Author name: Rejus Almole

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Electric vehicle sales grew 25% worldwide but just 6% in North America

Cars, EV adoption / /

Here’s some good news for a Friday afternoon: For 2025 through August, global electric vehicle sales have grown by 25 percent compared to the same eight months in 2024, according to the analysts at Rho Motion. That amounts to 12.5 million EVs, although the data combines both battery EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs for the total.

However, that’s for global sales. In fact, EV adoption is moving even faster in Europe, which has grown by 31 percent so far this year (Rho says that BEV sales grew by 31 percent but PHEV sales by just 30 percent)—a total of 2.6 million plug-in vehicles. In some European countries, the increase has been even more impressive: up by 45 percent in Germany, 41 percent in Italy, and by 100 percent in Spain.

But despite a number of interesting new EVs from Renault and the various Stellantis-owned French automakers, EV sales in France are down by 6 percent so far, year on year.

Tesla has seen none of this sales growth in Europe, however—as we noted last month, this region’s Tesla sales collapsed by 40 percent in July.

China had bought an additional 7.6 million new EVs between January and August of this year, although this growth slowed in July and August, partially as a consequence of robust sales during those months in 2024 thanks to Chinese government policies. And as also noted last month, BYD recently saw a drop in profitability and has downgraded its sales target by 900,000 vehicles (down to 4.6 million) for this year.

Electric vehicle sales grew 25% worldwide but just 6% in North America Read More »

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Rocket Report: Russia’s rocket engine predicament; 300th launch to the ISS

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North Korea test-fired a powerful new solid rocket motor for its next-generation ICBM.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket is propelled by kerosene-fueled RD-107A and RD-108A engines after lifting off Thursday with a resupply ship bound for the International Space Station. Credit: Roscosmos

Welcome to Edition 8.10 of the Rocket Report! Dear readers, if everything goes according to plan, four astronauts are less than six months away from traveling around the far side of the Moon and breaking free of low-Earth orbit for the first time in more than 53 years. Yes, there are good reasons to question NASA’s long-term plans for the Artemis lunar program—the woeful cost of the Space Launch System rocket, the complexity of new commercial landers, and a bleak budget outlook. But many of us who were born after the Apollo Moon landings have been waiting for this moment our whole lives. It is almost upon us.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

North Korea fires solid rocket motor. North Korea said Tuesday it had conducted the final ground test of a solid-fuel rocket engine for a long-range ballistic missile in its latest advancement toward having an arsenal that could viably threaten the continental United States, the Associated Press reports. The test Monday observed by leader Kim Jong Un was the ninth of the solid rocket motor built with carbon fiber and capable of producing 1,971 kilonewtons (443,000 pounds) of thrust, more powerful than past models, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Mobility and flexibility … Solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, have advantages over liquid-fueled missiles, which have historically comprised the bulk of North Korea’s inventory. Solid rocket motors can be stored for longer periods of time and are easier to conceal, transport, and launch on demand. The new solid rocket motor will be used on a missile called the Hwasong-20, according to North Korean state media. The AP reports some analysts say North Korea may conduct another ICBM test around the end of the year, showcasing its military strength ahead of a major ruling party congress expected in early 2026.

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Astrobotic eyes Andøya. US-based lunar logistics company Astrobotic and Norwegian spaceport operator Andøya Space have signed a term sheet outlining the framework for a Launch Site Agreement, European Spaceflight reports. The agreement, once finalized, will facilitate flights of Astrobotic’s Xodiac lander testbed from the Andøya Space facilities. The Xodiac vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket was initially developed by Masten Space Systems to simulate landing on the Moon and Mars. When Masten filed for bankruptcy in 2022, Astrobotic acquired its intellectual property and assets, including the Xodiac vehicle.

Across the pond … So far, the small Xodiac rocket has flown on low-altitude atmospheric hops from Mojave, California, reaching altitudes of up to 500 meters, or 1,640 feet. The agreement between Astrobotic and Andøya paves the way for “several” Xodiac flight campaigns from Andøya Space facilities on the Norwegian coast. “Xodiac’s presence at Andøya represents a meaningful step toward delivering reliable, rapid, and cost-effective testing and demonstration capabilities to the European space market,” said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton.

Ursa Major breaks ground in Colorado. Ursa Major on Wednesday said it has broken ground on a new 400-acre site where it will test and qualify large-scale solid rocket motors for current and future missiles, including the Navy’s Standard Missile fleet, Defense Daily reports. The new site in Weld County, Colorado, north of Denver, will be ready for testing to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025. Ursa Major will be able to conduct full-scale static firings, and drop and temperature storage testing for current and future missile systems.

Seeking SRM options … Ursa Major said the new facility will support national and missile defense programs. The company’s portfolio includes solid rocket motors (SRMs) ranging from 2 inches to 22 inches in diameter for missiles like the Stinger, Javelin, and air-defense interceptors. Ursa Major aims to join industry incumbents Northrop Grumman, L3Harris, and newcomer Anduril as a major supplier of SRMs to the government. “This facility represents a major step forward in our ability to deliver qualified SRMs that are scalable, flexible, and ready to meet the evolving threat environment,” said Dan Jablonsky, CEO of Ursa Major, in a statement. “It’s a clear demonstration of our commitment and ability to rapidly advance and expand the American-made solid rocket motor industrial base that the country needs, ensuring warfighters will have the quality and quantity of SRMs needed to meet mission demands.”

Falcon 9 launches first satellites in a military megaconstellation. The first 21 satellites in a constellation that could become a cornerstone for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile-defense shield successfully launched from California Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Ars reports. The Falcon 9 took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, and headed south over the Pacific Ocean, reaching an orbit over the poles before releasing the 21 military-owned satellites to begin several weeks of activations and checkouts.

First of many … These 21 satellites will boost themselves to a final orbit at an altitude of roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers). The Pentagon plans to launch 133 more satellites over the next nine months to complete the build-out of the Space Development Agency’s first-generation, or Tranche 1, constellation of missile-tracking and data-relay satellites. Military officials have worked for six years to reach this moment. The Space Development Agency (SDA) was established during the first Trump administration, which made plans for an initial set of demonstration satellites that launched a couple of years ago. In 2022, the Pentagon awarded contracts for the first 154 operational spacecraft, including the ones launched Wednesday. “Back in 2019, when the SDA was stood up, it was to do two things. One was to make sure that we can do beyond line of sight targeting, and the other was to pace the threat, the emerging threat, in the missile-warning and missile-tracking domain. That’s what the focus has been,” said Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, the SDA’s acting director.

