tech
Page: 35
Supernatural, the subscription-based VR fitness app, has launched a pair of new workouts featuring the music of Billie Eilish, adding to the platform’s catalog of superstars featured in their Artist Series.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Songs like “Bad Guy,” “Lunch” and the Sofi Tukker remix of “Copycat” are highlighted in Supernatural’s new boxing workout, while the “Flow” routine features current hit “Birds of a Feather” as well as “Bellyache” and “Oxytocin,” among others. Supernatural allows users to partake in choreographed cardio workouts with headsets strapped on, and a 2021 deal with Universal Music Publishing Group opened up a large selection of songs for in-app programming, including for the SN Artist Series, which launched in 2022.
“When it comes to selecting songs for our Artist Series, we prioritize showcasing an artist’s full catalog of work while striking a balance between song selections that appeal to both new listeners and dedicated fans, promoting the artist’s new work, and using songs that are best suited for our movement modalities and application,” says Jess Zobler, Supernatural senior producer. “For example, Boxing classes in Supernatural use more traditional, fitness-forward music, while the Flow modality uses visual cues such as targets, triangles, and tails to cue movements that are choreographed to embody the song’s feeling and rhythm.”
Trending on Billboard
The routines soundtracked by Eilish’s music launched on Monday (July 22), and join Supernatural’s 26 previous Artist Series workouts, which includes spotlights on artists like Taylor Swift, Post Malone, Queen and Nicki Minaj.
“Billie Eilish’s catalog is very sonically diverse: Hard-hitting, trap-like instrumentation in the chorus of ‘You Should See Me in a Crown’ allows for boxing flurries and cross-body uppercuts, while ‘Bury a Friend’ features choreographed punches on even beats that match the rhythm of the bass, making it feel like the user’s punches are controlling the drums and snares,” Zobler adds. “Long bob and weave movements play with some of the sinister sound effects in the song, creating the feeling of dodging the evil monster lurking under Billie’s mattress.
“In the Flow modality,” Zobler continues, “songs like ‘Bellyache’ with a minimalist beat and ethereal quality inform the quality of movement to be more open and sweeping, using ‘tail’ targets to move the user in sync with some of the song’s dream-like qualities.”
With the launch of the workouts, Supernatural has also unveiled two playlists with the Eilish songs featured in each routine. Both workouts include tracks from Eilish’s third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, which was released in May.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Bandai Namco / Tekken 8 / Nike
Tekken 8 and Nike’s new collaboration will allow players to issue fades in style.
Using the EVO 2024 stage in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bandai Namco announced a collaboration between Tekken 8 and Nike. In the game, characters will rock Nike Air Foamposite One sneakers inspired by Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima.
In a surprise announcement, Bandai Namco also revealed that the physical limited-edition Nike Air Foamposite One’ Kazuya Mishima’ was available to EVO attendees.
Tekken Project Director Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken 8 Game Director Kohei Ikeda, and Producer Michael Murray made the big announcement, dropping the trailer and showing off the physical Nike Air Foamposite One’ Kazuya Mishima’ sneakers.
[embedded content]
Attendees could purchase the “shiny black sneakers,” which Bandai says is “a clear, stylish extension of the character who inspired them,” through the Nike SNKR’s geo-targeting feature.
Bandai Namco also notes the sneakers will not be the only product of its collaboration with Nike and promises that more drops will come this fall, and that includes in-game content.
That wasn’t the only Tekken 8 news. The popular fighting video game also celebrated the return of iconic character and villain Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya’s father and Jin’s grandfather.
[embedded content]
Heihachi’s return to the game was met with excitement and hilarity because he always finds a way to return, even after meeting his demise in previous games.
Heihachi is the latest DLC character following Eddy and Lidia, and he will be available to players in August.
You can see more reactions to Heihachi Mishima, aka the OG King of The Iron Fist’s return in Tekken 8 below.
1. It’s a good day to be a final boss
3. The only reaction we wanted to see, lol.
6. Clearly
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Europa Press News / Getty / Crowdstrike
A massive global IT outage is crippling businesses and making lives miserable.
If you’re a business that operates on Microsoft Windows-based systems, the past 48 hours have not been good for you, and your IT department is most definitely stressing out.
Banks, airports, TV stations, healthcare organizations, hotels, and other businesses were greeted by BSODs (Blue Screens of Death).
Blue Screens of Death hit the giant screens in Times Square.
What Caused The Global Disruption?
The outage hit computers running the Windows operating system and was the result of a bug in an update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
In the early hours of Friday, companies in Australia with computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system began experiencing Blue Screens of Death.
Not too long after the issue arose, there were numerous reports of disruptions from the UK, India, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US.
