Everyone needs a hobby. And chances are there’s at least one person on your holiday shopping list who fancies themselves a musician. Whether they’re a casual synth noodler, a guitar virtuoso or a singer-songwriter we’ve got recommendations covering a range of price points. Some of these even make a great gift for music lovers who have been considering making the jump to music maker. Perhaps getting their first synth will kickstart a new obsession.
Soma Laboratory Ether
Fender Mustang Micro
Brand New Noise Spiro
Bastl Instruments Kastle Arp
Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen
Velcro One-Wrap Cable Ties
Samson Q2U USB Microphone
X-Protector Non Slip pad roll
Baby Audio Transit
Antares AutoTune Access
Arturia KeyLab Essential 49 mk3
Decksaver covers
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
Luvay Acoustic Guitar Pickup
Synthrotek Atari Punk Console DIY Kit
ValleyDesignsND Recording Sign
Puremagnetik Century Collection
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-gifts-for-music-lovers-160024143.html?src=rss
Teenage Engineering is a company that follows its own path. It’ll release a $250 toy car one day and a full-featured groovebox/sampler for $300 on the very next day. That’s what happened this week. Teenage Engineering just surprise-launched the EP-133 K.O. II, a portable sampler/groovebox that’s feature-rich, looks absolutely stunning and costs just $300. You read that cost right.
The only musical instruments in TE’s lineup that approach this price point is its catalog of Pocket Operator portable synthesizers, so it’s no surprise that this is a direct followup to the best one, the PO-33 KO sampler. The original Pocket Operators were marketed as something of a toy, despite being surprisingly robust, but the EP-133 K.O. II is being advertised as a workstation. This is a fairly large, but still portable, device that more closely resembles an Akai standalone machine. It won’t fit in your pocket, but will fit in your bag.
Let’s go over some specs. The K.O. II boasts 64MB of memory, which isn’t a lot, but TE products typically come with some tradeoff. It’ll be enough for a bunch of samples and a few projects, though, which the company says was intentional. Teenage Engineering co-founder and hardware lead David Eriksson told The Verge that if the sampler had too much storage it would “give the user the option to finish later” instead of completing a song in one-go. Will nobody think of the poor musicians out there who love starting things and hate finishing things? Asking for a friend.
Teenage Engineering
There are 999 slots for samples, as a matter of fact, and an internal microphone for making your own. Though this is, first and foremost, a sampler, it ships pre-filled with drum hits, synths and other sounds so you can get straight to work. It connects via USB-C for loading samples from a computer or MIDI devices. The K.O. II is also portable, running off of four AAA batteries. In other words, there’s no internal rechargeable battery, but that $300 price tag had to come about somehow.
The unit features a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack and the most important buttons and knobs are orange, to help musicians find them during live sets in dark, smoky clubs. That’s a nice touch. The device itself is gorgeous, with a handsome panel of buttons, knobs and connectors. The keys are clicky and, more importantly, velocity sensitive. There’s a rectangular LED screen up top that boasts similar design language to the OP-1 and OP-1 Field portable synthesizers.
Teenage Engineering hopes this product will attract newbies to the world of music-making, so the workflow is designed for simplicity, a trait shared with its forebear. Despite that caveat, this is a powerful instrument that should lure in professionals and amateurs alike. It features 12 mono and 6 stereo voice polyphony, stereo/mono sampling at 46.875 kHz/16-bit, 12 pressure-sensitive pads, 6 built-in FX sends with a punch-in mode, a master compressor and both manual and automatic sample slicing tools. It also looks really cool, like an accounting calculator from the future.
The EP-133 K.O. II is available today and, again, costs $300. The day before Thanksgiving is an odd time to release a new piece of hardware, but Teenage Engineering is based in Sweden, so what does it care? It’s worth noting that this is the first dedicated music-making machine the company has released since last year’s OP-1 Field.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teenage-engineerings-ko-ii-groovebox-is-feature-rich-and-only-300-164933466.html?src=rss
If you are a fan of indie games, you might want to check out the Taipei Game Show 2024, which will showcase the finalists of the Indie Game Award 2024. This award is one of the most prestigious and competitive events for indie game developers in the Asia-Pacific region, attracting entries from 267 games from 43 countries/regions this year.
