All posts by :

Kabosu, the real Shiba Inu that launched a million doge memes, has leukemia and liver disease. According to an Instagram post by Kabosu’s human, Atsuko Sato, the 17-year-old dog’s “liver level is very bad and jaundice appears. But antibiotics will definitely improve. — Read the rest

Amazon’s growing library of sports content could soon have a home of its own. The Information reports the retailer is working on a new standalone streaming app to declutter Prime Video and better highlight its deals with the NFL, Premier League and New York Yankees. The development comes following recent comments from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who highlighted live sports content as one of the areas where the company plans to continue spending money even as it cuts costs in other areas.

The Information says it couldn’t learn when Amazon expects to release the app, nor if the company plans to charge separately for access to Prime Video’s sports content. The outlet also notes Amazon may decide to shelve the app. Amazon did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.

Whether it makes sense for Amazon to launch a standalone sports app is not as straightforward as you might think. On the one hand, Prime Video could definitely use decluttering. Even after Amazon recently redesigned the platform’s interface to make it “less busy and overwhelming,” it can be tricky to find content on the service since it incorporates both streaming and video-on-demand content.

On the other hand, a standalone app would create more pressure for Amazon to secure worthwhile content. What’s more, the cost of sports content has increased dramatically in recent years. Amazon reportedly pays about $1 billion annually for exclusive streaming rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package. Earlier this month, Google reportedly agreed to pay between $2.1 billion and $2.2 billion for the league’s Sunday Ticket package. A standalone app with its own subscription tier would also complicate Prime Video’s role as a driver of Prime subscriptions. Amazon may decide whatever it gains by creating a separate app may not be worth the tradeoff.  

It’s been two years since the Xbox Series X and S launched, and accessory-makers haven’t wasted any time in delivering a plethora of useful gear. Want some extra SSD storage? Seagate’s expansion cards are cheaper than ever and easy to install. Need a few extra controllers? You’ve got your pick of choices from Microsoft and third-parties (maybe just throw caution to the wind and splurge for an Elite controller). And it’s always worth getting a headset, both for immersive gaming and chatting with teammates. Here are a few accessories we’d recommend for every Xbox gamer.

Controllers: Go stylish, go Pro

It’s always smart to have a second controller on hand. Even if you don’t play multiplayer games much, you’ll regret not being prepared for the occasional friend or family member who’s down for a Mortal Kombat match. And at the very least, it’s wise to have a replacement in case something goes wrong with your main controller. (We’ve all smashed our gamepads against the wall for one reason, or another – no judgment.)

While you could just get another stock Microsoft controller, there are plenty of options worth considering. The Anniversary Edition gamepad is more expensive, but it has a spiffy translucent design that’ll look great on your coffee table. If you find yourself burning through plenty of AA batteries, consider a rechargeable solution like PowerA’s dual controller bay. It comes with two batteries, and it lets you juice up your gamepads in style.

For dedicated Xbox gamers, Microsoft’s second-generation Elite gamepad may be worth the investment. It has replaceable thumbsticks, rear buttons and a comfortable grip. Not to mention, it’s one of the few Xbox gamepads that you can recharge over USB-C.

If you’re more interested in playing older games, or are just looking for a different style of controller, we’re also huge fans of 8BitDo’s Pro 2. It’s incredibly comfortable, and its directional pad is one of the best on the market. It also makes a great controller for PC gaming (though any recent Xbox controller will also work on computers over Bluetooth).

Buy Elite gamepad at Amazon – $180Buy 8Bitdo Pro 2 at Amazon – $50

Specialized controllers are cool again!

If you play Microsoft Flight Simulator long enough, you’ll realize you can only go so far with a standard gamepad. Time for a flight stick! After conferring with flying simulator fanatics, and perusing plenty of reviews, we’d recommend jumping on Thrustmaster’s T-Flight Hotas One joystick. It offers realistic five-axis control, 14 buttons and a detachable throttle. And unlike some clunky PC solutions, it’s compact enough to fit on a coffee table or lap desk. (You can also use it with a computer, if you’d like.)

If you’re more into cars, we were impressed by Logitech’s G923 racing wheel. It feels like a genuine steering wheel, with a comfortable grip, steel paddle shifters, and a trio of solid pedals. Once it’s clamped to a table, it delivers a surprisingly realistic driving experience – all the better to tear through Mexico in Forza Horizon 5. It’s definitely pricey at $400, but it’s an investment that’ll last for many racing games to come.

