ESPN will air tonight’s Nets and Knicks game with decade-spanning classic graphics

On November 1st, 1946, the Toronto Huskies and New York Knicks played what is now considered the first game in NBA history. With the league celebrating its 75th birthday this season, ESPN hopes to take fans on a trip down memory lane.When the Brooklyn …

MLB is turning to an electronic pitch-calling system to fight cheating

For well over a century, baseball catchers have signaled pitches with their fingers, but that could soon become a thing of the past in the big leagues. Major League Baseball has approved the use of a system that will allow catchers to send directions to their pitchers electronically.

The PitchCom system centers around a sleeve catchers wear on their forearm. They can press buttons to identify the pitch type and location. The pitcher hears the call through a bone conduction listening device. The channels are encrypted and teams can program codewords to replace terms like “fastball” or “curveball.”

According to the Associated Press, MLB is providing every team with three transmitters, 10 receivers and a charging case for the system, which works in Spanish and English. Teams can use one transmitter and up to five receivers at any time. Along with catchers and pitchers, three other fielders can use a receiver, which is tucked inside the cap. The devices can only be used on the field during games — not in clubhouses, bullpens or dugouts.

PitchCom is optional and teams can still use traditional hand signals if they wish. Around half of MLB teams are said to have expressed interest in using PitchCom. Some players tested the system during spring training and it was broadly well-received, as ESPN reports.

“I think it can be beneficial when it comes to August, September and October and you’re pushing towards the playoffs, with all the scouts in the stands and eyes on you trying to decipher what you’re throwing,” Chicago White Sox pitcher Dallas Keuchel said. “It’ll be nice not to have to go through several sets of signs.”

The tech could help teams ward off the threat of sign stealing by their opponents, an issue that has hung over the sport for the last several years. The Houston Astros were infamously caught stealing signs using a camera and monitors during their run to the 2017 World Series title. Teams have even been accused of using fitness trackers to signal the opposing catcher’s pitch calls. Widespread adoption of PitchCom could eliminate such attempts at cheating and help speed up games.

Meanwhile, the creators of PitchCom are working on a version of the system that will provide visual indicators of pitch calls. That’s expected to be available next year.

PitchCom
PitchCom Sports

GOG renews its focus on classic games, starting with ‘The Wheel of Time’

GOG originally stood for “Good Old Games,” and the online store wants to better match the expectations associated with that name. It’s launching a revival that will do more to highlight and support classic game releases. The initiative will not only apply a “Good Old Game” tag to retro hits in the catalog, but will include a ‘new’ game: a version of Legend’s 1999-vintage The Wheel of Time (timely given the Amazon series) that runs on modern hardware.

The Unreal Engine-based fantasy shooter won’t offer stunning visuals, but Nightdive Studios’ refresh lets it run on newer operating systems (Windows 7 and up) and support high-resolution displays. The premise remains the same: you play an Aes Sedai (magic-wielding woman) who uncovers a sinister plot decades before the timeline of Robert Jordan’s novels. You’ll also find deathmatch and capture-the-flag multiplayer modes, although Wheel of Time wasn’t exactly a staple of the online gaming scene when new.

There’s a strong competitive incentive for GOG to shift its attention to classic games — this could help it stand out compared to heavyweights like Steam and the Epic Games Store, many of which focus on the latest releases. The initiative could be useful for game preservation efforts, though. If nothing else, it could be helpful if you’ve been waiting decades to revisit a favorite.

The Peloton Guide wouldn’t let me skip a single push-up

Peloton continues to take steps beyond cardio exercise with Guide, a set-top camera ($295) that brings strength training to the lineup. It’s joined by a new all-inclusive $39 monthly subscription (with a $24 introductory offer) which adds movement-tracking strength and core-focused classes to the array of Yoga and bodyweight workouts that already exist in Peloton’s $12 per-month digital service. 

The Guide unit itself looks a lot like the Facebook Portal TV or your old Xbox Kinect. It’s got a versatile magnetic mount that can be placed on a flat surface, or folded out to latch around your TV’s bezel, which should make it easy enough to position where it can capture your workouts. It uses a wide-angle 12-megapixel camera, which is enough pixels to deliver a 4K video stream of yourself. It can be plugged into any HDMI port, and comes with Peloton’s recently launched heart rate monitor and a remote to navigate the menus and adjust your TV volume. 

