling out. The earbuds are IPX4-rated making them sweat and water resistant. They earbuds will become your best buds when you hit the gym, hop on the bike, or go out for a run.
You’re listening experience can adapt to what you do. Spatial Audio works with dynamic head tracking to make your music, movies, and games even more immersive — moving throughout the sound.
Three Listening Modes for Immersive Sound
With the Beats Fit Pro you have three distinct listening modes. Active Noise Canceling can block any external noise so you can focus on your podcast or audiobook. Maybe you’re working on a big assignment that’s due soon and music helps you focus. Well, you can cut out any outside distractions so you can get your work done without interruption.
ANC isn’t always what’s best given the situation. Perhaps you’re waiting to be called up at the DMV or the deli. Maybe you’re out for a run and you need to hear your surroundings, like if a car is approaching from behind you. Well you can flip to Transparency Mode so you can hear through the speakers any important noises in your surrounding.
And lastly is Adaptive EQ. This is an Apple feature that Beats get to benefit from as well, being own outright by Apple. It’s a system that is able to tailor sound to the shape of your ear, “[adjusting] the frequencies of your music to deliver a rich, consistent experience that faithfully reproduces every note.”
Ever since the buyout by Apple, Beats have become essentially a set of AirPods Pro but with different aesthetics and styling sensibilities. The Beats Fit Pro offer what we’ve come to expect from Apple with an on-board Apple H1 chip. This allows for enhancements when using it with Apple devices like your iPhone such as automatic switching, audio sharing with another pair of Beats headphones or Apple AirPods, and “Hey Siri”. You can just start up Siri without taking your phone out of your pocket.
Right now, Amazon has the Beats Fit Pro for 20% off at just $159. If you choose to get it with AppleCare+ too, it’s not actually that much more. You can get a pair of Beats Fit Pro with 2 years of AppleCare+ coverage for just $188.
This article is part of Gizmodo Deals, produced separately from the editorial team. Gizmodo may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site.
Microsoft Is Getting Into Bed With Palmer Luckey to Make Super Soldiers
Palmer Luckey, the Trump-loving defense contractor who looks increasingly like Kenny Powers, has long been preoccupied with dystopian visions. In addition to warning us all about the future of killer artificial intelligence and spouting dreams of a “virtual” border wall for Trump, he has also said he’d one day like to create a VR/video game headset that will incinerate you if you lose. Now, he seems to have succeeded in translating at least one of his science fiction fantasies into reality—that of turning America’s soldiers into cybernetic killing machines.
This week, Luckey’s company, Anduril Industries, announced that it had partnered with Microsoft to bring its adaptive digital software platform, Lattice, to the U.S. Military. According to a press release from Anduril, the collaboration will help advance the U.S. Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) Program, a unique headset created by Microsoft that seeks to pipe digital intelligence directly into the head of America’s fighting cadres. Luckey’s software product, which has been integrated into the headset, will give soldiers a “significantly enhanced capacity to detect, track and respond to threats in real time,” the press release states.
In essence, Luckey and Microsoft have managed to create an interface for American soldiers not unlike Tony Stark’s helmet in Iron Man. Soldiers can allegedly see real-time intelligence and AR displays that are supposed to make them more aware of the battleground/environment that they’re in. The data that will be fed into those headsets will come from a variety of sources, with WIRED reporting that it will be “pulled from drones, ground vehicles, or aerial defense systems.”
“This project is my top priority at Anduril, and it has been for some time now,” said Luckey, in Thursday’s press release. “It’s one of the Army’s most critical programs being fielded in the near future, with the goal of getting the right data to the right people at the right time.”
Robin Seiler, Corporate Vice President of Mixed Reality at Microsoft, called the headset a “fighting goggle” and said it would bring a “full picture of the battlefield to every soldier, enabling safer and more effective operations.”
In an interview with WIRED, Luckey elaborated on the product: “The idea is to enhance soldiers. Their visual perception, audible perception—basically to give them all the vision that Superman has, and then some, and make them more lethal.”
