TikTok’s SoundOn platform lets musicians directly share their own tracks

TikTok now has its own music distribution platform. The social network has launched SoundOn, which allows artists to upload their music directly to TikTok and to distribute it to various music streaming services. ByteDance, the app’s parent company, won’t be charging artists any distribution or transaction fees. Artists will get 100 percent of their royalties for an unlimited time when TikTok creators use their music for their videos, as well as for whatever they earn on ByteDance’s music streaming service Resso.

For other streaming services that include Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora, artists will get 100 percent of their royalties in the first year and then 90 percent in the years after that. As TechCrunch reports, other similar music distribution platforms charge subscription fees or charge for distribution while paying out 100 percent in royalties to artists. 

SoundOn users will be able to choose which streaming services they want to upload their music to. They’ll also get access to audience insights, advice from the SoundOn marketing team and promotional support from TikTok. They’ll get verified on TikTok, as well, and other users will see their profile under the song page for their tracks. As noted on SoundOn’s FAQ page, artists will get to keep all the rights to their music, and they’re not expected to use the platform exclusively.

TikTok already has a massive effect on the music industry, thanks to viral videos on the app that tend to use the same catchy tunes. The SoundOn platform, which could potentially expand TikTok’s influence even further on today’s music landscape, is now live in the US, UK, Brazil and Indonesia, and musicians in those regions can visit its website to register.

Apple’s 5K Studio Display should support Windows, including the webcam and speakers

Apple’s new 27-inch 5K Studio Display — including its 12-megapixel webcam and fancy speakers — should work just fine with Windows PCs, Apple has told The Verge. However, certain features enabled by the monitor’s built-in A13 Bionic processor will only function on Macs, Apple said.

There was never much doubt that the display itself would function on a PC, but the resolution may depend on your PC configuration. In effect, you’ll need a graphics card with compatible Thunderbolt or USB-C ports and support for 5K or higher resolution (most modern GPUs have these features).

The status of the webcam was not very clear, though. According to Apple’s Studio Display web page, “camera features and firmware updates require a connection to a Mac.” However, an Apple spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that the camera should work like a normal USB webcam when plugged into a PC. 

One “camera feature” that won’t work on a PC though, is Center Stage. On a Mac, that feature uses digital zoom to keep the subject or subjects in the frame, even if they move around. Other features enabled by the A13 chip, like Spatial Audio and “Hey Siri,” are also unavailable on Windows computers, the spokesperson said. 

At $1,600, the Studio display is pretty expensive for a 27-inch display, especially if you get it with the ridiculously overpriced height adjustment bracket. On the plus side, it does look nice and and the 12-megapixel webcam and high-end speakers add a lot of value. If that’s not important, you could get a 32-inch 4K display with similar specs for far less money.

Nine women accuse Sony of systemic sexism in a potential class-action lawsuit

In November, former PlayStation IT security analyst Emma Majo filed a lawsuit against Sony, claiming the company discriminated against women at an institutional level. Majo alleged she was fired because she spoke up about gender bias at the studio, noting she was terminated shortly after submitting a signed statement to management detailing sexism she experienced there. 

Majo later filed the paperwork to turn her case into a class-action lawsuit, and just last month Sony attempted to have the whole thing thrown out, claiming her allegations were too vague to stand up to legal scrutiny. Plus, Sony’s lawyers said, no other women were stepping forward with similar claims.

Today, eight additional women joined the lawsuit against Sony. The new plaintiffs are current and former employees, and only one of them has chosen to remain anonymous. One plaintiff, Marie Harrington, worked at Sony for 17 years and eventually became a senior director of program management and chief of staff to senior VP of engineering George Cacciopo.

“When I left Sony, I told the SVP and the Director of HR Rachel Ghadban in the Rancho Bernardo office that the reason I was leaving was systemic sexism against females,” Harrington said in a court statement. “The Director of HR simply said, ‘I understand.’ She did not ask for any more information. I had spoken with the Director of HR many times before about sexism against females.”