Another Falcon 9 was delayed three times. SpaceX scrubbed launching a communications satellite from an Indonesian company for a third consecutive day Wednesday, Spaceflight Now reports. Possible technical issues got in the way of a launch attempt Wednesday evening after back-to-back days of weather delays at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Falcon 9 finally launched Thursday evening with the Boeing-built Nusantara Lima communications satellite, targeting a geosynchronous transfer orbit. It’s the latest satellite from the Indonesian company Pasifik Satelit Nusantara.

A declining market … This was just the fifth geosynchronous communications satellite to launch on a commercial rocket this year, all by SpaceX. There were 21 such satellites that launched on commercial vehicles in 2015, including SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Europe’s Ariane 5, Russia’s Proton, ULA’s Atlas V, and Japan’s H-IIA. Much of the world’s launch capacity today is used to deploy smaller communications satellites into low-Earth orbit, primarily for broadband connectivity rather than for the video broadcast market once dominated by higher-altitude geosynchronous satellites.

Putin urges Russia to build more rocket engines. Russian President Vladimir Putin urged aerospace industry leaders on September 5 to press on with efforts to develop booster rocket engines for space launch vehicles and build on Russia’s longstanding reputation as a leader in space technology, Reuters reports. Putin, who spent the preceding days in China and the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok, flew to the southern Russian city of Samara, where he met industry specialists and toured the Kuznetsov design bureau engine manufacturing plant.

A shell of its former self … “It is important to consistently renew production capacity in terms of engines for booster rockets,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying during the visit. “And in doing so, we must not only meet our own current and future needs but also move actively on world markets and be successful competitors.” The Kuznetsov plant in Samara builds medium-class RD-107 and RD-108 engines for Russia’s Soyuz-2 rockets, which launch Russian military satellites and crew and cargo to the International Space Station. Their designs can be traced to the dawn of the Space Age nearly 70 years ago. Meanwhile, the outlook for heavier-duty Russian rocket engines is murky, at best. Russia’s most-flown large rocket engine in the post-Cold War era, the RD-180, produced by a company called Energomash, is out of production after the end of sales to the United States.

India nabs a noteworthy launch contract. Astroscale, a satellite servicing and space debris mitigation company based in Japan, has selected India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to deliver a small satellite named ISSA-J1 to orbit in 2027. This is an interesting mission. The ISSA-J1 spacecraft will fly up to two large pieces of satellite debris in orbit to image and inspect them. ISSA-J1, developed in partnership with the Japanese government, is one in a series of Astroscale missions testing different ways of approaching, monitoring, capturing, and refueling other objects in space. The launch agreement was signed between Astroscale and NewSpace India Limited, the commercial arm of India’s space agency.

Rideshare not an option … “We selected NSIL after thorough evaluations of more than 10 launch service providers over the past year, considering technical capabilities, track record, cost, and other elements,” said Eddie Kato, president and managing director of Astroscale Japan. India’s PSLV is right-sized for a mission like this. ISSA-J1 is a rarity in that it must launch on a dedicated rocket because it has to reach a specific orbit to line up with the pieces of space debris it will approach and inspect. Rideshare launches, such as those that routinely fly on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, are cheaper but go to standard orbits popular for many different types of satellite missions. A dedicated launch on a Falcon 9 would presumably have been more expensive than a flight on India’s smaller PSLV. Rocket Lab’s Electron, another rocket popular for dedicated launches of small satellites, lacks the performance required for Astroscale’s mission.

Russian cargo en route to ISS. Another cargo ship is flying to humanity’s orbital outpost with the successful launch of Russia’s Progress MS-32 supply freighter Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASASpaceflight.com reports. The supply ship launched aboard a Soyuz-2.1a rocket and arrived in orbit about nine minutes later, kicking off a two-day pursuit of the International Space Station. This was the 300th launch of an assembly, crew, or cargo mission to the ISS since 1998, including a handful of missions that didn’t reach the complex due to rocket or spacecraft failures.

Important stuff … The Progress MS-32 cargo craft will dock with the aft port of the space station’s Russian Zvezda service module Saturday. The payloads flying on the Progress mission include food, experiments, clothing, water, air, and propellant to be pumped into the space station’s onboard tanks. The spacecraft will also reboost the lab’s orbit.

Metallic tiles? Not so great. It has been two weeks since SpaceX’s last Starship test flight, and engineers have diagnosed issues with its heat shield, identified improvements, and developed a preliminary plan for the next time the ship heads into space, Ars reports. Bill Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX executive in charge of build and flight reliability, presented the findings Monday at the American Astronautical Society’s Glenn Space Technology Symposium in Cleveland. The test flight went “extremely well,” Gerstenmaier said, but he noted some important lessons learned with the ship’s heat shield.

Crunch wrap reigns supreme … “We were essentially doing a test to see if we could get by with non-ceramic tiles, so we put three metal tiles on the side of the ship to see if they would provide adequate heat control, because they would be simpler to manufacture and more durable than the ceramic tiles. It turns out they’re not,” Gerstenmaier said. “The metal tiles… didn’t work so well.” One bright spot with the heat shield was the performance of a new experimental material around and under the tiles. “We call it crunch wrap,” Gerstenmaier said. “It’s like a wrapping paper that goes around each tile.” On the next Starship flight, SpaceX will likely cover more parts of the heat shield with this crunch wrap material. Gerstenmaier said the inaugural flight of Starship Version 3, with upgraded engines and more fuel, is now set to occur next year.

An SLS compromise might be afoot in DC. The Trump administration is seeking to cancel NASA’s Space Launch System rocket after two more flights, but key lawmakers in Congress, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, aren’t ready to go along.  So is this an impasse? Possibly not, as sources say the White House and Congress may not be all that far apart on how to handle this. The solution involves canceling part of the SLS rocket now, but not all of it, Ars reports.

Goodbye EUS? … The compromise might be to cancel a large new upper stage for the SLS rocket called the Exploration Upper Stage. This would save NASA billions of dollars, and the agency could instead procure commercial upper stages, such as those built by United Launch Alliance or Blue Origin, to fly on SLS rockets after NASA’s Artemis III mission. It would also eliminate the need for NASA to finish building an expensive new launch tower at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The upper stage flying on the first three SLS missions is no longer in production. Sources indicated to Ars that Blue Origin has already begun work on a modified version of its New Glenn upper stage that could fit within the shroud of the SLS rocket.

Next three launches

Sept. 13: Soyuz-2.1b | Glonass-K1 No. 18L | Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia | 02: 30 UTC

Sept. 13: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-10 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 15: 41 UTC

Sept. 14: Falcon 9 | Cygnus NG-23 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 22: 11 UTC

Photo of Stephen Clark

Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the world’s space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet.

