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It may seem like a highly unlikely pairing, but acquiring Bandcamp does align with Epic's broadening ambitions for the metaverse as well as CEO Tim Sweeney's intent to create a version of the internet that more closely aligns with the company's vision for Fortnite.

Epic has acquired a number of companies over the past few years, thanks to the success of Fortnite, that hint at its focus on building a small empire at the intersection of entertainment, technology and social media, including social video app Houseparty and Guitar Hero and Rock Band developer Harmonix.

Sweeney, often in public statements in both the antitrust trial against Apple and on Twitter, has voiced his concern about Big Tech's dominance and his fear that such control will extend to the metaverse, which has become a kind of stand-in for the next-generation version of the internet that combines social media, gaming and entertainment with technologies like virtual and augmented reality.

With Bandcamp, Epic seems to have found a like-minded platform. It's also one with a sterling reputation among musicians for treating creators fairly in a way that could benefit Fortnite and Epic's plans for the metaverse, given how pricey traditional media licensing deals can be.

We couldnt be more excited to welcome the Bandcamp team to Epic Games, Epic Game Store chief Steve Allison said in a statement. Bandcamp has built an incredible community and business where up and coming artists can succeed thanks to the direct support of their fans, with one of the best revenue models and terms in music. This aligns closely with Epics approach to supporting creators across all media and enabling them to connect directly with their fans.

"In Epic, weve found a partner who believes as deeply as we do that the future of music, and art itself, depends on the creation of equitable and inclusive communities like the one our fans and artists have helped to build," said Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond in a statement. "Were excited to work alongside the Epic team to accelerate the realization of our mission and pursue our shared goal of empowering more creators in a fair and open way.

The acquisition naturally raises some questions about what this might mean for the future of Bandcamp. We don't yet have clarity on whether Epic will make any changes to Bandcamp's revenue model (including Bandcamp Fridays) or what happens to Bandcamp's editorial operation.

In a separate message on the company's website and Twitter account, Diamond said Bandcamp will remain a standalone marketplace, with Diamond at the helm, and that there will be no immediate changes to Bandcamp's business model. Diamond says Epic will primarily be helping Bandcamp for now with "basics like our album pages, mobile apps, merch tools, payment system, and search and discovery features, to newer initiatives like our vinyl pressing and live streaming services."

"The products and services you depend on arent going anywhere, well continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model (where artists net an average of 82% of every sale), youll still have the same control over how you offer your music, Bandcamp Fridays will continue as planned, and the Daily will keep highlighting the diverse, amazing music on the site," Diamond wrote. "We share a vision of building the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world, and together well be able to create even more opportunities for artists to be compensated fairly for their work."

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Amazon is expanding its 'free college' benefit and adding ESL classes - Protocol

Samsung introduced its Expert Raw app in beta at the end of 2021; currently, it is only available for the S21 Ultra. The app allows you to control manual exposure settings for all four of the rear cameras, which is nice, but the more interesting thing it allows you to do is shoot multi-frame RAW files. Heres what you need to know about Expert RAW what it is, why its useful, and how to use it.

The short answer is that its RAW but better. In general, RAW shooting saves more data than a JPEG image file, which is a huge benefit if you prefer to fine-tune things like white balance and exposure photo editing software. JPEGs are smaller and more easily shareable, but those kinds of settings are baked in to save space, and theyre much less flexible for post-processing. Plenty of smartphones offer a traditional RAW shooting mode but with a major disadvantage to shooting a standard JPEG image.

When you take a photo in your phones native camera app, the resulting JPEG (or HEIC) file often includes data from multiple frames that were captured very quickly when you pressed the shutter button. This allows the phone to create a single image file with wider dynamic range, making a backlit subject brighter without adding a whole lot of ugly noise, for example.

Traditional RAW mode on a smartphone (or any camera) captures a single frame thats more flexible for editing than a typical JPEG but loses out on the computational benefits that come with the multi-frame processing youd get with the JPEG. This makes shooting RAW on a smartphone kind of pointless, to put it bluntly. Smartphones have very small sensors and lenses relative to traditional cameras, and they use these computational tricks to capture more image data and compensate for that size disadvantage. As a result, its usually better to just let your phone do its thing and take a JPEG.

