Tech Podcasts

Imran Ahmed from the Center For Countering Digital Hate talks about the negligence of Instagram in protecting women from misogynistic harassment via direct message on the platform. Owen Thomas from Protocol walks through the possibilities facing Twitter in light of Elon Musks' offer to buy the company. Owen Thomas sticks around to shed light on the Dorsey tweet NFT that sold for millions in 2021 and is now struggling to bring in six figures in 2022. Mikah's story of the week shows how CNN+ is fighting for daily active users a few weeks after launch.Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Imran Ahmed and Owen Thomas Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors:zentrysecurity.com/twit podium.com/twit

The Overwatch 2 PvP beta starts later this month and Blizzard has released a gameplay trailer for one of the sequel's main additions, Sojourn. She's the 33rd hero in the Overwatch lineup, but is the first character to be introduced in two years. Sojourn is a damage hero best suited for mid-range combat and you can take a look at her in action below.Sojourn has a railgun with two modes of fire. The primary fire sends out rapid projectiles that build up energy on impact. With her secondary fire, you can fire that stored energy as a high-impact shot.There's a movement ability called Power Slide. You'll be able to cancel that with a high jump (similar to Moira's Fade). She also has a Disruptor Shot, which is an area-of-effect ability that slows and damages enemies in its radius.Sojourn's ultimate ability is called Overclock. This supercharges the secondary fire of the railgun by automatically restoring the energy. Shots fired while the ability is active will pierce enemies, so if you can line a couple up, you can take them both out at once. In other words, you'll need to have decent aim and positioning to get the most out of her.Blizzard also released a trailer that delves into Sojourn's origin story. She was a member of the Canadian Special Forces whose unit linked up with the Overwatch task force during the Omnic Crisis. She forged a partnership with Jack Morrison (aka Soldier: 76) and, after the war, he recruited her to the group.Sojourn is the first playable Black woman in the series. She will be available in the Overwatch 2 PvP beta, which starts on April 26th. The competitive side of the sequel will mark a shift from teams of six to five-player squads and add new maps, an updated game engine, a ping system and many changes to the current roster of heroes. The Overwatch League will also play games using the Overwatch 2 beta when it returns next month.

Like an ambitious butcher trying to cleave a dollar of meat out of a 10-cent steak, Major League Baseball announced on Thursday that it is carving out a bit more of its television broadcast rights, renewing its four-season-old deal for the "MLB Game of the Week Live on YouTube" with the Alphabet property. But unlike other recently struck deals, these streaming exclusives will be free to watch and without local blackout restrictions.Beginning with the Rockies-Nats game on May 5th (first pitch 3:10 ET), YouTube will once again be home to more than a dozen MLB games throughout the 2022 season. Broadcasters Scott Braun and Yonder Alonso return to call the play-by-play. The full lineup is as follows:Washington Nationals at Colorado Rockies — Thursday, May 5 at 3:10 ETMilwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds — Wednesday, May 11 at 12:35 ETArizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs — Friday, May 20 at 2:20 ETDetroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins — Wednesday, May 25 at 1:10 ETKansas City Royals at Cleveland Guardians — Wednesday, June 1 at 1:10 ETToronto Blue Jays at Kansas City Royals — Wednesday, June 8 at 2:10 ETMinnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners — Wednesday, June 15 at 4:10 ETYouTubeTV subscribers will be able to find these games on the service's dedicated Game of the Week channel while everybody else will see them on the MLB YouTube page. Fans will be able to interact with the broadcasts either via the live chat, "featuring game commentary from MLB superfan YouTube creators," as well as in-game polls and, for subscribers, access to real-time game stats.  The 2022 MLB season is riddled with exclusive broadcast deals. Beyond the standard local blackout rules, 18 Sunday games will be only available with a $10-a-month Peacock subscription, AppleTV+ ($6 a month) gets the Friday Doubleheaders, and ESPN has dibs on Sunday Night Baseball. There's also MLB.TV which has rights to everything but is far more expensive than its alternatives, at least until the All-Star break.   

