The Biden administration passed an executive order Monday that seeks to implement strict new guidelines for what kind of commercial spyware can be used by U.S. government agencies.
In a couple of weeks, all the tweets you see on the For You feed will come from Twitter Blue users. Twitter boss Elon Musk has announced that the website will only display tweets from verified accounts in For You’s recommendations starting on April 15th going forward.
Musk explained that the company is making the move to combat AI bots and that it’s the “only realistic way” to prevent “advanced AI bot swarms” from taking over. He also said that Twitter is fighting a “hopeless losing battle” otherwise if it doesn’t implement the change. In a follow-up tweet, Musk clarified that AI bots can pay for verification (and presumably be shown in the For You timeline), as long as they don’t impersonate a human.
Twitter’s For You interface shows not just tweets from the accounts a user follows, but also content based on previous tweets they’ve liked or other people in their network have liked. The feature debuted on iOS back in January as an alternative to the Following tab before making its way to other platforms. Not everybody liked it, and Twitter released an update so that its web and mobile apps will default to the timeline tab users last had open after it came out. But displaying only verified users could potentially mean that those who choose to view it would see a lot more promotional tweets.
After all, pretty soon the only verified accounts on the social media site will be Twitter Blue subscribers. Twitter previously announced that it’s killing legacy checkmarks on April 1st, stripping public personalities, companies, government and non-government organizations and the like of their verified status unless they pay for it.
Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.
The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle.
Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-will-soon-only-recommend-paid-users-in-its-for-you-feed-041101215.html?src=rss
The ex-president seemed to catch himself at not-quite the right moment.
“What happened on that day was as close to an attempted insurrection as we’ve seen in a very long time,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said.
Space agencies have to tackle the water problem if they want long-term human settlements on the moon, and tiny glass beads may hold the solution.
Do you want to send your friend a birthday card but don’t want to buy stamps? Facebook offers multiple ways to send virtual birthday cards instead.
Whereas the original PSVR had inline cable controls, the sequel has nothing of the sort. Here’s what you have to do to change the headset’s volume.
Of the two speakers Sonos announced earlier this month, the Era 100 is much easier to sum up: it’s a replacement for the Sonos One, which was first introduced in 2017. Unlike the Era 300, there’s no need to ponder the value of spatial audio; the Era 100 is a relatively straightforward mono speaker, just like the One and the Play:1 before it. Don’t let that simple description deceive you, though – the $250 Era 100 is a complete redesign, inside and out, and the end result is a worthy upgrade and a very versatile speaker.
At first glance, the Era 100 looks quite similar to the One, but upon further examination you’ll notice a number of small but meaningful changes. That starts with the vertically-oriented Sonos logo that you’ll find on most of their other speakers like the Roam and, naturally, the Era 300. The Era 100 is slightly taller and deeper than the One; it’s also slightly deeper than it is wide. But it should fit basically anywhere the older speaker did.
The most significant external change is on top of the speaker. There, you’ll find a redesigned set of touch controls, including dedicated track forward and back buttons for the first time. Those surround the play / pause button instead of the volume controls that you’ll find on the One. Volume has been moved to a touch slider in the center of the touch panel. Tapping either side of it raises or lowers the volume, or you can slide your finger left and right. Using the slider takes a little practice, and it’s far too easy to go from silent to deafening, but there’s no doubt it’s better for rapid adjustments than tapping a button repeatedly. There’s also a spot to mute the mic, just like on the One.
There are also some major changes on the Era 100’s back. There’s no more ethernet jack or setup button. Instead, there’s a USB-C port you can use to plug in the $20 line-in adapter or the $40 combo line-in / ethernet adapter. On the one hand, it’s annoying to have to shell out extra cash for these adapters – but this is the first time Sonos has offered line-in at all on a speaker in this price range, so it’s not a total bummer.
Aside from the USB-C port, you’ll find another switch for muting the mic. Unlike the top button, which just mutes it with software, this physically disconnects the mic for additional privacy. Finally, there’s a Bluetooth button that puts the speaker in pairing mode.
