After a film grosses almost $3 billion at the global box office, you have to imagine the studio behind it would want to cash in immediately. Get a sequel into theaters ASAP. Strike while the iron is hot. Avatar director James Cameron is not that kind of person though. He doesn’t rush things. And yet, even he admits…
Three years after becoming the newest branch of the US Armed Forces, the Space Force has an official song. Titled “Semper Supra” (or “Always Above,” if you’re not a fan of Latin), the tune made its debut on Tuesday at the 2022 Air, Space and Cyber Conference in Maryland. Now, before I say anything else about it, I think it’s best you hear the song for yourself.
If you ask me, it’s jauntier than I expected, particularly for a song that is supposed to embody a 21st-century military branch. According to Chief of Space Operations John Raymond, the Space Force wanted a song that “spoke to our Guardians” – and, no, he’s not talking about Destiny 2 players.
The eight lines of lyrics you hear were the result of “years of research and revisions.” Former service and US Air Force Band member James Teachenor wrote “Semper Supra” with General Raymond’s help. “The song was a long work in progress because I wanted it to encompass all the capabilities that the Space Force offers and its vision,” Teachenor said. Once the two settled on the song’s lyrics, they recruited Sean Nelson of the US Coast Guard Band to create an arrangement, with the USCG Band providing the instrumentation.
If you ask us, the final product sounds a bit too similar too to other Armed Forces tunes like “The Army Goes Rolling Along.” Personally, I think the Space Force should have gone down a prog rock route and made the song sound, you know, spacey.
The anti-LGBTQ protesters outside of the latest show on the rapper’s Long Live Montero Tour were met with a hilarious response.
While promoting Netflix’s upcoming Wendell & Wild, director Henry Selick was featured in conversation with Collider at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he discussed if he and Nightmare Before Christmas creator Tim Burton were ever approached for a sequel to the 1993 beloved stop-motion film Selick…
As recently as last year, TikTok employed a two-tier moderation system that gave preferential to its most popular users, according to Forbes. The outlet obtained an audio recording of a September 2021 meeting where the company detailed an internal feature called “creator labels” that was reserved for accounts with more than 5 million followers. When it came to moderating those users, many of them influencers and celebrities, TikTok reportedly filtered them through a separate moderation queue that saw the company treat those accounts differently.
“We don’t want to treat these users as, um, like any other accounts. There’s a bit more leniency, I’d say,” one employee with TikTok’s Trust and Safety said during the meeting, according to Forbes. On its website, the company states its Community Guidelines apply to “everyone and everything on TikTok.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the company told Forbes it is “not more lenient in moderating accounts with more than 5 million followers,” adding it does not have moderation queues based on follower counts.
If the report is accurate, TikTok would not be the first company to treat its most influential and powerful users differently. In 2021, The Wall Street Journal detailed how Meta’s XCheck system had allowed millions of high-profile Facebook and Instagram users to skirt its rules. In one incident described by the report, the system “blocked” Facebook moderators from removing nude photos Brazilian soccer star Neymar posted of a woman who had accused him of sexual assault. The post was viewed more than 60 million times before Meta took action. Additionally, the company did not ban Nyemar’s account, even though he shared non-consensual nudity in violation of its Community Guidelines.
Yet he’s chosen to join GOP border state governors in dumping people in cities run by Democrats, an idea Senate leader Mitch McConnell called a “good” one.
It’s time we took a new look at the Peloton Tread. After a rocky patch of recalls in 2021, it would seem Peloton’s back on track, but is this ecosystem for you?
New York City subways are getting an upgrade. No, not more trains, more stops, fewer delays, or updated stations, but instead a ton more surveillance cameras. Every car in the subway system will soon be equipped with two cameras, Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday.
Ever since the world got its first look at iOS 16’s reintroduced battery percentage indicator at the start of last month, people have voiced strong opinions about the icon. Many, including Engadget Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low, felt Apple could have done a better job with it. In its current iteration, the icon remains static – displaying only a percentage – until your iPhone’s battery depletes below 20 percent capacity. It’s a design decision that makes the indicator less useful than it ought to be since in most cases you need to look closely to see how much battery you have left.
There we go: Apple has tweaked the design of the battery percentage icon in iOS 16.1 beta 2. It now shows the proper charge level 🎉 pic.twitter.com/15tvFUCaPx
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) September 20, 2022
Thankfully, Apple is working on an improved version of the icon. Earlier today, the company released the second iOS 16.1 beta (via MacRumors). Among other things, the update introduces a tweak to the battery percentage indicator. Now, instead of the icon only turning red when your iPhone’s battery dips below 20 percent charge, it will also gradually deplete as the battery does. It’s a small change, but one that improves usability.
Beta two also includes a tweak to the lock screen. When you plug your phone to charge, a battery percentage indicator will briefly appear above the time, bringing back a feature from iOS 15. On the iPhone 14 Pro, you’ll also see one appear within the Dynamic Island. The next version of iOS 16 does not have a release date yet. We’ll also note here that Apple could further tweak some of the changes found in beta two.
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