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• Microsoft opened Activision acquisition talks three days after CEO harassment report
• QAnon founder may have been identified thanks to machine learning
• SEC responds to Elon Musk harassment allegations
• Hitting the Books: Lab-grown meat is the future, just as Winston Churchill predicted
• Skype can now make 911 calls in the United States
• Salesforce employees protest against its NFT ambitions
• Recommended Reading: No legs in the metaverse
• US and Britain blame Russia for cyberattacks on Ukraine's websites
• Apple Store employees in the US are quietly trying to unionize
• Watch Tesla, Lucid and Porsche EVs duke it out in a drag race
• Walton Goggins joins Amazon's 'Fallout' show in a lead role
• Apple re-releases Oscar-nominated ‘CODA’ in theaters for free
• Whistleblower group says Meta misled investors over misinformation
• ‘Uncharted’ boldly goes nowhere
• No, Spotify didn't pull Joe Rogan's podcast
• Kanye West says 'Donda 2' will only be available on his Stem Player
• Chipolo’s Card Spot is an AirTag for your wallet
• Apple's AirPods Pro drop to $175, plus the rest of the week's best tech deals
• The secret behind Amazon Echo's alert sounds
• Extreme H is an upcoming off-road racing series with hydrogen cars

Microsoft opened Activision acquisition talks three days after CEO harassment report Posted: 19 Feb 2022 02:59 PM PST When Microsoft announced it would spend $68.7 billion to buy Activision Blizzard to bolster its Xbox gaming division, the news came as a surprise to many. For months, the troubled publisher had been in headlines stemming from the workplace sexual harassment lawsuit filed by California's fair employment agency in July. The bad press hit a fever pitch on November 16th after The Wall Street Journal published a report that asserted Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had not only known about many of the incidents of sexual harassment that had occured at the company but had also acted to protect those who were responsible for the abuse. Days after that article came out, Xbox chief Phil Spencer reportedly told employees he was "distributed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions" that allegedly took place at Activision Blizzard and that Microsoft would re-evaluate its relationship with the publisher. It's one day after that email that Spencer called Kotick to start the process that would end with Microsoft announcing plans to buy Activision Blizzard some two months later, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing first spotted by CNBC. Starting on page 31 of the document, Microsoft devotes nearly 10 pages detailing the timeline of its talks with Activision. According to the filing, Spencer told Kotick during their November 19th phone call that "Microsoft was interested in discussing strategic opportunities" between the two companies and asked if he had time to talk to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the following day. That Saturday, November 20th, Nadella made it clear Microsoft hoped to purchase the publisher, stating the company was "interested in exploring a strategic combination with Activision Blizzard." It turns out the quick pace at which the talks moved was mainly due to all the other companies interested in buying up Activision Blizzard after its stock dived in November. At least four other companies contacted the publisher about a possible acquisition. None of them are named in the SEC filing. However, one notably wanted to just buy Blizzard. Activision didn't move forward with that option because the company's board of directors deemed the sale would have been too difficult to pull off. The document also details the terms of the purchase agreement. If the deal doesn't go through due to antitrust complications, Microsoft has agreed to pay Activision Blizzard a termination fee of up $3 billion. A few years ago, that's a possibility Microsoft probably wouldn't have had to worry about too much, but 2022 finds the company in a very different regulatory environment. At the start of the month, NVIDIA abandoned a $40 billion bid to buy ARM after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the purchase. President Biden appointed Lina Khan, the Commission's current chair, to the position on the strength of her experience in antitrust law. When the NVIDIA-ARM deal fell through, the agency specifically noted it was "significant" because it "represents the first abandonment of a litigated vertical merger in many years."

QAnon founder may have been identified thanks to machine learning Posted: 19 Feb 2022 12:56 PM PST With help from machine learning software, computer scientists may have unmasked the identity of Q, the founder of the QAnon movement. In a sprawling report published on Saturday, The New York Times shared the findings of two independent teams of forensic linguists who claim they've identified Paul Furber, a South African software developer who was one of the first to draw attention to the conspiracy theory, as the original writer behind Q. They say Arizona congressional candidate Ron Watkins also wrote under the pseudonym, first by collaborating with Furber and then later taking over the account when it eventually moved to post on his father's 8chan message board. The two teams of Swiss and French researchers used different methodologies to come to the same conclusion. The Swiss one, made up of two researchers from startup OrphAnalytics, used software to break down Q's missives into patterns of three-character sequences. They then tracked how often those sequences repeated. The French team, meanwhile, trained an AI to look for patterns in Q's writing. Both techniques broadly fall under an approach known as stylometry that looks to analyze writing in a way that is measurable, consistent and replicable. To avoid the possibility of confusing their respective programs, the teams limited their analysis to social media posts. Among all the other possible authors they put through the test, they say the writing of Furber and Watkins stood out the most for how similar it was that of Q's. And they're confident in that identification. The French team made of computational linguists Florian Cafiero and Jean-Baptiste Camps told The Times their software correctly identified Furber's writing in 98 percent of tests and Watkins' in 99 percent. "At first most of the text is by Furber," said Cafiero. "But the signature of Ron Watkins increased during the first few months as Paul Furber decreased and then dropped completely." People have previously used machine learning software to identify Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling as the secret writer of Cuckoo's Calling, a 2013 crime fiction novel Rowling wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. More broadly, law enforcement agencies have successfully used stylometry in a variety of criminal cases, including by the FBI to show that Ted Kaczynski was the Unabomber. Experts The Times spoke to – including Professor Patrick Juola, the computer scientist who identified Rowling as the author of Cuckoo's Calling – told they found the findings credible and persuasive. "What's really powerful is the fact that both of the two independent analyses showed the same overall pattern," Juola said. Both Furber and Watkins deny they wrote any of Q's messages. "I am not Q," the latter told The Times. Furber, meanwhile, said he was influenced by Q's posts to change the style of his prose, a claim linguistic experts told the outlet was "implausible." Also worth mentioning is the fact the analysis included tweets from Furber that date from the earliest days of Q's existence. What happens next is unclear. The researchers who worked on the identification told The Times they hope unmasking Q will loosen QAnon's hold on people. Spreading like wildfire on social media, the conspiracy theory has had a profound effect on politics in the US and other parts of the world. And while Q hasn't posted a new message since the end of 2020, that hasn't dampened people's enthusiasm for conspiracies about the "deep state" and its involvement in their lives.