Typically, your video feed will be on-screen alongside the Peloton trainer, so you can track and adjust your form as necessary. But you can minimize yourself so it’s easier to see the trainer’s movements, if you prefer.

When you start a Movement Tracker-supported workout (they’re tagged with Peloton’s water drop icon to make them easier to find), you’ll see a wealth of information on what that particular workout will cover, both when it comes to muscles targeted and exercises involved. Peloton is trying to bridge a gap here between regular gym-goers and those of us that don’t know the difference between a hammer curl and a bicep curl. (To be honest, they’re only slightly different.) 

You can preview the exercises, including a quick video animation of the movement, and even see which muscle groups will be feeling the burn. I found a lot of it unnecessary, but it largely stayed out of the way – which was what I wanted. I know how to do a plank, thanks.

We’ll be taking a deeper dive into the Guide soon, but let’s get into the crucial part of Peloton’s new addition, that tracking. With a single camera, and no LIDAR or Infrared it does a great job of framing you during your workout and tracking your movement across the space. 

Peloton Guide impressions
Mat Smith/ Engadget

The major selling point of the Guide is that it’s checking your form for you. Now, I might have been over-optimistic in hoping for tougher love from the Guide. I’ve done a few HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workout classes, both in-person and through pandemic-era Zoom calls, and I fondly remember the trainer telling me to raise my hips or retract my shoulder blades more when they would catch me slacking. The Guide only polices your movement in the broadest sense to make sure you’re following the instructor. It won’t tell you what you’re doing wrong – or how to fix it.

However, compared to a group workout with a human coach, Peloton’s tracking system is always watching you, not the others in the class. When live classes arrive in the coming months, this might all work a little better – interactions with the coaches is what a lot of Peloton devotees swear by. Perhaps this could eventually offer the best of both, with human interactions and advice combined with the Guide’s more constant vigilance.

As you follow the exercises, the Movement Tracker icon will fill up. Once I’d fulfilled the movement obligations, I’d hear a ‘ping’ as I transitioned to the next exercise. I ran through three different classes, and apparently my form was correct enough 19 out of 20 times. (It’s not a perfect score because I wanted to take a few photos during a press-up set, okay?) That felt kinda good. I’ve never considered myself a gym person, but I’ve had various stints of exercise booms. Finally, I seemed very ahead of the crowd that Peloton seems to be pitching this device at. To be honest, I wanted heavier weights and harder workouts during my demo.

The Peloton Guide is another device trying to introduce a connected camera into your home, which carries its own privacy concerns. You might be able to take some solace in the fact that Peloton says nothing gets uploaded because the processing is all done on-device. Plus there’s a cover you can slide over the camera lens, and mic mute switches on the back. But as Wired noted, there is a somewhat concerning section in the terms and conditions where Peloton says it may use your biometric data (including facial scans) in the future. This could be as innocuous as identifying separate users in the same household, or something else entirely.

The company is considering adding the option to share your tracking data to speed up improvements and squish bugs, like those data-sharing requests you get with voice assistants. On that note, Peloton has added a basic voice assistant, in beta, to the Guide, ensuring you can pause, cancel or otherwise control your workout when the included remote isn’t nearby, or one of your kids is having a meltdown during your Core workout. It’s not the most attentive assistant, however, and I would have to bark my commands and increasingly unhinged volumes in order to get it to work.

I appreciate the depth of data and customization Peloton has crammed into the Guide. During a workout, the backing track was a little too loud for me, and despite having only a passing knowledge of Peloton’s software, I was able to find an audio mix option, mid-workout, and increase the levels of the instructor’s voice. This attention to detail is rarely found in fitness videos and software. My time with the Guide was brief, but Peloton will need to ensure the Guide offers enough to warrant the initial outlay and even more expensive subscription. Can it convince existing Peloton subscribers to pay more?

Dozens of gig workers have been the victims of homicide

Over 50 gig workers have been killed on the job in the United States since 2017, according to a report released today by Gig Workers Rising. Of that figure, nearly two-thirds (34 deaths) occurred this year and in 2021, which may indicate a worrying upward trend. And often, the companies they contracted for do little to compensate their surviving relatives.