Rocket Report: Russia’s rocket engine predicament; 300th launch to the ISS Read More »

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Ousted CDC director to testify before Senate after RFK Jr. called her a liar

ACIP, CDC, COVID-19, health, robert f kennedy jr, Senate, vaccines / /

Kennedy is reportedly vetting seven additional members for ACIP, who may be added before the next meeting. They include additional anti-vaccine voices and fringe members of the medical community, such as Kirk Milhoan, who promoted the de-worming drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19, despite several clinical trials finding it is not effective. There is also Joseph Fraiman, who has repeatedly called for COVID-19 vaccines to be pulled from the market.

Also on the list is Catherine Stein, who, The Washington Post noted, has advocated against vaccine mandates and wrote a 2021 article arguing that people should not be afraid of contracting COVID-19 because: “Our Lord has given us a mission to share the gospel. If we live in fear of death, that weakens our testimony. Remember, the Lord Jesus did not fear lepers, and leprosy was (and continues to be) a highly contagious infectious disease.”

Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is, in fact, not a highly contagious disease. It does not spread easily from person to person, is not spread through casual contact, and about 95 percent of people are immune to it naturally. COVID-19, meanwhile, is estimated to have caused more than 7 million deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic.

Regardless of whether these candidates are added to the roster, Cassidy has called for the ACIP meeting scheduled for September 18 and 19 to be postponed.

“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting,” Cassidy said. “These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”

After Monarez and Houry testify before the HELP committee, Cassidy said that Senators are planning to invite current health officials to respond in a subsequent hearing.

Ousted CDC director to testify before Senate after RFK Jr. called her a liar Read More »

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Developers joke about “coding like cavemen” as AI service suffers major outage

agentic AI, AI, AI agents, AI assistants, AI behavior, AI coding, AI development tools, AI infrastructure, AI programming, AI work, Anthropic, API, Biz & IT, Claude Code, cloud infrastructure, Developer Tools, machine learning, outages, service reliability, software development, terminal tools / /

Growing dependency on AI coding tools

The speed at which news of the outage spread shows how deeply embedded AI coding assistants have already become in modern software development. Claude Code, announced in February and widely launched in May, is Anthropic’s terminal-based coding agent that can perform multi-step coding tasks across an existing code base.

The tool competes with OpenAI’s Codex feature, a coding agent that generates production-ready code in isolated containers, Google’s Gemini CLI, Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, which itself can use Claude models for code, and Cursor, a popular AI-powered IDE built on VS Code that also integrates multiple AI models, including Claude.

During today’s outage, some developers turned to alternative solutions. “Z.AI works fine. Qwen works fine. Glad I switched,” posted one user on Hacker News. Others joked about reverting to older methods, with one suggesting the “pseudo-LLM experience” could be achieved with a Python package that imports code directly from Stack Overflow.

While AI coding assistants have accelerated development for some users, they’ve also caused problems for others who rely on them too heavily. The emerging practice of so-called “vibe coding“—using natural language to generate and execute code through AI models without fully understanding the underlying operations—has led to catastrophic failures.

In recent incidents, Google’s Gemini CLI destroyed user files while attempting to reorganize them, and Replit’s AI coding service deleted a production database despite explicit instructions not to modify code. These failures occurred when the AI models confabulated successful operations and built subsequent actions on false premises, highlighting the risks of depending on AI assistants that can misinterpret file structures or fabricate data to hide their errors.

Wednesday’s outage served as a reminder that as dependency on AI grows, even minor service disruptions can become major events that affect an entire profession. But perhaps that could be a good thing if it’s an excuse to take a break from a stressful workload. As one commenter joked, it might be “time to go outside and touch some grass again.”

Developers joke about “coding like cavemen” as AI service suffers major outage Read More »

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Can we please keep our broadband money, Republican governor asks Trump admin

BEAD program, Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, Policy, trump administration / /

Landry’s letter reminded Lutnick that “Congress granted NTIA clear authority” to distribute the remaining broadband funds to states. The law says that after approving a state’s plan, the NTIA “shall make available to the eligible entity the remainder of the grant funds allocated,” and “explicitly grants you wide discretion in directing how these remaining funds can be used for ‘any use determined necessary… to facilitate the goals of the Program,'” Landry wrote.

Landry asked Lutnick to issue clear guidance on the use of remaining grant funds by October 1, and suggested that grant awards be “announced by you and President Trump no later than January 20, 2026.”

Republican governors could sway Trump admin

Levin wrote that Louisiana’s proposal is likely to be supported by other states, even if many of them would prefer the money to be spent on broadband-specific projects.

“We expect most, if not all, of the governors to support Landry’s position; they might not agree with the limits he proposes but they would all prefer to spend the money in their state rather than return the funds to the Treasury,” Levin wrote. “We also think the law is on the side of the states in the sense that the law clearly contemplates and authorizes states to spend funds on projects other than connecting unserved and underserved locations.”

Levin believes Lutnick wants to return unspent funds to the Treasury, but that other Republican governors asking for the money could shift his thinking. “If enough Republican governors and members of Congress weigh in supporting the Landry plan, we think the odds favor Lutnick agreeing to its terms,” he wrote.

Levin wrote that “Commerce agreeing to Landry’s request would avoid a potentially difficult political and legal fight.” But he also pointed out that there would be lawsuits from Democratic state officials if the Trump administration directs a lopsided share of remaining funds to Republican states.

“Democratic Governors might feel queasy about the Landry request that would allow the secretary to reassign funds to other states, but that is still better than an immediate return to Treasury and keeps open the possibility of litigation if Commerce approves red state projects while rejecting blue state projects that do the same thing,” Levin wrote.

Can we please keep our broadband money, Republican governor asks Trump admin Read More »

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Spotify peeved after 10,000 users sold data to build AI tools

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Spotify sent a warning to stop data sales, but developers say they never got it.

For millions of Spotify users, the “Wrapped” feature—which crunches the numbers on their annual listening habits—is a highlight of every year’s end, ever since it debuted in 2015. NPR once broke down exactly why our brains find the feature so “irresistible,” while Cosmopolitan last year declared that sharing Wrapped screenshots of top artists and songs had by now become “the ultimate status symbol” for tens of millions of music fans.

It’s no surprise then that, after a decade, some Spotify users who are especially eager to see Wrapped evolve are no longer willing to wait to see if Spotify will ever deliver the more creative streaming insights they crave.

With the help of AI, these users expect that their data can be more quickly analyzed to potentially uncover overlooked or never-considered patterns that could offer even more insights into what their listening habits say about them.

Imagine, for example, accessing a music recap that encapsulates a user’s full listening history—not just their top songs and artists. With that unlocked, users could track emotional patterns, analyzing how their music tastes reflected their moods over time and perhaps helping them adjust their listening habits to better cope with stress or major life events. And for users particularly intrigued by their own data, there’s even the potential to use AI to cross data streams from different platforms and perhaps understand even more about how their music choices impact their lives and tastes more broadly.

