Elon Musk to buy Twitter for $44 billion

Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s buyout offer. Musk is purchasing the social media giant for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion. The Tesla chief will take the company private, and also said he planned to upgrade Twitter by protecting free speech, open-sourcing algorithms, fighting spam bots and “authenticating all humans.”

Twitter’s board unanimously approved the acquisition. The deal is expected to close sometime in 2022, although that will hinge on approvals from both regulators and shareholders.

The decision comes after a flurry of activity from Musk. The Tesla CEO bought a 9.2 percent share of Twitter in early April following criticism of the social media firm’s free speech policies. He argued Twitter was falling short of its duties as a “de facto public town square.” Twitter quickly said Musk would join its board of directors, but the tech executive decided against the move days later. While he didn’t say why he had second thoughts, the board appointment would have prevented him from owning more than 14.9 percent of the company — he couldn’t have taken control during his term.

Twitter was initially cautious and adopted a “poison pill” share strategy to prevent a hostile takeover. However, it reportedly gave Musk’s final offer a second look this weekend. The two sides are believed to have hashed out finer details at the last minute, such as financial guarantees if the purchase falls apart. In the announcement, Twitter’s independent board chair Bret Taylor said the company agreed to the buyout after a review process that concentrated on “value, certainty and financing.”

Musk still faces problems following this decision, including the SEC’s insider trading investigation and a class action lawsuit accusing him of stiffing shareholders through the timing of his Twitter investment disclosure. The Twitter buyout won’t help him escape that scrutiny. It won’t be surprising if there’s a significant change of direction at the social network, though, and this still means that Musk is now competing with Meta, Snap, TikTok (that is, ByteDance) and other social networking heavyweights.

We’d add that Twitter’s employees might also be less than thrilled. Sources for The New York Times said staff were largely left in the dark regarding the deal and throw their stock compensation plans into disarray. They were also worried Musk might undo years of efforts to fight “toxic” material. Some are excited, according to the insiders, but there is a chance some Twitter workers might balk at any significant changes in direction.

Sony’s next wireless earbuds may offer ‘automatic playback’

If you thought Sony’s LinkBuds let in too much of the outside world, don’t worry — there may be a follow-up that helps you tune things out. As The Walkman Blognotes, established leak poster SnoopyTech recently shared purported images of WF-LSN900 wireless earbuds, possibly called the LinkBuds S. Unlike the open LinkBuds, this model would let you “seamlessly shift” from allowing ambient sounds to enabling “advanced” noise cancellation. You would also have “automatic playback” based on your habits, although it’s not clear what that would entail — Sony already has some location-based audio settings.

The design appears to be a blend of the WF-1000XM4 and WF-C500, and would include an XM4-style proximity sensor as well as an outer mesh that might be used for noise cancellation features. The buds would be available in black, gold and white colors, and you could expect the obligatory charging case.

It’s not certain when Sony might ship these earbuds, or how much they would cost. We also wouldn’t count on the LinkBuds S naming scheme given the different design. You might not have to wait long to learn the truth, at least. Some FCC confidentiality for the WF-LSN900 is poised to expire on June 21st, suggesting Sony will formally unveil the earbuds by that date.

Apple Music and the App Store are experiencing issues (updated)

If Apple Music and the App Store aren’t quite working as normal for you right now, you’re not alone. Apple’s status page notes that both services are dealing with issues that are impacting all users.

It states that Apple Music users may be experiencing some intermittent issues, which seemingly include song lyrics not being accessible. As for the App Store, Apple simply says users “may be experiencing a problem.” The company hasn’t provided more details, though Down Detector users started reporting App Store problems at around 9 AM ET.

The Apple Music and App Store problems follow an issue with Apple Pay on Sunday. For just over 40 minutes, Interac card holders were unable to make purchases with Apple Pay. Nor could they add, suspend or remove a card.

Update 4/25 5:05PM ET: Apple now says the Music and the App Store issues have been resolved, although it didn’t outline what occurred.

Vive’s Mars CamTrack promises virtual set technology on an indie budget

HTC Vive has unveiled the Mars CamTrack, a system designed to put real-world actors into virtual environments Mandalorian-style, at a relatively affordable price. It’ll let producers film actors against a projected background that moves in sync with the camera so it looks like they’re in a real environment.

The system uses existing hardware along with a new box called Mars that processes all the signals. It also includes a pair of Vive Trackers (3.0) to track camera, light or prop movement, three Rovers to send the signal from a Vive Tracker to Mars and a pair of Base Stations (2) that determine the exact location of each Vive Tracker and Rover module. 