SEC responds to Elon Musk harassment allegations Posted: 19 Feb 2022 09:42 AM PST The US Securities and Exchange Commission has responded to Elon Musk's harassment allegations. In a letter it filed on Friday with a New York federal judge, the SEC said its frequent check-ins with Tesla were consistent with expectations from the court overseeing the company's 2018 settlement. At the time, Tesla had agreed its lawyers would preclear some of Musk's tweets after one of his messages drew the attention of the SEC. The specific tweet saw Musk say that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 a share. Following an investigation, the SEC alleged the message constituted fraud, with Tesla and Musk eventually agreeing to settle the case for $40 million. SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon's — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2020 But within less than a year later, the SEC suspected Musk of not complying with his part of the agreement, according to The Wall Street Journal. In 2019 and 2020, the agency's lawyers wrote to Tesla to ask why some of Musk's tweets about the company's production numbers and stock price weren't cleared by its lawyers. Tesla claimed those statements weren't covered by the settlement policy. Tesla accused the SEC this week of using its resources to conduct "endless, unfounded investigations" into the company and its CEO. It also alleges the regulator broke its promise to distribute the $40 million settlement to Tesla shareholders, a claim the SEC disputes. In the letter it filed on Friday, the agency said it was working on a plan to pay shareholders and would have more details to share by March. As for the "endless" investigations, the agency said it has "sought to meet and confer with counsel for Tesla and Mr. Musk to address any concerns regarding Tesla and Mr. Musk's compliance." It's unclear what happens next now that the SEC has responded to Tesla's allegations. The Journal reports US District Judge Alison Nathan has asked the two sides to work through their dispute rather than push for the court to intervene in the matter.

Hitting the Books: Lab-grown meat is the future, just as Winston Churchill predicted Posted: 19 Feb 2022 08:30 AM PST From domestication and selective breeding to synthetic insulin and CRISPR, humanity has long sought understand, master and exploit the genetic coding of the natural world. In The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology authors Amy Webb, professor of strategic foresight at New York University's Stern School of Business, and Andrew Hessel, co-founder and chairman of the Center of Excellence for Engineering Biology and the Genome Project, delve into the history of the field of synthetic biology, examine today's state of the art and imagine what a future might look like where life itself can be manufactured molecularly. PublicAffairs Excerpted from THE GENESIS MACHINE: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology by Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel. Copyright © 2022. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. It's plausible that by the year 2040, many societies will think it's immoral to eat traditionally produced meat and dairy products. Some luminaries have long believed this was inevitable. In his essay "Fifty Years Hence," published in 1931, Winston Churchill argued, "We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium." That theory was tested in 2013, when the first lab-grown hamburger made its debut. It was grown from bovine stem cells in the lab of Dutch stem cell researcher Mark Post at Maastricht University, thanks to funding from Google cofounder Sergey Brin. It was fortuitous that a billionaire funded the project, because the price to produce a single patty was $375,000. But by 2015, the cost to produce a lab-grown hamburger had plummeted to $11.43. Late in 2020, Singapore approved a local competitor to the slaughterhouse: a bioreactor, a high-tech vat for growing organisms, run by US-based Eat Just, which produces cultured chicken nuggets. In Eat Just's bioreactors, cells taken from live chickens are mixed with a plant-based serum and grown into an edible product. Chicken nuggets produced this way are already being sold in Singapore, a highly regulated country that's also one of the world's most important innovation hotspots. And the rising popularity of the product could accelerate its market entry in other countries. An Israel-based company, Supermeat, has developed what it calls a "crispy cultured chicken," while Finless Foods, based in California, is developing cultured bluefin tuna meat, from the sought-after species now threatened by long-standing overfishing. Other companies, including Mosa Meat (in the Netherlands), Upside Foods (in California, formerly known as Memphis Meats), and Aleph Farms (in Israel), are developing textured meats, such as steaks, that are cultivated in factory-scale labs. Unlike the existing plant-based protein meat alternatives developed by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, cell-based meat cultivation results in muscle tissue that is, molecularly, beef or pork. Two other California companies are also offering innovative products: Clara Foods serves creamy, lab-grown eggs, fish that never swam in water, and cow's milk brewed from yeast. Perfect Day makes lab-grown "dairy" products—yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. And a nonprofit grassroots project, Real Vegan Cheese, which began as part of the iGEM competition in 2014, is also based in California. This is an open-source, DIY cheese derived from caseins (the proteins in milk) rather than harvested from animals. Casein genes are added to yeast and other microflora to produce proteins, which are purified and transformed using plant-based fats and sugars. Investors in cultured meat and dairy products include the likes of Bill Gates and Richard Branson, as well as Cargill and Tyson, two of the world's largest conventional meat producers. Lab-grown meat remains expensive today, but the costs are expected to continue to drop as the technology matures. Until they do, some companies are creating hybrid animal-plant proteins. Startups in the United Kingdom are developing blended pork products, including bacon created from 70 percent cultured pork cells mixed with plant proteins. Even Kentucky Fried Chicken is exploring the feasibility of selling hybrid chicken nuggets, which would consist of 20 percent cultured chicken cells and 80 percent plants. Shifting away from traditional farming would deliver an enormous positive environmental impact. Scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Amsterdam estimated that cultured meat would require between 35 and 60 percent less energy, occupy 98 percent less land, and produce 80 to 95 percent fewer greenhouse gases than conventional animals farmed for consumption. A synthetic-biology-centered agriculture also promises to shrink the distance between essential operators in the supply chain. In the future, large bioreactors will be situated just outside major cities, where they will produce the cultured meat required by institutions such as schools, government buildings and hospitals, and perhaps even local restaurants and grocery stores. Rather than shipping tuna from the ocean to the Midwest, which requires a complicated, energy-intensive cold chain, fish could instead be cultured in any landlocked state. Imagine the world's most delicate, delicious bluefin tuna sushi sourced not from the waters near Japan, but from a bioreactor in Hastings, Nebraska. Synthetic biology will also improve the safety of the global food supply. Every year, roughly 600 million people become ill from contaminated food, according to World Health Organization estimates, and 400,000 die. Romaine lettuce contaminated with E. coli infected 167 people across 27 states in January 2020, resulting in 85 hospitalizations. In 2018, an intestinal parasite known as Cyclospora, which causes what is best described as explosive diarrhea, resulted in McDonald's, Trader Joe's, Kroger, and Walgreens removing foods from their shelves. Vertical farming can minimize these problems. But synthetic biology can help in a different way, too: Often, tracing the source of tainted food is difficult, and the detective work can take weeks. But a researcher at Harvard University has pioneered the use of genetic barcodes that can be affixed to food products before they enter the supply chain, making them traceable when problems arise. That researcher's team engineered strains of bacteria and yeast with unique biological barcodes embedded in spores. Such spores are inert, durable, and harmless to humans, and they can be sprayed onto a wide variety of surfaces, including meat and produce. The spores are still detectable months later even after being subjected to wind, rain, boiling, deep frying, and microwaving. (Many farmers, including organic farmers, already spray their crops with Bacillus thuringiensis spores to kill pests, which means there's a good chance you've already ingested some.) These barcodes could not only aid in contact tracing, but be used to reduce food fraud and mislabeling. In the mid-2010s, there was a rash of fake extra virgin olive oil on the market. The Functional Materials Laboratory at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Switzerland, developed a solution similar to the one devised at Harvard: DNA barcodes that revealed the producer and other key data about the oil.

