After years of teasing, the viral Nopia synth is ‘basically finished’
After setting the music gear corner of the internet on fire back in 2023 with the first glimpse at the Nopia, creators Martin Grieco and Rocío Gal are almost ready to bring it to market. The duo brought it to the MusicRadar offices for an in-depth first look and revealed that it will be launching in "a couple of months" for around £550.
Nopia is built around harmonic interplay in a unique way. Rather than a few knobs and a keyboard controlling a single synth patch, it blends multiple modules - keys, bass, arp, and pad - into a single performance, not unlike a drumless groovebox. There's a one-octave keyboard called the Chord Builder, a 12-b …
Oregon’s Attorney General withdraws effort to delay Paramount and Warner Bros. merger
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield had been seeking documents from Paramount related to its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Rayfield also asked a state circuit court judge to delay the closing of the deal by 60 days so that his office could review the documents. But according to Deadline and Variety, he's now dropped his civil investigative demand for the records.
Obviously, Paramount is pleased with Rayfield's decision to withdraw his request, but the AG's office isn't exactly satisfied with the outcome.
Jenny Hansson, communications director for Rayfield, told Deadline that, "Paramount made it clear that they weren't going to compl …
FL Studio head Constantin Koehncke turns to Reddit for feedback and fun
If you're a music maker of a certain age, then you probably once dabbled with a pirated copy of a little app called Fruity Loops. These days it's called FL Studio, and Constantin Koehncke, is the man responsible for shepherding the pioneering digital audio workstation (DAW) through the modern age. As CEO of Image Line, the company behind FL Studio, Constantin has overseen the introduction of a number of AI-powered features like stem separation and its Gopher chatbot.
Before taking the reins of Image Line in 2022, Constantin was the head of Native Instruments, where he spearheaded the shift towards digital services, did a stint in marketing, …
Nintendo’s Talking Flower got a small price cut
If you’re the type of person who could always use a little extra positive affirmation, or you have a weakness for weird gadgets, the Talking Flower might be of interest. I’m only kind of serious. The toy is based on a character from Super Mario Bros. Wonder that guides Mario through levels with quippy, whimsical remarks. It’s a little weird that it even exists, but, then again, this is the company that made Alarmo.
The Talking Flower debuted for $34.99, but it got a small price reduction at Amazon and Walmart. It’ll instead cost you $29.99 to buy the cute talking toy.
The Talking Flower doesn’t have much utility. Unlike the $110 Alarmo, it can’t serve as an alarm even though it asks when you go to bed and wake up (so that it knows when to keep quiet). It’s there to call out every passing hour when you’re awake, and to say random stuff unprompted. It can make comments about the general time of day, as well as the temperature thanks to its built-in thermometer. The Talking Flower lacks a microphone, and it doesn’t connect to the internet. However, it has a button that’ll make it say things, if you don’t want to wait for it to randomly blurt out its pre-programmed thoughts. Like in the video game, you can select the language it speaks.
My colleague Andrew Webster went hands-on with the Talking Flower, and his takeaway was that it’s a drip feed of whimsy. However, it would occasionally say something that reminded Andrew to take care of himself, whether it be to slow down and relax or to take a lunch break. I’m entertained by many reviews on Amazon, which highlight that buyers are split on being annoyed with the Talking Flower, but loving it anyway — just like the character in Wonder.
White House taps the guy who keeps crying ‘aliens’ to run UFO group
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb will head the UAP Science Advisory Council established by the White House, the Pentagon, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and "the intelligence community." The Council will provide scientific reports and advice to the UAP Governing Board, in an effort to "resolve the nature of UAP," or unidentified anomalous phenomena.
On paper, Loeb's qualifications seem strong. And he's surrounded himself with a team from a variety of backgrounds. The Council includes not only physicists, but a pathologist, a computer scientist, a philosopher, a psychologist, and even the founding publisher of S …
ICE are heavily armed killers. They’re also huge losers
Donald Trump's Homeland Security regime has been at the center of two critical stories in the past two weeks. In the first, federal agents shot and killed a man and quickly got to work justifying the use of force under the flimsiest of pretenses. In the other, it made house calls to people who said mean things to them online.
Since taking office last year, the Trump administration has been telling us that fighting the good fight of white supremacy will make you look cool and noble. The DHS under former Secretary Kristi Noem spent $220 million to help her cosplay as a cowboy and call up ICE recruits as if we're fighting a new World War, this …
A tasty RPG that will make you very hungry
Roleplaying games are often defined by excess. Storylines that span dozens of hours, side quests so big they could be their own game, massive worlds that require complex maps to explore, and casts so big you start forgetting character names. That's part of what makes these games feel like epic adventures, but it can also make them intimidating, particularly if you have limited spare time. Dosa Divas, on the other hand, manages to capture much of that same feeling in a package that spans less than 10 hours. And it does it with a bold sense of style and a story that seamlessly flits between big themes and personal drama. There's just one big d …
The perfect kit for all your tiny repairs
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 135, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, crank the AC, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I've been reading about cold plunges and Colson Whitehead and the food truck mafia, finally getting to the theater to see Obsession, watching The Agency because it's apparently everyone's favorite underrated show, nodding sadly to Adam Conover's video about the death of sitcoms, making a lot of noises during the Dune: Part Three trailer, testing Atlas as a visual journal, giggling endlessly at the new InfoWars, and s …
Are you filthy enough for a $700 portable shower?
Hot showers, like electricity, are a luxury that's easy to take for granted. That all changes after a few nights camping at a music festival, a week toiling at a backcountry job site, or overlanding all summer in the great unknown. An itchy scalp and the vague smell of warm clams suddenly make the idea of spending hundreds on a portable shower seem less absurd.
I've been testing the Hottap Go from Australia-based Joolca while vanlifing to shower after surfing and to wash up after cooking. It features a 12L integrated water tank which is an improvement on other portable showers that require an external container and long, cumbersome hose th …
No, Flock isn’t threatening people for debating surveillance
On Thursday, the Instagram account for a lecture series in Newport Beach, CA posted a photo of what appeared to be a cease and desist letter from the surveillance technology company Flock Safety. Flock has received significant backlash over its technology and work with law enforcement agencies, and this letter kicked off yet another wave of criticism against the company for allegedly trying to shut down discussions of its work.
"WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED," the group, The Saturday Salon, wrote in the Instagram post, which has more than 3,000 likes. A separate post about the letter on Bluesky has more than 360 reposts. The text of the letter de …