As with most Sonos products, the company has done a good job here marrying clean, attractive design without compromising on functionality. Yes, the loss of the Ethernet jack will rankle a small number of users, but for the most part these changes are improvements. I wish that they just put a line-in right on the speaker instead of requiring a dongle, but I’m more glad that the feature is here at all than I am annoyed at needing to buy an extra piece of plastic.
Getting the Era 100 up and running is pretty simple, even if you don’t already have a Sonos system. You’ll need to download the Sonos app to your phone and set up an account; from there, the app will look and see if there are any speakers plugged in it can add. You’ll also need to log in to your audio services of choice, but after that you should be good to go. Obviously you can search for and play music through the Sonos app, but there are also options if you’d rather stick with the music apps you’re used to, like AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect.
There are a few optional but useful things you can do while you’re setting up the Era 100, though. The first is Trueplay, a feature that tunes your speaker’s audio output based upon where it’s placed in your room. Trueplay has been around since 2015, but in the past it required you to have an iPhone. You’d have to walk around your room slowly raising and lowering the phone while the speaker played a test tone.
The Era 100, though, can use its built-in microphones to listen and optimize its output – that process is much simpler and faster than the old technique, and Android users aren’t left out either. I’ve been extremely happy with Trueplay’s results in the past, so I’d recommend that everyone try this out. That said, I did find that the old, manual tuning process yielded slightly better results.
You can also add a voice assistant to the Era 100. Amazon’s Alexa has been supported since the One launched back in 2017, and last year Sonos added its own music-focused assistant. Setting up the Sonos assistant is a little easier than Alexa, because you don’t need to link your Amazon account, but both are pretty straightforward at this point. Sadly, where past Sonos speakers supported Google Assistant the Era 100 does not. This is likely due to the ongoing patent battles between Google and Sonos. I personally prefer Google Assistant to Alexa, so this is a bit of a bummer.
While new features like easier Trueplay and new controls are important, what I really wanted to find out was how the Era 100 compares to the One it replaces. (I’ve also been comparing it to Apple’s latest HomePod as well as the Era 300.) So far, I’ve been extremely impressed. It’s immediately obvious that the Era 100 is a notable upgrade over the One.
First off, the Era 100 is loud. Surprisingly so – it’s significantly louder than the One and the HomePod, and the Era 300 isn’t that much louder. Even a single Era 100 should provide enough volume for just about any room in your house. If you have a large open floor plan, you’ll probably want a couple speakers to cover the space rather than cranking a single, relatively small speaker to its limit. But in the vast majority of use cases one Era 100 should be sufficient.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to good sound than just volume. The Era 100 has significantly improved bass performance when compared to the One, again exceeding what I’d expect from a compact speaker. Bass-heavy tracks like Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and Dragonette’s “T-shirt” had a solid thump without being overwhelming, especially at higher volumes. It doesn’t match the Era 300 or HomePod, both of which have more dynamic bass performance, but Sonos is getting a lot out of the Era 100.
While I’m glad the bass has improved, I’m more impressed with the speaker’s overall clarity. The two tweeters definitely help make higher frequencies more defined. The sound profile is crisper and more dynamic than that of the One. The nuance and sheen of “California” by Chvrches and Metric’s “Formentera” came through wonderfully, while standard four-piece rock or metal like Metallica’s self-titled classic and Tool’s AEnima sounded lively and powerful. I also checked out my go-to film and game scores from Lord of the Rings and The Last of Us, and the intricate compositions were full and well-balanced. The One now sounds somewhat muddy by comparison, with both the highs and lows less distinct. The Era 300 sounds clearer still, thanks to the many drivers it has on board, but the 100 again is doing a lot with its comparatively limited speaker array.
If you have a larger space or just want increased volume and detail, I recommend getting two Era 100s and pairing them in stereo. While the Era 100 technically has left and right tweeters, the small size means there’s no real stereo separation to speak of. Putting two of them together naturally yields a much wider soundstage and brings out lots of details that get erased when you squish a stereo mix down to one channel.