Skype can now make 911 calls in the United States Posted: 19 Feb 2022 08:21 AM PST Microsoft has released Skype version 8.80, and it comes with the ability to make 911 calls if you're in the US. As first noticed by XDA Developers, the app's release notes list its new emergency calling support in the United States for both PC and mobile. In addition to being able to dial emergency services for you, the app can also automatically detect and share your location with emergency operators.  The company included a disclaimer in the Skype support page that the app will only share your location if you dialed 911 for the purpose of calling emergency responders to where you are. Of course, you must be using a device that can share your location, and you must be in a place where sharing is available for the feature to work. Skype has never supported emergency calling in the past, and this new ability could be especially useful if you have access to a computer but not to a mobile phone. Location sharing is switched off by default, though, and you'll have to opt in first. To do so, click on your profile picture on Skype, go to Privacy under Settings to toggle on 911 emergency location sharing. You can switch it off anytime you want.  The new emergency calling capability is now available for Skype on Windows, Mac, Linux, the Web, Android, iPhone and iPad.

Salesforce employees protest against its NFT ambitions Posted: 19 Feb 2022 07:39 AM PST Salesforce employees aren't happy with the company's plans to enter the non-fungible token (NFT) market. According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, over 400 employees around the world have signed an open letter raising concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs, as well as their "unregulated, highly speculative" nature as financial assets. "The amount of scams and fraud in the NFT space is overwhelming," the employees reportedly wrote. The company, the San Francisco cloud-based software firm that owns Slack, told its employees in early February that it's planning a series of NFT-related initiatives. They include launching an NFT Cloud that could help people create NFTs and list them on marketplaces. NFTs have blown up in popularity over the past year, and big companies have been cashing in on the craze. While not all ventures have been successful, some have made big money: Adidas, for instance, made $23 million during its first NFT drop. That said, NFTs remain controversial for several reasons, including their environmental impact. It takes a lot of energy to sustain the blockchain activities associated with the tokens. One estimate backed by researchers put an average NFT's footprint at over 200 kilograms of carbon, which is equivalent to driving 500 miles in a gas-powered car. Salesforce employees' concerns about the environmental impact of the tokens come from the fact that the company positions itself as a leader in sustainable business — it even released a Superbowl ad starring Matthew McConaughey emphasizing its commitment to sustainability. A Salesforce spokesperson told Thomson Reuters that the company welcomes "employees' feedback and [is] proud to foster a culture of trust that empowers them to raise diverse points of view." They also said that the company is holding a listening session with employees next week.

Recommended Reading: No legs in the metaverse Posted: 19 Feb 2022 07:00 AM PST Why you can't have legs in virtual reality (yet) Rachel Metz, CNN Business Have you ever wondered by no one seems to have legs in the metaverse? It turns out tracking your feet and legs isn't a walk in the park.  Reselling gig work is TikTok's new side hustle Mia Sato, The Verge You've likely heard "work smarter, not harder" at some point in your life, but the latest TikTok side hustle is taking that in a whole new direction. Resellers are flipping things like graphic design for a profit, thanks to cheap labor from freelancers.  Inside Facebook's African sweatshop Billy Perrigo, Time We've seen numerous reports over the years about the working conditions for Facebook content moderators, but people at a Nairobi office tasked with watching violent and abusive content are among the lowest paid in the world.

US and Britain blame Russia for cyberattacks on Ukraine's websites Posted: 19 Feb 2022 03:26 AM PST Russia is responsible for the cyberattacks that took down the websites for Ukraine's government agencies and major banks back in January, according to The White House. Anne Neuberger, the administration's deputy national security adviser, said the government has "technical information that links the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU" to the hacks. Neuberger added that "GRU infrastructure was seen transmitting high volumes of communication to Ukraine based IP addresses and domains." According to AP and Reuters, Britain has also publicly attributed the incident to Russia, saying that the country's GRU military intelligence agency is almost certainly involved. While the attacks managed to take down the targeted Ukrainian websites, Neuberger said they had "limited impact," thanks to the the country's officials that quickly secured and restored them.  Ukraine's defense and foreign ministries were among the affected websites, and a message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish left by the attackers on the latter translated to: "Ukrainians! All your personal data has been uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore them." The message also referenced the "historical land" and showed crossed-out versions of the Ukraine map and flag.  The Ukrainian Information Ministry said back then that there were early indications Russia carried out the attacks. In addition, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy also suggested that references to Ukrainian ultra-nationalist groups were merely an attempt by the Russians to mask their footprint.  Neuberger said the White House is publicly calling out Kremlin, because "[t]he global community must be prepared to shine a light on malicious cyber activity and hold actors accountable for any and all disruptive or destructive cyber activity." Although the attacks had "limited impact," the White House believes Russia could carry out more disruptive activities in the future followed by an invasion of Ukraine. President Biden has announced on Friday that the US has obtained intelligence showing that Russia's Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine in the coming days.