Luckey is obviously a pretty weird guy. He rose to prominence in 2014 after selling Oculus, his VR firm, to Facebook for some $2 billion. Anduril was founded several years after that, in 2017. Since then, in addition to proudly being the face of the military-industrial complex, he has also become an avid MAGA freak and Trump proponent. “My big league support for Donald Trump is no secret,” Luckey tweeted earlier this year. In the past, Luckey has donated liberally to Trump’s political machine. Anduril focuses mostly on drone technology, and has launched a number of projects designed to bring automated aerial technology to the U.S. defense community.
Like many of the other deep pocketed swamp creatures who donate liberally to Trump, Luckey has claimed to be a libertarian (he once said he was a Gary Johnson supporter), despite the fact that his entire business revolves around making the U.S. government more powerful. That makes him more than passingly similar to Peter Thiel, another so-called “free market” guy who loves Trump and who has similarly desecrated J.R.R. Tolkein’s legacy by naming one of his companies after part of the fantasy writer’s mythology. As a group, you could lump both of these two in with Elon Musk as the world’s most powerful nerds, all of whom seem to have partially (or fully) misread the seminal tomes of sci-fi and fantasy that inspired their careers.
Get in the Driver’s Seat on Your PS5 or Xbox With a Logitech Racing Sim Wheel, Pedals, and Shifter for 22% off
Racing games are the quintessential video game in my opinion. Easy to pick up and play, deep enough to be always getting better. Great to play if you have five minutes or five hours. The only way to make it even better is with the right peripheral. A driving wheel and pedal for sim racing is a complete game changer. And right now, this one from Logitech is available for 22% off and you can get it for as low as $278. Included in this bundle is the tactile racing wheel, the stainless steel pedals, and a driving shifter.
The Driving Force racing wheel provides detailed feedback with resistance so it feels like you’re driving a real car. The helical gearing can deliver smooth, quiet steering and the leather stitching makes the wheel feel a bit more luxurious while being easier to grip. The wheel allows for 900-degree rotation. That means you can turn it around two and a half times and do hand over over wide turns like a F1 cars can do.
The pressure-sensitive nonlinear brake pedals are fully customizable with adjustable pedal faces for finer control. They provide responsive and precise braking against the sturdy base.
The shifter is able to enhance your immersive driving even further along the road. It uses a solid steel gear shift for long-lasting reliability, and like the wheel is also covered in a high-quality, stitched leather. The clamp and bolt points can be sued to securely mount the Driving Force shifter to a table or racing rig so it doesn’t go anywhere when your car on screen does.
What Games Should I Play Once I Get a Racing Sim Wheel?
Unquestionably one of the best racing games our there is Forza Horizon 5. It plays like a traditional open world game but from the seat of a car. The graphics are gorgeous and you can spend endless hours racing on the tracks or out driving across the many different terrains.
That’s an Xbox and PC exclusive though. If you’re looking for something on PlayStation 5, Gran Turismo 7 is likely your best bet.
Luckily, Logitech offers version of the racing sim wheel, pedals, and shifter for both PlayStation or Xbox consoles. Either option is compatible with PC and Mac.
Right now, the PS5, PS4, PC/Mac Logitech G29 Driving Force racing wheel kit is down from it’s full price of $360 to just $278. The Xbox X|S, Xbox One, PC/Mac version of the bundle is down to $280.
This article is part of Gizmodo Deals, produced separately from the editorial team. Gizmodo may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site.
James Cameron Wants a New Terminator to be Nothing Like the Other Movies
No matter what you think of the recent Terminator sequels, one thing is undeniably true: general audiences haven’t really cared. Each time a sequel is released, and there have been three over the past 15 years, the domestic gross drops drastically with 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate grossing only $62 million. Nevertheless, franchise creator James Cameron is working on something new in his dystopian sci-fi world, and he believes he can fix those diminishing returns.
“This is the moment when you jettison everything that is specific to the last 40 years of Terminator, but you live by those principles,” Cameron told Empire. “You get too inside it, and then you lose a new audience because the new audience care much less about that stuff than you think they do. That’s the danger, obviously, with Avatar as well, but I think we’ve proven that we have something for new audiences.”
