Technological World for January 22: Apple Music's Base:Line, YouTube advertising problems, Microsoft's new Edge browser, Tokyo Dark on the PS4

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Categories Consumer technology | Video games

This week, Apple Music’s new Base:Line playlist for indie musicians, Microsoft’s new version of its Edge browser, and Tokyo Dark’s arrival on the PS4. But first, global companies are unwittingly advertising on videos spreading climate misinformation.

Major corporations are advertising on climate misinformation videos

A new report online activist site Avaaz claims that major global corporations are unwittingly advertising on YouTube videos promoting misinformation about climate change.

Avaaz suggests that YouTube’s algorithms are to blame, and that if someone happens to see a video with misinformation, they are more likely to have similar videos recommended to them, something referred to as a “bubble of misinformation”.

The Avaaz team conducted searches on YouTube using the terms “global warming”, “climate change”, and “climate manipulation” and analyzed the results that were provided.

The report includes a number of recommendations to YouTube, including fixing the recommendation algorithm by removing any video with climate misinformation from the list of videos that can be recommended, by ensuring that misinformation content cannot be monetized, and by flagging videos that contain misinformation.

In a statement to the Guardian, YouTube said that advertisers had control over where ads could run and that the company was working to bolster the list of “borderline content” that would not be included in recommendations.

Apple Music and the NBA want you to discover new hip hop artists

Apple Music is supporting emerging hip hop musicians with a new iniative. Base:Line is the result of a partnership with the NBA.

Ebro Darden, Beats 1 DJ and one of Apple Music’s music directors, will be curating the music that appears on the Base:Line playlist, which is available to Apple Music subscribers as well as on NBA digital platforms, where music from the playlist will be streaming.

“NBA players come from the same communities that the music does, that is why the artists and the players feel connected. Many artists wanted to make it to the NBA before their life took a turn,” said Darden in a statement from Apple. “Base:Line is a playlist that gets closer to the community where the artist and the music is beginning.”

One of the significant aspects of the playlist is that music being selected is coming from independent artists. “When you are an indie artist, having your music on the right playlist at the right time is key,” Darden notes on the playlist page. “Base:Line is designed to be that key.”

Microsoft’s new version of Edge browser built on Chromium

In another move that signifies its willingness to play nicely with others, Microsoft’s new browser, Edge, has been redesigned using Google’s Chromium software.

First released in 2015 to replace Internet Explorer, Microsoft has rebuilt Edge with Chromium because the company wants to be everywhere, and the Chromium source code means that you can download and use Edge on virtually all computers, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS systems.

As with Chrome and Firebox, favourites, settings, and passwords will sync across your devices; they are tied to your Microsoft login.

Where Edge has the edge – sorry – is that it’s got anti-tracking built in, to prevent website from following you around the internet and knowing where you’ve been. This functionality will be coming to Google’s Chrome, but not for a couple of years.

Tokyo Dark blends anime and horror with murder mystery RPG

A new role-playing game has launched on the PS4. Tokyo Dark, which is also available on the Nintendo Switch, is a murder mystery set in Tokyo. You become Detective Ito Ayami, who is investigating the disappearance of her partner.

The game has a distinct anime style, and the mystery that’s been crafted here has shades of sophistication.

This is a low-key RPG, so you don’t need any twitch response or FPS control skill. Instead, in playing the game you’ll be searching environments and choosing dialogue when having conversations with characters. There are a moments where your time to make a decision is limited, which provides just the right amount of quickening.

But the controls on the PS4 version are strange, to say the least. When presented with a number of options to look at something or initiate a conversation, you select the thing you want to do using the right bumper, but then you need to use the left stick to activate your choice before using the X button to finally trigger the action.

If you can be patient until the controls are second nature, there are some interesting things going on in Tokyo Dark. The decisions you make as Detective Ayami impact her sanity, professionalism, investigation, and neurosis, and change the the story you play through, ultimately leading to one of many possible endings.

The supernatural threads that string through the game won’t scare you outright, but they will have your skin crawling.

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