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The iOS 16.1.1 update Apple rolled out in China came with something extra that wasn't included in the release for other regions. According to Bloomberg, it limits the window of time a user can receive files via AirDrop from non-contacts to 10 minutes. Prior to this change, people can choose to get AirDrops from everyone indefinitely. 

As the news organization notes, activists and protesters in China have been using AirDrop as a way to circumvent the country's online censorship measures. It was widely used during Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests to share images of police brutality. More recently, protesters have been using it to spread messages opposing the Chinese government and denouncing Xi Jinping's rule. By limiting the "everyone" option, users are less likely to receive messages from random protesters. They will, after all, have to reactivate the option after every few minutes. 

This isn't the first the time Apple has introduced a feature — or, in this case, a restriction — exclusive to a certain region. That said, the tech giant has been criticized in the past for complying with rules meant to limit dissent in China and for implementing changes that would ensure it stays in the Chinese government's good graces. Apple was previously accused of handing over some of its data centers in the country to Chinese authorities. More recently, the company reportedly told Taiwanese suppliers to ensure that parts bound for the mainland don't come with "Made in Taiwan" labels. Instead, their source should be noted down as "Chinese Taipei" or "Taiwan, China." 

While Apple didn't tell Bloomberg why the limitation was introduced in the country, it told the organization that it won't remain a Chinese exclusive. It reportedly plans to roll out the new setting to all users around the world next year to "mitigate unwanted file sharing."

With the holidays around the corner, Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting, is finally introducing a set of festive fairy lights. Measuring 20 meters (or just a touch over 65 feet), the Festavia string lights feature 250 mini LEDs. Naturally, they’re fully compatible with the company’s recently redesigned Philips Hue app. 

Thanks to that software support, the Festavia lights possess a few advantages over their conventional counterparts. For one, you don’t need to duck under your Christmas tree to turn them on and off. You can also use the app to dim and brighten the LEDs, change their color and set timers and schedules. You can even sync the lights to music with built-in Spotify and Samsung SmartThings integration.

Additionally, Signify is introducing two new features within the Philips Hue app. The first is a new “Sparkle” effect that gives each LED on the string a twinkle to make the lights look more festive. There’s also a new lighting style called Scattered included. It allows you to choose up to five colors, which the software will then randomly assign to each light. As with most Philips Hue products, you’ll pay a premium for all Festavia’s smart features. The lights are slated to cost a cool $160 when they arrive on November 15th. For that price, you're probably better off buying a smart plug to use with your existing Christmas lights. You might not get all the features the Festavia lights offer, but you can still do things like set schedules.

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In 2021, Twitter launched an in-app tipping feature that people can use to send money to creators, but it needs to be connected to a third-party payment processor to work. If Elon Musk's vision for the social network comes true, though, Twitter may have a payment system of its own. 

Twitter's new owner and temporary CEO has discussed his plans for the social network in a Spaces Q&A for advertisers. One of the things he revealed is that he envisions a future wherein users can connect their bank accounts to Twitter, enabling them to send money to each other. While it will likely take a long time before we see that happen, if it actually does, The New York Times has confirmed that the company filed registration paperwork to process payments with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) last week. 

In the Spaces discussion, Musk spoke about the feature in relation to creators. He talked about how the website needs to enable monetization for creators to entice them to post their work on the platform. "Now we can say that, okay, you've got a balance in your account, do you want to send money to someone else within Twitter?" the executive said. He also discussed how users will be able to take money out of Twitter by linking their bank accounts, hinting at a system similar to PayPal, which he helped found. The company might even offer an "extremely compelling money market account," as well as debit and credit cards, if things work well. 

This is but one of the changes Musk has planned for the social network. The $8-a-month Twitter Blue subscription that gives users access to instant account verification was one of the very first changes he implemented after taking over the company. Twitter will still verify government entities, celebrities, publishers and other public figures with a second gray "official" checkmark, but the big blue checks are now reserved for paying subscribers. This unpaid checkmark started rolling out yesterday before Twitter stopped its deployment and pulled it back to focus on "government and commercial entities" first.

President Joe Biden says that Elon Musk’s dealings with countries outside of the United States are “worthy of being looked at.” Speaking to reporters, Biden didn’t elaborate on if some kind of of investigation was underway, but suggested the Tesla and Twitter CEO deserved further scrutiny.