What specifically does that mean? Well, no more returning actors. No more returning characters. Take the bare bones of the franchise, the things that made it resonate in the first place, and go from there. Cameron broke it down: “You’ve got powerless main characters, essentially, fighting for their lives, who get no support from existing power structures, and have to circumvent them but somehow maintain a moral compass. And then you throw AI into the mix,” he said. “Those principles are sound principles for storytelling today, right? So I have no doubt that subsequent Terminator films will not only be possible, but they’ll kick ass. But this is the moment where you jettison all the specific iconography.”
If you’re wondering why Cameron is talking about new Terminator movies in the first place, here’s the recap. For over a year, the filmmaker has been teasing that he has some new ideas for the franchise and believes new projects will be coming (in addition to the new Netflix show). He’s still being rather guarded about what that might mean but, apparently, it’s slightly more developed than we may have assumed. “It’s more than a plan,” Cameron said. “That’s what we’re doing. That’s all I’ll say for right now.” Could there be an outline to this thing? A script even? We’ll have to wait and see.
All the above quotes come from an extensive new interview Cameron did about the 40th anniversary of The Terminator in Empire Magazine. Head there for more.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
This robotic knee exoskeleton is made from consumer braces and drone motors
Robotic exoskeletons are an increasingly popular method for assisting human labor in the workplace. Those that specifically support the back, however, can result in bad lifting form by the wearer. To combat this, researchers at the University of Michigan have built a pair of robot knee exoskeletons, using commercially available drone motors and knee braces.
“Rather than directly bracing the back and giving up on proper lifting form,” U-M professor Robert Gregg notes, “we strengthen the legs to maintain it.”
Test subjects were required to move a 30-pound kettlebell up and down a flight of stairs. Researchers note that the tech helped them maintain good lifting form, while lifting more quickly.
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BioWare Dishes on Keeping The Veilguard True to Dragon Age
When it comes to triple-A game franchises, the length between installments has grown longer and longer. Dragon Age is often cited as a key example of this, since we’re coming up on nearly a full decade of a gap between Dragon Age: Inquisition and October’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Whether it’ll be fully worth the wait will depend on players come October 31, but having played it at a recent event, I can say that Veilguard feels very well-put together and like it’ll be the best possible version of itself.
Along with playing Veilguard, io9 participated in a roundtable with several BioWare staff at the event, including game director Corinne Buche and producer Jen Cheverie. If you’re worried about spoilers, don’t fret—these questions are about continuing Inquisition’s lingering threads, the relationship Dragon Age has with fellow BioWare franchise Mass Effect, and other topics that don’t give anything away about the new release.
Justin Carter, io9: Solas was always going to be a part of Veilguard, but when did you decide to bring in a new hero/organization rather than continuing the Inquisitor v. Solas thread?
Corrinne Busche, game director: Fundamentally, it comes down to the nature of what it is to be a Dragon Age game. Every single adventure is a different main character, series of locations, but never a direct sequel or continuation. It’s really central to the franchise’s loose ends, and of course we have loose ends and mysteries that span the whole series. Inquisition ended with an unresolved danger looming, and we knew that we both needed to address it, and that it’d be a big part of the next game. But it was still very important for us to continue the series’ throughline of a new character and part of the world taking center stage.
io9: With the new hero, Rook, how do you feel like they’re distinct from the heroes of the earlier games? Was there a particular protagonist you wanted them to be more in the mold of, like Hawke in DA2 or the Inquisitor?
Jen Cheverie, producer: We really wanted to approach Rook with the goal of letting players create the Rook they wanted to be and see. In developing the character creator, we put a lot of intention behind the hairstyles, complexion, and everything. Hopefully, it results in the feeling [that] creating Rook feels very personal, and you can relate even more to the Companions and characters you know and the problems you solve throughout Thedas.