Meta's Horizon Worlds might not require that you don a headset to get a taste of Horizon Worlds. In response to criticisms of Meta's 47.5 percent cut of sales in the virtual world, CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth teased that a future "web version" would demand a more reasonable 25 percent. That's "much lower" than rivals like Roblox, the exec claimed.Bosworth didn't say more about how the web edition would work or when it would launch. It's not clear if this is a VR environment or a scaled-back experience, for instance.When Horizon’s web version launches, the Horizon platform fee will only be 25%—a much lower rate compared to other similar world-building platforms.— Boz (@boztank) April 14, 2022The CTO justified the 47.5 percent rate for Quest headset users by maintaining that it was needed to "help build a different ecosystem." Meta reaches that value by taking a 30 percent slice of revenue through the Quest Store and then 25 percent from the remaining amount in Horizon Worlds. This math would apply if the Quest Store was replaced with another platform "underneath," Bosworth added, such as Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store.This might offer some consolation to creators worried they'd lose nearly half of all sales revenue to Meta's share. You could buy a digital item in Horizon Worlds' web version knowing the designer would get a much larger portion than if you made the same purchase in VR.It might not soften all the criticism, however. Bosworth rebutted Apple's accusations of hypocrisy by claiming the iPhone maker favors its business "at great expense" to developers. However, it's still true that Meta will frequently collect revenue from two services where Apple, Google and others will only scoop up payments from one. That won't please creatives who hope to live off their digital item sales and may have to raise prices to compensate for Meta's approach.

Late last month, hackers stole more than half a billion dollars worth of Ethereum from the Ronin blockchain behind play-to-earn game, Axis Infinity. On Thursday, the FBI announced that it now attributes the heist, dubbed the Ronin Validator Security Breach, to a North Korean outfit calling itself the Lazarus Group. The Ronin Network (the company behind the blockchain behind the game) updated its ongoing page regarding the cyberattack on Thursday, noting that "the Treasury Department has sanctioned the address that received the stolen funds."   "We are still in the process of adding additional security measures before redeploying the Ronin Bridge to mitigate future risk," the company continued. "Expect the bridge to be deployed by end of month." Additionally, the Ronin Network plans to release "a full post mortem" detailing the new security measures being put in place, by the end of the month.  

NASA is taking steps to create more opportunities related to space, including for those from underserved and underrepresented communities, amid a broader push for improved racial equity in the federal government. The agency says its Equity Action Plan will allow it to internally and externally track progress on improving diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.The plan has four focus areas:Increasing integration and utilization of contractors and businesses from underserved communities and expanding equity in NASA’s procurement processEnhancing grants and cooperative agreements to advance opportunities, access and representation for underserved communitiesLeveraging Earth science and socioeconomic data to help mitigate environmental challenges in underserved communitiesAdvancing external civil rights compliance and expanding access to limited English proficient populations within underserved communitiesAmong the measures NASA plans to take to address these issues in underserved communities are running more engagement events, increasing outreach and training and offering small businesses more contract opportunities. The agency is also aiming to address language barriers by updating its language access plan and expanding accessibility for populations with limited English proficiency, starting with communications in Spanish.NASA plans to return to crewed Moon landings in 2025. Through the Artemis program, it plans to land a woman and person of color on the Moon for the first time. It has named a diverse shortlist of astronauts who are eligible for the initial flights.“At NASA, all of our missions depend on our steadfast commitment to equal opportunity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The Equity Action plan deepens our commitment to further identify and remove the barriers that limit opportunity in underserved and underrepresented communities. This framework anchors fairness as a core component in every NASA mission to make the work we do in space and beyond more accessible to all."