“I think that Elon musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” Biden said. “Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate – I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting it’s worth being looked at, and that’s all I’ll say.”

It’s unclear exactly which of Musk’s relationships Biden was referring to, but he’s not the first official to raise Musk’s ties to other countries as a potential concern. Senator Chris Murphy has said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) should investigate the “national security implications” of Musk’s deal to buy the company. Murphy and others have pointed to major investments from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Other critics have noted that Tesla’s business dealings in China could make it difficult for Musk to make content decisions that affect the country, or that government officials could pressure him to turn over data. The Washington Postreported in June that “some U.S. intelligence analysts and White House officials are among those concerned about the potential for arm-twisting by China if Musk gets hold of Twitter.”

Musk was also widely criticized for tweets suggesting that “the will of the people” should decide whether parts of Ukraine taken over by Russia should become part of Russia. He later threatened to stop paying for Starlink internet for the Ukrainian government, but later walked back the comments.

FTX won’t be rescued by its biggest rival. One day after announcing a proposed deal to buy the cryptocurrency exchange, Binance said it didn’t like what it found in the company’s books. “As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX,” Binance tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. “Our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.”

The abandoned takeover bid caps off a tumultuous week for FTX. On November 2nd, Coinbasepublished a report that revealed that the cryptocurrency exchange was facing a liquidity crisis. In response to the article, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the company would sell about $529 million worth of FTX’s FTT token, a move that wiped out the value of the cryptocurrency and launched a public spat between the competing exchanges.

Even when the acquisition was first announced, the likelihood of it moving forward seemed uncertain at best, with Zhao stressing at the time that the deal was non-binding. “This is a highly dynamic situation, and we are assessing the situation in real time. Binance has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time.” he said on Tuesday. By the following morning, The Wall Street Journal and Coinbase came out with separate reports claiming Binance was strongly leaning toward abandoning the rescue.

Less than an hour later, Bloomberg reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating FTX to determine if the company had mishandled customer funds. It’s worth noting here that the Department of Justice and SEC are also investigating Binance.

If you use an iPhone and a Windows PC, syncing photos is about to get a lot easier. The feature Microsoft announced last month that adds iCloud Photos to the Windows Photos app begins rolling out today. Microsoft says it will be available to all Windows 11 users by the end of November.

Previously, if iPhone users wanted to transfer images to their Windows PCs, they had to either plug in their iPhone with a USB cable or use the iCloud web app in a browser – a dated and clunky setup, though the site is undergoing some much-needed changes soon. Microsoft’s new feature gives you an integrated view of all your iCloud photos through the Windows 11 Photos app.

To use the new feature, you’ll need to ensure your Windows Photos app is up-to-date. Then, you’ll need to install the iCloud for Windows app from the Windows Store, sign in, and choose to sync your photos.

iCloud Photos integration is part of Microsoft’s broader initiative to make its software the “most open,” removing friction points between rival services. For example, the Windows maker launched Apple Music on Xbox consoles last month, and Apple TV and Music apps are coming to Windows 11 next year. Microsoft’s desktop OS also supports Android apps and Linux instances, and its Phone Link app syncs Android phone messaging and notifications with your desktop.

Elon Musk is trying, once again, to sell his vision of Twitter’s future to the company’s advertisers. Musk, who by all accounts has yet to address Twitter’s remaining staff as a group, joined an hour-long “town hall” to take questions from advertisers and share more about his plans for the platform.

The company’s advertising business has taken a significant hit in recent days as a number of major brands have pulled back from the platform and activists have called for a boycott. Musk said last week that these actions had caused a “massive drop in revenue” for Twitter.

In his talk on Twitter Spaces, Musk tried again to reassure advertisers that their brands would be safe on the platform. He said that ads appearing next to hate speech “isn’t great” and pitched the newly launched Twitter Blue as a way to decrease hate speech on the platform. Under the new Twitter Blue, brands will need to pay for the blue check like all other accounts, Musk said. He added that anyone impersonating a brand would be permanently banned from the service.

He also said that he hopes to make Twitter ads a lot more relevant, and wants to integrate ads into recommended tweets. The goal, he said, was to “drive sales in the short term and protect the demand in the long term.”