Busche: I’ve always been a fan of the games and their protagonists—the Hero of Ferelden, Hawke, my dear Inquisitor, whom I still love. One of the most interesting challenges is to have one of those prior leads, like the Inquisitor, meet Rook. Both of them have distinct, important roles within their own journeys and that of Thedas. So when they and Rook cross paths, it’s almost like two titans meeting; those interactions are so complex, and for longtime fans, they’ll also be so full of memories and feelings.
©BioWare/EA
io9: Most of the Companions are all-new for the game. But some, like Neve and Lucanis, were previously seen or mentioned in EU material. Other than them being in Tevinter, what made you want to bring them into the game proper? Conversely, what’s your process for deciding to fill a companion slot with a character from a previous game, like Harding?
Busche: It’s a mix of a few things. Tevinter is in Northern Thedas, a place full of brand-new locations we’ve alluded to before. Fans have wanted more of that region, but they never got to go there in the prior games. We knew we wanted to do right by them, and we also knew we needed Companions that represented these parts of the world, and who were affiliated with these new and returning factions.
Cheverie: When I was a QA analyst on Inquisition, Scout Harding was such a constant for us. Seeing the reaction players had to her, we knew we had to bring her back to dive into her story more and let players develop that relationship with her. It was an exciting endeavor to let players get to know her more, and learn more about dwarven history in the process.
Busche: Harding was a Companion choice we made early on. Seeing players fall in love with Harding back in Inquisition was a bit of a surprise, honestly. But we were inspired, so it felt like a natural extension to make her return as a fully-fledged Companion that also had ties back to the Inquisition.
Other times, we know what roles the story requires, and we spend a lot of time looking through our backlog of characters and their histories to find the perfect fits for this moment in time. Sometimes we try out different characters and find out someone’s better suited to that particular need. As for those returning characters, we can’t include everybody from the prior games, but I think longtime fans will be pleased with the cameos that show up throughout Veilguard.
io9: There hasn’t been a new game since Inquisition, but you’ve filled that gap with EU content like short stories, the show, etc. How have you found a balance between onboarding new players, the diehards who’ve been keeping up, and those in that in-between space?
Cheverie: As a Dragon Age fan, these games are why I wanted to work at BioWare in the first place, so it’s exciting to come back to this world again. I love that we can continue stories in Thedas with characters fans know and love, and start new stories with characters introduced through other media.
Busche: Even if you’re a diehard fan, it might’ve been 10 years since you played Inquisition, and there’s a lot of lore to keep in your head. For lapsed players or new ones, we made sure Veilguard was going to be a great entry point: in our first few hours, we take great care to focus on core concepts—like who’s Solas, your immediate next step, and motivations to keep going.
For the lore junkies, around every corner, you find new information about these longstanding mysteries. As you get deeper into the game, a lot of longstanding theories will get some resolution. And speaking to expanded media, I love that we’ll get to feature characters that came from the comics or books and haven’t shown up in the games yet. My immediate go-tos are Strife and Irelin [from Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights], and fan-favorite character Maevaris Tilani. There’s other surprises in store too, and I can’t wait for players to experience them.
©BioWare/EA
io9: Dragon Age and Mass Effect have now borrowed each other’s gameplay DNA with Veilguard and Andromeda, respectively. Did you ever worry that you were taking too much from that franchise and losing some of DA’s (admittedly fluid) identity?
Busche: We approached it from the lens of, “Was this right for the story, and how would it help us?” We look back at our entire catalog of games to see where we had similar successes, or “What makes sense for a story, environment, and development team like this?” Every Dragon Age game has reinvented itself in some way, from the combat to how we approach the world. It’s the greatest challenge, and for me, the most interesting opportunity, since it allowed us to look back on fan-favorite features spanning all previous games, and see if they make sense to pull forward.
Quick-swapping weapons mid-combat is pulled right from Origins. If I think about the pace of combat and the companion depth and their character arcs, I see a lot of Dragon Age II. You also see a lot of the DNA from Inquisition in there as well—but Veilguard is still its own entity and experience. Our hope is that this all comes together to respect where we’ve been, and also advance the franchise into this next adventure into Thedas.
