Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 09/13 – Unity Plays A Dangerous Game (Get It?)

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

Unity has upset game developers across the world with new pricing changes. France has ordered Apple to stop selling the iPhone 12 over radiation concerns. Lots of extra drips and drabs from yesterday���s iPhone event. And Stability AI gets into the generative music generation game. Sponsors: Shopify.com/ride Links: Unity has introduced new fees that could have dire effects on the entire game industry, from indies to Xbox Game Pass (UPDATE) (Windows Central) Sony has launched a major PlayStation 5 system update (VGC) Apple disputes French findings, says iPhone 12 meets radiation rules (Reuters) Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max Pushes Up the Price (WSJ) iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max hands-on (The Verge) Adobe’s Firefly generative AI models are now generally available, get pricing plans (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMame Right Home for Wednesday, September 13th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Unity has upset game developers across the world with new pricing changes.

France has ordered Apple to stop selling the iPhone 12 over radiation concerns. Lots of extra drips and drabs from yesterday's iPhone event. And Stability AI gets into the generative music generation game. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Game developer platform Unity has announced fees based on, a game's installations and a given developers plan tier, slated to go into effect January 1st, 2024, joining Unreal Engine, which has similar fees.

This has the whole game dev world up in arms, however. Quoting Windows Central. Unity is a popular game and app development platform, often touted for its cross-platform friendliness and accessibility for smaller teams. Unity has been at the forefront of independent development for some time, although a string of unpopular changes in the past couple of years have dramatically battered its image. The changes kicked off in line with its public stock exchange listing a couple of years back, generally speaking, as it seeks to compete with Unreal Engine and others in an increasingly

competitive and volatile market. Volatile indeed, as these recent changes to Unity's revenue models threaten to upend entire businesses and plunge projects into turmoil before they've even gotten off the ground. Unity's new model will see developers pay a monthly fee, per installation scaling up at certain thresholds. The per install fees don't seem to account for game usage time, and there's no information on whether these metrics will factor in pirated copies as well. The per installation fee also threatens charity services like Humble Bundle, free-to-play titles, or even Xbox Game Pass, where games are less likely to go on to generate ongoing revenue via in-app purchases. If someone downloads a title on Xbox GamePass and tries it out for just 15 minutes with no

intention to purchase later or get invested. This has some dire potential ramifications for developers who take on the Xbox GamePass model. Unity has yet to really clarify how the fees may or may not be waived in certain scenarios. One developer remarked that some metrics could see Unity stand to profit from a freemium game more than developers of certain sizes. More developers are joining the debate surrounding the new Unity revenue model, including Intersloth, most known for its hit multiplayer game Among Us. Inner Sloth added its own message on top of agro-crab games, adding to the growing call for Unity to reverse its decision. Unity has issued some clarifications around certain aspects of the deal,

although it continues to endure heavy criticism from every side of the industry. Stephen Totilo of Axios reported that Unity intends to pass on the cost for installation fees to Microsoft and other subscription providers for services like Xbox GamePass and PlayStation Plus. We've reached out to Microsoft to comment on this since it appears that Unity seems to be making up its policies as it goes along. Unity also said it will waive all the installation fees for developers who adopt its ads platform on mobile in a coercive move, which one developer at a major mobile publisher stated to me could be in breach of EU contractual law. As of this writing, Unity is sticking to its guns, despite companies like Among Us's Intersloth and Cult of the Lamb publisher Devolver Digital,

implying or outright confirming plans to move away from Unity as a platform. Unity as a business, has not had many profitable quarters. For 2022, its operating income was negative $1 billion, which is less than ideal by most metrics. In May of this year, Unity also announced it would commit to mass layoffs to reduce costs shedding 6% of its global workforce. Unity's share prices down 55% since its initial public offering, and down 10% for this year alone, as the platform continues to seek consistent profitability. Unity's financially accessible models previously gave it a competitive advantage over Unreal Engine, which operates some similar fees for game developers using its platform. With that advantage being eroded, it remains to be seen if developers pack up

and move to greener pastures. It also remains to be seen how it could impact deals for subscription services like Xbox GamePass or PlayStation Plus, which often feature Unity made independent games from smaller teams, often at lower prices. Unity's fees eating into the margins may make certain ventures increasingly unviable in what is proving to be a particularly strange volatile market. 2023 has seen studio closures and layoffs a plenty, as consumers feel the pinch of inflation and increase prices around the world. Unity is potentially playing a dangerous game here, but it remains to be seen what impact this could have on its business at scale once it rolls out on January 1st, 2024, end quote.