Likely just as appealing as gleaning deeper personal insights, though, users could also potentially build AI tools to compare listening habits with their friends. That could lead to nearly endless fun for the most invested music fans, where AI could be tapped to assess all kinds of random data points, like whose breakup playlists are more intense or who really spends the most time listening to a shared favorite artist.

In pursuit of supporting developers offering novel insights like these, more than 18,000 Spotify users have joined “Unwrapped,” a collective launched in February that allows them to pool and monetize their data.

Voting as a group through the decentralized data platform Vana—which Wired profiled earlier this year—these users can elect to sell their dataset to developers who are building AI tools offering fresh ways for users to analyze streaming data in ways that Spotify likely couldn’t or wouldn’t.

In June, the group made its first sale, with 99.5 percent of members voting yes. Vana co-founder Anna Kazlauskas told Ars that the collective—at the time about 10,000 members strong—sold a “small portion” of its data (users’ artist preferences) for $55,000 to Solo AI.

While each Spotify user only earned about $5 in cryptocurrency tokens—which Kazlauskas suggested was not “ideal,” wishing the users had earned about “a hundred times” more—she said the deal was “meaningful” in showing Spotify users that their data “is actually worth something.”

“I think this is what shows how these pools of data really act like a labor union,” Kazlauskas said. “A single Spotify user, you’re not going to be able to go say like, ‘Hey, I want to sell you my individual data.’ You actually need enough of a pool to sort of make it work.”

Spotify sent warning to Unwrapped

Unsurprisingly, Spotify is not happy about Unwrapped, which is perhaps a little too closely named to its popular branded feature for the streaming giant’s comfort. A spokesperson told Ars that Spotify sent a letter to the contact info listed for Unwrapped developers on their site, outlining concerns that the collective could be infringing on Spotify’s Wrapped trademark.

Further, the letter warned that Unwrapped violates Spotify’s developer policy, which bans using the Spotify platform or any Spotify content to build machine learning or AI models. And developers may also be violating terms by facilitating users’ sale of streaming data.

“Spotify honors our users’ privacy rights, including the right of portability,” Spotify’s spokesperson said. “All of our users can receive a copy of their personal data to use as they see fit. That said, UnwrappedData.org is in violation of our Developer Terms which prohibit the collection, aggregation, and sale of Spotify user data to third parties.”

But while Spotify suggests it has already taken steps to stop Unwrapped, the Unwrapped team told Ars that it never received any communication from Spotify. It plans to defend users’ right to “access, control, and benefit from their own data,” its statement said, while providing reassurances that it will “respect Spotify’s position as a global music leader.”

Unwrapped “does not distribute Spotify’s content, nor does it interfere with Spotify’s business,” developers argued. “What it provides is community-owned infrastructure that allows individuals to exercise rights they already hold under widely recognized data protection frameworks—rights to access their own listening history, preferences, and usage data.”

“When listeners choose to share or monetize their data together, they are not taking anything away from Spotify,” developers said. “They are simply exercising digital self-determination. To suggest otherwise is to claim that users do not truly own their data—that Spotify owns it for them.”

Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, a senior staff technologist for the digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Ars that—while EFF objects to data dividend schemes “where users are encouraged to share personal information in exchange for payment”—Spotify users should nevertheless always maintain control of their data.

“In general, listeners should have control of their own data, which includes exporting it for their own use,” Hoffman-Andrews said. “An individual’s musical history is of use not just to Spotify but also to the individual who created it. And there’s a long history of services that enable this sort of data portability, for instance Last.fm, which integrates with Spotify and many other services.”

To EFF, it seems ill-advised to sell data to AI companies, Hoffman-Andrews said, emphasizing “privacy isn’t a market commodity, it’s a fundamental right.”

“Of course, so is the right to control one’s own data,” Hoffman-Andrews noted, seeming to agree with Unwrapped developers in concluding that “ultimately, listeners should get to do what they want with their own information.”

Users’ right to privacy is the primary reason why Unwrapped developers told Ars that they’re hoping Spotify won’t try to block users from selling data to build AI.

“This is the heart of the issue: If Spotify seeks to restrict or penalize people for exercising these rights, it sends a chilling message that its listeners should have no say in how their own data is used,” the Unwrapped team’s statement said. “That is out of step not only with privacy law, but with the values of transparency, fairness, and community-driven innovation that define the next era of the Internet.”

Unwrapped sign-ups limited due to alleged Spotify issues

There could be more interest in Unwrapped. But Kazlauskas alleged to Ars that in the more than six months since Unwrapped’s launch, “Spotify has made it extraordinarily difficult” for users to port over their data. She claimed that developers have found that “every time they have an easy way for users to get their data,” Spotify shuts it down “in some way.”

Supposedly because of Spotify’s interference, Unwrapped remains in an early launch phase and can only offer limited spots for new users seeking to sell their data. Kazlauskas told Ars that about 300 users can be added each day due to the cumbersome and allegedly shifting process for porting over data.

Currently, however, Unwrapped is working on an update that could make that process more stable, Kazlauskas said, as well as changes to help users regularly update their streaming data. Those updates could perhaps attract more users to the collective.

Critics of Vana, like TechCrunch’s Kyle Wiggers, have suggested that data pools like Unwrapped will never reach “critical mass,” likely only appealing to niche users drawn to decentralization movements. Kazlauskas told Ars that data sale payments issued in cryptocurrency are one barrier for crypto-averse or crypto-shy users interested in Vana.

“The No. 1 thing I would say is, this kind of user experience problem where when you’re using any new kind of decentralized technology, you need to set up a wallet, then you’re getting tokens,” Kazlauskas explained. Users may feel culture shock, wondering, “What does that even mean? How do I vote with this thing? Is this real money?”

Kazlauskas is hoping that Vana supports a culture shift, striving to reach critical mass by giving users a “commercial lens” to start caring about data ownership. She also supports legislation like the Digital Choice Act in Utah, which “requires actually real-time API access, so people can get their data.” If the US had a federal law like that, Kazlauskas suspects that launching Unwrapped would have been “so much easier.”

Although regulations like Utah’s law could serve as a harbinger of a sea change, Kazlauskas noted that Big Tech companies that currently control AI markets employ a fierce lobbying force to maintain control over user data that decentralized movements just don’t have.

As Vana partners with Flower AI, striving, as Wired reported, to “shake up the AI industry” by releasing “a giant 100 billion-parameter model” later this year, Kazlauskas remains committed to ensuring that users are in control and “not just consumed.” She fears a future where tech giants may be motivated to use AI to surveil, influence, or manipulate users, when instead users could choose to band together and benefit from building more ethical AI.

