TikTok will offer movie showtimes and ticket options after showing trailers

TikTok may soon offer an easy way for you to buy a movie ticket after you see a trailer that catches your attention. It’s offering select movie studios access to a tool called Showtimes on TikTok. The studios will be able to show a full trailer, then display details on showtimes and nearby theaters. They’ll also be able to add a link to a partner site where you can buy tickets.

TikTok says 52 percent of users learn about a new show, movie or actor on the app, and a quarter of people who see an entertainment ad or trailer buy a ticket. This tool may streamline things and (from the studios’ perspective) help consumers follow through on their intent to buy a ticket.

The platform announced Showtimes on TikTok as part of a summit focused on brands and advertising. Another notable update is the fact that creators who are collaborating with mobile gaming companies will be able to include relevant iOS and Android app store links to help folks download the game they’re promoting. Creators will also be able to pin a comment with a link to more details about the service or product they showcase in a video.

There will be updates to the TikTok Creator Marketplace, where brands can find influencers to partner with. TikTok says it will improve search, help brands and agencies to quickly find creators who match a brief and allow them to invite any user (including those who aren’t on the 800,000-strong TikTok Creator Marketplace) to take part in a campaign.

Meanwhile, TikTok has announced a feature called Profile Kit. This will allow users to link their accounts to some third-party apps and display some of their videos there. TikTok’s first partner for this initiative is Linktree. You’ll be able to display some of your TikToks on your Linktree “link in bio” page alongside links to your other social media profiles.

Blizzard is giving away freebies to ‘Overwatch 2’ players to apologize for its rocky launch

Blizzard previously admitted that Overwatch 2’s launch, which was spoiled by a bunch of bugs, DDoS attacks and other issues, has not met players of the company’s expectations. While the company has made a lot of progress to make the game playable — a lot of players couldn’t even log in at first — its work is far from done. Now, the developer is trying to make it up to fans by giving out freebies and running events. It will hold several Double Match XP weekends to give players the chance to rack up points and rank up. Blizzard will announce specific dates for the events soon. 

It will also give players who log in from October 25th until the time Season One ends a Cursed Captain Reaper Legendary skin and a Health Pack Weapon Charm. Both items will automatically be added to people’s collection when they log in within that window of time. In its announcement, Blizzard said that it will deploy more stability updates, starting with another patch scheduled for release this week. It also said that it’s monitoring the game closely for any more issues and bugs that emerge. 

The developer keeps a public list of known issues on its forum, but players are finding more that it has yet to acknowledge. Users are reporting problems regarding specific characters in the game, such as Mei, whose ice wall has been behaving inconsistently, according to Kotaku. Blizzard even had to pull two heroes out of the game completely to address a few bugs in the ability kits. 

‘Among Us VR’ delivers virtual backstabbing on November 10th

After a bit of a wait, Among Us VR is nearly ready. Innersloth, Schell Games and Robot Teddy have confirmed the virtual reality betrayal game will be available November 10th on Meta Quest 2 and Steam. There’s no mention of a PlayStation VR version in the announcement (we’ve asked Innersloth for comment), but this is still a big deal if you’re hoping for a fresh take on the game’s core concept.

As in the 2D version, Among Us VR asks crewmates to identify impostors before they kill the entire crew. However, the move to a first-person perspective shakes up gameplay. Impostors will now have an easier time sneaking around, and you can now use hand expressions when you accuse others or protest your innocence. If you’ve grown tired of plain Among Us, this might give you a reason to come back.

That “if” is important, of course. Among Usthrived in the early days of the pandemic, when it was one of the more entertaining ways to play and connect with your isolated friends. While it still has its audience, it’s not the cult phenomenon it was in 2020. With that said, this may be a good example of what VR gaming can do — you can socialize with your buddies while running for your virtual life.