Buy Logitech racing wheel at Amazon – $400

Bump up your storage

If you were lucky enough to nab a new Xbox Series X or S at launch, chances are you’re already familiar with their storage limitations. Luckily, you can easily give yourself a bit more breathing room with one of Seagate’s storage expansion cards, which are just as fast as the speedy SSDs inside the consoles. In addition to the 1TB card that arrived at launch, Seagate also recently unveiled 512GB and 2TB options. We’d recommend going for 1TB at this point, but if you can afford it the 2TB SSD will certainly last longer.

You can also connect traditional hard drives, like Seagate’s 2TB Game Drive, to the Xbox Series X and S over USB. They’re far too slow to run current-gen games at their full speed, but they give you a boatload of storage for a much cheaper price. They’re useful to have around for playing games from the original Xbox, as well as the 360. And they can also be used as “cold storage” to free up space on your precious SSD. Newer games can easily move back and forth between those drives, which prevents you from having to download them again.

Tune up your sound

You deserve better than your crummy TV speakers. While you could just plug in whatever headphones you have laying around into your Xbox controller, we’d recommend investing in a solid pair of wireless headphones. They’ll likely sound better, and they remove the whole cord problem entirely. The SteelSeries Arctis 9X is one of the best options around, with beefy drivers, a comfortable fit and sturdy build quality. We were impressed during our hands-on testing, as they sounded just as good as the company’s excellent Arctis Pro PC headphones.

Upgrade to a real media remote

Tired of controlling Netflix playback with your controller? Then snag 8BitDo’s Media Remote. Available in long and short designs (the latter removes numbers and other extraneous buttons), they’re well-made remotes that fit the Xbox’s clean aesthetic. I’ve been using the short model to control 4K Blu-rays and tons of streaming apps, and it’s far easier to use than a controller when it comes to quickly fast-forwarding. Now, I don’t have to put my drink down to skip to another chapter.

Manifesting is a buzzy term, especially when it comes to finding love. Search for hashtag love and manifestation on YouTube and TikTok, and you’ll discover a great many videos teaching you how to manifest love into your life. But what does it really mean to manifest love—and is it actually possible?

Read more…

Though it can be depressing to consider the worst in tech each year, sometimes naming some of the losers can actually bring some schadenfreude. In 2022, watching the long-overinflated crypto bubble burst was like staring at a pimple being popped in slow motion: oddly and grossly satisfying. And though some of us were sad to see Stadia go, no one in the tech and gaming industries was surprised when Google sent it to the graveyard. More frustrating, though, were the debacles that unfolded this year with very real and sometimes dangerous repercussions for the most vulnerable communities. As we recap the worst things that happened in tech in 2022, let’s hope that the year ahead brings more positive developments for us all.

Twitter

Even before Elon got his hands on Twitter, the service was being mis-handled by its leaders. As soon as Musk floated the idea of a $44 billion takeover earlier this year, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and the company’s board seemingly jumped at the potential payday. Who cares if it’s a singular social network, one of the few platforms for under-served communities to get their voices heard? Agrawal alone reportedly received $57.4 million from the sale. (Founder Jack Dorsey ended up rolling over his investment in the site, rather than nabbing a near $1 billion payout.)

And now we have Musk’s Twitter, an increasingly toxic pit of the internet’s worst, driven entirely by the richest man in the world’s id. Advertisers are leaving in droves, and Twitter obsessives are making their way to whatever alternative they can find. Meanwhile, Musk is learning just how difficult running a social network is (what’s that, you actually need content moderation?!). At this point, we can only hope Twitter will go the way of Tumblr: Mismanaged until it’s sold at a fire sale price to someone who actually cares about the internet. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior editor.

Crypto, FTX and everything related

2022 saw the value of major cryptocurrencies fall by a significant margin, with billions of dollars being wiped off the industry in minutes. Major crypto companies saw that a winter was coming, and started running layoffs in the hope of staunching the flow. But that winter got turned into a blizzard when FTX collapsed, pulling the already downward trends even further south. The year also saw plenty of other crypto exchanges get hacked, or burn up quite spectacularly when things got hairy. It was only then that the air started pouring out of Sam Bankman-Fried’s bubble, and we’re living through the consequences of that right now.

An Aside: I studied company law and finance for two years, and while I’d never pretend to be a high-minded finance type, even a cursory look at FTX should have aroused suspicion. The business was structured so opaquely that it seemed like an obvious ploy to mask something, be it amateurishness, or criminality. No company that drew in just $388 million in profit needed to be structured into 100 wholly-owned sub-businesses – only a megacorporation like Disney could possibly justify such a sprawling structure.