“A world where a single company controls AI is honestly really dystopian,” Kazlauskas told Ars. “I think that it is really scary. And so I think that the path that decentralized AI offers is one where a large group of people are still in control, and you still get really powerful technology.”

Photo of Ashley Belanger

Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience.

Spotify peeved after 10,000 users sold data to build AI tools Read More »

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Accessory maker will pay Nintendo after showing illicit Switch 2 mockups at CES

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Nintendo also accused Genki of “extensive use of Nintendo trademarks” in association with their unlicensed products, a move that “exploit[ed] and appropriate[d] for [Genki] the public goodwill associated with… Nintendo Switch marks.”

The Switch 2 mockup Genki showed in a CES video ended up matching very closely with the final console as released.

The Switch 2 mockup Genki showed in a CES video ended up matching very closely with the final console as released. Credit: Genki

The lawsuit also dealt in part with conflicting reports that Genki may have had “unauthorized, illegal early access to the Nintendo Switch 2,” as Nintendo put it. Media reports around CES quoted Genki representatives asserting that their 3D-printed case mockup was based on early access to a real Switch 2 console. But the company later publicly backtracked, writing on social media that “we do not own or possess a black market console, as some outlets have suggested.”

In their settlement, Nintendo and Genki simply note that “Genki represents and attests that it didn’t obtain any unreleased Nintendo property or documents before the system’s official reveal.”

The public settlement document doesn’t go into detail on the confidential “payment in an agreed-upon amount” that Genki will make to Nintendo to put this matter to rest. But the settlement outlines how Genki is barred from referencing Nintendo trademarks or even parody names like “Glitch” and “Glitch 2” in its future marketing. Under the settlement, packaging for Genki accessories also has to “make clear to consumers Genki’s status as an unlicensed accessory manufacturer” and not mimic the color scheme of official Switch 2 hardware.

Accessory maker will pay Nintendo after showing illicit Switch 2 mockups at CES Read More »

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Switch modder owes Nintendo $2 million after representing himself in court

daly, gaming, hacking, legal, mig, mig switch, modding, Nintendo, Payment, settlement / /

Daly’s pro se legal representation in the case was notable for its use of several novel affirmative defenses, including arguments that Nintendo’s “alleged copyrights are invalid,” that Nintendo “does not have standing to bring suit,” and that Nintendo “procured a contract [with Daly] through fraudulent means.” For the record, the judgment in this case reasserts that Nintendo “owns valid copyrights in works protected by the TPMs, including Nintendo games and the Nintendo Switch operating system.”

In addition to $2 million in damages, Daly is specifically barred from “obtaining, possessing, accessing, or using” any DRM circumvention device or hacked console, with or without the intent to sell it. The judgment also bars Daly from publishing or “linking to” any website with instructions for hacking consoles and from “reverse engineering” any Nintendo consoles or games. Control of Daly’s ModdedHardware.com domain name will also be transferred to Nintendo.

Nintendo’s latest legal victory comes years after a $4.5 million plea deal with Gary “GaryOPA” Bowser, one of the leaders behind Team Xecuter and its SX line of Switch hacking devices. Bowser also served 14 months of a 40-month prison sentence in that case and said last year that he will likely be paying Nintendo back for the rest of his life.

Switch modder owes Nintendo $2 million after representing himself in court Read More »

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Former WhatsApp security boss in lawsuit likens Meta’s culture to a “cult”

Biz & IT, lawsuits, Meta, privacy, Security, whatsapp / /

“This represented the first concrete step toward addressing WhatsApp’s fundamental data governance Failures,” the complaint stated. “Mr. Baig understood that Meta’s culture is like that of a cult where one cannot question any of the past work especially when it was approved by someone at a higher level than the individual who is raising the concern.” In the following years, Baig continued to press increasingly senior leaders to take action.

The letter outlined not only the improper access engineers had to WhatsApp user data, but a variety of other shortcomings, including a “failure to inventory user data,” as required under privacy laws in California, the European Union, and the FTC settlement, failure to locate data storage, an absence of systems for monitoring user data access, and an inability to detect data breaches that were standard for other companies.

Last year, Baig allegedly sent a “detailed letter” to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Jennifer Newstead, Meta general counsel, notifying them of what he said were violations of the FTC settlement and Security and Exchange Commission rules mandating the reporting of security vulnerabilities. The letter further alleged Meta leaders were retaliating against him and that the central Meta security team had “falsified security reports to cover up decisions not to remediate data exfiltration risks.”

The lawsuit, alleging violations of the whistleblower protection provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed in 2002, said that in 2022, roughly 100,000 WhatsApp users had their accounts hacked every day. By last year, the complaint alleged, as many as 400,000 WhatsApp users were getting locked out of their accounts each day as a result of such account takeovers.

Baig also allegedly notified superiors that data scraping on the platform was a problem because WhatsApp failed to implement protections that are standard on other messaging platforms, such as Signal and Apple Messages. As a result, the former WhatsApp head estimated that pictures and names of some 400 million user profiles were improperly copied every day, often for use in account impersonation scams. The complaint stated:

Former WhatsApp security boss in lawsuit likens Meta’s culture to a “cult” Read More »

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Congress and Trump may compromise on the SLS rocket by axing its costly upper stage

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There are myriad questions about how NASA’s budget process will play out in the coming weeks, with the start of the new fiscal year on October 1 looming.

For example, the Trump administration may seek to shut off dozens of science missions that are either already in space or in development. Although Congress has signaled a desire to keep these missions active, absent a confirmed budget, the White House has made plans to turn off the lights.

Some answers may be forthcoming this week, as the House Appropriations Committee will take up the Commerce, Justice, and Science budget bill on Wednesday morning. However great uncertainty remains about whether there will be a budget passed by October 1 (unlikely), a continuing resolution, or a government shutdown.

Behind the scenes, discussions are also taking place about NASA’s Artemis Program in general and the future of the Space Launch System rocket specifically.

$4 billion a launch is too much

From the beginning, the second Trump administration has sought to cancel the costly, expendable rocket. Some officials wanted to end the rocket immediately,  but eventually the White House decided to push for cancellation after Artemis III. This seemed prudent because it allowed the United States the best possible chance to land humans back on the Moon before China got there, and then transition to a more affordable lunar program as quickly as possible.

Congress, particularly US Sen. Ted. Cruz, R-Texas, was not amenable. And so, in supplemental funding as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Cruz locked in billions of dollars to ensure that Artemis IV and Artemis V flew on the SLS rocket, with the promise of additional missions.