Twitter and Instagram lock Kanye West’s accounts after a weekend of antisemitic posts

Kanye West’s return to Twitter has been short-lived. Less than a day after Elon Musk welcomed him back to the platform, the rapper saw his account suspended for posting an antisemitic message. On late Saturday night, West, who goes by Ye now, said he w…

First ‘Super Mario Bros.’ movie trailer shows trouble in the Mushroom Kingdom

It’s finally clear just what the long-expected Super Mario Bros. movie will look like. Nintendo and Illumination have shared a teaser trailer (below) offering a peek at the computer animated blockbuster. The clip shows Bowser (played by Jack Black) terrorizing a penguin kingdom in his quest for an invincibility star. Not surprisingly, we know who will come to their rescue — Mario (Chris Pratt) makes an abrupt entrance to the Mushroom Kingdom, while his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) makes a cameo.

The movie also stars The Queen’s Gambit‘s Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, among other big names. Super Mario Bros. is expected to premiere April 7th, 2023.

If the teaser is anything to go by, the creators aren’t taking any chances. This appears to be a straightforward CG movie meant to appeal to a wide audience — you won’t have flashbacks to the odd 1993 live action film. With that said, the top-tier actors and lavish visuals might help it stand out if the iconic gaming franchise isn’t enough by itself.

Now TikTok is copying Instagram with ‘Photo Mode’

At this point, we’re all pretty used to seeing Instagram copy TikTok. Now, in a new twist, TikTok is copying Instagram with a new feature called “Photo Mode.” The update allows TikTok users to share multiple still photos in a post, along with captions …

Twitter’s edit button finally debuts in the United States, but you’ll have to pay for it

A lot more people will soon be able to do what was once unthinkable: edit tweets. Twitter has begun to roll out its new tweet-editing feature to Twitter Blue subscribers in the United States. The expansion follows a launch in Canada, New Zealand and Au…

Fast Company returns after attack that saw obscene Apple News alerts pushed to readers

Fast Company’s website finally came back online eight days after the publication took it down due to a cyberattack. The business publication was initially hacked on September 25th, but it wasn’t until the second security breach on September 27th that it had to take drastic measures to contain the situation. If you’ll recall, Apple News users who are subscribed to Fast Company received a couple of obscene push notifications with racial slurs in late September. The bad actors had also defaced the website with obscene and racist messages and posted details on how they were able to infiltrate the publication. 

They said that Fast Company used an easy-to-crack password for its WordPress CMS and had re-used it for its other accounts. From there, they were able to grab the company’s Apple News API keys, as well as authentication tokens that gave them access to employee names, email addresses and IPs. In a forum the hackers linked to on the defaced website, a user called “Thrax” posted a database dump with 6,737 employee records that include mails, password hashes for some of them and unpublished drafts, among other details.

No customer or advertiser information was exposed as a result of the hack, though, Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan wrote in a new post announcing that the publication is back. The main Fast Company website, its corporate site Mansueto.com and its sister site Inc.com remained offline for eight days while an investigation was being conducted. During that period, the publication posted content on other platforms, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Medium. Vaughan didn’t go into details with the result of the probe, other than saying that no customer or advertiser data was compromised and that the publication has “taken steps to safeguard against further attacks.”

The Internet Archive is building a library of amateur radio broadcasts

The Internet Archive is aiming to build up a new library of old content. It’s expanding beyond Flash games and animations, movies, books and (of course) snapshots of websites with the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC). This particular archive, which will be led by tech historian Kay Savetz, will include amateur radio broadcasts and digital material from the early days of the internet.

Savetz told Gizmodo that his remit includes just about any kind of digital communications from the 1970s until the early 1990s. While the preservation project focuses on amateur radio recordings, it may also feature early podcasts, digital newsletters, photos, videos and, yes, websites. There are plans to digitize print materials as well. “I want the obscure stuff, the locally-produced ham radio newsletters or the smaller magazines, that sort of thing,” Savetz said.

The DLARC team, which has funding from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation, is looking for help to build out the collection. It’s seeking “partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications-related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small.” It added that every collection in the library will be accessible to everyone. The project will also offer a discovery portal designed for education and research use cases.