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While some thought Twitter would fall apart over the weekend, given the engineering constraints it's now under, it made it to Sunday. And it’s even got one of its most divisive users back. On Friday night, Musk tweeted a poll asking people to vote on whether Twitter should reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account. Trump recently announced he will run for the country's highest office again in 2024.

The option to reinstate the former president won with 51.8 percent of the 15,085,458 votes. While the poll was ongoing, Musk said it was getting one million votes per hour, and also said "bot and troll armies" were responsible for some of the activity.

Reinstating Trump’s account was one of Musk’s early promises for the platform, which some thought was a joke. It was not. Earlier in the week, Twitter reinstated the accounts of three other controversial users, including comedian Kathy Griffin, conservative satire site Babylon Bee and conservative author (and former YouTube personality) Jordan Peterson.

– Mat Smith

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Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison on fraud charges

The Theranos founder is due to surrender in April.

Getty images

Holmes, the former CEO and founder of Theranos, has been sentenced to just over 11 years in prison for defrauding the investors of her blood-testing startup. The sentence comes almost a year after Holmes was found guilty on four counts of fraud. She will also be ordered to pay restitution, though Judge Ed Davila said that amount will be determined at a separate hearing. Judge Davila said restitution would be based on $121 million in losses to 10 investors, according to The New York Times.

Holmes delivered a brief statement at her sentencing hearing: “I regret my failings with every cell of my body,” she said, according to Law360’s Dorothy Atkins. The tale of Theranos (and of Holmes) has been made into a Hulu miniseries starring Amanda Seyfried, while Apple is still reportedly working on a movie.

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Governments vote to retire the leap second by 2035

Even if Russia isn’t on board.

Government representatives at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Paris, France, voted nearly unanimously to retire the practice of occasionally adding one second to official clocks. Introduced in 1972 as a way to adjust Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to even out discrepancies between atomic time and observed solar time, the leap second has been the bane of tech companies for decades. It’s taken Reddit offline and messed up Cloudflare services in recent years. Dignitaries from the US, Canada and France called for the leap-second practice to end before 2035. Russia voted against the proposal. GLONASS, its global positioning system, incorporates the leap second. This decision may force Russia to launch new satellites.

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Waymo’s fully driverless rides are coming to San Francisco

It still needs to secure a deployment permit.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has granted Waymo a Driverless Pilot permit, which allows it to pick up passengers in a test vehicle without a driver behind the wheel. It's only the second participant in the CPUC's Driverless Permit program, with Cruise being the first.

By securing the permit, Waymo now has the authority to offer driverless rides throughout San Francisco, portions of Daly City and parts of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale. Its vehicles are allowed to go as fast as 65 miles per hour and can operate 24/7, but the company can't charge for the rides just yet – it needs another permit for that.

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All the 'fun' grown-up gifts we would like to receive

LEGO sets, jerky and, oh baby, smart water leak detectors.

Engadget

Working on Engadget’s holiday gift guides, we often can’t help but think about the things we’d like to receive as gifts – unusual stuff beyond headphones, laptops and games consoles. While scrambling to find gifts for the people we love, here are a few things we’d love to get this holiday season. Me? I’d appreciate some new noise-canceling headphones, please.

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NASA's Artemis I mission will hit a key milestone today as the Orion capsule makes its "outbound powered flyby" of the Moon, getting as close as 80 miles to the surface. The burn is the first of two maneuvers required to enter what's known as a "distant retrograde orbit" (DRO) around the Moon. During the flyby, cameras inside and outside the spacecraft will document the view, with shots of the Moon, Earth and Orion itself. "It’s going to be spectacular," said lead flight director Rick LaBrode. 

The flyby is "the big burn that will actually move Orion and send it toward the planned distant retrograde orbit" that allows it to burn less fuel, LaBrode said earlier. "DRO allows Orion to spend more time in deep space for a rigorous mission to ensure spacecraft systems, like guidance, navigation, communication, power, thermal control and others are ready to keep astronauts safe on future crewed missions," said Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin.

The capsule's service module ICPS engine, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), will fire for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. As Orion passes behind the Moon, engineers will lose contact for approximately 34 minutes starting at 7:26 AM. It will spend 6 to 19 days in DRO to collect data and allow mission controllers to assess spacecraft performance, according to the space agency. 