Harrington claimed women were overlooked for promotions, and said that during annual review sessions, Sony Interactive Entertainment engineering leaders rarely discussed female employees as potential “high performers.” She said that in their April 2019 session, only four of the 70 employees under review were women, and while all of the men in this group were marked as high performers, just two of the women were. 

“Further, when two of the females were discussed, managers spent time discussing the fact that they have families,” Harrington’s statement reads. “Family status was never discussed for any males.”

The remaining women shared similar stories in their statements, with the common theme being a lack of opportunity for female employees to advance and systemic favoritism toward male employees. The plaintiffs claimed male leaders at Sony made derogatory comments including, “you just need to marry rich,” and, “I find that in general, women can’t take criticism.” 

One plaintiff alleged that while on a work trip to E3, her superior tricked her into having drinks with him at the hotel bar, hit on her even after she declined, and told other employees that “he was going to try to ‘hit that.'” Another plaintiff shared a story about a gender equality meeting at Sony that had a five-person panel, all of them men.

The lawsuit against Sony comes at a time of reckoning for many major video game studios, including Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and Riot Games. Activision Blizzard is facing a lawsuit and multiple investigations into claims of institutional sexism, sexual harassment and gender discrimination, while Ubisoft has long faced similar allegations from former and current employees. Riot Games paid $100 million in December to settle a class-action lawsuit over workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.

Sony has not yet responded to the latest movement in the class-action lawsuit, though it denies Majo’s claims of gender discrimination. The company has requested the lawsuit be dismissed, and that will be decided in a hearing in April.

Ukraine may move its top-secret data and servers abroad

Fears that Russia could steal top-secret government documents has caused Ukrainian authorities to explore potentially moving its data and servers to another country, reportedReuters. While the original plan is still to protect the country’s IT infrastructure, moving the most sensitive data to another location is a viable Plan B, Victor Zhora— the deputy chief of Ukraine’s information protection arm—told the news service.

Ukraine has already faced a litany of aggressive cyberattacks from the neighboring nation, including last month’s penetration of its military and energy networks. Russia also attempted to interfere with Ukraine’s 2014 presidential election and regularly launches attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, leading to outages that last for days. 

The Ukrainian government made the precautionary move of migrating its computer systems in Kyiv in 2014, following Russia’s occupation of Crimea. Ukrainian cyber teams have developed plans to disable infrastructure and transfer back-ups if its networks become compromised, Zhora told Politico.

But the fact that Ukraine’s most sensitive data is centralized in Kyiv presents a problem if Russia’s military occupies the capital. At the time of publication, Russian troops are currently encircling Kyiv, and experts estimate they could attack the city within days. Ukraine is already moving some sensitive data and servers to remote areas, out of Russia’s reach. 

Ukraine hasn’t released details on where it might attempt to relocate its sensitive governmental data, but shifting it to an allied nation might provide more than just physical distance from Russian’s military. Reuters reported that cyberattacks against said data, were it stored within the borders of an ally nation, might trigger NATO’s collective defense clause, which requires all member nations to respond if one is attacked.

For now, Ukraine’s Parliament still has to give its seal of approval before the nation’s sensitive data can be moved.

‘The DioField Chronicle’ is a new strategy RPG that looks like ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’

In 1997, Square Enix released one of the finest games of the original PlayStation era in Final Fantasy Tactics. Outside of a handful of remasters and spinoffs, however, the company has been reluctant to return to the genre in a meaningful way. And while we may never get a proper sequel to Tactics, the good news is Square Enix is working on a new tactical RPG. 

During Sony’s most recent State of Play on Wednesday, the publisher announced The DioField Chronicle. And if what you loved about Final FantasyTactics was its sprawling story and iconic art by Akihiko Yoshida, you’re in luck because DioField looks to have both on offer. You’ll lead the forces of the Kingdom of Alletain, a neutral island nation that gets dragged into a conflict with the sinister Trovelt-Schoevian Empire. Instead of a turn-based battle system, engagements play out in real-time and it appears you can control more than one character at a time.    

Square plans to release The DioField Chronicle later this year on PlayStation 4 and PS5.