If Elon Musk is indeed able to buy Twitter, the platform could look a lot different. In his first public, non-tweeted comments since the saga began, Musk addressed why he wants to buy the company, and changes he would want to bring about.“Twitter has become kind of the de-facto town square,” he said. “It's just really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they're able to speak freely within the bounds of the law.”In terms of specific changes, Musk said Twitter should open-source its algorithms and minimize the interventions it takes in policing content. “Any changes to people's tweets — if they're emphasized or de-emphasized — that action should be made apparent,” he said. “So anyone can see that that action has been taken so there's no sort of behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually.”He added that the underlying code behind the algorithm should be available on GitHub, so that users could inspect it themselves.Musk also spoke about his philosophy on content moderation, namely that there should be very little of it. “I think we would want to err on the side of, if in doubt, let the speech exist,” he said. “I'm not saying that I have all the answers here.” He repeated several times that his preference would be to allow all speech that is legal, and that he dislikes measures like permanent bans. “I do think that we want to be just very reluctant to delete things and be very cautious with permanent bans,” he said. “You know, timeouts I think are better than sort of permanent bans.”Those comments are not likely to be well-received among Twitter employees, some of whom were reportedly extremely worried by the prospect of him joining the board.Musk’s appearance at TED comes just hours after the Tesla CEO made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter. That offer was the culmination of a chaotic few days for Musk and Twitter, during which he revealed that he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder, was offered a seat on the company’s board of directors, declined to join and was subsequently sued by Twitter shareholders over his delay in reporting his investment to the SEC.Whether Musk will actually succeed in taking over the company is unclear. Twitter’s board has so far only said that it will “review” the offer. “I'm not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it,” he said. When asked if he had a "plan B," if Twitter's board were to decline his offer, he said that he did but declined to elaborate. As for his own Twitter feed, Musk confirmed what many may have long suspected. “I'm tweeting more or less stream of consciousness,” he said. “It's not like, ‘let me think about some grand plan about my Twitter’ or whatever. I'm like, literally, on the toilet like, ‘oh, this is funny,’ and then tweet that out, you know?”

The Department of State has cut the ribbon on the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP), which is now in operation. The move makes cybersecurity a more formal area of focus for US foreign policy following a swathe of attacks linked to Russia and China.Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the CDP in October. The bureau comprises three policy units: International Cyberspace Security, International Information and Communications Policy and Digital Freedom.The office will eventually be led by an Ambassador-at-Large, who will require Senate confirmation. Jennifer Bachus, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, is running the bureau on an acting basis as senior official and principal deputy assistant secretary.The bureau could help the US address cybersecurity threats both by itself and through partnerships with allies. A spate of major hacks have been attributed to state-linked actors from Russia and China over the last several years, including several Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks (for which the Biden administration pinned the blame on China). Others include the SolarWinds attack, over which the US has sanctioned multiple Russian companies, individuals and entities.In February, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency had more than 2,000 active investigations related to thefts of US tech or information that were allegedly carried out by China. He claimed the country had a "massive, sophisticated hacking program that is bigger than those of every other major nation combined.” Shortly before Russia invaded the country in February, Ukraine's government blamed it for a cyberattack against its websites.President Biden signed an executive order last May that sought to bolster the country's cybersecurity infrastructure. He followed that up in January with an EO that contained more concrete directives concerning the Defense Department, the intelligence community and national security systems.

After years of teasing, the DeLorean Motor Company announced on Monday that it will unveil an all-electric vehicle on August 18th, promising to share its official name at the same time. Details on the concept car are scant, but what the automaker did share is that it worked with Italdesign, best known for its work with Volkswagen, to design the upcoming car. Judging from the DeLorean’s website, the vehicle will feature the iconic gull-wing doors of the DMC-12.Let’s clear things up a bit. The next generation of DeLorean is coming into focus August 18, 2022. For more information read the press release here: https://t.co/Q4Rax2aBC1#DeLorean#DeloreanEVolved#firstlookpic.twitter.com/H0t0i4ODqv— DeLorean Motor Company (@deloreanmotorco) April 4, 2022To be clear, the company making the DeLorean EV isn’t the same one that produced the DMC-12. The DeLorean Motor Company of Texas is known for restoring vintage DeLorean vehicles, billing itself as the largest source of parts for the defunct brand that made the original. We'll also note it's been talking about electrification since 2011 when it said it was working on making an all-electric DeLorean with a 100-mile range. 

