Recent News from Engadget

YouTube is bringing affiliate shopping features to more creators

YouTube creators can start making money earlier in their careers. On Wednesday, the company said it’s reducing the Shopping affiliate program subscriber threshold from 1,000 to 500.The affiliate program launched in 2022, allowing creators to earn kickbacks when viewers buy products tagged in their videos. It applies to YouTube Shorts, VOD and Live content. Creators […]

Jury rules against Meta and YouTube in social media addiction case

A jury in Los Angeles has found that Meta and YouTube were negligent in a closely-watched trial over social media addiction. The companies were ordered to pay $3 million in damages to the woman who said she was harmed by their addictive features as a child.The case was brought by a 20-year-old woman, named in […]

Here’s your first look at For All Mankind spinoff Star City

Apple’s excellent For All Mankind might be wrapping up after its recently confirmed sixth season, but as one big-budget alt-history sci-fi show departs, another is born. Apple TV has just dropped the first teaser for Star City, which focuses on the reimagined space race of the 1960s from the Soviet perspective. ICYMI, For All Mankind […]

Google’s Lyria 3 Pro can now generate AI music (slop) up to 3 minutes in length

Google just introduced Lyria 3 Pro, an updated version of its AI model that generates songs based on prompts. The biggest improvement here is the ability to make full three-minute songs, up from 30 seconds when the product launched last month. The tool also brings a lot more customization into the mix. Users can now […]

Meta lays off hundreds of workers, including more from Reality Labs

Meta is laying off more employees. Of the hundreds of cuts made on Wednesday, the Reality Labs division is one of the prime recipients. The layoffs come a day after news broke that Meta executives (sans Mark Zuckerberg) could be set for windfalls of up to $2.7 billion each under new pay packages.Today’s cuts of […]

The Afeela 1 came too late and now is gone too soon

One of the most overly hyped, unfortunately named and curiously positioned cars has been officially killed. It’s the Afeela 1, better known as the PlayStation Car, and it was meant to be an ultimate intersection of personal mobility and digital media. It is, instead, dead, killed by a combination of headwinds that even the most […]

Supreme Court rules ISPs aren’t liable for subscribers’ music piracy

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on March 25 that Cox Communications is not liable for copyright infringement committed by its subscribers, reversing a 2024 appeals court decision that had upheld the ISP’s liability. Sony Music Entertainment and other major labels sued Cox in 2018, arguing the company failed to terminate internet service for subscribers repeatedly […]

Spotify is testing a tool to help real artists deal with AI slop on their profiles

Low-quality, mass-produced AI songs have been flooding music streaming platforms like Spotify for a couple of years now. This is annoying, but relatively easy for fans to avoid. However, it leads to real problems for artists. There’s so much slop coming in that some gets falsely attributed to actual musicians on these platforms. This messes […]

Reddit will prompt some accounts to ‘verify humanness’ in latest bot crackdown

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has detailed the company’s latest plan to fight bots and it means that some accounts will need to “verify humanness,” though the company is stopping short of widespread identity verification. In an update, Huffman said that in “rare” cases accounts that seem “fishy” will be prompted for additional verification.Such prompts “will […]

Sony’s upcoming Bravia 3 II is a mid-range LED TV available in sizes up to 100 inches

Sony just revealed the upcoming Bravia 3 II mid-range LED TV. It’ll be available in sizes all the way up to 100 inches, for those in need of a home theater centerpiece. It’s considered a mid-range device, but is still outfitted with plenty of tech typically reserved for the company’s high-end displays. First of all, […]