The finalists of the Indie Game Award 2024 have been announced, and they include 25 games from 14 countries/regions, covering various genres and platforms.
Ladies and Gentlemen! 📢
Indie Game Award 2024 Finalists Revealed Today!!🤩 This year has been extraordinary, breaking records with 267 submissions from 43 countries. Curious to know who made it into the final phase?
The winners of the Indie Game Award 2024 will be selected by a panel of judges from the gaming industry, media, and influencers, and they will be announced at the Taipei Game Show 2024, which will take place from January 25 to 28, 2024. The award-winning games will also have dedicated booths at the exhibition, where visitors can try them out and experience the unique charm of indie games.
The Taipei Game Show 2024 is not only a platform for indie game developers to showcase their works, but also a hub for industry exchanges and global cooperation. The organizers have led over 10 Taiwanese indie game developers to participate in various game exhibitions around the world in 2023, and they plan to expand the recruitment for the Best Student Game category in the future.
The energy here is incredible, and it’s amazing to connect with new friends! The next stop will be Taipei Game Show 2024, can’t wait to reunite with all of you!!🥰 pic.twitter.com/cbvALfYl49
If you are interested in attending the Taipei Game Show 2024, you can pre-register for the business visitor pass starting from December 1st, which will allow you to enter the business area, schedule meetings, and exchange business cards with game industry professionals from around the world.
Indie Game Award 2024 Finalists
Best narrative: Copycat by Spoonful of Wonder (Australia), Last Time I Saw You by Maboroshi Artworks (Japan), WitchSpring R by Kiwiwalks (South Korea), Nine Sols by Red Candle Games (Taiwan), and MindsBeneathUs by BearboneStudio (Taiwan)
Best Audio: Tchia by Awaceb (Canada), Scorn by Ebb Software (Serbia), Blue Wednesday by Buff Studio (South Korea), WitchSpring R by Kiwiwalks (South Korea), and The Wandering Village by Stray Fawn Studio (Switzerland).
Best Visual Art: A Guidebook of Babel by Starry Starry (China), Scorn by Ebb Software (Serbia), The Wandering Village by Stray Fawn Studio (Switzerland), Nine Sols by Red Candle Games (Taiwan), and MindsBeneathUs by BearboneStudio (Taiwan).
Best Design: Clanfolk by MinMax Games Ltd. (Canada), Fowl Damage by Red Nexus Games (Canada), Against the Storm by Eremite Games (Poland), Die in the Dungeon by ATICO (Spain), and Viewfinder by Sad Owl Studios (United Kingdom).
Best Innovation: Fowl Damage by Red Nexus Games (Canada), Sign Wizard by MichiZ (Indonesia), Golden Record Retriever by Hoochoo Game Studios (South Korea), Viewfinder by Sad Owl Studios (United Kingdom), and Not For Broadcast by NotGames Ltd., (United Kingdom).
Best Mobile Game: Relieve by Salt Game Studio (China), Usagi Shima by pank0 (Germany), Roll Roll Hero by Gamtropy (Taiwan), and Kyrie & Terra by CENTERTOSECONDS (Thailand).
Best Student Game: Jelly Express by xxgamestudio (China), Hailing from the Abyss by VIA studio (South Korea), and mossasis by Futile Games (Taiwan)
For more information about the Indie Game Award 2024 and the Taipei Game Show 2024, you can visit their official website.
In a departure from its typical wheeled vehicles, Mattel has unveiled three new Matchbox toys based on the SpaceX Starship and Dragon Crew capsule. Part of its Sky Busters lineup, the die-cast toys are accurate scale miniatures of the spacefaring vehicles. Obviously, these do not make ideal candidates for riding Matchbox car tracks unless you want to be sorely disappointed with their ability to loop-the-loop.
In addition to the two standard models, there’s also a fancier version of the Dragon crew capsule that includes “display-ready packaging” and a play mat featuring an ocean recovery scene for the capsule. That’s cool, but what I really want is a moonbase play set.