Notably, he struck a much different tone than in recent tweets when he threatened “a thermonuclear name and shame” for advertisers boycotting the platform. “I understand if people kind of want to give it a minute and see how things are evolving,” he said. “We've been more rigorous about clamping down on bad content and bots and trolls, not less. So my observation of Twitter over the past few weeks is that the content is actually improving, not getting worse.” He added that brands and advertisers should be more active on the platform and that if they see something they don’t like they should “reply to one of my tweets and I’ll do my best to respond.”

Musk also talked more about his philosophy on content moderation, though he didn’t share any concrete changes to Twitter’s policies or how its moderation council might function. "We have to be, I think, tolerant of views we don't agree with, but those views don't need to be amplified," he said.

He also stated that he has plans to make Community Notes, the crowd-sourced fact checking feature that used to be known as Birdwatch, a more central part of the platform. “This is really gonna help in improving the accuracy of what's said in the system.” He also suggested that Community Notes would have an impact on the visibility of content on Twitter. “It's analogous to the way sort of Page Rank works in Google, where the the prominence of a webpage is proportionate to how much weight other prominent web pages give that web page. I think it’s a game changer.”

Kia has unveiled pricing for the 2023 EV6, and it's decidedly more expensive than before — although you might not mind depending on what you were looking for. The new electric crossover starts at $49,795 when you include the $1,295 destination fee, or $7,100 more than the entry 2022 model. You do get more in the bargain, though. The automaker has dropped the cut-down Light trim with 232 miles of range and now starts with the Wind RWD variant, which delivers a claimed 310 miles. That could put the EV6 out of reach for some buyers, but is also an acknowledgment that Light ultimately existed to upsell customers to pricier versions.

Wind now costs $1,000 more than it did last year. You may not have much need to spend extra, at least, when that configuration includes a power liftgate, vehicle-to-device power ports, Meridian audio and ventilated leather seats. You also have the option of a tech package previously limited to the Wind AWD with blind spot and surround views, parking collision avoidance and a remote start parking aid.

Other trims mainly provide added performance and intelligence. The $52,400 Wind AWD adds its namesake 320HP dual motor system with 282 miles of range. Spend $52,700 on the GT-Line RWD ($57,400 for AWD) and you'll get extras like navigation-based smart cruise control, more advanced highway driving assists and lane following help. And it's now clear just how much you'll pay for the range-topping EV6 GT — the performance-oriented car starts at $61,400 with a 576HP motor system, electronically-guided suspension, a limited-slip rear differential, higher-end brakes and 21-inch wheels mated to Goodyear Eagle F1 tires. Kia claims the GT can reach 60MPH in 3.4 seconds, so this is your pick if you want to shame sports cars at the local drag strip (and don't mind the reduced 206-mile range).

You still have the Ioniq 5 if you want Hyundai's latest EV tech in a (slightly) more affordable package. The Niro EV is an option, too. However, it's evident the automaker is repositioning the EV6 as a more premium machine.

Sony has revealed another selection of games that will be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers on the Extra and Premium tiers. The headliner for many folks is one of the most beloved games of all time, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (a game from Microsoft-owned Bethesda Softworks, fact fans). The special edition of the classic 2011 RPG includes updated visuals and other features.

Subscribers will soon be able to play three of Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy-branded games at no extra cost: Rainbow Six Siege (both the PS4 and PS5 versions), The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Several Kingdom Hearts games are on the way as well. You'll get access to Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX (a remastered collection of four games), Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue,Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory and the most recent mainline entry in the series, Kingdom Hearts III.

On top of that, you'll be able to check out Oddworld: Soulstorm – Enhanced Edition (which features a new game mode) and space shooter Chorus. PS4 and PS5 versions of both games will be available. Also on the docket are classic indie walking sim What Remains of Edith Finch, puzzle title The Gardens Between, Earth Defense Force: World Brothers, Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain and Onee Chanbara Origin.

There are some worthy PS3 titles coming to the Premium lineup this month, in the form of five more Ratchet & Clank games. You'll get access to Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet & Clank: Deadlocked and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. 

These games will be available on November 15th. It's a pretty solid batch of additions to PS Plus Extra and Premium. Perhaps these titles will help Sony gain back some of the PS Plus subscribers Sony has lost in recent months.