Since the release of its budget proposal in May, which called for an end to the SLS rocket after Artemis III, the White House has largely been silent, offering no response to Congress. However that changed last week, when interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy addressed the issue on a podcast hosted by one of the agency’s public relations officials, Gary Jordan:

Congress and Trump may compromise on the SLS rocket by axing its costly upper stage Read More »

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Tiny Vinyl is a new pocketable record format for the Spotify age

Features, music, Tech, tiny vinyl, vinyl, vinyl records / /

Format is “more aligned with how artists are making and releasing music in the streaming era.”

In 2019, Record Store Day partnered with manufacturer Crosley to revive a 3-inch collectible vinyl format first launched in Japan in 2004. Five years later, a new 4-inch-sized format called Tiny Vinyl wants to take the miniature vinyl collectible crown, and launch partner Target is throwing its considerable weight behind it as an exclusive launch partner, with 44 titles expected in the coming weeks.

It’s 2025, and the global vinyl record market has reached $2 billion in annual sales and is still growing at roughly 7 percent annually, according to market research firm Imarc. Vinyl record sales now account for over 50 percent of physical media sales for music (and this is despite a recent resurgence in both cassette and CD sales among Millennials). It’s in this landscape that Tiny Vinyl founders Neil Kohler and Jesse Mann decided to come up with a fun new collectible vinyl format.

An “aha” moment

Kohler’s day job is working with toy companies to develop and market their ideas. He was involved in helping Funko popularize its stylized vinyl figurines, now a ubiquitous presence at pop culture conventions, comic book stores, and toy shops of all kinds. Mann has worked in production, marketing, and the music business for nearly three decades, including a stint at LiveNation and years of running operations for the annual summer music festival Bonnaroo. Both men are based in Nashville—Music City, USA—and the proximity to one of the main centers of the music industry clearly had an impact.

In 2023, Kohler bumped into Drake Coker, CEO and general manager of Nashville Record Pressing, a newer vinyl manufacturing plant that opened in 2021.

“Would it be possible to make a real vinyl record that is small enough to fit inside the box with a Funko Pop, so roughly four inches in diameter?” Kohler asked Coker at the time.

Coker was convinced it was possible to do so. “It took quite a lot of energy to do the R&D and for Drake’s company to figure out how to do that in a technical sense,” Kohler explained to Ars. “It became evident very quickly that this was a really cool thing on its own, and it didn’t need to come in a Funko box,” Kohler told Ars. “As long as we made it authentic to what a standard 12-inch record would be, with sound, and art, and center labels, just miniaturized.”

That’s when Kohler contacted Mann to develop a strategy and make Tiny Vinyl its own unique collectible.

“The first prototype samples started coming out of production in May 2024, and we delivered the first Tiny Vinyl release to country musician Daniel Donato in July 2024,” Mann told Ars. “He took them out on tour, and the fan reaction gave us a sort of wind in the sails, that this would be something that fans would really love,” he said.

Of course, Record Store Day already has a small collectible vinyl format, and the Tiny Vinyl team became aware of it from the moment they started looking at the market.

“The Crosley 3-inch record player is both inspiring but also a different direction than what we wanted.” Kohler explained. “Crosley makes that as more of a promotional tool, to seed their record player business, and it’s this one-side piece that only plays on their miniature players,” Kohler said. “But here we’re focusing on something more, a two-sided piece that could play on any standard turntable.”

“Tiny Vinyl is a different concept. We’re basically trying, and having quite a bit of success, in creating a new vinyl format,” Coker said, “one that is more aligned with how artists are making and releasing music in the streaming era.”

How records are made

The basic process to press a vinyl record starts with cutting a lacquer master. A specially made disc of rather fragile lacquer is put on a cutting lathe—which looks sort of like an industrial turntable—and the audio signals are converted into mechanical movement in its cutting head. That movement is carved into fine grooves in the lacquer, creating the lacquer master.

The lacquer master is electroplated with a nickel alloy, creating a negative metal image of the grooves in the lacquer, called a “father.” This thin, relatively fragile metal negative is this electroplated again with a strong copper-based alloy, creating a new positive image called a “mother.” The mother is plated yet again, creating negative-image “stampers.” Once stampers are made for each side, they are mounted into a hydraulic press for stamping out records.

When a press is ready, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pellets are placed in a hopper and heated to around 250º F and typically extruded into a roughly 4-inch-diameter-thick disc called a “biscuit.” The biscuit is inserted into the press, with paper labels on each side, and the press uses anywhere from 100 to 150 tons of pressure to press a record. (Notably, heat and pressure adhere the labels to the record, not adhesive.)

Finally, the excess vinyl is trimmed off the edges (and often remelted and reused, especially in “eco” vinyl), and the finished records are stacked with metal plates to help cool off the hot vinyl and keep the records flat. All that has to be done while maintaining temperature and humidity to proper levels and keeping dust as far away from the stampers as possible.

To play a record, the turntable turns at a constant rotation speed, and a microscopic piece of diamond in the turntable’s stylus tracks the grooves and translates peaks and valleys into mechanical movement in the stylus. The stylus is connected to a cartridge, which converts the tiny mechanical movements into an electrical signal by moving tiny magnets within a coil. That signal is amplified twice—all turntables use a pre-amp to convert the audio signals to standard audio line-level, and then some other component (receiver, integrated amplifier, or something built-in to powered speakers) amplifies the signal to play back via speakers.

So the manufacturing process relies on the precision of multiple generations of mechanical copying before stamping out microscopic grooves into a relatively inexpensive material, and then, during playback, it depends on multiple steps of amplifying those microscopic grooves before you hear a single note of music. Every step along the way increases the chance that noise or other issues can affect what you hear.

Tiny Vinyl has some advantage here because Nashville Record Pressing is part of GZ Media. Before vinyl started its resurgence in 2007, many vinyl pressing plants closed, and the presses and other machinery were often discarded, with the metal being reused to make other machines. As vinyl manufacturing surged, there were few sources for the presses and other equipment to press records, and GZ’s size amplified those challenges.

“You know, GZ is based in the Czech Republic and is the oldest, largest manufacturer in the world,” Coker said. “And we’ve got very significant resources. I think what people don’t recognize is the depth and breadth of our technical resources. For instance, we’ve been making our own vinyl presses in the Czech Republic for over a decade now,” Coker told Ars. “So we can control every step of the process, from extruding PVC, pressing records, inserting them into sleeves, everything. We had to figure out how to do all that, but in miniature,” Coker said.

“There’s a lot of engineering, and there’s also kind of a lot of secret sauce in this,” Coker said. “So we’re a bit tight-lipped about how this is different. I’m very cryptic, but I will say that there are issues with PVC compound, there are issues with mastering, there are issues with plating, there are issues with pressing, there are issues with label application. It is definitely a challenge to make the sleeves and jackets at this size, get everything all assembled and get it wrapped, and get some stickers on it and have it look good. Some of those challenges are bigger than others, but we feel pretty good that we’ve had the time to really do the work that was necessary to figure this out.”