Apple Store employees in the US are quietly trying to unionize Posted: 18 Feb 2022 03:00 PM PST It's not just Amazon and Google workers hoping to organize. Sources speaking to The Washington Post claim workers at six or more US Apple Store locations are quietly planning to unionize, with "at least" two stores already garnering the support of national unions and prepping submissions to the National Labor Relations Board. As you might guess, the central issue is pay. Employees talking to The Post said their pay was similar to what other stores offered, but wasn't keeping up with rising costs of living. Apple's corporate success also hasn't translated to better wages, the staffers said. The pro-union workers have reportedly organized in secret to avoid possible eavesdropping and retaliation from Apple, using encrypted chats and even Android phones to keep communications private. The employees have supposedly been informally canvassing coworkers to gauge support and potentially secure majorities in the event of union votes. We've asked Apple for comment. The company previously said it took all employee concerns "seriously" and "thoroughly" investigated issues when they came up, but didn't discuss particular employee issues as a matter of "respect for the privacy" of those involved. Apple appears to already be aware of unionization efforts, though. Much like Amazon, Apple is apparently using managers to issue anti-union warnings, such as claims workers may see reduced pay and benefits. This isn't the first time Apple has dealt with team members unhappy about working conditions. Last year's #AppleToo campaign gathered hundreds of stories of toxic workplaces from both retail and corporate employees. Apple hasn't shown clear signs of addressing those concerns, though, and allegedly pushed out and fired #AppleToo organizers. There's no guarantee unions will improve conditions, but it's increasingly clear staffers want better treatment.

Watch Tesla, Lucid and Porsche EVs duke it out in a drag race Posted: 18 Feb 2022 02:20 PM PST Now's your chance to see how three of the highest-end performance EVs fare in a straight-line brawl. DragTimes has followed its previous Lucid-versus-Tesla match (among others) with a three-way drag race between the Tesla Model S Plaid, Lucid Air Dream Edition and Porsche Taycan Turbo S. As you can see in the video below, horsepower only matters to a degree — and the outcome doesn't tell the whole story about any of these cars. It might not surprise you to hear the Model S Plaid emerged triumphant. Tesla's premium sedan comfortably won all three races, pulling solidly ahead of the Lucid Air and even further ahead of the Taycan. The 1,111HP Air has the most horsepower of the bunch, but its heavier body (about 5,200lbs versus the Plaid's 4,828lbs) requires more effort to move. The Taycan didn't stand a chance — its 750HP output and roughly 5,300-pound weight were certain to put it behind the pack. Power-to-weight ratios weren't everything, however. The Air's performance may be more impressive than it looks, as it doesn't have a launch mode. And, as many an enthusiast will point out, a drag race isn't the sole benchmark of a car's performance. It's no secret the Taycan is one of the better-handling EVs in its class, and it might be your pick if you're more likely to drive a twisty mountain road than a quarter-mile. This is just a reminder that no one upscale electric sedan can do everything well.

Walton Goggins joins Amazon's 'Fallout' show in a lead role Posted: 18 Feb 2022 01:15 PM PST Production on Amazon's Fallout series is set to start later this year, and the cast is taking shape. Walton Goggins is taking on one of the lead roles, according to Deadline. Amazon Studios hasn't revealed which character Goggins is portraying, but reports suggest he's playing a ghoul. A ghoul, in Fallout parlance, is someone who was mutated due to radiation exposure as a result of a nuclear war. Goggins is perhaps best known for his work on Justified. He's currently appearing in HBO's The Righteous Gemstones and he'll soon feature in Apple TV+ series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. Amazon announced the Fallout series in 2020, so although development has taken a while, things are coming together. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy of Westworld fame created the show, and Nolan will direct the pilot episode. The executive producers include Bethesda's Todd Howard, the game director of Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

Apple re-releases Oscar-nominated ‘CODA’ in theaters for free Posted: 18 Feb 2022 12:25 PM PST Audiences will get another chance to watch CODA, the first Apple Original movie nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, in theaters. Apple is re-releasing the film, which is about a deaf family, in a limited run of free screenings with open captions. Directed and written by Sian Heder and featuring a primarily deaf cast, the film received three Oscar nods in total. Heder, who adapted the movie from a French film called La Famille Bélier, is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Troy Kotsur is also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and is the first deaf man to earn that distinction. The film follows Ruby (played Emilia Jones) , a high school student who navigates life as the only hearing member of a deaf family in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Kotsur plays her father, a struggling fisherman attempting to connect with his daughter. Ruby's mother is played by Marlee Matlin (best known from Children of a Lesser God and The L Word), and her older brother is played by Daniel Durant, who starred in the 2015 Broadway revival of Spring Awakening. The screenings will run in all major cities in the US and London, beginning Friday, February 25 through Sunday, February 27. You can view a list of showtimes and theater locations here.