Multi-frame RAW, which several phone manufacturers (including Apple) have introduced, makes RAW much more useful, especially when youre taking a photo with your phone. You get the best of both worlds: data from multiple frames recorded into a single file, plus plenty of flexibility for editing.

The Galaxy S22 series, including the standard S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra, have all supported Expert RAW as of February 25th. Samsung plans to expand support to some older models, but there are certain hardware requirements a phone has to meet to be able to run Expert RAW, so only a handful of other top-tier devices will offer it. That list includes:

The feature isnt included in the standard Samsung camera app; its actually an entirely separate app that needs to be downloaded from the Galaxy Store. Open the store app and search for Expert RAW. Once youve downloaded it and agreed to give it access to your camera and microphone, youre ready to start shooting multi-frame RAW files.

The Expert RAW interface is similar to the Pro mode in the standard camera app, including the letter icons at the bottom of the screen that indicate the 0.6x, 1x, and 3x lens options. When you press the shutter, youll see text urging you to hold the phone still while the phone grabs multiple frames. Related: Expert RAW isnt something youll want to use for moving subjects.

The resulting files are big around 30MB to 40MB each in my testing. Theres a high-efficiency RAW option you can toggle on if you tap the settings icon on the shooting screen, but it only saved me a couple of MBs per image. Unless you bought a phone with massive storage, youll want to stick to using Expert RAW when it will really make a difference, not all the time.

Expert RAW files are saved as standard DNG files, so you can take them into any RAW processing software that you like. Samsung includes a Lightroom shortcut in the Expert RAW app, but if you want to go that route, youll need to download Lightroom from the Galaxy Store and log in with an Adobe account. Downloading from the Galaxy Store entitles you to a two-month free trial, but after that, youll need to pony up for the $119 annual subscription.

In any case, you can tap the share icon when reviewing your image to take your photo into a free app like Snapseed or save it to cloud storage to edit on a desktop.

With your image in the editing software of your choice, youll enjoy more freedom to push shadows or pull back highlights than with a standard RAW file. I took a standard RAW and a multi-frame RAW of the same backlit scene for comparison purposes, and the difference is significant. Pushing the shadow slider all the way +100 on both photos, theres some clear banding in the standard RAW, while the Expert RAW looks much cleaner.

So when youre shooting a scene with a wide dynamic range, this is definitely the better RAW mode to use just dont get too trigger-happy if you want to go easy on your phones storage.

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How to use Expert RAW on Samsung Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra - The Verge

This morning Airbase, a startup in the corporate spend space, announced that it is working with Amex on a pilot that will see its service offered to certain customers of the credit giant. The deal also included a strategic investment, which TechCrunch reads as a modestly sized check, given that the dollar figure was not disclosed.

Normally we dont cover announcements that lack hard figures like investment totals, but the Airbase deal is worth our time because the startup was willing to share a host of its own growth metrics.

The corporate spend market is also a notable startup battleground, with Airbase competing with other well-known firms, including Brex (which most recently raised $300 million), Ramp ($200 million in its most recent round) and Divvy (sold to Bill.com for $2.5 billion). The move by Amex to invest in and work with one of the competing startup players in the corporate spend market could provide a tailwind to the selected player, perhaps helping it scale more rapidly than its rivals. So, from our perspective of startup tracking, the news matters.

TechCrunch spoke with Airbase CEO Thejo Kote about the deal, and his companys recent progress. Per the executive, Airbases annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew threefold in 2021, with payment volume rising eightfold in the same time period. Those numbers are why the corporate spend category is so investor-attractive the sheer work of helping companies manage their spend is huge business, and one that is seeing increasing segmentation as it matures. (TechCrunchs Mary Ann Azevedo has more here.)

Kote, for example, said that 80% of his companys ARR now comes from mid-market and early enterprise segments, or customers with between 100 and 5,000 employees. Divvy, in contrast, has had an SMB focus, traditionally.

The Airbase-Amex deal will have a crawl, walk, run cadence, according to American Express Ventures managing director Margaret Lim. In an interview, she told TechCrunch that the first phase of the tie-up will include a select group of customers to start. From there, we presume, it will expand, provided that things commence smoothly.