Stinging with games, for the moment, Sony has released a PS5 software update, which includes support for Dolby Atmos, also using a second controller as an assist controller and support for up to 8 terabyte SSDs. Video Games Chronicle. The update adds support for Dolby Atmos HDMI devices like soundbars, TVs, or home theater systems. This enables the console to pass the PS5's 3D audio feature to Atmos devices by rendering the 3D audio channels, including overhead ones, to Atmos speakers. It also adds new accessibility features, including the ability to assign a second controller as an assist controller, to a single account as well as the ability to turn on haptic feedback while navigating the PS5 system menu. Alongside these previously revealed features, several more have been announced.

PlayStation Remote Play is now supported on devices running Android TVOS12, which currently include Chromecast with Google TV, the 4K model, and the Sony Bravia XR A95L model. Additional voice commands are also available in the US and UK, while enhancements to the PlayStation app will arrive later this month, end quote. This is a weird one. France has ordered Apple to stop selling the iPhone 12 in that country due to radiation level concerns. But Apple says the device has already been certified by multiple bodies as radiation compliant. Quoting Reuters, Apple said on Wednesday its iPhone 12 model was certified by multiple international bodies as compliant with global radiation standards

after a French watchdog ordered it to stop selling the headset on the grounds. It breaches European exposure limits. The ANFR radiation watchdog told Apple on Tuesday to halt sales of iPhone 12s in France after tests, which it said showed the phone's specific absorption rate, or SAR, a measure of the rate of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body from a piece of equipment, was higher than legally allowed. The Agents Nacional de Frequences, or ANFR, said it would send agents to Apple stores and other distributors to check the model was no longer being sold. The agency, which manages France's radio frequencies and periodically tests phones to check human exposure to electromagnetic waves, said it expected Apple, quote, to deploy all available means to put an end to

the noncompliance, end quote. A failure to act would result in the recall of iPhone 12s already sold to consumers, it added. Apple said it had provided ANFR with multiple Apple and independent third-party lab results proving its compliance with all applicable SAR regulations and standards in the world. It said it was contesting the results of AFNR's review and would continue to engage with the agency to show it is compliant. The AFNR said accredited labs had found absorption of electromagnetic energy by the body at 5.74 watts per kilogram during tests, simulating when the phone was being held in the hand or kept in a trouser pocket. The European standard is a specific absorption rate of 4.0 watts per kilogram, end quote. After every Apple event, there are lots of little bits and bobs that trickle out the next day.

For example, Xcode 15 release candidate files show iPhone 15 and 15 plus devices have 6 gigabytes of RAM, while the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max phones have 8 gigabytes of RAM, which represents a 2 gigabyte increase for the pro models. Also, remember how AirPods got USBC charging along with the iPhones? well, unfortunately, it looks like Apple does not plan to sell the new AirPods USBC charging case as a separate standalone product. Users will instead need to buy a whole new $249 pair if you want USBC charging. Then remember how I mentioned those new 6 and 12 terabyte storage plans for ICloud Plus, but I didn't know the pricing. I have subsequently found out the pricing.

The 6 terabyte option will run you $29.99 per month. and the 12-terabyte option is $59.99 a month. That's slightly more expensive than Google's similar plans. A bit of confusion around pricing generally, actually. Pricing in the U.S. for the new phones remained generally the same, but increased in China, Japan, India, and some other markets. The U.K., weirdly, looks like it actually got some price cuts, if I'm reading that right. But back to those U.S. prices. They are the same on the low end and kind of the same on the high end if you squint a bit. quoting the journal. The iPhone 15 Pro Max will start at $1199 for a version with 256 gigabytes of memory. Apple said it's the same price as last year's Pro Max model with the same storage,

but the company effectively raised the minimum price for the Pro Max by $100 by eliminating a lower price 128 gigabyte model, end quote. So it's the same price for the lower-end models, a price increase for the higher end because they increase the floor storage option, to be honest, they had been keeping the minimum storage on iPhones artificially low for years, in my opinion. But I guess the biggest selling point, at least to my mind for the pro devices, is the titanium on the higher-end ones. Makes them lighter in the hands, supposedly. Well, Nilai Patel got hands-on with the 15 pros, and his report is, they are nicer to hold, thanks to the curved edges and that lighter titanium frame,

but which immediately gets covered in fingerprints, quoting his impressions from the verge. The thing is made of titanium. There's an action button on the left side, and that's a USBC port on the bottom. Oh, and a fourth thing. The sides of the phone on display were instantly and immediately covered in fingerprints.