Whistleblower group says Meta misled investors over misinformation Posted: 18 Feb 2022 11:21 AM PST Whistleblower Aid says it has filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission that accuse Meta of misleading investors about efforts to mitigate climate change and COVID-19 misinformation across its platforms. The nonprofit, which represents Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen, claimed the company made "material misrepresentations and omissions in statements to investors" over how it was handling misinformation, according to The Washington Post, which viewed redacted copies of the documents. "The documents shared with the SEC make it totally clear that Facebook was saying one thing in private and another in public regarding its approach to climate change and COVID-19 misinformation," Whistleblower Aid senior counsel Andrew Bakaj told Engadget. "That's not just irresponsible to the public, it's actively misleading investors who have a legal right to truthful answers from the company." In one of the filings, which were based on disclosures by Haugen, Whistleblower Aid reportedly claimed that Meta didn't have a clear policy on climate change misinformation until last year. The complaint alleges that such misinformation was abundant on Facebook, despite assertions from executives to investors that the company was committed to battling the "global crisis," according to The Post. In the other complaint, the nonprofit reportedly cited internal documents showing that COVID-19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy proliferated on Facebook. That's despite Meta executives making public comments about measures it was taking to stem the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Since 2020, Meta has offered factual information about COVID-19 and climate change in its information centers. The company has long struggled to stem the flow of misinformation on Facebook and its other platforms. Documents supplied to news organizations by Haugen last year led credence to critics' arguments that the company puts profits before user safety. In September, it was reported that the company gave misinformation researchers incomplete data. "We've directed more than 2 billion people to authoritative public health information and continue to remove false claims about vaccines, conspiracy theories and misinformation," Meta spokesperson Drew Pusateri told Engadget. "We've also created our Climate Science Center in over 150 countries to connect people to factual and up-to-date climate information, while also partnering with independent fact checkers to address false claims. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to stopping the spread of misinformation, but we're committed to building new tools and policies to combat it."

‘Uncharted’ boldly goes nowhere Posted: 18 Feb 2022 11:00 AM PST There are worse movies than Uncharted, especially when it comes to the seemingly cursed genre of video game adaptations. But as I struggled to stay awake through the finale — yet another weightless action sequence where our heroes quip, defy physics and never feel like they're in any genuine danger — I couldn't help but wonder why the film was so aggressively average. Sony Pictures The PlayStation franchise started out as a Tomb Raider clone starring a dude who wasn't Indiana Jones. But, starting with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the games tapped into the language of action movies to put you in the center of innovative set pieces. They were cinematic in ways that few titles were in the early 2010s. But going in the opposite direction — bringing aspects of those games into a movie — doesn't work nearly as well. Director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Venom), along with screenwriters Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, have crafted an origin story for the treasure hunter Nathan Drake (Tom Holland). It hits the notes you're expecting — his childhood as an orphan, his first team-up with his partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), and a globe-trotting treasure hunt that defies logic — but it's all just a Cliff's Notes version of what we've seen in the games. And for a franchise that was already a watered-down version of Indiana Jones, a movie adaptation just highlights all of its inherent flaws. Watching Uncharted made me long for the basic pleasures of Nicholas Cage's National Treasure – at least that Indy clone had personality. Even the iconic action scenes don't hit as hard. The film opens mid free-fall, as Drake realizes he just fell out of a plane. Discerning viewers will instantly recognize the sequence from Uncharted 3. We watch as he hops across falling cargo (and wonder if that's even possible while everything is falling), but the entire scene feels like Tom Holland is going on the world's most extreme Disney World ride. Without the rumble of the Dualshock 3 controller in my hand, and my responsibility over Drake's impending death, there just aren't any stakes. It's particularly unexciting compared to what we've seen in the recent Mission Impossible movies. Tom Cruise (and skydiving camera man Craig O'Brien) jumped out of an actual plane several times for our entertainment! Still, it's somewhat surprising that this adaptation exists at all. Sony has been trying to develop an Uncharted film since 2008, starting with a loftier iteration by arthouse auteur David O. Russell. That version was going to star Wahlberg as an older Nathan Drake, as we see him in the games, and focus on the idea of family. But the project ended up changing hands several times over the last decade. By the time it was actually gearing up for production in 2020, Wahlberg had aged out of the starring role and into the older sidekick spot. (Sorry, Super Cool Mack Daddy, it happens to all of us.) After we've seen so many video game films completely miss the mark, like Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City and Assassin's Creed, I'm starting to wonder if there's some sort of secret to making a good adaptation. Different audiences want different things, after all. Game fans typically want to see the characters and sequences they love so much legitimized on film. Discerning movie geeks may be comparing adaptations to other, usually better, films. And studio executives just want existing intellectual property that they can churn out to an undiscerning public. There are a handful of memorable video game films, but they mostly seem like flukes. The original Mortal Kombat was iconic because of its killer soundtrack and (at the time) cutting-edge special effects. Werewolves Within doesn't have much to do with the VR title it's based on, aside from its name. And Sonic the Hedgehog was a blast, but that was mostly due to its lead performances.   As an avid gamer and cinephile, I'll never give up on hoping for successful adaptations. But it could just be that the two mediums are a bit incompatible. A film can never capture the interactive magic and freedom you get from a game. And when you're playing something, heavy-handed cut scenes and direction can often take you out of the experience (unless you're Hideo Kojima, in which case gamers will argue it's all a work of genius). With its cinematic roots, Uncharted had a better shot at a decent adaptation than most games. It's just a shame that, for a series that's about exploring new lands and discovering forgotten treasure, it offers nothing new.

No, Spotify didn't pull Joe Rogan's podcast Posted: 18 Feb 2022 09:57 AM PST Don't panic if you can't play The Joe Rogan Experience or other podcasts on Spotify. The streaming service has confirmed to Engadget that a "technical issue" is preventing users from playing a number of Spotify podcasts, including Joe Rogan's and The Ringer shows like The Bill Simmons Podcast. The company didn't elaborate on what went wrong, but the shows are frequently missing. Spotify didn't say exactly when the podcasts would be available again. The issue should be "resolved soon," according to a spokesperson. Some users have already reported shows returning. The timing is less than ideal for Spotify, to put it mildly. The glitch comes soon after a controversy over misinformation in Spotify's podcasts. Rogan in particular has been accused of spreading and tolerating false claims about COVID-19 vaccines, including guest Dr. Robert Malone's unsupported claims that a "psychosis" led many people to get shots. Artists like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills & Nash pulled their music from Spotify in protest, while doctors and scientists have called on the service to create a misinformation policy. Spotify has so far resisted demands to pull episodes or shows. Chief executive Daniel Ek has promised a number of changes, such as content advisories for episodes discussing COVID-19, but has maintained that allowing misinformation promoted critical thinking and debate. This clearly didn't reassure users — it wasn't hard to find people worrying Spotify had pulled Rogan's shows despite past promises.