So far, the mission has gone mostly to plan. However, two "active anomaly resolution teams" are investigating faults in the star tracker system's random access memory and a malfunctioning power conditioning and distribution unit. "Both systems are currently functioning as required, and there are no mission impacts related to these efforts," NASA said. 

Following its stretchy LCD panels, LG Display's latest gadget is a super-thin speaker designed to be installed in car interiors while remaining "invisible." The Thin Actuator Sound Solution was developed with a "global audio company" (LG didn't say which), as a replacement for traditional speakers in automobiles. 

The system eschews the usual voice coils, cones and magnets found in most speakers, instead employing so-called film-like exciter technology. That can vibrate off display panels and various materials inside the car body to enable a "rich, 3D immersive sound experience," according to the company. 

With the panels' small dimensions (5.9 x 3.5 inches and just a tenth of an inch thick) and 1.4 ounce weight, they can be hidden inside car interior parts like the dashboard, headliner, pillar, and headrests. That frees up spaces normally occupied by speakers "without compromising sound quality," according to LG. 

The concept isn't entirely new, as we've seen similar vibrating panels used in OLED TVs from Sony and LG itself. However, car interiors are a new application with appreciable benefits, if LG Display's claims about sound quality are accurate. We may find out for ourselves soon, as LG is due to show the technology off at CES 2023 (yep, it's right around the corner). LG said the speakers will be commercialized in the first half of 2023.

• Read more about Electric Vehicle Sales Increases by 69% in October 2022; E-rickshaws and E-scooters Dominating the Sector
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Samsung's 32-inch Smart Monitor M8 plays dual roles, acting not only as a monitor with a webcam, but also a smart TV with built in speakers and support for cloud gaming and streaming. Now, with Black Friday week upon us, it's dropped back to its all-time low price of $500 (in white, pink, blue and green) at Amazon and Samsung.

As a computer display, the Smart Monitor M8 offers UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolution at up to 60Hz, along with HDR10+. With a VA panel, it's decently bright at 400 nits, offers a 4-millisecond response time and displays up to a billion colors, with 99 percent sRGB coverage. Input-wise, you get USB-C and Micro HDMI 2.0 inputs, along with a USB-C charging interface. Finally, it has a a detachable SlimFit Cam for video calls, making it a solid choice for work or light content creation.

Other features include the ability to change the angle and position with the high-adjustable stand, along with a game bar that makes it easy to switch between cloud services. And with Samsung TV Plus and Alexa built in, you can watch streaming content, play games and even do work activities without the need to be plugged into a PC. Normally the white model sells for $700 and the color models for $730, so you get a 29 percent discount on former and 32 percent off the latter.

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Bob Iger is returning as Disney CEO in a shocking leadership shakeup, with current CEO Bob Chapek stepping down, the company announced in a press release. Iger is set to return temporarily for two years, with a mandate for "renewed growth" and to find and groom his successor. Iger said he's returning "with an incredible sensor of gratitude and humility — and, I must admit, a bit of amazement."

"We thank Bob Chapek for his service to Disney over his long career, including navigating the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic," said Disney chairman Susan Arnold in a statement. "The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period."

Iger handpicked Chapek to follow him as CEO, but a clash in their styles quickly became clear. Iger was known as a talent- and creative-friendly CEO, while Chapek focused on streaming, particularly as the pandemic decimated Disney's theme park and theatrical distribution businesses.

Under Chapek, however, Disney initially failed to react to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill and criticized Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson over her lawsuit involving streaming vs. theatrical distribution. And during a Disney retreat, Iger reportedly urged the company not to rely excessively on data to make decisions — seen by some as a dig at Chapek, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Under Chapek, Disney+ has grown to 235 million subscribers (including ESPN and Hulu), but the company lost $1.5 billion on streaming last quarter. Its market capitalization has also fallen from $257.6 billion in Iger's last full year to $163.5 billion. Much of that fall is pandemic related, though, as movie theaters and Disney's parks were forced to shut down.