Toddlers can get their frag on with VTech’s baby gamer chair

Kids love to imitate the adults in their lives. That’s why you can find such odd items in the toy aisle as baby-sized irons, mops and vacuums. Now you can add more weirdo item to that list, one that has some members of the Engadget staff howling with laughter: A baby gamer chair. Yes, you read that right. Baby. Gamer. Chair.

VTech, long-time purveyor of kiddie tablets and educational toys is now selling a tiny gaming chair for budding streamers and future Fortnite players. The $50 Level Up Gaming Chair is a plastic simulacra of bigger leather seats made for adults, complete with slick black armrests and a molded back with two cut-out sections for air flow. However, instead of wheels, the chair rests on four boot-like blue feet, so your baby won’t be tipping over while they’re pretending to curse out other players on the included headset. The tiny non-functional headset even has a tiny non-functional mic to complete the look.

Because this is VTech after all, the Level Up Gaming Chair has some interactive electronic parts, namely a light-up keyboard that kids can play with to learn numbers and letters and even piano keys — which we admit, is actually a step up from traditional mechanical gaming keyboards. The keyboard console can be detached for on-the-go play, and the tray it normally rests on can be used for snack time as well so kids never have to leave their gaming throne when it goes on sale this fall. (We recommend pairing it with Fisher Price’s Laugh and Learn Controller.)

‘Returnal’ gets a free co-op mode on March 22nd

Sony’s State of Play livestream today was short on major news, but there was one surprising nugget: Returnal is getting a beefy update on March 22nd. Returnal: Ascension adds co-op capabilities and a new survival mode to the game, and it’ll be completely free. 

Returnal is a PlayStation 5 exclusive developed by Housemarque. It’s a roguelike shooter where players are trapped in a time loop on a hostile alien planet, and it gets a lot of things right, including massive enemies and a punishing reward system. As a PS5 exclusive, Returnal makes good use of the DualSense controller’s haptics and Sony’s 3D audio tech.

Ascension will be Returnal‘s 3.0 update. The game’s 2.0 update in October 2021 added photo mode and a suspension option that allowed players to save their progress mid-run, but only under certain conditions. It is a roguelike, after all.

Capcom’s ‘Exoprimal’ isn’t ‘Dino Crisis’ and that’s OK

Just when you thought video games were getting too serious comes Capcom with Exoprimal, an entirely new IP that will see you and your friends facing off endless waves of dinosaurs that fall from the sky. 

In an absolutely bananas trailer the publisher showed off during Sony’s State of Play presentation on Wednesday, we saw a game that looks like a mix of Anthem, Dino Crisis and Dynasty Warriors. Exoprimal is both a co-op and competitive game. In the game’s main mode, Dino Survival, you’ll team up with four other players to take on hordes of dinosaurs and an opposing team of five players. If you’ve played Destiny 2‘s Gambit mode, the setup will sound familiar. Each exosuit features a different suite of abilities, and you’ll need to work as a team to defeat both the cold- and warm-blooded killers out for your neck. Capcom said it plans to release Exoprimal in 2023 on PlayStation 4 and PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Steam.

California can once again set its own emissions rules, EPA says

California can now set its own emission standards under the Clean Air Act, the EPA announced today. The decision puts an end to a feud that began when automakers pushed the Trump administration to revisit fuel efficiency rules, which eventually led the former president to revoke California’s waiver to declare its own standards in 2019. California is known for pushing stricter emissions requirements than the federal government, standards which have also been adopted by 16 other states and Washington, D.C. 

“Today we proudly reaffirm California’s longstanding authority to lead in addressing pollution from cars and trucks,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement. “Our partnership with states to confront the climate crisis has never been more important. With today’s action, we reinstate an approach that for years has helped advance clean technologies and cut air pollution for people not just in California, but for the U.S. as a whole.”

The EPA also confirmed that other states can once again adopt California’s standards. As the LA Times reports, the EPA decision means that California can continue with its plan to ban sales of gasoline vehicles by 2035. In January, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a $10 billion plan to accelerate EV adoption, with a focus on making EVs more accessible for low-income consumers, building out more charging infrastructure and electrifying the state’s fleet of vehicles.