“Based on publicly available data more people are getting killed doing gig work each year. App corporations are not doing enough to protect the workers who make their apps run,” wrote Cherri Murphy, a former Lyft driver and one of the report’s authors in a message.

The report compiled the 50+ incidents from public documents like news stories, social media, fundraising platforms, police reports, court cases and a database maintained by The Markup of ride-hail driver carjackings. It excludes other kinds of at-work deaths such as “fatal traffic accidents or other causes of injury.” And as Gig Workers Rising freely points out, the report is not comprehensive and the “true number is likely to be much greater as gig corporations don’t regularly disclose the number of homicides that occur for people working using their app.”

Among the kinds of incidents that were included in the report were fatal carjackings, armed robberies or hate crimes. In many instances, drivers were killed by their own passengers. This includes the cases of Christina Spicuzza, a 38-year old from Pittsburgh and Abdul Rauf Khan, a 71-year old from Springfield, Virginia, who were both the victims of fatal carjacking incidents. The Wall Street Journalreported that many gig workers have quit due to a spike in violent crimes last year.

In many of the cases, the families of the victims were not compensated, according to the report. This is due to the same loophole that precludes most gig workers from receiving guaranteed minimum wage, employee-sponsored healthcare or other job benefits: their status as supposedly independent contractors.

DoorDash spokesperson Julian Crowley said the company’s occupational accident insurance covers homicides and provides survivor payments of up to $150,000 for eligible dependents. “We were the first national delivery platform to offer occupational accident insurers to Dashers at no cost to them, and with no opt-in or application required, which can support them if they’re injured while providing a delivery on our platform,” Crowley told Engadget.

Instacart provides eligible shoppers with accidental death benefit payments up to $320,000 for eligible dependents. The company also covers burial expenses up to $10,000. “Shopper Injury Protection applies to all U.S. full-service shoppers and includes coverage for certain medical expenses, disability payments, and accidental death benefits,” wrote a spokesperson for Instacart in a statement. 

“Since day one, we’ve built safety into every part of the Lyft experience,” spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada told Engadget. “We are committed to doing everything we can to help protect drivers from crime, and will continue to take action and invest in technology, policies and partnerships to make Lyft as safe as it can be.”

Uber, Instacart and Postmates did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.

While the laws regarding worker death benefits vary greatly from state to state, at minimum they often provide some amount of money for funeral expenses; in New York state, surviving family members are entitled to “two-thirds of the deceased worker’s average weekly wage for the 52 weeks prior to the accident.”

“My sister lost her life over a Lyft trip that totaled to be 15 dollars and really only totaled that because it wasn’t stopped at the time of arrival but more so after her death,” said Alyssa Lewis, whose sister Isabella was killed while on the job last year. “Fifteen dollars that she couldn’t even take with her when losing her life for it.”

“App corporations are not doing enough to protect the workers who make their apps run,” Gig Workers United told Engadget. “Instead, the bedrock of their model is to offload risk onto workers.”

Canada considers law requiring Facebook, Google to pay news publishers

Canada may soon echo Australia in making internet companies pay news publishers to use their content. CBC Newsreports Canada’s ruling Liberal Party has introduced legislation requiring that Facebook, Google and other online firms compensate news outlets for either reproducing or easing access to content. The money would help foster the “sustainability” of Canadian news, according to the government.

Companies that don’t pay publishers would be subject to binding arbitration led by Canada’s telecom regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The CRTC will also decide which news sources qualify for compensation.

Officials saw this as a matter of necessity. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez claimed the news industry was “in crisis” and that publishers couldn’t rely on ad revenue like they had in the past. This merely addressed a “market imbalance,” he said.

We’ve asked Google and Facebook parent Meta for comment. In the past, they’ve maintained that publishers benefited from the traffic driven to their websites through search results and social media posts. They’ve also threatened to disable services rather than pay publishers, although Google ultimately caved in Australia and struck deals to avoid an arbitration battle. In a statement to CBC News, Google said it was “carefully reviewing” the legislation and “fully support[ed]” access to news.