Amexs venture arm was loathe to detail much about its operations, including how it prices deals, so we arent clear precisely on how the new funds were valued in share-terms. Airbases last known price tag was set at $600 million on a post-money basis after the company raised $60 million last year, according to Crunchbase data. Given the short period of time from that deal to today, it doesnt seem too likely that Airbase was dramatically repriced by the deal.

That Amex is partnering with Airbase is notable, but not a huge surprise: The corporate credit giant also works with Concur, for example, and what Airbase and its competitors are building has obvious market resonance. So much so that other startups are looking to replicate it elsewhere in the world, TechCrunch has reported and Amex doesnt want something big that could be considered a potential direct competitor to wind up owning the future.

We asked Lim about how Amex decides to build, versus buy. Or, more simply, why the company doesnt simply create its own version of Airbase software instead of working with an external provider that has a competing corporate card product. According to the investor, innovation is speeding up, and with a goal of delivering the best set of products as possible in a timely fashion to its customers, partnering can be a way to reduce time to market.

As to why Amex chose Airbase over a competing startup, it appears to have come down to what we might describe as software quality. Lim said that before her team invests, it meets all players, centering its thinking around customer needs. From that perspective, the investment arm of American Express said that Airbase was a no-brainer, given what Lim described as an intuitive interface that makes a sophisticated toolset simple to use.

Translating a bit, it appears that Amex did its homework and decided that Airbase has the best software in the market for corporate spend work. Thats a compliment, but once again not a surprise.

The corporate spend category has long had two main camps, as TechCrunch has discussed. One portion of startups competing in the market for managing companys cash outflows doesnt charge for its cards, or any software provided. Instead, they make revenues off interchange fees, small slices of transaction value that card issuers collect from customer transactions. Ramp sits in this half of the divide.

The other portion of the market has collected interchange fees, and charged for their software offerings. Airbase started in this camp, which Brex joined the other quarter.

Airbase took the we charge for software concept a bit further last year, when it decided to offer a free tier of its service and remit essentially all interchange incomes to customers as a cash perk; this was the company effectively saying that it could eat on its software incomes alone, which is why we were happy when the startup disclosed its recent ARR growth.

Summing briefly, as Airbase has long had to build software that it could charge for and this is our read of the market it has likely had a larger focus on its codebase than some of its rivals. So to see Amex pick it over its rivals as a partner is not a massive shock to our collective systems.

Still, there are other major card providers in the market who could tie up with rivals, so dont take the Amex news as a coronation. Its more confirmation that what startups are building has the attention of major players, companies that want to put capital to work along with access to their customer base.

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Airbase teams up with Amex on corporate spend, raises a little capital from the giant - TechCrunch

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) has added 33 China-based companies to its Unverified List, which now includes more than 100 entities located in China. A listing of these companies is provided in the appendix below.

Effective February 8, 2022, the export, reexport, or transfer of any items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) including goods, software, and technology to any of the companies added to the Unverified List will require enhanced diligence and documentation, including in some instances a certified UVL Statement from the listed entity. Inclusion on the Unverified List also precludes reliance on any license exception, meaning that the exporter must seek an export license from BIS before exporting controlled items to these entities.

A company doing business with an Unverified List designee must first determine whether the transaction involves an item subject to the EAR including even non-dual use items and those designated EAR99. (The provision of services and certain published materials are generally excluded.) If so, the company must then determine whether a license is required for the intended destination (e.g., China), end-user, or end use; and even when no license is required, the company must still obtain a UVL Statement from the listed entity certifying its compliance with the EAR and committing to cooperation with end-use checks by BIS. Records relating to the transaction, regardless of whether a license is required, must be kept for at least five years.

The exclusion from license exception eligibility impacts items that, although subject to a license requirement for certain destinations such as China, can ordinarily be exported without a license, provided the requirements of an applicable license exception are met. For example, technology companies that supply encryption software classified under the Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 5D002 routinely rely on License Exception ENC to lift a license requirement for end-users located in China. Those companies will now need an export license from BIS before providing the same software (and potentially software updates) to the Unverified List entities.