Cheverie: There are people on this team who’ve been with BioWare for a long time, even going back to Origins. The idea of what a Dragon Age game is is pretty strong with a lot of the team, and it’s a collaborative effort. As we’re going through the game, people are giving feedback and offering their insight into things. The magical moment for us is when you sit down and play through something you had a hand in making and you go, “This feels like Dragon Age, this is it.”
Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases October 31 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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Apple, Google wallets now support California driver’s licenses
California residents can now store their driver’s license or state ID in their Apple Wallet apps, the state’s government announced on Thursday. California started allowing digital IDs through Google Wallet just last month.
Californians with an ID in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet app can use their mobile devices to present their ID in person at select TSA security checkpoints and businesses. They can also use the app to verify their age or identity in select apps.
Other states that already support digital driver’s licenses and state IDs include Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and Ohio.
How to add your ID to Apple, Google Wallet
To load your ID into the Apple Wallet app, you need to click on the “+” button at the top of the screen in the app, then choose “Driver’s License or State ID.” From there, you need to follow the on-screen instructions to start the setup and verification process. You will prompted to take a selfie and then scan the front and back on your driver’s license or state ID card.
To do so in the Google Wallet app, you need to tap the “Add to Wallet” option in the app and then select the “ID card.” Then, you need to select your state and follow the verification steps with your physical ID.
“We’re partnering with two iconic California companies – Apple and Google – to provide convenient, private and secure driver’s licenses and ID cards directly on people’s phones,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement announcing the program earlier this year. “This is a big step in our efforts to better serve all Californians, meeting people where they’re at and with technology people use every day,” he added.
The governor’s website noted that more than 500,000 Californians have already added a mobile driver’s license (mDL) to their phone using the California DMV Wallet app. The mDL pilot program has been limited to 1.5 million participants.
According to the Secure Technology Alliance, more than 20 states are currently exploring the idea of adopting mobile digital licenses.
These states include Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.
This article was updated to reflect that Californians can now add their digital IDs to Apple, Google Wallet.
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Virtuous, a fundraising CRM for nonprofits, raises $100M from Susquehanna Growth Equity
I recently adopted a kitten from a local animal shelter. The modern, well-staffed three-story facility relies almost entirely on donations to operate. It’s just one of the 1.8 million nonprofits in the U.S. that need to continually solicit contributions from donors to maintain its services.
But Virtuous founder and CEO Gabe Cooper says that many charitable organizations are not very effective at marketing to their donors. “If you’ve ever given to a nonprofit before, what you probably got back was a piece of direct mail that felt like institutional nonsense that was disconnected from the reason you gave originally,” he said. “Donors deserve a personal connection with the causes they care about most.”
In 2014, that realization inspired Cooper to found Virtuous, a customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing platform that helps nonprofits increase donations. Since then, the Phoenix-based company has attracted more than 10,000 customers at various nonprofits, including Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, and Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and has seen significant growth, quintupling its revenue in the last three years alone.
That rapid growth has piqued the interest of several growth equity investors who wanted to invest in the company. On Thursday, Virtuous announced that it raised $100 million from a single investor, Susquehanna Growth Equity, which is taking a minority position in the company.
Cooper said he didn’t have plans on raising new funding this year, but several shifts in the industry, especially the integration of AI, have convinced him that this is an opportune time to have more capital.
Although Cooper declined to share Virtuous’ new valuation, he said that the revenue “valuation multiple was consistent with previous rounds.” Since Virtuous’ revenue grew 500% since it raised an $18 million Series B in July 2021, Cooper’s statement about the multiple implies that valuation increased five-fold (an assumption that he declined to confirm).
While several companies offer CRMs for the nonprofit space, including a product from Salesforce, Cooper said the startup’s main competitor is Blackbaud, a publicly traded company with revenues over $1 billion a year.
Cooper claims that Virtuous helps nonprofits understand the interests of their donors better than its competitors. The company achieves this by tracking email opens, website visits, and other data-driven analyses that Virtuous calls “responsive fundraising.” Cooper added that the Virtuous approach to customer segmentation and marketing is similar to that of Klaviyo, but it’s designed specifically for philanthropic fundraising.