TV stations like Sky News were offline, and US airlines United, Delta, and American Airlines issued a “global ground stop” on all flights.
CrowdStrike says the outage wasn’t malicious and, through its CEO, issued a statement on the matter.
Per Wired:
Hours after the issues started to emerge, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued a statement about the outages, saying the company has found a “defect” in an update for Windows that it issued. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” Kurtz said. “The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.” In the statement, Kurtz confirmed that Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted by the update and said that its customers should refer to its support portal.
A Microsoft spokesperson also issued a statement saying it is aware of the problems linked to Windows devices and the company believes a “resolution is forthcoming.” At the same time as the CrowdStrike issues emerged, Microsoft was also dealing with its own, apparently unrelated, outage of its Azure cloud services.
The reactions to the outage that are all over timelines well after the “fix.”
You can see those in the gallery below.
1. Spooky stuff
2. For those wondering how to fix the bug
3. Howling
6. Jokes, you can always count on X for jokes
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Tinder / Photo Selector
Writing your bio for your dating profile is one thing, but choosing your photos to give your potential boyfriend or girlfriend a glimpse at their future boo is another challenge that Tinder wants to help you with.
Spotted on The Verge, Tinder is launching a new AI-powered feature to help users select their “best photos” to put in their dating profiles.
According to the dating app, the new tool will “take out the guesswork” for users when choosing your most eye-catching photos by creating a selection “optimized to help users find a match.”
A breakdown of how Photo Selector works via The Verge:
To use Photo Selector, users will need to take a selfie within Tinder and allow the app to access their device’s camera roll. Tinder’s new AI feature will then use facial recognition to collate a selection of images for the user to review and add to their profiles. The curation is processed on-device and doesn’t upload the user’s camera roll to Tinder’s systems. We have asked Tinder to clarify the criteria the feature uses to select images and will update if we hear back.
The dating app says Photo Selector aims to allow users to make “meaningful connections” by saving them time in the profile-making process.
A study of 7,000 18-25-year-olds conducted by Tinder found that young singles spend up to 33 minutes on average trying to select photos to use.
Tinder users on iOS and Android can expect the Photo Selector to be available sometime in July. According to Tinder, international users will gain access to it “this summer.”
Well, we hope this aids you in that search for summer love or a potential boo before the cuffing season begins.
AI-focused music production, distribution and education platform LANDR has devised a new way for musicians to capitalize on the incoming AI age with consent and compensation in mind. With its new Fair Trade AI program, any musician who wishes to join can be part of this growing pool of songs that will be used to […]
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Content creation is a growing field, with more than 200 million people considered a professional content creator, according to 2022 research […]
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Richie Branson / Not Like Us
Are you sick of hearing “Not Like Us?” Well, that’s too damn bad because it just got more legs, thanks to a video game.
Thanks to a black video game designer, Kendrick Lamar’s infectious Drake diss will continue to be the topic of conversations, much to the ire of Champagne Papi.
On Monday, Richie Branson, who describes himself as “just a random brotha who designed games for Bleacher Report and worked for Epic Games as a game designer on a little game called Fortnite,” dropped a free game that turns the moment K.Dot wacks an owl pinata from the song’s visual into a fun video game.
In the web game, players take control of a pixel sprite version of the West Coast rapper and wop wop wop as many owls as they can with a bat.
Branson calls the game a “free love letter to video games and hip-hop,” adding, “I intentionally made the game spike in difficulty above 17, so any score 18 and above should be celebrated.”
This Diss Record Won’t Go Away
To rub more salt in Drake’s still open wound, the song featuring DJ Mustrard’s production is back in the Billboard Hot 100 this week after debuting at No. 1 in May.
Lamar is still riding the high from his “Pop Out” concert, which many have already dubbed one of Hip-Hop’s most culturally significant moments.
Meanwhile, Drake continues to post cryptic messages on Instagram, trying to give his fans and us the impression that he’s fine, but clearly, we think the brother is a bit scarred from his battle with Kendrick Lamar.
Drake, it’s okay to admit you are in the dumps now. It’s a sign of strength, not weakness.
If you want to try the game, you can head here.
2. Another one
3. Well deserved
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Activision / Activision
Bronny James may be in a self-admitted “slump” on the court at NBA Summer League, but his skills on the sticks are still sharp. Lebron James’ firstborn won the Call Of Duty Two Minute Drill, beating out some notable NBA gamers along the way.
Source: Activision / Activision
The Los Angeles Lakers draft pick won the Second Annual Call of Duty Two Minute Drill at the NBA Summer League by finessing a last-second 84-83 victory over Charlotte Hornets forward Grant Williams. Reportedly, Bronny was playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III he eeked out his win just before the 8pm tournament deadline, defeating Williams and Bobi Klintman of the Detroit Pistons. The latter came in third with 77 points.