At first glance, the 15 Pro looks just like the iPhone's pro before it. But pick one up, and the lighter weight due to the titanium frame is obvious, as are the curved edges. It's just nicer to hold. Apple says the titanium has allowed it to make the sides of the device thinner, which certainly makes the display look bigger than usual, but it's the same 6.1 inches on the pro and 6.7 inches on the pro max. There's a USBC port on the bottom now, which Apple says supports

10 GbPS transfers using a USB3 cable, enough to support live shooting 48 megapixel photos using Capture 1 and shooting 4K video directly to external storage. But from the outside, it just looks like a USBC port. We'll have to test it to know more. On the side, you'll find the new action button, which can be remapped using a delightfully designed menu in settings. You can set it to launch voice memos, open the camera or flashlight, change focus modes, launch various accessibility features, or even launch shortcuts, which means it can do anything you want it to do. Camera-wise, the new feature most people will immediately appreciate, is the update to portrait mode, which automatically captures depth information when it detects a person, cat, or dog in the frame,

allowing you to change photos to portrait after the fact. You can also adjust the focus point after the fact, which is a very, very neat trick that people have been trying to ship in consumer products for a decade now. We'll have to see how this all works in reality, but here in Apple's bubble, it all seemed to work flawlessly, end quote. Finally today, you thought you could get away without some AI news. Sorry, friend. Adobe announced that it has made their generative AI product Firefly, generally and commercially available in Creative Cloud and other services, and announced generative credits to charge for Firefly access, quoting TechCrunch. The company is going to use what it calls generative credits

to measure how often users interact with these models. Basically, every time you click Generate to create a Firefly image, you'll consume one credit. And the company retooled the Firefly web app, for example, so that it doesn't automatically start generating images before you've made all the tweaks that you wanted to make. It's a bit complicated, but the good news here is that everybody on existing paid Adobe plans will get access to quite a few of these generative credits. Once you run out of those credits,

at least on most of these plans, you won't lose access to Firefly, but it will run significantly slower. The exception here is users who subscribe to Adobe Firefly and Adobe Express Premium, who will only get access to two generations per day until their count resets at the end of the month, though for them, Adobe will offer additional subscription packs. Adobe did not release any specific pricing for those plans yet, though. Also, until November 1st, Adobe users subscribe to Creative Cloud, Adobe Firefly, Adobe Express, and Adobe Stock won't be subject to the credit limits yet, end quote. Meanwhile, Stability AI announced a text to audio tool called Stable Audio, available for free for 20 songs and 20 second tracks, or $12 a month for 500 songs and

90 second tracks, quoting Venture Beat. Stability AI today announced the initial public release of its stable audio technology, providing anyone with ability to use simple text prompts to generate short audio clips. Stability AI is best known as the organization behind the Stable Diffusion Text to Image Generation AI technology. Back in July, Stable Diffusion was updated with its new SDXL base model for improved image composition. The company followed up on that news by expanding its scope beyond image to code with the launch of Stable Code in August. Stable Audio is a new capability, though it is based on many of the same core AI techniques that enable stable diffusion to create images. Namely, the stable audio technology makes

use of a diffusion model, albeit trained on audio rather than images, in order to generate new audio clips. The ability to generate bass audio tracks with technology is not a new thing. Individuals have been able to use what Evans referred to as symbolic generation techniques in the past. He explained that symbolic generation commonly works with MIDI, musical instrument digital interface files that can represent something like a drum roll, for example. The generative AI power of stable audio is something different, enabling users to create new music that goes beyond the repetitive notes that are common with MIDI and symbolic generation.

Stable audio works directly with raw audio samples for higher quality output. The model was trained on over 800,000 pieces of licensed music from audio library audio sparks. Having that much data, it's very complete metadata, Evan said. That's one of the really hard things to do when you're doing these text-based models, is having audio data that is not only high-quality audio, but also has good corresponding metadata, end quote. One of the common things that users do with image generation models is to create images in the style of a specific artist. For stable audio, however, users will not be able to ask the AI model to generate new music that, for example, sounds like a classic Beatles tune. We haven't trained

on the Beatles, Newton Rex said, with audio sample generation for musicians, that has tended not to be what people want to go for, end quote. Newton Rex noted that in his experience, most musicians do not want to start a new audio piece by asking for something in the style of the Beatles or any other specific musical group. Rather, they want to be more creative. As a diffusion, model, Evan said that the stable audio model has approximately 1.2 billion parameters, which is roughly on par with the original release of stable diffusion for image generation. Somehow I've been recommending a lot of movies and TV to y'all lately. Let me do this one more time. The most recent Dungeons and Dragons movie, the one starring Chris Pine, who at this point is a

national treasure, I had heard it was good from a lot of people, and it is good. Not into the Spider-verse level good, but more good than it has any right to be. It's quite funny. And it's a movie that you can watch with the whole family, assuming your kids aren't scared of demons with glowing eyes, but it's not too scary otherwise. Anyway, recommended Dungeons and Dragons. Talk to you tomorrow.