The idea is to use Unreal Engine to create virtual 3D environments (space ships, planets, etc.) that can be manipulated in real-time on a computer and projected onto a screen. You then track up to three cameras and feed the signal into Unreal Engine via a system called LiveLink. When the camera follows the actor, the background moves in real time based on tracker data so that it looks like the actor is really in the scene.

There are some big advantages to this technique. Everything can be done in one place with no need for expensive location shoots, and sets can be changed on the fly. It also makes performing easier, as actors can see their environment rather than needing to pretend it’s there. Plus, it saves on post-production costs — according to ILM, the technique was used in 50 percent of The Mandalorian’s shots. The technique also works for greenscreen shooting, as a video linked by HTC Vive shows. 

HTC Vive aims to make virtual production affordable with the Mars CamTrack system
HTC Vive

Setting up such systems can be complicated, but HTC Vive promises features like automatic calibration for camera offset and lens distortion. It also has plug and play compatibility, letting you sync Unreal Engine’s LiveLink system “with no additional software required.” 

Mars CamTrack is being sold in package with the Trackers, Rovers, Base Stations, Mars unit, cables, a calibration kit and more. The early bird price is $5,000, which isn’t cheap (and doesn’t include a projector and other things you may need), but it is a bargain compared to what it would cost you to try to build one yourself. If you’re interested, you can now register to buy a Mars CamTrack kit. 

‘Apex Legends’ season 13 will bring big changes to the Ranked system

Respawn is set to once again shake up Apex Legends next month when the battle royale’s 13th season, called Saviors, gets underway. For one thing, there are major changes on the way to the competitive Ranked system. The studio says the new approach will reward teamwork and skill, as you’ll “rise and fall through the ranks together.”

A new season means there’ll be another playable legend to get to grips with. The next character to join the ranks is called Newcastle. His abilities haven’t been fully revealed, but he does have a shield. No word as yet as to whether he’s a member of the Toon Army, though he seems to be Bangalore’s brother.

Elsewhere, players can expect the Storm Point map to look significantly different after a security protocol is triggered by a monster from the deep. As yet, there doesn’t seem to be a major new game mode this time around. Respawn added a big team mode called Control in February, at the start of the current season.

More details about map updates, Newcastle, the overhauled Ranked system and the new battle pass will be revealed in the coming days. Apex Legends: Saviors starts on May 10th.

Panasonic GH6 review: A vlogging workhorse, with some caveats

Panasonic launched the GH5 over five years ago, helping set off a mini vlogging boom and confirming the potential of mirrorless cameras for video. Its replacement has finally come in the form of the $2,200 GH6 with an all-new sensor and desirable features like ProRes, 5.7K 60p video and an all-new stabilization system.

Panasonic had the video creator market largely to itself in 2018, but things are different now. It’s crowded with models from Canon, Sony and Nikon, all offering similar features to the GH6 for a similar price. Some of those, like Sony’s A7 IV and the Canon EOS R6, have full-frame sensors and superior phase-detect autofocus systems.

Panasonic has its own full-frame lineup too, so it’s effectively competing with its own Lumix S5 model. Is there still a place for a video-centric Micro Four Thirds camera with contrast-detect autofocus? I took a final production version of the GH6 out in the French countryside to find out.

Body and handling

Apart from the similar control layout, the GH6 doesn’t look much like the GH5 anymore. The first substantial change is the hump on the back. It accommodates both a multi-angle articulating display and an active cooling system with a fan and vents for continuous video shooting at high video resolutions.

It’s got a new grip too, which is perhaps the largest I’ve ever seen on any camera, mirrorless or otherwise. It uses a tackier rubber material and has a bigger ridge for your fingers, giving a secure grasp on the camera at all times.

All the buttons and dials are in roughly the same spots, save a few exceptions. The most noticeable change is the addition of a switch on the top left corner that lets you lock out any controls you want. The other is a dedicated autofocus button for changing AF areas, models, eye detection and more.

Another big change is the addition of a second video record button on the front, ideally placed for vloggers. There’s also a nice dedicated audio control button that lets you quickly access levels, quality and more without diving into menus. Finally, there’s a second button up front that can be set to do whatever you want.

Panasonic GH6 review gallery
Steve Dent/Engadget

The GH6 uses the new style of Panasonic menu found on the GH5 II and S5. It’s among the easiest to use of any mirrorless camera, with logical categories and not too much scrolling needed. Plus, it can be operated by touch or using the buttons and dials.

As mentioned, the GH6 has a fully articulating 1.84-million dot rear touchscreen, as you’d expect, but it borrowed a feature from the full-frame S1H as well: It tilts up by about 45 degrees, letting you keep it clear of the microphone and HDMI ports for vlogging or external capture.