Hey, anything to get kids excited about space again. I feel like when I was growing up, space was cool, but it’s since waned in popularity due to the lack of humans being launched into space. We need to get back to the moon already, and if I’m being completely honest, it certainly wouldn’t hurt if we ran into some aliens up there. Then there’s no question space would be all the rage again.
David Tennant teases a wild climax to the Doctor Who anniversary specials. Get a new look at Colin Farrell’s return as the Penguin. Muppets Mayhem is no more, but Black Mirror will returns for more. Plus, Cobra Kai prepares to return to filming. Spoilers away!
Nuclear research hub, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), confirmed that it fell victim to a data breach on Tuesday. SiegedSec, a group of self-proclaimed “gay furry hackers,” took responsibility for the attack and claimed they accessed sensitive employee data like social security numbers, home addresses and more.
“We’re willing to make a deal with INL. If they research creating irl catgirls we will take down this post,” SiegedSec wrote in a post announcing the leak on Monday.
While INL hasn’t responded to our request for comment yet, a spokesperson confirmed the breach to EastIdahoNews.com. “Idaho National Laboratory determined that it was the target of a cybersecurity data breach, affecting the servers supporting its Oracle HCM system, which supports its Human Resources applications,” the INL spokesperson said. The lab said it has reached out to authorities for help on how to proceed as it determines how to handle the breach.
INL works as a Department of Energy affiliate researching nuclear reactors, among other projects like sustainable energy. It employs more than 5,000 people.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/self-proclaimed-gay-furry-hackers-breach-nuclear-lab-152034192.html?src=rss
Folks who are still sticking with Windows 10 (or who can’t install Windows 11 on their machine) may now be able to check out one of the most buzzed about features in years on their machine. Just a few days after Microsoft confirmed it would bring Copilot to Windows 10, users with eligible devices can install a Release Preview build that includes access to the generative AI-powered assistant.
You’ll need to be enrolled in the Windows Insider tester program to install the preview build and potentially try out Copilot on Windows 10 Home or Pro. There’s no guarantee you’ll get access to the chatbot immediately either. Microsoft says “It may take time for your device to be confirmed as eligible for Copilot on Windows so it may not show up right away.” To get swift access to Copilot when it’s confirmed your machine is eligible, Microsoft suggests turning on the ”Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” by going to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.
To run Copilot, your system will need at least 4GB of RAM and a display adapter that supports a resolution of at least 720p. Microsoft notes that the preview of the chatbot is only available in select markets (i.e. North America, and some areas of Asia and South America) for now, so you may be locked out on a geographical basis.
Microsoft
There are some other quirks that may preclude you from checking out Copilot on Windows 10. It won’t work if you position your taskbar on the left or right of your display. You’ll need to have the taskbar in a horizontal orientation. Copilot isn’t fully compatible with multi-monitor setups either. You’ll only see the icon on your primary display. In addition, Copilot won’t be available on Windows 10 Pro machines that are managed by an organization for the time being.
To fire up Copilot when it’s available on your device, click the icon that appears on the right side of the taskbar. Through the chatbot, you can ask questions, manage Windows features and interact with documents. As The Verge notes, Copilot works slightly differently on Windows 10, if only because some Windows 11 features aren’t available. Several key apps in the newer OS have their own generative AI-based features baked in.
It’s not exactly a major mystery as to why Microsoft is bringing Copilot to Windows 10. According to some estimates, Windows 10 still powers some 69 percent of Windows-based desktops, compared with the 26 percent or so that run Windows 11. That means hundreds of millions of PCs are still running Windows 10. If Microsoft can say Copilot is available on more than a billion computers (compared with the 400 million that are estimated to be running Windows 11), that could be more appealing to the company’s investors.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/windows-10-users-can-now-try-out-microsofts-copilot-ai-153316313.html?src=rss
Sam Altman was reinstated as OpenAI’s Chief Executive Officer late on Tuesday night. The board that fired Sam Altman due to a lack of confidence, just four days ago, was largely replaced with profiteering veterans Larry Summers and Bret Taylor. Co-founder Greg Brockman will return to OpenAI, minus his board seat, as…
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