The other thing that FTX’s collapse should remind us all is that, while the current banking system is hardly a paragon, it does it least function. The fact that FTX was allowed to hold so much money in a system run by a bunch of comparatively unqualified figures is ludicrous. Maybe there’s a reason we don’t let a bunch of relatively young kids with little real-world experience in the banking world run major financial institutions.

If you want to know how bad FTX was, just look at what John Ray III, who famously nursed Enron through its bankruptcy, wrote in the Chapter 11 filing. “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls,” he said, adding that the founders were “inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised.” It gets worse when you reach the bit where it turns out the company had no idea how much cash it had at any one time. Which is surely table stakes for most financial institutions?

Then there’s the, ahem, alleged prevalence of wash trading in the NFT sphere, as holders swap assets amongst their wallets to give the appearance of a healthy market. Or the fact that a number of major crypto billionaires recently passed away in mysterious circumstances. But there’s no proof, friends, that this is tied to crypto’s usefulness in laundering cash for major criminal networks. None at all.

I do think, however, that what will really hammer the nail into crypto’s coffin in 2023 is the recession, as people need to cut down on their luxuries to pay for the essentials. Sure, you could justify buying a Bored Ape as an “investment” when there were stimulus checks rolling around the economy. But when you’re deciding between getting $100 bucks to cover your fuel bill this month or a JPEG of Jimmy Fallon as a monkey, a lot of people are going to make the sensible choice. — Daniel Cooper, Senior editor.

Google Stadia

Stadia didn’t last long. But at times during its short life, it was amazing. During Cyberpunk 2077’s unmitigated disaster of a launch, Google’s cloud gaming platform was one of the best places to run the sprawling game with minimal problems. When many couldn’t get the latest PlayStation or Xbox, Stadia was a way to play games with visual fidelity beyond the PS4 and Xbox One – as long as your internet connection could handle it.

The problem (and there are a few reasons why it struggled) was Stadia didn’t have enough games to stay relevant. Exclusives were rare and there simply weren’t as many games as the competition. Many of Stadia’s titles were also far more expensive to buy compared to other online game stores – even when on sale. When the company closed its internal development studios last year, it was not a good sign.

Then, a rumor gathered pace in late July 2022 that Stadia was going to be shuttered by the end of the summer. It was never substantiated, but it was enough to send devoted Stadia gamers (and their communities in places like Reddit) into freefall. Perhaps this was because Google has a reputation for killing its darlings. (RIP Google Hangouts, Play Music, Cardboard, Reader and the rest). Or perhaps because it was completely plausible?

Google denied it. Well, for two months. Then, the company announced it was shuttering the service, saying Stadia “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected.” Which was… true. But it worked incredibly well. That’s probably why this isn’t where Google’s game-streaming tech ends. Earlier this year, AT&T offered a handful of games, including Control, to its customers through Google’s Immersive Stream for Games – aka Stadia but not. Capcom used Stadia’s technology to offer a web-based Resident Evil: Village demo back in June, while Bungie reportedly used it to test out Destiny 2 changes and improvements with staff before rolling it out to gamers.

Google is, mostly, doing the right thing and reimbursing game and hardware purchases. But that didn’t include Stadia Pro subs – arguably what its most passionate supporters were using. Users will be able to play their game library until January 18, 2023. Then the Stadia servers get turned off, forever. — Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief.

Period tracking apps and digital privacy

After the Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked, there was widespread panic. Amid disbelief, incredulity and outrage, people began to question if the tools they were using to track or avoid pregnancy would be used against them. Chief among the concerns was the reliability of period and cycle tracking apps. Were they collecting data that could be used to identify people who had terminated pregnancies? Would they hand that information over to anyone looking for it?

The Dobbs decision had a ripple effect when we went from scrutinizing the privacy policies of all cycle-tracking apps, to realizing that the overall digital privacy of every user was on a tenuous foundation. Lia Holland, campaigns and communications director for Fight for the Future, told Engadget in June that period-tracking apps were the “canary in the coal mine in terms of our data privacy.”

We learned too, that tracking tools used by platforms like Facebook to serve personalized ads could also be used for insidious reasons. Anti-abortion groups, for example, kept tabs on people seeking abortion services using Facebook’s advertising tools, despite Meta’s rules against doing so. Those groups could also share the data with third-party anti-abortion marketing companies to target “abortion-minded” people with ads. Though Google announced its intention to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by 2023, this year the company had to delay that to 2024 as it continues to test a feasible replacement that would protect consumer privacy while allowing marketers to serve targeted ads.