Challenges in manufacturing are also compounded by playback. As a turntable’s stylus moves closer to the center of a record, the linear speed decreases, which impacts playback quality. The angle of the stylus can also affect how well grooves are tracked, again impacting playback quality.

“S​​o it’s a game about how to stay inside the manufacturing and playback infrastructure that exists,” Coker continued. “And to get something to work with a linear speed that’s never been tried before, right? And so what’s come out of that is a disc that we’re certainly very proud of,” he said.

Furthermore, 4-inch vinyl records are almost the exact size of the label on an LP or 7-inch single, so automatic turntables won’t work. If you want to play Tiny Vinyl at home, you’ll need a manual turntable or one that allows turning off auto stop and start. The good news is that the majority of turntables in use are manual. But some of the most popular entry-level models, such as Audio-Technica’s LP60-series, are strictly automatic.

That may change in the future. “We’re in touch with turntable manufacturers, and some have expressed an interest in making sure they are compatible with Tiny Vinyl,” Kohler told Ars. But that is likely contingent on the format selling in big numbers.

All aboard the Tiny Vinyl train

“We will make Tiny Vinyl for anyone, any artist or label that brings us music they have the rights to, and they can distribute that however they want,” Kohler told Ars. “Some people are using their own direct-to-consumer websites. Some other artists are doing it on tour, at merch tables. There is a Lindsay Sterling title that was the first Tiny Vinyl that was available at retail at Urban Outfitters.”

But for now, the big push is with the upcoming launch with Target, and so far, existing collectors are curious.

A sampling of the first batch of records. Credit: Chris Foresman

“I absolutely adore these 4-inch records,” Christina Stroven, an avid record collector from Arkansas, told Ars. “I think they’ll be super fun to collect and bring back all of the nostalgia of the cassette singles from the ’80s and ’90s,” she said, noting that she has over 1,500 records in her collection already.

“It is nice to have another format that still works on my turntable. I will for sure be picking up the Alessia Cara ‘Here’/’Scars To Your Beautiful’ single and The Rolling Stones and Kasey Musgraves, too.” Stroven said.

“I’ve already pre-ordered two Tiny Vinyl records,” Fred Whitacre Jr, a teacher, drummer, and record collector from Warren, Ohio, said. “But, I don’t think it’s something I’m going to delve very heavily into. I always like when vinyl pressings try something new, but for me, I’m probably going to stick with LPs and 45s.”

For Tiny Vinyl, this is really just the beginning. “This launch is being driven by Target,” Kohler noted. “It’s mostly because of my background in the toy industry. When I talked to the management team at Target, they said, ‘You know, let’s try and do something here, and we’ll help organize the labels.’”

Target already has relationships with major record labels, which have supplied the company with exclusive album variants in the past. “Really, the labels are supplying what Target is asking for, and we’re supplying the labels,” Kohler said.

And all this is to help establish Tiny Vinyl as a standard format. “We just wanted to get the ball rolling and make sure this is a success,” Kohler added. “We’ve been contacted by Barnes and Noble, and Walmart, and Best Buy, and other retailers. But Target jumped in with both feet.”

What does Crosley think about a new, potentially competing small vinyl format?

“I’m glad they’re doing it,” Scott Bingaman, owner of Crosley distributor Deer Park Distributors. “We’re still working on some great Record Store Day releases for 3-inch vinyl, but I’m rooting for these guys. I understand you have to pick a channel, and they went with the one that was most willing to step up. I hope distribution widens up because for me the definition of success is kids standing in line overnight at a record store, getting physical media.”

And will independent labels consider the format despite its relatively high price? That may depend on the audience.

Revelation Records, which specializes in hardcore and punk music, has a catalog that stretches back into the early days of straight edge and New York hardcore from the late ’80s. Founder Jordan Cooper thinks the format sounds interesting.

“This is still in the novelty realm, obviously, but seems like it could be a good merch item for bands to do,” he told Ars.

The vast majority of records sold are 12-inch LPs, but in the punk and indie scenes, a 7-inch EP is usually a cheaper way to get typically two to four songs to fans. A 4-inch single limits that to two relatively short songs, but again, the size and novelty factor could attract some buyers.

“I think as a fan, if I saw a band and song or two I liked on one of these, I might be motivated to pick it up,” Cooper said. “The price is really high for what you get, but at the same time, even 7-inches are pushing up over $10 now.”

Reminds one of a stack of CDs. Credit: Chris Foresman

With production capacity at full blast for the rollout with Target, though, Tiny Vinyl currently requires a minimum order of 2,000 units. That just isn’t financially feasible unless a band already has a large enough fan base to support it.

“Three-inch records are kind of a gimmick, and I feel the same about this format,” Carl Zenobi, owner of small, Pennsylvania-based indie label Powertone Records, told Ars. “I could see younger music fans seeing this at a merch table and thinking it’s cool, so that would be a plus if it draws younger fans into record collecting.”

“But from my reading, this is meant for bigger artists on major labels and not independent artists,” Zenobi said. Powertone has sold several short-run 3-inch lathe-cut releases in the past couple years, but quantities are typically in the dozens.

“For me and the artists I work with, we would be looking at 100 to maybe 300 units,” Zenobi explained. “For the amount of money that 2,000 units would likely cost, you might as well have a full LP pressed!”

Still, some artists have already had early success with the format. Alt-country-folk duo The Band Loula, who recently signed with Warner Nashville in 2024, has only released a handful of singles so far, primarily via streaming. But the group decided to try Tiny Vinyl for their songs “Running Off The Angels” and “Can’t Please ’Em All” earlier this year.

“We heard about Tiny Vinyl through our manager, and we thought it was a great idea since we’re still in more of a single release strategy,” Malachi Mills, one-half of The Band Loula, told Ars.

The band just got off a 34-show tour with country star Dierks Bentley that kicked off in May, and with nowhere near enough songs for an album, they decided to make a Tiny Vinyl to take on tour.

“We don’t have an album, but we have a few singles, so we said, ‘Let’s take our two favorite songs and put them on there,’” Mills said. We sell them for $15 at our merch booth, and for people that don’t have enough money to buy a shirt, they can still walk away with something really cool.”

“We’re a new band, the opening act, so I think people are still catching on to our merchandise,” Logan Simmons, The Band Loula’s other singer-songwriter half, explained. “People are definitely using the Tiny Vinyl to kind of capture a moment in time. Everybody wants us to sign them, and some fans told us they want to frame it, to frame the vinyl itself.”