If you're in the market for a music-making machine that just about can do it all, then it's worth taking a peek at Native Instruments' latest sale. The company is cutting the price of its Maschine hardware by up to $200 and tossing in some free software expansions for good measure. The pick of the bunch is the Maschine+, which is currently $200 off at $1,199. Even better, if you're an existing customer, you might qualify for a bigger discount. You'll find out after you log in.Buy Maschine+ at Native Instruments - $1,199With the Maschine+, which it released in 2020, NI stuffed its software into a groovebox — you don't need a PC to use the instrument. It combines a synth, sampler, sequencer and drum machine.We gave the Maschine+ a score of 83 in our review, finding it to be high-quality hardware with a respectable range of synth software. We appreciated the fact it can be used as a standalone device as well as a MIDI controller. However, we felt the input and output options were limited and that some of the instruments felt dated.Elsewhere, you can get $100 off the Maschine (now $599) or $50 off the Maschine Mikro (which has dropped to $219). If you do buy one of these devices, be sure to register the serial number in the Native Access software or directly on the Maschine+. You'll receive an email with a voucher that will allow you to unlock up to eight expansions at no extra cost. The sale and free software offer will run until May 5th. Voucher codes will expire if they aren't used before June 1st.Buy Maschine hardware at Native InstrumentsFollow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social may have lost its best chance at success. According to Reuters, two executives seen as critical to the platform’s success, chief technology officer Josh Adams and chief product officer Billy Boozer, recently resigned from their positions. The departures reportedly came shortly after Truth Social’s rocky launch on February 21st.Since becoming available on iOS devices, the platform has seemingly struggled with technical glitches, including a lengthy waiting list that has prevented many from accessing the social media network. After an initial rush, it has also seen downloads drop precipitously. According to data mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower shared with Reuters, Truth Social has secured approximately 1.2 million downloads since launching, a number that puts it far behind not only mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter but right-leaning alternatives like Parler as well.Sources close to the company told Reuters the departures could hurt the app as it tries to compete with Twitter and Facebook. “If Josh has left… all bets are off,” one person told the outlet. Reuters notes it wasn’t able to determine the circumstances surrounding the resignations of Adams and Boozer, nor if the two are still working on Truth Social in a different capacity. It’s also unclear exactly what Trump’s involvement with the venture is at this stage. So far, he has only posted once to the platform, writing “Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!” on February 14th.If nothing else, Truth Social’s stumbles highlight just how difficult it is to break into a mature market. For every Facebook and Twitter, there are countless companies like YikYak and Meerkat that attempted in one or another to carve out their own niche within the social media space but eventually failed to do so. That’s not to say Truth Social is dead just yet, far from it, but it may have to re-examine its ambitions.

DJI is better known for its drones and cameras than any of its audio tech, but it's apparently eager to change your mind. The company has released the Mic, its first dedicated audio recording gear, in the US. The wireless clip-on system promises 24-bit, 48KHz audio capture for your vlogs or other spoken-word content at distances of up to 820 feet. That's not too special in itself, but DJI is clearly hoping to snag wireless earbud fans with the design — you charge the transmitters and receiver in a battery case that provides a total of 15 hours of use. You're looking at up to 5.5 hours of use per session.The Mic can output through a 3.5mm jack, Lightning and USB-C, and you'll get familiar audio adjustments like sensitivity (between -12dB and +12dB) and variable gain. An included furry windscreen will prevent a blustery day from ruining your show.The system is available now for $329. That's a lot to spend if you're just looking to record audio using your phone. You can spend a fraction of the price if you only need the basics. However, the outlay might be easier to rationalize if you either depend on long-distance recording or want the flexibility that DJI's charging case and output selection can offer.

Roku users who might be used to major third-party services disappearing for a while (or taking forever to arrive) won’t lose access to Prime Video and IMDb TV any time soon. Amazon and Roku have reached a multi-year deal to keep the apps on the platform.“Roku and Amazon have reached a multi-year extension for their distribution agreement,” Roku said in a statement. “Customers can continue to access the Prime Video and IMDb TV apps on their Roku devices.” It didn't disclose terms of the deal.The Amazon negotiations seem to have gone more smoothly than talks with other streaming services. It took months for Roku to reach a deal with WarnerMedia to get HBO Max on the platform. As for YouTube TV, that vanished from the Roku Channel Store for eight months. The company and Google aired their grievances in public while working on a new deal. Securing all those agreements means users will have access to more of the streaming services they might want to use under one umbrella.Update 4/4 2:33PM ET: Clarifying that the YouTube TV app was removed from the Channel Store, not the entre Roku platform.