By tailoring outreach to specific donors, Virtuous can increase the size of donations. “Our competitors don’t do that. Their [approach] is very impersonal,” Cooper said.
The new funding is being used to expand Virtuous’ customer relationship team and, of course, to develop new AI functionality that it plans to make available to customers in early 2025.
Cooper said that new AI features are being tested internally, including natural language querying (that allow users to forgo tedious custom searches and report building). The new AI functionality was developed using the OpenAI platform “at a hackathon with the team at Microsoft,” Cooper said.
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No, the FAA isn’t fining SpaceX because of Elon Musk’s politics, former FAA head says
This week, Elon Musk identified a new constraint for his Mars-bound ambitions. It wasn’t the -85°F surface temperature, or the 140 million miles he’ll need to travel. Rather, it’s something far more pedestrian: “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA,” he posted on X.
That post followed a previous one in which he vowed to sue the government agency, arguing in a series of X posts that the FAA was politically motivated when it levied $633,009 in fines against SpaceX on Tuesday. One fine was for allegedly using an unapproved rocket propellant farm in a launch last year; the other was for using an unauthorized launch control room. SpaceX said in a letter to Congress Thursday it “forcefully rejects” the notion that the company didn’t follow FAA procedure.
“The FAA space division is harassing SpaceX about nonsense that doesn’t affect safety,” Musk posted, adding, “I am highly confident that discovery will show improper, politically-motivated behavior by the FAA.”
But Billy Nolen, the former acting administrator of the FAA in 2023, pushed back against Musk’s assertion that the FAA was unfairly targeting SpaceX because, as Musk implied, the billionaire’s choice of political candidates to support.
As an agency, the FAA “is about as apolitical as it gets,” he told TechCrunch.
Nolen, who is now the chief regulatory affairs officer of aircraft company Archer Aviation, pointed out that FAA heads purposefully have five-year term limits. That means presidential administrations don’t automatically get to appoint a new FAA leader each time a new party is sworn in. “We don’t operate on behalf of Republicans or Democrats,” he said.
Musk’s meatier complaint was about the perpetual slowness of the agency. “It really should not be possible to build a giant rocket faster than the paper can move from one desk to another,” Musk said at the All-In Summit on Sept. 10.
That was an argument that Nolen could empathize with. The FAA, he said, is burdened with an enormous mandate, yet “there’s never enough money.”
The roughly $24 billion budget he was given during his time at the agency may seem like a lot of money. But, he said, about $19 billion was committed to salaries and operations and about $4 billion went to upkeep on an increasingly aging infrastructure.
“The agency still has a lot of legacy systems,” he said, pointing out that the FAA itself maintains over 200 air traffic control towers. “Some towers are still using paper strips,” he said, referring to how some towers are still tracking flights on paper.
Nolen said that the agency often doesn’t have the budget for new technologies that could help it better regulate a rapidly growing space industry. “The FAA has to be funded to the level of what our expectations are of having a world-class, best-in-class system,” he said.
Now that Nolen is at Archer, a company working on newfangled electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft — one of the upstarts that tends to chafe against FAA bureaucracy — he’s thought a lot about what agency changes could help new technology. Within his lifetime, he wants the FAA to become “100% fully predictive” using artificial intelligence, he said.
Think of the sheer amount of data soaring through the sky every minute: a single Boeing 787 flight generates a half terabyte of data, according to a 2017 interview with a Boeing engineer. Imagine, Nolen said, “the ability to pull all of that together, synthesize it and say, is there anything in that data that gives us pause?”
He emphasized that it would help the agency move faster and speed up approvals for things like, say, SpaceX launches.
But Nolen also points out that the FAA relies heavily on experts, turning to engineers, founders and academics to guide its policy, and Musk’s anti-FAA rhetoric is damaging. Nolen said it’s crucial for someone like Musk, who is “one of the greatest creative minds we have,” to cooperate and help the FAA understand what new age space companies need.
“We don’t ever want to be in a place where there’s one set of rules, but if you’ve got enough money, they don’t really apply to you,” he said.
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