“We watched our sales grow every night, and every date we played it felt like we were receiving more and more positive feedback,” Simmons said. “I think the Tiny Vinyl definitely had something to do with that.”

Overall, the band—and its fans—seem pleased with the results so far. “We’re also excited to see how they sell in different forums—we think they’ll sell even better in clubs and theaters,” Mills said. “As long as people keep buying them, we’ll keep making them. It sounds great, and seeing that tiny little thing on a full-size record player, you just think, ‘That’s really cool, man,’”

Here is where some of the differences in approach give Tiny Vinyl an advantage for record labels and bands to produce something to get into fans’ hands. Three-inch vinyl started as a kitschy toy for Japanese youth, and the format is only made by Toyokasei in Japan in partnership with Record Store Day. That means releases are limited to what can be pressed by Toyokasei and marketed by RSD.

Tiny Vinyl, on the other hand, has access to all of GZ Media’s pressing plants in Europe, the US, and Canada. So there is capacity to meet the demands of both independent and major labels.

But like The Band Loula discovered, Tiny Vinyl also aligns more with how artists are releasing music.

“A lot of data was supporting a surge in vinyl sales over the last 10 years,” Kohler explained. “So we really wanted to capture something that made vinyl a lot more digestible for the typical listener. I mean, I love vinyl. I grew up playing Dark Side of the Moon for like two weeks at a time, right? But few people are listening to a 12-inch vinyl from start to finish anymore. They’re listening to Spotify for 10 seconds and then they’re moving on.”

“So artists today, they don’t have to wait to accumulate, to write, produce, and master 10 or 12 songs to be able to start getting vinyl into the marketplace,” Coker said. “If they’ve got one or two, they’re good to go, and this format is much more closely aligned to the way most artists are releasing music into the marketplace, which gives vinyl a vibrancy and an immediacy and a relevance that sometimes is difficult to be able to keep together in a 12-inch format.”

Another consideration for artists is getting sales recognition, which is something all Tiny Vinyl releases will have, whereas many independent releases do not. “I think a really important piece is that Tiny Vinyl charts,” Mann said. “It is tracked through Luminate to make sure that it hits the Billboard charts.”

Vinyl Format Comparison

3” single Tiny Vinyl single 7” 45 rpm single 12” 33 rpm LP
Size (jacket area) 3.75×3.75in 95x95mm 4.25×4.25in 108x108mm 7.25×7.25in 184x184mm 12.25×12.25in 314x314mm
Weight (with cover) 0.80oz 22g 1.35oz 37g 2.00oz 56g 10.60oz 300g
Sides 1 2 2 2
Length (per side) ~2.5 min 4 min 6 min 23 min
Typical Cost $12 $15 $10–15 $25–35

Looking for adoption

Early signs are suggesting Tiny Vinyl has legs. “Rainbow Kitten Surprise, which is TV0002, they’re the first artist to release a second item with us,” Mann said. “Whereas we’ve had reorders for certain titles that sold really well, they’re the first artist that has had success in like a surprise-and-delight kind of way and then gone back to the well and were like, hey, we want to do this again.”

Though just over a dozen Tiny Vinyl records have been released in the wild so far, including titles from the likes of Derek and the Moonrocks, Melissa Etheridge, America’s Got Talent finalist Grace VanderWaal, and Blake Shelton, Target has over 40 titles lined up to start selling at the end of September. But interest has already grown beyond what’s already been announced.

Credit: Chris Foresman

“There are actually many in the process of manufacturing,” Kohler said. “TV0087 is in production, so while there are only a handful that are available for sale right now in the market, there’s a whole wave of new Tiny Vinyls coming.”

And Coker is convinced that independent labels and record stores will be more apt to embrace the format once it’s gotten some wings.

“In order to be able to give the format the broad adoption that we’ve been looking for, we had to assemble the ability to not only make these things but make them at scale, and then to get enough labels and enough artists attached to the project that we could launch a credible initial offering,” Coker said. “Tiny Vinyl, it’s still a baby, right? Giving it a chance to safely get launched into the world, where it can grow up and take whatever path that it takes is, I think, our job to try to be good parents, and help shepherd it through that process.”

Ultimately, fans will decide Tiny Vinyl’s fate. Whether it’s a resounding success or more of a collector niche like 3-inch vinyl remains to be seen. But Crosley’s Bingaman thinks even a little success is worth the effort.

“If it lasts one year or 10, it’s all about that kid walking into Target and getting that first piece of vinyl,” he said.

Tiny Vinyl is a new pocketable record format for the Spotify age Read More »

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Dev says Switch 2’s physical Game Cards were too slow for Star Wars Outlaws port

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A video shows how different storage media can affect Mario Kart World load times.

CD Projekt Red VP of Technology Charles Tremblay has alluded to this same challenge when talking about the Switch 2 port of Cyberpunk 2077. In a June interview with IGN, Tremblay said the data transfer speeds enabled by MicroSD Express were “great,” while streaming data from a Switch 2 Game Card was merely “okay.” Tremblay did go on to say that “all the performance we have on [input/output] is very good on [the Switch 2],” especially compared to the extremely slow physical hard drives that plagued Cyberpunk 2077‘s performance on older hardware.

Slow down, you move too fast

From the outside, it’s a bit odd that Nintendo allowed this loading-speed dichotomy to exist on the Switch 2 in the first place. On the original Switch, read speeds for both SD cards and Game Cards reportedly maxed out around 90 MB/s. But when designing the new Switch 2 game cards, Nintendo settled on a format that would stream data much more slowly than for downloaded games on the same console.

That decision might have been an attempt to minimize hardware costs for the Switch 2’s Game Card interface. If so, though, it doesn’t seem to have done much to reduce the costs of manufacturing Switch 2 game cards themselves. The cost of manufacturing those physical Game Cards has been frequently cited as a major reason many publishers are using cheaper Game Key Cards in the first place, though Bantin said that he “[didn’t] recall the cost of the cards ever entering the discussion [for Star Wars: Outlaws]—probably because it was moot.”

Nintendo could get around this variable loading speed issue by letting players pre-install games from a Switch 2 Game Card to internal or expansion storage, as Microsoft and Sony have either allowed or required on their disc-based consoles for decades now. But that solution might prove onerous for physical game card players who want to avoid clogging up the limited 256GB of internal storage on the Switch 2 (and/or avoid investing in pricey MicroSD Express cards).

As time goes on, many developers will likely learn how to adapt to and tolerate the Switch 2’s relatively slow Game Card interface. But as gamers and the industry at large continue to transition away from physical media, some developers might decide it’s not worth compromising on loading speeds just to satisfy a shrinking portion of the market.

Dev says Switch 2’s physical Game Cards were too slow for Star Wars Outlaws port Read More »