Kanye West says 'Donda 2' will only be available on his Stem Player Posted: 18 Feb 2022 09:15 AM PST Kanye West says fans won't be able to stream his next album on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music or YouTube Music. He plans to release Donda 2 exclusively on his $200 Stem Player, a portable device that makes it a cinch for users to remix music. "Today, artists get just 12 percent of the money the industry makes," West, who claimed he rejected a $100 million deal from Apple, wrote on Instagram. "It's time to free music from this oppressive system. It's time to take control and build our own." His fans might not find it easy to listen to Donda 2 legally, however. West said 67,000 units of the Stem Player are currently available, though another 3,000 are being manufactured every day. View this post on Instagram A post shared by ye (@kanyewest) The device can be used as a regular music player to listen to music as the artist intended. Those who want to play around with songs can control the volume on four different tracks or stems. With Donda 2, West says, users will be able to play just the vocals, drums, bass or samples, or any combination of those. The Stem Player also allows users to add effects and create loops they can reverse, speed up or slow down. Owners can upload other songs to the device through the Stem Player website. West brought his last album, Donda,to the Stem Player, but it's available to stream elsewhere too. As with pretty much everything West says, it's worth taking this announcement with a grain (or an entire shaker) of salt until he actually releases Donda 2, which appears to have 22 tracks. Even so, it's not impossible to imagine the album winding up on other platforms later.

Chipolo’s Card Spot is an AirTag for your wallet Posted: 18 Feb 2022 09:00 AM PST One of the reasons I've yet to leap head first into the AirTag world is the design of the bloody things. Obviously, as gorgeous as the little white-and-silver discs are, they're hardly practical unless you're splashing out on a fancy key fob. The dodgier corners of Amazon, meanwhile, are full of awkward AirTag wallets, with an awkward bulge on one side. So designed to hold the pill shaped AirTag close to your credit cards and only your credit cards, since tech bros never, ever need to carry around loose change. It's also the reason that I was excited to try Chipolo's Card Spot, which offers the benefits of an AirTag in a much more sensible package. Announced back at CES, it's Chipolo's second device that can pair with Apple's Find My Network. That means it will give you the same reach, pinging every iPhone in the vicinity with its location, without the quirkiness of Apple's design. It's as if the team at Apple decided to just design something for normal people to use normally for once. Measuring the thickness of about two credit cards stacked on top of one another, and only a little shorter than one, it's not going to make your wallet bulge too much when inserted. The speaker is pretty loud, too, although I don't have a meter to hand to check if it hit the promised 105dB. The tune is pretty good, which was a surprise, given that normally shrill beeps are the order of the day for device-finders. Daniel Cooper To say this thing is easy to set up is almost a comical understatement, it took me longer to get it out of the box than to pair it. You just have to open up Find My on your iOS device, add a new item, and press the dimple on the Card Spot. The longest job was choosing the emoji I wanted to use to denote my wallet on the app's map screen. (I went for the back of a gold credit card, not because I'm gauche but because it seemed silly, as a Brit, to use a stack of dollar bills.) Much like the OneSpot that preceded it, Chipolo gets some, but not all, of the perks that come with hitching its wagon to Apple's tractor. There's no U1 chip for precise location finding and you can't use it independently of the (Apple-exclusive) Find My network. Android users and folks looking for more local tracking will need to pick one of Chipolo's standard finders instead. Chipolo says that the battery inside the Card Spot will last for two years, after which point it stops working entirely. But, buyers can get a replacement device for 50 percent off, and can send in the old, non-functional unit with a pre-paid envelope. There's even a little card in the packaging which reminds you to register, ensuring you'll get a reminder to swap when your device is ready to expire. Fundamentally, the Chipolo Card Spot feels very much like the sort of no-brainer gadget that solves more problems than it causes. And while $35 makes it a little pricier than your standard AirTag, for twice as much battery life and a sensible form factor, I'm not nitpicking.