At the start of 2022, Google announced that it was trying out a different tracking approach called Topics API, instead of the FLoC method it had initially prioritized. In February, after years of testing, Google’s proposal was accepted by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Still, despite rolling out previews of its privacy sandbox on Chrome in March and Android in April, Google still needed to push back the disabling of third-party cookies in its browser another year.

The outlook on our digital privacy in general may be bleak, but there may be hope for improvement. With all the scrutiny this year, many popular period-tracking apps took clear stands and launched privacy-focused modes or made it clear that they would not collect user data. The FTC has also warned companies and data brokers against the misuse of health and location data, and said it was “committed to using the full scope of its legal authorities” to safeguard consumer privacy. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy editor

Peloton and home fitness tech (everyone went back to the gym)

We’ve all been cooped up at home long enough and in 2022, we all let the dogs (and ourselves) out. And as we all ventured outside, we stopped using the at-home gear we bought to tide ourselves over during the dark days of lockdown. Every time we came home to the sight of the expensive console or the exorbitant stationary bike we no longer used, we were reminded of sadder times or unfulfilled goals.

So while companies like Peloton and Bowflex saw a huge boost in sales during the lockdown, they quickly saw numbers stagnate or plummet in 2022. After an ambitious effort to manufacture its own equipment, this year the company gave up making its own products and struck a deal to start selling its machines on Amazon. That marked the first time Peloton had sold its products on a platform other than its own, signaling that the company needed help to move units.

Since then, it’s also launched a partnership with sporting goods retailer Dicks to sell the Bike, Tread and Guide at 100 brick-and-mortar stores in the US. It also launched a rental program to let people get the Bike for a monthly fee and CEO Barry McCarthy said it was contemplating opening its workout content to competing bikes and treadmills.

These efforts to reach a wider audience makes sense. Peloton posted a net loss of $757.1 million for the first three months of the year on a revenue of $964 million. The company tried drastic cost-cutting measures, including laying off about 2,800 corporate employees, which is equivalent to 20 percent of its total workforce. It laid off an additional 570, 784 and 500 workers in July, August and October, effectively halving its workforce in a year. It also cut the prices of existing models in an effort to lower the barrier to entry and draw in more new customers.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Peloton, though. The company did launch a new rowing machine and connected camera this year, and appears to be setting its sights on more markets around the world.  — C.L.

Toyota’s EV failure

Everything about Toyota’s bZ4X is disappointing. It came far too late, long after the company established itself as a hybrid leader and Tesla paved the way for true electric vehicles. It’s a bit ugly and surprisingly boring compared to other EVs, judging from practically every review. Oh, and it had to be completely recalled because the freaking wheels could fly off. Instead of being a market leader in safety and reliability, the bZ4X made it seem like Toyota had never built a car before. Even its name didn’t make sense!

While Toyota has resumed production of the bZ4X, it’s clear the company missed out on a huge opportunity with its first mass market EV. (There was a RAV4 EV, once upon a time.) And it’s doubly disappointing after we’ve learned that the company has been lobbying to slow down the EV transition. It’s classic innovator’s dilemma stuff – after pioneering with hybrids, why rock the boat any further? Toyota is reportedly pushing to reboot its sluggish EV plans, and given its sheer size it’ll likely catch up to other EV companies within the next decade.

But the company’s image is tarnished. It used to be the car maker that put its customers first, one that actually cared about the environment. But it turns out even the good guys can become complacent.  — D.H.

If you paid attention to fashion media this year, you would be under the impression that “Barbiecore,” i.e. fashion inspired by Barbie, usually in her signature hot pink, was 2022’s hottest trend. Vogue told us the style was the “everywhere” this past summer, and W agreed; Glamour said Barbicore was “here to stay,” and the Wall Street Journal said it was the “exhilarating fashion trend we need right now.” But I’d like to ask you a question. If you removed yourself from the media landscape, would you have noticed the “Barbiecore” trend at all?

Maybe you’re thinking, “yes.” And it’s true that on-set photos from Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie flooded social media over a year before the film was set to come out, and those are inherently Barbiecore in that they are literally Barbie. Plus celebrities like Lizzo and Anne Hathaway appeared on red carpets dressed in Barbie pink. But outside of dresses chosen by trend-chasing stylists and the Barbie movie, did you notice it?