A pair of Era 100s can also be used as rear surround speakers in a setup with one of Sonos’ soundbars. I didn’t test this, as I don’t have a great living room setup and I was more interested in the music performance, but it’s worth mentioning this feature. Sonos has long offered the option to use basically any of its music speakers as rear surrounds, and I’m glad they’ve continued with that here.
The Era 100 (and 300) are the first non-portable speakers that include Bluetooth connectivity. It’s exceedingly simple: just hold the Bluetooth button on the back of the speaker to put it in pairing mode and it should show up for your phone or other device to connect to it. I had no reason to use Bluetooth, but the fast setup and pairing process could be useful if you have a friend who quickly wants to play a tune over your speaker, for example. It’s not essential, but having more options never hurts.
Sonos made a lot of smart decisions with the Era 100. The improvements it offers over the One are immediately obvious, both in sound quality and new features like line-in, Bluetooth and easier Trueplay setup. I don’t think Sonos One owners should necessarily run out and replace their speakers, but Sonos is now offering a better product at a $30 price increase, one that I think is justified for what you get.
Of course, Sonos makes things a little complicated because there are two generations of the One; they’re identical in terms of audio components, but the gen 2 model has more memory and a faster processor. If you have the One from 2017 or 2018, replacing it with an Era 100 will provide better sound and more future-proof internals.
The Era 100 isn’t the most exciting speaker I’ve listened to – I still have fond memories of being blown away by the Sonos Play:5 (now just called the Five) in 2015, and the Era 300 is also a delight. But when you take into consideration what most people will need from a speaker, the Era 100 provides impressive performance at a reasonable price.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonos-era-100-review-affordable-multi-room-audio-that-actually-sounds-good-130007717.html?src=rss
If you pay attention to the music industry, you’ve probably heard about spatial audio. The promise is that music will envelop the user from all directions without needing a room full of speakers to achieve the effect. Apple has pushed it a lot in the last few years, in Apple Music, its line of AirPods headphones and the latest HomePod speaker. Amazon’s streaming service also offers spatial audio, and its Echo Studio speaker can play back compatible tracks.
Sonos has been paying attention, as well – its recent Arc and Beam soundbars support Dolby Atmos for movies, and now the company is releasing its first music speaker designed for spatial audio, the Era 300. This beast is large and has an unusual shape to accommodate all the drivers needed for achieving these room-filling effects. At $450, you’d expect this speaker to sound excellent, regardless of whether it’s playing back spatial audio or not, but support for this new format is what sets it apart from other speakers. As such, the big question on my mind is whether this feature is a game changer, a gimmick, or somewhere in between?
There’s nothing in the Sonos lineup to compare the Era 300 to. From a size and weight perspective, it’s a large speaker, similar to the Sonos Five, but its unusual shape immediately sets it apart. Seen from the front its oval reminds me of a race track, but any other angle reveals a distinctive footprint. If you look at it from the top, it’s thinner near the middle than it is on the ends; the best way I can describe it is a knocked-over hourglass.
This is to accommodate the complex driver array inside the Era 300. There’s one tweeter pushing out from dead center, and two more sending audio out the left and right sides. Finally, there’s a fourth tweeter inside a directional horn pointed upwards; Sonos says that it’s at a specific angle optimized for spatial audio. Two woofers, again on either side of the speaker, complete the array.
The Era 300 reminds me of most other recent Sonos products. It is well-built, exceedingly sturdy and generally feels like a product that justifies its high price tag. That said, its physical appearance is definitely more unusual than the company’s other speakers. I recognize that it’s functional, but the combo of its size and strange tapering make it stand out more than you might like.
A lot of new features and changes in the Era 100 are also found in the Era 300. This includes a redesigned set of touch controls on the top panel, a USB-C port for line-in and ethernet (provided you shell out for the optional adapters), a Bluetooth toggle and a switch to physically disconnect the microphone on the back. For more on these features, I’ll point you to the relevant section of my Era 100 review. Most everything I said there applies. That said, for $450, it’s a little disappointing that Sonos requires an adapter for line in or Ethernet. The $550 Sonos Five has both of those built right in. I’m sure the company has the data showing that a small percentage of owners use those features, so I’m glad they haven’t been removed completely, but it would definitely be nice if they didn’t require an adapter.