BIS added the 33 China-based entities to the Unverified List because it has been unable to sufficiently determine the entities legitimacy or reliability as end-users of items subject to the EAR. While additions to the Unverified List are not necessarily predicated on specific national security or foreign policy concerns, this action reflects the U.S. governments increased scrutiny of Chinas business practices and continued focus on perceived threats from China. BIS indicated the Unverified List update, which follows the addition of 34 Chinese companies to the Entity List last December, is intended in part to signal to the [Chinese] government the importance of their cooperation in assisting BIS with verifying the legitimacy and reliability of these parties to receive U.S. exports. Delays in the ability of BIS to conduct such verification checks may have also resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. Although designations on the Unverified List may not reflect wrongdoing by the listed entities, these listings are in some cases confused with other U.S. government prohibited party listings having broader impact (e.g., BISs Entity List and the Office of Foreign Assets Controls Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List).

Entities seeking removal from the Unverified List may petition BIS and supply information to verify their legitimacy and reliability.

Appendix: List of Companies Added to the Unverified List on February 8, 2022

The names and websites of the companies recently added to the Unverified List suggest operations in a wide range of industries, including electronics, optoelectronics, semiconductor manufacturing, wind and solar energy, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), industrial equipment, heavy machinery, specialty chemicals, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals, among others. Universities are also among the recent Unverified List designees.

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Commerce Adds 33 Chinese Companies to the Unverified List - JD Supra

Digital Art is a rage nowadays, whether you want to leave it just as a hobby or make it a professional, you would need a good platform to work on. In this article, we are going to see some of the best free online Tools & Software for creating Digital Art on Windows 11/10.

Following are some of the best free Online Tools and Software for creating Digital Art on Windows 11/10.

Let us talk about them in detail.

Let us start with our first app that caters to users who wants to download the app or an online tool. Psyko Paint is a great tool for Digital artists. It has all the default colors and options to create your own. It has some clip arts and tools that can not only excite a professional but will also be pedestrian for an amateur. Since it has both online and offline versions, we would recommend you try the online one first and then decide whether you want to download this on your system or not. However, the software is free. Go to pskyopaint.com and see for yourself.

Related: How to create NFT Digital Art?

The Gimp is not only a great Digital Art but is also something that you can use to edit photos. So, if you want a 2-in-one solution, it is the way to go. Talking about the Digital Art side of things, The Gimp has a great selection of tools, and the best thing is that you can use third-party plugins here as well.

Also, this tool is compatible with some of the major programming languages as well, such as C++, Python, C, etc. So, if you are a programmer and a digital artist, you should go to gimp.org and get the app.

PictBear is an offline open-source software that you can download on any Windows computer without hesitation and start drawing. The best thing about this software is that is user-friendly. The UI is simple and intuitive and no matter how new you are in this arena you will not feel out of place when using this tool. It has a wide range of brushes, colors, and other tools that you can try to make your painting glorious. However, there is no support for the product and because of this, it can look outdated. Also, the app is not adequate for a professional. You can try PictBear from fenrir-inc.com.

Queeky is a web application, you can also refer to it as an Online tool. You dont have to download anything to use this app. Some users refer to it as a more advanced version of MS Paint, which is fair, because the app looks similar to the Paint on your computer, but there are a lot more to it than what you see. There are a lot of easter eggs that you will unravel as you use this tool. You should go to queeky.com to use this tool.

MyPaint is one of the best software for artists. If you are professional, then you may feel annoyed by the fact that there most of the developers add features to their tool, but they dont improve the quality and range of brushes, which is what a professional needs. Well, MyPaint dealt with this problem and thats it MSP. Not online brush types, but also the algorithm which detects your strokes speed and pressure has been improved leaps and bound. However, we need to be real, you wont get features and quality similar to Adobe or any other paid app. But MyPaint is miles ahead of the competition in terms of nailing the basics. So, if thats what you want, go to mypaint.org and download the app.

These were some of the best free apps and tools that you can use for Digital Art.

A professional Digital Artist will use a range of tools for different purposes. Some of the most common tools used by the artists are Adobe Photoshop, ArtRage, OpenCanvas.However, you should check the apps mentioned earlier, and see if any of them is doing the trick for you.

It is not possible to point at one app as the clear winner. Each and every application has some good quality and also some features inferior to the others. And the beauty of free software is that you can try to test them and see how good or bad they are. What we would recommend you is to read descriptions of all the drawing apps and also of the online tools, narrow your choices down, and then install them and see what works for you and what does not. We made sure that these apps are not humongous in size, so as to not chug your data.

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Best free Online Tools and Software for creating Digital Art on Windows PC - TWCN Tech News