Tag: technews

I’m not gonna pretend I’ve figured you, the Engadget reader, out. Trying to predict what is gonna get your little nerd hearts all a flutter is kind of a crapshoot. But, I’m pretty confident that a Tamagotchi in a guitar pedal is right up your alley. Ground Control Audio showed up to NAMM 2024 with the UwU virtual pet buffer pedal.

Now buffer pedals are about the least exciting piece of gear you can buy for your pedal board. Probably even less so than a tuner. But, if you’ve got a particularly large board or long cables, a buffer can dramatically improve your tone. Basically all it does is take the signal coming in and give it a little boost so you don’t lose precious high end to tone suck. Like I said, not exciting.

What UwU does is no different, except that it has a Tamagotchi-style virtual pet and a handful of mini-games built in. As you play, your new pedalboard buddy dances and gains experience points. As the little cat like creature gains experience it evolves over 30 levels with unique animations. As for what happens once you cross that 30 level threshold, well, the company hasn’t decided just yet. But there is still time to decide that since the pedal isn’t set to start shipping until March. 

If simply having a new little virtual friend on your board isn’t enough whimsy for you, the UwU also has three mini-games built in. There’s Long Cat (a snake clone), Fishy Blox (vaguely Tetris-like) and Neko Invader. The tiny monochrome OLED and small buttons aren’t exactly ideal for playing games (and neither is hunching over a pedalboard I might add), but it feels true to its inspiration in old cellphone games.

Terrence O’Brien / Engadget

If you’re sitting there wondering, “why?” Well, first off, why not? Secondly, to keep you playing, obviously. Finding the time and drive to play or practice guitar can be tough. Especially if you’re teen with a hectic life of extra curriculars or, like me, a busy dad of two with a demanding day job. The UwU gives you a reason to play beyond just knowing you should. Carving out a few minutes every day to play will keep your adorable little UwU happy and healthy. Frankly, if I had one of these when I was younger and stubbornly clinging to my belief that I didn’t need to know music theory or technique, maybe I’d be a more proficient guitarist.

Of course none this would matter if the UwU was a crappy buffer. But it’s got 18v headroom and doesn’t color your tone at all. It’s even super tiny, so finding room for it on even the most crowded of pedalboards shouldn’t be too difficult. 

The UwU virtual pet buffer is available now for preorder directly from Ground Control Audio for $139.

Terrence O’Brien / Engadget

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-uwu-virtual-pet-buffer-is-a-tamagotchi-in-a-guitar-pedal-193633790.html?src=rss

X’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch said the company plans to open a new office in Austin, Texas for a team that will be dedicated to content moderation, Bloomberg reports. The “Trust and Safety center of excellence,” for which the company is planning to hire 100 full-time employees, will primarily focus on stopping the spread of child sexual exploitation (CSE) materials. 

X CEO Linda Yaccarino is set to testify before Congress on Wednesday in a hearing about CSE, and the platform at the end of last week published a blog post about its efforts to curb such materials, saying it’s “determined to make X inhospitable for actors who seek to exploit minors.”

According to Bloomberg, Benarroch said, “X does not have a line of business focused on children, but it’s important that we make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content.” The team will also address other content issues, like hate speech and “violent posts,” according to Bloomberg. Elon Musk spent much of his first year at X taking steps to turn the platform into a bastion of “free speech,” and gutted the content moderation teams that had been put in place by Twitter before his takeover.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-plans-to-hire-100-content-moderators-to-fill-new-trust-and-safety-center-in-austin-173111536.html?src=rss