With the W, Bronny earned a $10,000 prize and a custom-made Call of Duty Two Minute Drill at the NBA Summer League Championship Belt. Bronny fans shouldn’t be too surprised since he one graced the cover of Sports Illustrated for his e-sports talents as a member of Faze Clan back in 2021.
Held over this past weekend (the first weekend of the NBA Summer League), over 60 NBA players participated in the Call of Duty Two Minute Drill in a winner take all format. Players also got a chance to preview the forthcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Those NBA ballers and gamers included Paul George, now of the Philadelphia 76ers, Chet Holmgren of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Trey Murphy (Wahoowa!, #iykyk) of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Check out some photos from the event below.
Source: Activision / Activision
Source: Activision / Activision
Source: Activision / Activision
Source: Activision / Activision
Source: Activision / Activision
Disney Music Group and AudioShake, an AI stem separation company, are teaming up. As part of their partnership, AudioShake will help Disney separate the individual instrument tracks (“stems”) for some of its classic back catalog and provide AI lyric transcription.
According to a press release, Disney says that it hopes this will “unlock new listening and fan engagement experiences” for the legendary catalog, which includes everything from the earliest recordings of Steamboat Willie (which is now in the public domain), to Cinderella, to The Lion King, to contemporary hits like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Given so many of Disney’s greatest hits were made decades ago with now-out-of-date recording technology, this new partnership will allow the company to use the music in new ways for the first time. Stem separation, for instance, can help with re-mixing and mastering old audio for classic Disney films. It could also allow Disney to isolate the vocals or the instrumentals on old hits.
Trending on Billboard
Disney’s partnership with AudioShake began when the tech start-up was selected for the 2024 Disney Accelerator, a business development program designed to accelerate the growth of new companies around the world. Other participants included AI voice company Eleven Labs and autonomous vehicle company Nuro.
At the accelerator’s Demo Day 2024, on May 23, AudioShake gave a hint at what could be to come in their partnership with Disney when AudioShake CEO, Jessica Powell, showed how stem separation could be used to fix muffled dialog and music in the opening scene of Peter Pan.
Disney explained at the Demo Day that many of their earlier recordings are missing their original stems and that has limited their ability to use older hits in sync licensing, remastering, and emerging formats like immersive audio and lyric videos.
“We were deeply impressed by AudioShake’s sound separation technology, and were among its early adopters,” says David Abdo, SVP and General Manager of Disney Music Group. “We’re excited to expand our existing stem separation work as well as integrate AudioShake’s lyric transcription system. AudioShake is a great example of cutting-edge technology that can benefit our artists and songwriters, and the team at AudioShake have been fantastic partners.”
“Stems and lyrics are crucial assets that labels and artists can use to open up recordings to new music experiences,” says Powell. “We’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Disney Music Group, and honored to work with their extensive and iconic catalog.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: China News Service / Getty /ATT
AT&T customers have much to worry about after news of a massive data breach exposed their data.
CNN reports AT&T was the victim of a massive data breach, leading to call and text message records from mid-to-late 2022 of tens of millions of cellphone customers and many non-AT&T customers to be exposed, AT&T revealed on Friday, July 12.
Bruh.
The company says the compromised data includes the telephone numbers of “nearly all” of its cellular customers and customers from other wireless providers who utilized its cellular network between May 1, 2022, and October 31, 2022.
Per CNN:
The stolen logs also contain a record of every number AT&T customers called or texted – including customers of other wireless networks – the number of times they interacted, and the call duration.
Importantly, AT&T said the stolen data did not include the contents of calls and text messages nor the time of those communications.
The records of a “very small number” of customers from January 2, 2023, were also implicated, AT&T said.
“We have an ongoing investigation into the AT&T breach and we’re coordinating with our law enforcement partners,” the FCC said on social media platform X.
How Did This AT&T Breach Happen?
Now, suppose you’re wondering how this happened. In that case, the communications company is blaming an “illegal download” on a third-party cloud platform it learned about in April as it was dealing with another unrelated data breach.
Speaking with CNN, spokesperson for AT&T, Alex Byers says this recent breach had “no connection in any way” to another incident in March.
In that breach, the company says personal information, such as Social Security numbers of 73 million current and former customers, made its way to the dark web.
AT&T issued a statement about the breach: “We sincerely regret this incident occurred and remain committed to protecting the information in our care.”
Okay.
We wish these hackers had used their talents to help, like exposing Donald Trump or wiping away everyone’s debt.
Just saying.