The legislation may well pass. Although the Liberals don’t have a majority in Canada’s House of Commons, they recently reached an agreement with the New Democratic Party to advance bills reflecting shared interests. Whether or not it works as promised is another concern. As University of Ottawa internet research chair Michael Geist warned, there’s a concern that the CRTC’s role will lead to just a “handful” of major companies profiting at the expense of smaller outfits. If so, it might not prevent further damage to the country’s news industry.

Update 4/6 11:40AM ET: Google Canada spokesperson Lauren Skelly has shared the company’s full statement with Engadget. You can read the response below. Also, Meta Public Policy Manager Rachel Curran said her company was “currently reviewing” the legislation and would do more once it “fully understand[s]” the nature of the bill.

“We are carefully reviewing the legislation to understand its implications.  We fully support ensuring Canadians have access to authoritative news and we look forward to working with the government to strengthen the news industry in Canada.”

‘Ghost Recon Breakpoint’ won’t receive any more updates

Ubisoft says Ghost Recon Breakpoint will no longer receive content updates, leaving the tactical shooter essentially frozen in time. In the last few months, the developers added a mode called Operation Motherland and a bunch of items. In all, Ubisoft released 11 content updates for Breakpoint. The publisher will keep the servers for both that game and its predecessor Ghost Recon Wildlands online for the foreseeable future.

Breakpoint wasn’t well received when it was released in October 2019. Ubisoft swiftly went into damage control mode to resolve some of the bugs and stability issues in the weeks after release. However, the game’s perhaps best known these days for being home to Ubisoft’s first rollout of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

In December, the publisher announced plans to add NFTs (though it calls them “Digits”) to its games through the Quartz platform. The news didn’t go over well with players or employees, many of whom cited concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs and accused Ubisoft of trying to milk more money from consumers.

Breakpoint was the first target of the NFT project. Ubisoft gave away Digits to players, including gun skins with small, barely noticeable serial numbers. Players didn’t exactly flock to buy them on secondary markets, though. An Ubisoft executive claimed in January that players could benefit from having a secondary market for in-game items, “but they don’t get it for now.”

“Thank you to all Ghost Recon Breakpoint players who claimed their first Digits,” a message on the Quartz site reads. “You own a piece of the game and have left your mark in its history. As the last Digit for Ghost Recon Breakpoint was released on 3/17/2022, stay tuned for more updates with features to the platform and future drops coming with other games!”

Bringing development on Breakpoint to an end at this point isn’t a massive surprise. It wasn’t exactly designed to last as a live service title for many years, and Ubisoft is well-known for churning out sequels to its core franchises. 

Still, the move will severely diminish the perceived value of Breakpoint‘s NFTs. It’s unlikely that interest in Breakpoint will increase in the future, which will make it more difficult for Digits owners to sell them. Holders of the NFT items won’t be able to transfer them to other titles either, leaving them in possession of in-game goods with little real-world value.

Even though Breakpoint is on life support, the Ghost Recon brand isn’t going away anytime soon. In October, Ubisoft announced a free-to-play battle royale title called Ghost Recon Frontline.

Pinterest will ban climate misinformation

Pinterest has a history of banning content it sees as harmful before other online platforms, and that approach is now extending to climate change issues. The social site is rolling out a policy that bans climate misinformation, including climate change denial, false claims about solutions to climate change, misrepresentations of scientific data and “harmful” bogus statements on natural disasters and other extreme weather. It’ll likely disappear if it contradicts the well-supported scientific consensus, in other words.

An update to Pinterest’s ad guidelines also “explicitly” bans marketing material that promotes climate change misinformation and conspiracy theories. The policies were built with the help of expert groups that include the Climate Disinformation Coalition and Conscious Advertising Network.

The company claims to be the first major internet platform with “clearly defined” policies barring false climate change claims for both content and ads. That’s true to at least some degree. Facebook mainly labels misinformation and reduces its spread, while Twitter aimed to “pre-bunk” falsehoods during COP26 but stopped short of banning them. YouTube, meanwhile, doesn’t let climate change deniers monetize videos.

The timing is apt, at least. A just-released UN report indicates the world has three years to level CO2 emissions if it wants to avoid environmental catastrophes, and that those emissions must drop by a quarter by 2030. Pinterest isn’t basing its stricter policies on that report, but it clearly shares the view that a unified public stance based on accurate information is necessary to limit global warming.