Hasta La Gadget!

“While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” ABC’s president said.

Battlefield 2042 is flawed, to put it mildly, and the developers are rethinking their schedule to address to address those shortcomings. DICE and EA have officially delayed the game’s first season to early summer, and will use the extra time to fix the core experience. The next BF2042 update will bring a revamped, easier-to-digest scoreboard, while better player profiles and long-awaited voice chat functionality are coming “as soon as possible.” There will be improvements to squad mechanisms, the ping system, objective rewards and Portal mode, DICE added.

The studio similarly promised a better feedback loop. The BF2042 team will publicly discuss major areas for planned improvement, including its existing strategy. Staff will listen to the community’s response to those subjects and roll the feedback into the relevant updates. There will be conversations for smaller refinements, too. This open-book approach certainly isn’t new for game creators, but it is an acknowledgment this latest Battlefield didn’t match player expectations.

As for season one? DICE is shy on details, but it did promise BF2042 Gold and Ultimate Edition buyers will get a “Steadfast” bundle in return for the wait. The pack will include a melee weapon, player imagery and skins for weapons, a Specialist and a vehicle. While that’s a far cry from what’s expected from the four intended seasons (including new Specialists), it might be a small comfort for those who spent extra.

Back in 2019, io9 did a round-up of all the Star Trek shows that were then in various stages of boldly going to CBS All Access. A couple years later, CBS All Access is now Paramount+, but studio’s keen interest in giving viewers as much Trek as possible is still steamrolling ahead. The latest to reportedly enter the…

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The host and editor of Science VS, a podcast owned by Spotify, are no longer making episodes of the show — save for those “intended to counteract misinformation being spread on Spotify.” In a letter to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Wendy Zukerman and Blythe Terrell said their policy would remain in place until “Spotify implements stronger methods to stop the spread of misinformation on the platform.”

Zukerman, who is also executive producer of the show, shared a copy of the letter on Twitter. She and Terrell said that, throughout the pandemic, Spotify had given them the resources they needed to publish a show containing accurate information about the coronavirus. “For more than six months, we’ve been encouraging our listeners to move to Spotify and telling them that this is the company that supports us to create factual episodes that are grounded in science,” they wrote. “Spotify’s support of Joe Rogan’s podcast has felt like a slap in the face.”

The pair said that, in an upcoming episode of Science VS, they’ll show that information about COVID-19 vaccines is “repeatedly taken out of context” during a discussion between Rogan and Dr. Robert Malone on the former’s podcast. “There’s plenty of scientific evidence that contradicts some of the claims in the interview — but it’s nowhere to be found in the episode,” they wrote. “Rogan’s show leaves the audience with a skewed and inaccurate view of the COVID-19 vaccines. And Spotify has done little to address this.”

Zukerman and Terrell acknowledge that moderating content on a platform as big as Spotify isn’t an easy ask, but argue that the company “has a responsibility to do more.” They said they’ll be examining the effectiveness of strategies that tech platforms are harnessing to tackle misinformation and were willing to share those findings with Spotify.

On Tuesday, the day after tweeting the letter, Zukerman said Spotify was willing to work with Science VS, which “feels like a step in the right direction.” Science VS is produced by Gimlet Media, which Spotify purchased in 2019 as part of a major push into podcasts.

There’s been a growing backlash against Spotify over claims that Rogan has been accused of spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on his enormously popular podcast. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from the platform last week in protest, while Brené Brown has put her successful Spotify-exclusive podcasts on hold.

India Arie and Graham Nash (Young’s Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate) also said they’re removing their music from Spotify. “I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews,” Arie wrote on Instagram. “For me, it’s also his language around race.”

On Sunday, Rogan apologized to Spotify over the backlash and said he’d do more to provide balance and differing opinions on his podcast. Spotify says it has removed more than 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. The company reportedly noted in an internal memo that Rogan’s content did not “meet the threshold for removal.”

In a blog post published at the weekend, Ek said Spotify would publish its content guidelines publicly and add a content advisory to podcast episodes that include COVID-19 discussions. He noted that the company hadn’t been clear enough about its content policies. Earlier in January, hundreds of doctors, nurses, scientists and educators urged the platform to “”responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation” and adopt a clear policy, in the wake of Rogan’s discussion with Malone.

Spotify became the exclusive distributor of The Joe Rogan Experiencein 2020 as part of a multi-year deal worth a reported $100 million. It was the most popular podcast on the platform last year.

Given how reliant we are on our smartphones, there is a good chance when you leave the home, your phone will be the one thing you probably won’t forget. This is why it’s actually not a bad idea if our smartphones could also double up as keys to our cars, homes, or even offices.

That being said, development firm Silverstein Properties have announced that they will be replacing traditional office keys with the iPhone and Apple Watch for the World Trade Center offices. This will make it easier for those working in the building who have an iPhone or Apple Watch to use their mobile devices as an alternative way of going in and out of the building.

According to Tal Kerret, President of Silverstein Properties, “We are proud to make it easy for our employees and customers to get into our buildings, their offices, and our shared lounges, cafes, conference facilities and yoga studios using employee badge in Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch. Through our Inspire app, we can now provide and manage access to any number of buildings and spaces in a safe and secure way.”

This also makes it easier for shared office spaces, where due to the digital nature of the keys, they can be given and revoked freely, thus making it easier to lease out spaces on a short-term basis. The use of the iPhone and Apple Watch as a key isn’t new as last year, the Hyatt hotel group announced that they would be adopting similar smart locks in some of their locations.

Offices At The World Trade Center Will Replace Keys With iPhone And Apple Watch

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