The 3.68 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder is as sharp as rivals, but the refresh rate is limited to 60Hz. Since the GH6 is primarily designed for video that’s not too big a deal, as higher EVF frequencies mostly help action photographers.

With the introduction of ProRes and ProRes HQ, internal data rates can hit up to 1.9Gbps (237.5 MB/s). To that end, the GH6 now has a high-speed CFexpress slot, along with a UHS II slot. The drawback of having one very fast card and one very slow card is that you can’t backup ProRes (or 800Mbps All-I H.264 video) to the SD card. That could be a problem for videographers that absolutely require a backup when shooting video for weddings and other live events.

Panasonic GH6 review gallery
Steve Dent/Engadget

As for ports, it has a full-sized HDMI port as you’d hope on such a camera, along with a USB-C port that supports power delivery so you can charge or power the camera while shooting. Naturally, it has headphone and microphone jacks, and you can upgrade that to four-channel XLR inputs using Panasonic’s $400 DMW-XLR1 hotshoe adapter.

Overall, the GH6 is a well designed and great-handling camera, particularly for video. Key settings like audio levels, video resolution and autofocus are easy to change and monitor.

There are a few drawbacks, though. It’s heavy for a Micro Four Thirds camera at 823g, and the battery life isn’t great either. It’s rated for just 350 still images on a charge, compared to 400 on the GH5 with the same settings, and about an hour of continuous 4K shooting. On one of our shoots, however, it didn’t manage more than about 45 minutes of stop-start shooting, so you’ll want to buy and carry a lot of extra cells.

Video

Just like the GH5, the GH6 is a video creator’s camera above all. For that, it’s better than its predecessor in nearly every way, from resolution to stabilization to dynamic range.

The GH6 can shoot 5.7K all the way up to 60 fps, DCI 4K up to 120 fps and 1080p at 240 fps. As with other Panasonic cameras, it supports anamorphic shooting up to 5.7K. That lets you use lenses from Vazen, Sirui and others and get those dramatic JJ Abrams horizontal lens flares. 10-bit video with billions of colors is available for most of these formats, with an Intraframe I mode for easier editing and LongGop L mode, (both with H.264 and H.265 codecs), to conserve space.

Panasonic GH6 review gallery
Steve Dent/Engadget

It also supports 12-bit ProRes and ProRes HQ, formats that gobble card space but are easier to edit than MP4. You can only shoot 5.7K 25p ProRes video for now, but ProRes DCI 4K and full HD are coming later via a firmware update. RAW output at up to C4K (4,096 x 2,160) 120p to an external Atomos Ninja V+ recorder will also be introduced down the road.

The 5.7K ProRes footage allows for crisp downsampled 4K footage or cropping where needed, while delivering the best possible quality with minimal compression and 12 bits of color. It’ll also play in real time on a decent editing computer, but you’ll need lots of storage space – the file sizes are massive.

Meanwhile, 4K at 120 fps is a big plus for dramatic slow-mo. Unlike with rivals, there’s no cropping or drop in sharpness at those higher frame rates, and 10-bit video is available. The only downside to 120p is that a feature called Dynamic Range Boost isn’t supported.

So what is that? Rather than Dual Native ISO like the GH5, the GH6 has Dynamic Range Boost. It combines high and low-gain readouts to deliver extra dynamic range at ISO settings over 800. With the feature turned off, dynamic range is a bit below the GH5 and when enabled, it’s a full stop higher.

The GH6 is also Panasonic’s first non-professional camera with full V-Log, not hobbled V-Log L. With all that, video quality is outstanding, particularly in demanding, contrasty scenes. It’s sharp, colors are right on point and the extra stop of dynamic range over the GH5 gives editors more room to dial down bright scenes and amp up shadows in post-production.

Panasonic GH6 review: A vlogging workhorse and improved camera

Considering the small sensor, the GH6 is a surprisingly decent low-light camera, too. Noise is well controlled up to ISO 12800, with the best results at ISO 6400. That’s aided by Panasonic’s new “3D Noise Reduction” that kicks in at higher ISOs to suppress grain with a slight loss of detail.

The downside with the system is that, weirdly, there’s more noise in shadows at low ISOs. That’s because the Dynamic Range Boost can’t be engaged below ISO 800, so there’s more noise in dark areas of the picture.

The GH6 has much improved in-body stabilization (IBS) over its predecessor. Panasonic boosted that to 7.5 stops with supported lenses, just below Canon’s R6. However, numbers only tell part of the story. It’s not only great for handheld video, but is the best camera for walkaround vlogging I’ve ever tried. Without even trying to smooth out my footsteps, I only saw a mild up and down motion with none of the jerking I’ve seen on other cameras.