I certainly didn’t. “Barbiecore” has always seemed to me like the fashion equivalent of Nyquil chicken: a viral media story based on maybe, speaking generously, a small speck of truth. A meme rather than a trend. A big pink lie!

But I am not a fashion expert. I am merely an expert in correctly assessing reality, and then getting mad when people lie to me about it. From the bustling streets of New York City to the quiet streets of Cold Spring, NY, where I currently reside, I have seen no evidence of Barbiecore in the real world this year — only articles about Barbiecore online. Before the year ends, I thought it might be best to find out, with the help of actual fashion experts, whether or not I am correct about Barbiecore being 2022’s fakest trend. (I am.)

Chavie Lieber, Styles reporter at the Wall Street Journal, thinks I am not correct. (God damnit.) “I do think Barbiecore was a big trend this year!” she told me over email. She said, in so many words, that I need to broaden my idea of Barbiecore — according to the TikTok children who made it famous, it means everything under the “girlie” umbrella, i.e., babydoll tees, heart sunglasses, plastic hair clips, and so on. “These styles have been hugely popular because younger shoppers find the ’90s/early aughts super cool.”

Lieber pointed out that Valentino’s autumn/winter 2022 show was heavily Barbiecore-esque, which in large part facilitated those celebrity red carpet moments; then, after TikTokkers adopted the style, it spread: “That created the perfect storm for the Barbiecore craze — Balenciaga sweaters, Alo Yoga sweat sets, Cult Gaia bags, Reformation knit dresses, that Jacquemus linen skirt, all those funky heels from the Attico.” Right, right … funky heels from the Attico [nod so it seems like we both know what she’s talking about].

Well — how about let’s see if we can find someone who agrees with me. I asked fashion stylist Shea Daspin if she thought “Barbiecore” qualified as a fashion trend, according to her personal definition, and she said: “Yes.” God damnit. “Barbiecore is a fashion trend,” she said, attributing its trendiness to labels like Valentino, Blumarine, and Alexander McQueen featuring Barbiecore pink in their collections, along with the Barbie movie, celebrities, and — somewhat surprisingly — the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “Roe vs. Wade was overturned just as the trend was peaking,” she said, “and for some Barbiecore became something of a battle song for women across the country.” Well, fuck … now I’m not only wrong, but I’m also not a feminist?

Okay, well, I’m not done trying to find someone who agrees with me. I reached out to fashion writer Harling Ross, and asked what, in her opinion, elevates something to the level of fashion trend. “These days, seemingly anything…,” she said. “The internet has made us addicted to imparting significance upon things that probably don’t deserve it.” Yes … yes!

Ross said a legitimate trend is more than something worn by a few celebrities on the red carpet, or something that comes out of an editorial meeting. “It’s a phenomenon that is specific enough that it can be recognized and named, but also accessible enough that it lives both online and off, among real people who use clothes to express something about themselves.”

And does Barbiecore qualify as a trend? “Absolutely not,” she said. “A few celebrities wearing frilly pink dresses a full year ahead of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie release doth not a trend make! I don’t think most people who care about style look to celebrities as arbiters of trends all that much anyways these days, but regardless, identifying this as one is a big reach.”

Well, would you look at that. When it comes to Barbiecore being in fact not a trend and instead just something people made up to annoy me specifically … I guess I was right!

In 2022, Billboard‘s Latin Artists on the Rise series featured throughout a select group of artists who had a breakthrough inside or outside of their genre, scored a significant chart feat and/or created a buzz that was impossible to ignore.

This year, the series went from featuring two artists a month to only having one Artist on the Rise per month, which leaves us with a total of 12 up-and-coming acts who were spotlit — including 25-year-old Silvana Estrada, who was the first Artist on the Rise of 2022 and went on to win best new artist at the Latin Grammys in November (in a tie with 95-year-old musician Ángela Álvarez).

April’s Artist on the Rise was Mexican-American teenage trio Yahritza Y Su Esencia, who made history with their first-ever single “Soy El Único.” Siblings Yahritza, Armando, and Jairo Martinez first created a fan base on TikTok and then made history on the Billboard charts after their debut single (released March 25 via Lumbre Music) debuted at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs, and hit No. 20 on the Hot 100 chart, making the then 15-year-old Yahritza ​​the youngest Latin performer to enter the all-genre tally.

Another artist that was part of the exclusive list was Spanish artist Quevedo who, alongside Bizarrap, scored his first No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. thanks to their summer smash hit “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52.”

Below, we highlight all the artists who formed part of the coveted Billboard Latin Artist on the Rise series throughout 2022.