The gang praise the OnePlus 10 Pro, especially as an alternative to Google and Samsung hardware. We also hear more about Nothing, Andrew's S22 Ultra frustrations, and more. Links: OnePlus 10 Pro review: Back on the right path | Android Central Michael Fisher on Twitter: "My practical take on the OnePlus 10 Pro: at $899 it's a solid choice for people who want a Google or Samsung alternative. ✅Attractive ✅Charges quickly ✅Lasts long ✅150° camera is cool ❌Cameras could be better on the whole ❌Software is weird ❌No ATT 5g ❌8/128 only (USA) https://t.co/ypcKzfmhFI" / Twitter Why I canceled my Galaxy S22 Ultra preorder | Android Central EXCLUSIVE-U.S. probe of Google Maps picks up speed -sources | Reuters Justice Department probe into Google Maps dominance gains traction | Android Central Nothing on Twitter: "Say hello to just Another (1). You’ve seen a phone just like this before. Experience edge-to-edge monotony. It’s inspiringly uninspired. Utterly unoriginal. And exactly the same as everything else. Coming to bore you soon. https://t.co/pLWW07l8G7 https://t.co/2FHHI5ELr1" / Twitter Sponsors: Keeper Security: Remove the Pain of Remembering Passwords. Securely store your passwords with Keeper and never worry about remembering them again. Start your free trial at www.get-keeper.com.

As the scope and focus of human spaceflight has evolved, so too have NASA’s methods and operations. Regions that were once accessible only by the world’s most powerful nations are today increasingly within reach of Earth’s civilian population, the richest uppermost crusts, at least. The business community is also eyeing near Earth space as the next potentially multi-trillion dollar economy and is already working with the space agency to develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to continue NASA’s work in the decades following the ISS’ decommissioning. At SXSW 2022 last week, a panel of experts on the burgeoning private spaceflight industry discussed the nuts and bolts of NASA’s commercial services program and what business in LEO will likely entail.As part of the panel, The Commercial Space Age Is Here, Tim Crain, CTO of Intuitive Machines, Douglas Terrier, associate director of vision and technology of NASA's Johnson Space Center, and Matt Ondler, CTO and director of engineering at Axiom Space, sat down with Houston Spaceport director, Arturo Machuca. Houston has been a spacefaring hub since NASA’s founding and remains a hotbed for orbital and spacelift technology startups today.“We're going from a model of where we've had primarily government funded interests in space to one that's going to be focused a lot on the commercial sector,” Terrier said, pointing out that Axiom, Intuitive Machines, and “SpaceX down in Boca Chica” were quickly being joined by myriad startups offering a variety of support and development services.“[Space is] the most important frontier for the United States to continue to have world leadership in and our goal is to ensure that we continue to do that in a new model that involves harnessing the innovation and the expertise from both inside and outside of NASA in the community represented here,” he continued.Axiom is no stranger to working with both sides of the government contractor dynamic. It is scheduled to launch the first fully private crew mission to the ISS in April and plans to build, launch and affix a privately funded habitat module to the station by 2028. “This commercial space, very similar to the beginning of the internet,” Older explained. “There were a few key technologies that really allowed the internet to explode and so there's a few things in aerospace that will really allow commercial space to take off.”“We think that the low Earth orbit economy is a trillion dollar economy, whether it's bioprinting, organs, whether it's making special fiber optic cable,” he continued. “I am completely convinced that 15 to 20 years from now we're going to be surrounded by objects that we can't imagine how we [had] lived without that were manufactured in space.”“For the last 20 years humans have lived on the International Space Station continuously,” Terrier agreed. “My grandchildren are living in a world where humans live on the moon, where they'll get a nightly news broadcast from the moon? I mean, the opportunities from a societal- and civilization-changing standpoint is beyond comparison.. is actually beyond comprehension.”The space-based economy is already valued at around $400 billion, Terrier added, with government investment accounting for around a quarter of the necessary upkeep funding and the rest coming from the private sector. He noted that NASA plays two primary roles as President Kennedy dictated in his 1962 “Why Go to the Moon” speech at Rice University: the scientific exploration of space for one, but also “to create the conditions for commercial success for United States in space,” Terrier said.“It's synergistic in a sense that the more companies operating in space, the more of an industrial base we can call on — driving the price down, amortizing the access to space — so that NASA d