Setting up the Era 300 is pretty simple, even if you don’t already have a Sonos system. You’ll need to download the Sonos app to your phone and set up an account; from there, the app will look and see if there are any speakers to add. You’ll also need to log in to your audio services of choice – if you want to try spatial audio, you’ll need either Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited. You can search for and play music through the Sonos app, but there are also a bunch of options if you’d rather stick with the music apps you’re used to. You can use AirPlay 2 to shoot audio from Apple Music and other services on the iPhone directly to the Era 300, or use Spotify Connect without needing to go through the Sonos app. That said, it’s worth noting that if you want to play back tracks in spatial audio, you’re required to use the Sonos app.
There are a few optional but useful things you can do while you’re setting up the Era 300. The first is Trueplay, a feature that tunes your speaker’s output based upon where it’s placed in your room. Trueplay has been around since 2015, but in the past it required you to have an iPhone. You’d have to walk around your room slowly raising and lowering the phone while the speaker played a test tone. The Era 300, though, can use its built-in microphones to listen and optimize its output – that process is much simpler and faster than the old technique, and Android users aren’t left out either.
I’ve been extremely happy with Trueplay’s results in the past, so I’d recommend that everyone try this out. That said, I did find that the old, manual tuning process yielded slightly better results. So while I appreciate the ease of use in the new Trueplay system, I’ll probably still walk around my room waving my phone – but I won’t judge you if you take the easier route.
If you like using voice controls, you can also add a voice assistant to the Era 300. Amazon’s Alexa has been supported since the One launched back in 2017, and last year Sonos added its own music-focused assistant. Setting up the Sonos assistant is a little easier than Alexa, because you don’t need to go linking your Amazon account, but both are pretty straightforward at this point. One thing to note: past Sonos speakers with microphones also worked with Google Assistant, but that’s no longer the case. The Era 100 only works with Alexa and the Sonos assistant, likely due to the ongoing patent battles between Google and Sonos. I personally prefer Google Assistant over Alexa, so this is a bit of a bummer. But I also mostly just talk to my speaker to play music, so the Sonos option works well enough.
Putting aside the potential of spatial audio for a moment, the Era 300 sounds excellent – as it should, given its price. It doesn’t quite match the stunning detail and bass presence of the Sonos Five, which remains the most impressive audio-focused speaker Sonos sells. But for $100 less, you’re getting a premium experience that far surpasses the Era 100 and other speakers like Apple’s HomePod. I was very impressed with the Era 100, but playing the speakers back side-by-side shows just how much better the Era 300 is at making each separate component of a song shine. Bass, vocals and instrumentation are all reproduced in excellent detail that smaller speakers simply can’t match.
But the real question with the Era 300 is the value of spatial audio – does it really provide a new and worthwhile listening experience? For me, the answer is a big “sometimes.” Right now, I think that the trick of spatial audio, to a large extent, remains just that: a trick. I spent a lot of time bouncing between Atmos versions of songs on Apple Music and Amazon, comparing them to the standard versions on Spotify. I could always tell there was a difference, but I also didn’t always feel that it was an improvement. Broadly speaking, spatial audio tracks did feel less like they were coming out of a single point in space. But a lot of times, the immediacy of the song’s original mix was lost and the vocals felt drenched in reverb rather than being right up close.