Apple's AirPods Pro drop to $175, plus the rest of the week's best tech deals Posted: 18 Feb 2022 08:45 AM PST Update 4:30pm ET: Amazon has raised the price of the AirPods Pro from $175 to $190. A number of new tech deals have popped up across the web ahead of the Presidents' Day holiday. Apple's iPad mini with extra storage is $50 off and down to a record low, while the AirPods Pro are on sale for $175. Both the 40mm and 45mm cellular Samsung Galaxy Watch 4s remain $80 off, plus you still have time to pre-order and save on the Galaxy S22 smartphones, which officially come out on February 25th. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. AirPods Pro Billy Steele / Engadget The AirPods Pro are down to $175 right now, or 30 percent off their normal price. We gave them a score of 87 for their solid sound quality, strong ANC and more comfortable fit. Buy AirPods Pro at Amazon - $175 2021 iPad mini Valentina Palladino / Engadget The 256GB iPad mini is $50 off and on sale for $599. We gave the small tablet a score of 89 for its revamped design, solid performance, Center Stage cameras and good battery life.  Buy iPad mini (256GB) at Amazon - $599 Samsung Galaxy S22 pre-orders Cherlynn Low/Engadget Both Samsung and Amazon will knock up to $100 off Galaxy S22 smartphones when you pre-order them. This discount applies only to the higher-storage variants, so you can essentially get extra onboard space at no additional cost. Pre-order Galaxy S22 smartphones at SamsungPre-order Galaxy S22 smartphones at Amazon Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 Elgato The Stream Deck MK.2 is $10 off right now and down to $140. For a gadget that rarely goes on sale, this is a good discount and one that shouldn't be overlooked if you've had your eye on the controller for a while. It has 15 programmable hotkeys that let you easily do things like control audio and video feeds, launch apps, post to social media and more while you're streaming. Buy Stream Deck MK.2 at Amazon - $140 8BitDo Pro 2 Mat Smith, Engadget 8BitDo's Pro 2 controller is 10 percent off at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon, bringing the final price down to $45. That's the best price we've seen on the controller, which is leaps and bounds more comfortable to use than Joy-Cons if you're a Nintendo Switch fan. We like its ergonomic design, customization options and its compatibility with a bunch of platforms including PC, MacOS and Raspberry Pi. Buy 8BitDo Pro 2 at Amazon - $45 Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 David Imel for Engadget Samsung's cellular Galaxy Watch 4 models are on sale for record-low prices right now. The 40mm model is down to $220 while the 44mm version is down to $250. We consider the Galaxy Watch 4 to be the best Android smartwatch you can get and it earned a score of 85 for its bright screen, comprehensive health tracking and new Wear OS features, like downloading apps directly from the Play Store. Buy Galaxy watch 4 (40mm) at Amazon - $220Buy Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm) at Amazon - $250 Samsung T7 SSD (1TB) Samsung Samsung's T7 portable SSD in 1TB is down to a record low of $110, or 35 percent off its usual rate. It's one of our preferred drives if you need something compact, speedy and compatible with a bunch of devices. We also like its aluminum unibody and its Dynamic Thermal Guard that helps control heat levels. Buy Samsung T7 (1TB) at Amazon - $110 Samsung 980 Pro SSD (2TB) Samsung Samsung's 980 Pro internal drive in 2TB is 35 percent off and down to $280 — a great price for a powerful SSD that works with the PS5 (provided you have a heatsink). It has read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s, advanced thermal controls and works with Samsung's Magician Software, which lets you check its health and optimize settings as you'd like. Buy Samsung 980 Pro (2TB) at Amazon - $280 Google Nest Thermostat Google's Nest Thermostat is down to $99 right now, and the device with a trim kit will set you back $114. This version has a mirrored display and a touch-sensitive edge, and it can be controlled with the Google Home app. It also has features like Savings Finder, which suggests ways you can tweak your home system to conserve energy. Buy Nest Thermostat at Amazon - $99 Nintendo Switch Prime members can get $20 off the Nintendo Switch at Woot right now. While the discount isn't on the OLED model, it's a good sale on a console that rarely sees sales like this. Just make sure to check out Woot's return policy before buying. Buy Nintendo Switch at Woot - $280 Blink cameras Blink home security cameras are up to 30 percent off, meaning you can get a one-camera Blink Outdoor kit for $70. In addition to being weatherproof, these cams are wireless and support 1080p video, night vision two-way audio and motion alerts. The wired Blink Mini is also on sale and down to only $25. Buy Blink Outdoor at Amazon - $70Buy Blink Mini at Amazon - $25 Fitbit Charge 5 Fitbit's Charge 5 is on sale for a record low of $120 right now. We gave the fitness tracker a score of 82 for its large, full-color display, built-in GPS, standard Fitbit Pay and long battery life. The Fitbit Sense smartwatch is also on sale for $100 less than usual, bringing the price down to $200. Buy Fitbit Charge 5 at Amazon - $120Buy Fitbit Sense at Amazon - $200 New tech deals Best Buy President's Day sale Best Buy's President's Day sale is in full effect, and you can find things like TVs, smart displays, laptops and more on sale. Some of the highlights include the Beats Studio Buds for $120, Google's Nest Hub for $65 and up to 40 percent off Corsair gaming accessories. Shop President's Day sale at Best Buy Apple MagSafe battery pack Apple's magnetic battery pack for iPhones is down to $88, which is 11 percent off its normal price. We have seen it cheaper in the past, but this is the best price we've seen since December. The accessory attaches magnetically to the back of the latest iPhones and provides up to 15W of wireless charging. Buy MagSafe battery pack at Amazon - $88 65-inch LG C1 OLED 4K smart TV Woot knocked 34 percent off LG's 65-inch C1 OLED smart TV, bringing it down to $1,650. You're getting the deepest blacks and high contrast that are signature of OLED sets, plus LG's α9 Gen 4 AI processor 4K, Game Optimizer with Auto Low-Latency Mode and HGiG, and the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built in. Just make sure to check Woot's return policy before buying. Buy 65-inch LG C1 OLED at Woot - $1,650 Star Wars wireless charging pads GameStop has two Star Wars wireless charging pads that are up to 50 percent off right now. If you or someone you love is a super fan, either the Millennium Falcon or The Mandalorian accessories will spice up their charging setup. Buy Star Wars wireless chargers at GameStop - $25 Dyson AirWrap Complete It's not on sale, but Dyson's AirWrap Complete in Nickel/Fuchia is available to order once again after being out of stock for along time. The high-tech hair gadget has become quite popular since its launch in 2018 for its versatility. Depending the attachment you choose, the device can curl, straighten or dry hair. It also uses continuously flowing air around the barrel that guides your hair around it, so you don't have to put your fingers near the hottest parts of the gadget. Buy AirWrap Complete at Dyson - $550 Alo Moves The on-demand fitness service Alo Moves has an offer few new members that knocks 50 percent off the price of a one-year membership, bringing it down to $99. The platform has dozens of yoga, pilates, barre and strength training classes, along with guided meditations and series that help you master specific skills over the course of longer periods of time. Subscribe to Alo Moves - $99 NordVPN NordVPN's latest sale knocks the price of a two-year subscription down to just under $96, plus you'll get a free gift on top of it. The prize isn't anything physical, but rather additional subscription time on top of the two-year plan you paid for. Prizes are chosen at random, but after you make your purchase, you'll get either an extra month, and extra year or an extra two years added on to your subscription. Subscribe to NordVPN (2 years) - $96 Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