If you do hit the odd jolt or whip the camera around, you won’t see much wobble or jello, either. That’s because even though it doesn’t have a stacked sensor, rolling shutter is well controlled – a big benefit of a smaller sensor.

Shooters have been screaming for a histogram display and Panasonic has finally added one. It’s the best way to set exposure, especially for log video, and you can resize and position it anywhere in the frame.

Panasonic GH6 review: A vlogging workhorse and improved camera
Steve Dent/Engadget

The GH6’s biggest issue is still contrast detect autofocus, or what Panasonic calls Depth from Defocus. It is improved over the GH5, with new AI smarts to boost tracking and subject recognition for people and animals. However, it still isn’t as fast or accurate as the phase detect systems on rival cameras.

By its nature, contrast detect can’t lock into focus as fast as phase detect. In certain circumstances, Panasonic’s system also has a tendency to “hunt” for focus, causing a distracting pulsing as the video goes in and out of focus.

As a workaround, you can shoot at higher frame rates, as contrast detect AF functions better when it has more frames to analyze. However, that’s not always convenient, particularly if you want maximum control over shutter speeds and motion blur. Because of this, I don’t always trust it for interviews, standup or other situations.

Overall, Panasonic has done as much as it can do with contrast detect, but it’s just a fundamentally inferior system. Thankfully, the company is starting to hint that phase detect might arrive in future models.

Photography

Now, let’s talk about photography. With relatively slow 7 fps burst speeds with continuous autofocus, the GH6 is not a great choice for action or wildlife shooting. If you’re into that and want Micro Four Thirds, get the Olympus OM-1 instead.

There are improvements that make it good for certain things, though, particularly the 25.2-megapixel sensor. That’s the highest resolution yet on a Micro Four Thirds camera, so it’s more useful than the GH5 for things a hybrid shooter might do like product photography or portraits.

Like video, photos have improved dynamic range, sharpness and high-ISO capability. The Dynamic Range Boost is particularly useful for RAW photos in tricky lighting situations, letting you pull detail out of shadows and highlights.

Finally, the contrast-detect AF isn’t as big of a drawback for photos as it is for video, particularly for a relatively slow camera like the GH6. It usually delivers sharp photos for burst shooting with human or animal subjects, though it’s still not as reliable as recent competing cameras. Overall, it’s an improvement over the GH5, but still well short of models like the Sony A7 IV.

Wrap-up

Panasonic GH6 review gallery
Steve Dent/Engadget

Panasonic’s GH6 is a lot of camera for the money, offering an outstanding feature set for vloggers and creators that rivals many professional video cameras. The stabilization system and handling are first-rate, video quality is outstanding and it’s more affordable than rival full-frame cameras with similar capabilities. Micro Four Thirds lenses are also much cheaper than full-frame lenses.

As usual, the bugbear with the GH6 is the contrast-detect autofocus that’s not up to par with Sony, Nikon and Canon’s latest offerings. It’s also heavy for a Micro Four Thirds camera and battery life is subpar. Finally, the Micro Four Thirds sensor might not cut it if you need shallow depth of field and superior low-light capability.

It has some stiff competition like the Sony A7 IV and Canon EOS R6, both priced at $2,500. For a lot less, look at Fujifilm’s $1,700 X-T4 or the $960 Nikon Z FC. And if you want a Micro Four Thirds action or wildlife camera, get the $2,200 OM-1. If you’re good with the AF and sensor size limitations, however, the GH6 is a top choice for vlogging and content creation.

Meta will open its first physical store May 9th

Meta will open its first physical retail store next month, in a sign of the increasing importance of its hardware business as the company pivots to the metaverse. The “Meta Store” opens May 9th in Burlingame, California, close to the headquarters for Meta’s Reality Labs division. The store will showcase the company’s VR headsets, Ray-Ban Stories glasses and Portal devices; and will offer interactive demos for shoppers.

For Meta, physical retail stores are meant to help the company not just sell more hardware, but expose more people to its VR and AR technology. In-store virtual reality demos will play on a massive “wall-to-wall” LED display that broadcasts content from participants’ headsets. Mark Zuckerberg teased the display in a recent post on his Facebook page.

In a post Monday, Zuckerberg said the new store would help people “get a sense of what’s coming as we build towards the metaverse.” In addition to its existing products, Meta is also working on augmented reality glasses, a high-end VR headset and possibly a smartwatch.

The demo area features a curved LED display.
Meta

Though the initial store will be somewhat modest — about 1,500 square feet near a company office — Meta’s retail footprint could eventually be much bigger. The New York Timesreported last fall that the company was considering opening stores all over the world. However a significant expansion of its physical stores would likely depend on Meta selling a lot more devices than it currently is. The company’s metaverse division lost $10 billion in 2021.