In some cases, especially when I listened to older albums that were remixed for spatial audio, the results were simply worse. The excellent guitarwork and vocals on the Alice in Chains classic “Down in a Hole” from 1992’s Dirt sounded a million miles away. I had high hopes for the multi-layered doom rock of “Rain When I Die,” but again the mix felt mushy and poorly defined. Alice in Chains’ 1990 debut Facelift was also released in Atmos recently, and it sounds far better than Dirt, so it’s clear that older albums and spatial audio aren’t inherently incompatible. Pearl Jam’s 1991 debut Ten didn’t sound bad, but there was still a lack of definition to too much of the mix. By contrast, the recently-released Atmos mix of 1998’s Yield was an enjoyable listen, but I’m not convinced it’s better than the original. For the record, this isn’t a fault of the speaker, but rather a fault of these mixes – I noticed the same issues when listening through Apple’s HomePod or AirPods Max.
Newer songs and albums that are likely recorded, produced, and mastered with spatial audio, in mind sounded better. The acoustic guitar and hushed vocals of Billie Eiish’s “Billie Bossa Nova” felt wonderfully close, and the club beats of Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia were lively and impressive. In most cases, though, the mixes that sounded best to me were only slightly different than the originals, and I still often felt like the Atmos versions put too much reverb into the mix. This was particularly true on Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest album The Loneliest Time. Instrumentation sounded lush and vibrant, but the vocals lacked impact. In a best case scenario, with a single Era 300, the difference between the best spatial audio and standard mixes is often going to be fairly subtle.
I will admit that when I simply put on a playlist of new songs (many of which were in spatial audio) and stopped thinking about it, I enjoyed myself a lot more. It helps that newly-released songs generally sound much better in Atmos than the remixes of older albums I’ve come across. When I wasn’t obsessively comparing the new mixes to old versions of songs I knew inside and out, it was easier to appreciate the Era 300 for the great-sounding speaker it is. But that’s the case whether you’re listening to an Atmos version of a song or the standard mix, so spatial audio shouldn’t be the main reason to buy the Era 300.
Like basically all Sonos speakers, you can pair two Era 300s together for stereo playback, though I’m not sure “stereo” is the right word when we’re talking about spatial audio. The fact that you can’t adjust the left / right balance between them kinda proves that point. Regardless of what you call it, two Era 300s provide an absolutely massive experience that does a better job of delivering on the promise of spatial audio. With two speakers, there’s no real sweet spot; instead, music sounds consistently excellent regardless of where you are relative to the speakers. And if you want to get really wild, you can use a pair of Era 300s as rear speakers along with a Sonos Arc or second-gen Beam soundbar to get Dolby Atmos home theater playback. I don’t have the right living room or soundbar setup to make this work, but I can say it was impressive in a demo Sonos gave the press last month. Of course, considering how much an Arc and two Era 300s costs, it had better be.
The Era 300 is in a slightly strange place in the Sonos portfolio. Its higher price means it’s not going to be as broadly appealing as the $250 Era 100. It’s closer to the $550 Sonos Five, which is probably a superior speaker despite lacking spatial audio capabilities. But, for $100 less, the Era 300 still provides a premium audio experience and has a handful of improvements over the Five, including built-in microphones and automatic Trueplay tuning. For $500, you could also buy a pair of Era 100 speakers and run them in stereo – those speakers sound great, and you’ll get excellent coverage with two of them working together.
And, of course, there’s the messy potential for spatial audio. After spending a lot of time listening to the Era 300, I don’t think it’s a game-changer yet. In the best cases, it provides a different listening experience, but it’s not always better – in fact, I’ve been surprised at how often it has been worse. While lots of new music is being released in spatial audio, most older music is only available in good old stereo, so the catalog of songs available in the new format is comparatively small.
Fortunately, the Era 300 is a great speaker, whether or not it is playing songs in Dolby Atmos. It’s crisp, loud, detailed and has lively bass – and when I’ve stopped thinking about spatial audio, it has been a joy to listen to. Spatial audio is a potentially interesting feature, especially if more and more musicians and producers embrace it, but I’d recommend that you not buy the Era 300 with only that in mind. Buy it if you’re really interested in a premium speaker that does a great job filling a room with sound, whether it’s an Atmos mix or not.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonos-era-300-review-a-big-bet-on-spatial-audio-130053487.html?src=rss
David Pecker also testified in January. It’s unclear what Pecker said during his testimony Monday.
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