The secret behind Amazon Echo's alert sounds Posted: 18 Feb 2022 08:00 AM PST "Alexa?" If you own an Amazon Echo, there's a chance that just reading that word triggered a pavlovian "bimm" in your mind. Or, if you have the wake sound disabled, maybe it's the timer alarm that makes you twitch if you hear it on a TV show (or someone else's speaker). Whatever you think of the sounds a smart speaker makes, none of them are accidental. They have all been meticulously designed to pull your attention or provide reassurance, depending on their goal. And the Echo could have sounded very different from how we know it today. The Echo series, in particular, has been instrumental in defining the smart speaker and the sounds we expect and (to avoid burned pizza) need it to make. Maybe you don't think about these transient acoustic signposts much – the beeps and boops that bookend Alexa's verbal responses – and that's okay, that's by design too. In fact, Chris Seifert, Senior Design Manager at Amazon wouldn't mind if you don't notice these sounds at all. "One of the things that people often say about sound is you only hear about it when it's wrong," Seifert told Engadget. "People don't go to a play and say how great the sound was, [it] probably wasn't a good play, if that's what your focus is." This is why, when you do say the magic wake word, Alexa responds precisely as it does. That "bimm" might seem like a neat, generic alert sound, but it was purposefully crafted that way. Seifert, the first person Amazon employed to build Echo's sound design, reckoned that for users to be comfortable with a smart speaker, all the interactions – not just the spoken answers from Alexa – needed to feel natural and in context. "If we just use skeuomorphism, and just real-world sounds, that's kind of strange, in a purely digital experience," he said. Amazon This is a concept Seifert refers to as "abstract familiarity." You know it, but you don't know why you know it. And there's no better example of this than Alexa's wake sound, which is based on the ubiquitous and very human "uh-huh." A sound we can hear dozens of times a day. A sound that lets us know someone is listening without us feeling interrupted. "We took recordings of people saying that and we analyzed it and looked at the frequency it's used and how long they typically took and how loud they were in comparison to their actual normal speaking responses," Seifert said. "And then we recreated that, tried lots of different instruments. Some of them, real-world instruments, some of them completely synthetic, and found this combination of all of the above to create what we call our wake sound." If you have an Alexa device nearby, go ahead and try it. That short sound is also curiously practical. You might find that how you respond to it is different from someone else. I personally initially always waited for the sound and then issued my command. Turns out, I might have just been being a little too polite. Seifert informs me it was designed so that you don't need to wait, you can happily talk right over it. Again, this is not a coincidence. "I love this topic, because the whole point of the technology is it should work for you, right? Seifert said. "Even you know, during the day, I might say, 'Alexa, what time is it?' all in one phrase, right? Because I'm right by the device, just rattle it off. If I'm thinking of a larger question, before I start this long thing, I might actually pause to make sure I'm heard because I'm halfway down the hall. And I don't want to have to repeat the whole thing if it never heard me." If you ever wondered what that wake noise could have sounded like in an alternative universe or with some of the real instruments, then you can hear them in the audio embedded below. Good sound design is an exercise in Occam's razor: How does one create informative, appropriate feedback in a tone that's maybe less than a half a second long? We're all familiar with the dreaded Windows error alert or maybe the satisfying iPhone message swoosh. The terse, off-key alerts ignite frustration while the crisp chime of a task completed just feels right. But is it merely a case of choosing something that sounds positive or negative? Not if the Echo wake sound is any indication. But sometimes, Seifert and his team have the luxury of a little more sonic breathing room. Like the Echo's boot-up sound which is a full nine seconds. The audio equivalent of War and Peace in UI sound design terms. But also, the very first sound that any Echo owner is going to hear, so it has to count. Even more so back in 2014 when these things were new. "We were making a speaker that you spoke to which now we totally take for granted," Seifert said. "At the time, that was really a novel thing, like you're just going to speak to this, this device, you literally aren't having to touch it in any way, shape or form. So how do we encourage people to feel comfortable doing something that's so new, that that's just not expected?" Seifert went on to explain how they needed to create expectations for everything to come. They needed a sound that would indicate this screenless device was powering up for the first time and that right at the end of those vital nine seconds Alexa was listening, waiting for you. The result is a pad sound that creates a little bit of suspense before breaking itself apart into three ascending notes that lead us right into Alexa's first word: Hello. These three notes also comprise the wake sound (two at wake, the third comes later in something called an "end pointing" tone). Oh, and the incoming call ringtone uses these three notes and adds in two more for fun. In fact, pretty much all of the Echo's non-verbal signals boil down to just these three notes at some level. Just placed in different orders, pitches and lengths depending on whether they want your attention, already have it or no longer need it. Elaine Thompson / Associated Press "From the moment you boot up your device, you hear these three notes. When you speak to it, you hear two before you speak and one at the end, when you get an incoming call, you get a five-note version of that melody." Seifert explained. "That's all happening before the logic part of the brain kicks in, and you start interpreting what you're hearing and thinking of the meaning of it." In short, they are playing with our minds and we're not even mad about it. If you're still not convinced, maybe you will be when you learn that those three recurring tones are meant to sound like someone saying "Am-a-zon." But there's one small thing that Seifert and his team haven't been able to crack yet: Personalization. When it comes to our individual devices we can change and choose the sounds they make, but an Echo is often communal, part of the shared home. How does one allow for some level of personalization while maintaining the ubiquitous understanding of an "uh-huh?" According to Seifert, that's the next big challenge in smart-speaker land. "The next step is to make all of these experiences such that people can personalize them when it's just them, but that they're still understood by a collective group." But he also remains tight-lipped, for now, about how that might actually work. "I think we'll see a lot of the future is going to have more personalization and customization [...] and that's the challenge because prior to Alexa and Echo, most sounds were made, you know, one to one."

Extreme H is an upcoming off-road racing series with hydrogen cars Posted: 18 Feb 2022 07:49 AM PST An off-road racing series that uses hydrogen cars is expected to debut in 2024. Extreme H will be a companion championship to Extreme E, an off-road motorsport with electric vehicles that held its first race last year. The two series will hold races in the same locations on the same days using the same format. According to Alejandro Agag, who also founded Formula E, organizers are looking at two options for hydrogen integration: combined racing or full transition. Development on the Extreme H car is underway and there are plans to have a prototype ready by early 2023. The vehicle will have the same powertrain and chassis that's used in Extreme E. The main difference is that the central power source will be a hydrogen fuel cell instead of a battery. Extreme H organizers say that the fuel cells will be powered by green hydrogen, which combines water and solar energy. Extreme E uses the same process to power EV batteries, while the paddock runs on a combination of batteries and green hydrogen.

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