The move comes as a surprise considering that Disney had renewed Bob Chapek's contract for three years (no comment from Chapel was available in the press release). Iger, meanwhile, has a near-mythical status at Disney CEO, having presided over the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. That legacy will be put to the test, though, as Disney faces challenging times — the company recently announced plans to freeze hiring and said that layoffs are likely to come soon. 

Following an Xbox Series X/S and PC release this past summer, Immortality, the latest project from Her Story creator Sam Barlow, is now available on Android and iOS via Netflix. Provided you subscribe to the streaming service, you can download the game at no additional charge and experience one of the most highly acclaimed titles of 2022.

Like Barlow’s past projects, Immortality is a love letter to the full-motion video games of the ‘90s. The game tasks you with finding out the fate of fictional actress Marissa Marcel. You’ll need to piece together what happened to her by watching clips from three unreleased films and behind-the-scenes footage. Barlow recruited Allan Scott and Amelia Gray, best known for their work on Queen’s Gambit and Mr. Robot, to help write the story of Immortality. So if you’re a sucker for a good story, this one is worth checking out.

Ahead of Black Friday, Amazon has discounted the Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 to $120. The 20 percent discount off the MK.2’s usual $150 price represents a new all-time low for the controller. Add to the fact that streaming hardware doesn’t frequently go on sale, and you have a promotion that budding content creators won’t want to miss.

Engadget featured the Stream Deck Mini in a recent gift guide. The MK.2 has the same strengths as its more affordable sibling while adding a few tricks. The device features 15 programmable keys that you can use to easily launch apps, mute your mic, turn on lights, post to social media and more. The number of customization options can be intimidating at first, but Elgato’s software makes setup easy. The MK.2 model also comes with a customizable faceplate, making it adaptable to any setup.

While the Stream Deck is primarily designed for streamers and content creators, anyone can take advantage of its programmable keys to make their workflow more efficient. With a bit of creativity, you can use the Stream Deck to open folders, control audio levels and launch your most used apps. It’s a great tool for those who frequently find themselves in video chats and presentations. As mentioned above, the Stream Deck MK.2 doesn't frequently go on sale, so act fast if you're interested.  

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Tesla is recalling more than 321,000 vehicles over a software issue that causes the tail lights on some cars not to work properly. The automaker announced the action on Saturday in a National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration filing (PDF) spotted by Reuters. The recall covers 2023 Model 3 and 2020 to 2023 Model Y vehicles manufactured for US customers.

“In rare instances, taillamps on one or both sides of affected vehicles may intermittently illuminate due to a firmware anomaly that may cause false fault detections during the vehicle wake up process,” the NHTSA notice states. “Brake lamps, backup lamps and turn signal lamps are not affected by this condition and continue to operate as designed.”

Tesla will release a software update to address the issue. The company hasn’t had reports of any crashes or injuries related to the bug. The automaker became aware of the problem in late October. In a separate announcement the day before, Tesla recalled about 30,000 due to an issue that can cause the front passenger airbag in Model X vehicles to deploy incorrectly in some situations.

As of this year, Tesla has so far issued 19 recalls in the US. Earlier this month, the company recalled 40,186 Model S and Model X vehicles over a software issue that could cut power steering assistance to vehicles going over potholes. Before that, the company recalled more than a million vehicles over windows that weren't working properly.

Twitter may cut more of its shrinking workforce as early as Monday. According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk is considering new layoffs that would target the company’s sales and partnerships teams. The scale of the potential cuts is unclear but come after a large number of employees rejected Musk’s Twitter 2.0 ultimatum. On Friday, Musk reportedly asked Robin Wheeler, Twitter’s head of ad sales, and Maggie Suniewick, the firm’s partnerships chief, to fire more employees. Both were terminated after pushing back.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The company no longer has a communications team. If Twitter moves forward with the cuts, they would come after Musk already laid off 50 percent of the company’s previously 7,500-person strong workforce. With most of the website’s contract staff gone and “at least 1,200” employees departing in the wake of Musk’s ultimatum, there are concerns that the attrition will leave parts of Twitter inoperable.

There are signs that’s already happening. On Saturday, some users noticed the platform’s automated copyright strike system wasn’t working. In one thread spotted by The Verge, someone posted the entirety of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift across nearly 50 tweets. The thread was up for about a whole day and widely shared before Twitter suspended the account responsible for posting the movie.