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The whistleblower complaint from Twitter’s former head of security is already complicating the company’s legal battle with Elon Musk. Lawyers representing Musk and Twitter met in court Tuesday for a hearing that will determine whether the claims made by Pieter “Mudge” Zatko can be added to Elon Musk’s legal case to get out of his $44 billion commitment to buy Twitter.

Notably, the hearing was one of the first times any Twitter representative has publicly addressed Zatko’s complaint. In the two weeks since Zatko went public, Twitter has largely stayed silent on the substance of the claims.

During the hearing, Twitter’s lawyers portrayed Zatko as a disgruntled employee, saying that he had a “huge ax to grind” with the company and that he “was not in charge of spam at Twitter.” They accused him of “structuring his whistleblower complaint, to tie it to the merger agreement.” (Zatko’s lawyers previously said he didn’t go public in order to “benefit Musk.”) Notably, Twitter’s lawyers didn’t address claims that the company’s lax security practices may have harmed national security or that CEO Parag Agrawal told Zatko to lie to the company board.

Twitter’s lawyers did suggest that Musk was looking for reasons to kill the deal before Zatko’s complaint was public. At one point, Twitter’s lawyer quoted from a May 3rd text message Musk sent to his banker at Morgan Stanley:

“Let’s slow down just a few days … it won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re headed into World War 3,” Twitter’s lawyer read aloud, quoting Musk. “This is why Mr. Musk didn’t want to buy Twitter, this stuff about the bots, mDAU [monetizable daily active users] and Zatko is all pretext.”

On the other side, Musk’s lawyers touted Zatko’s credentials as a “decorated” executive who had once been offered a position as a US government official. They said Musk had “nothing to do with” Zatko’s whistleblower complaint and that Twitter had purposely hidden damaging information. Whether it will be enough to sway the judge in the case though, is unclear. In one exchange the judge pointedly remarked on Musk’s decision to waive due diligence before agreeing to the acquisition.

“Why didn’t we discover this in diligence,” Musk’s lawyer said, referencing Zatko’s whistleblower complaint. “They hid it, that’s why.” “We’ll never know, right,” the judge responded. “Because the diligence didn’t happen.”

Musk’s lawyers, pushing for the October trial to be delayed, closed out the more than three-hour long hearing by arguing that “it’s not us causing this chaos or this delay.”

“Nobody at Twitter is having all hands on meetings today over the poop emoji from two months ago,” he said, in an apparent — and unprompted — reference to a May 16th tweet from Musk directed at Agrawal. “The reason that they're having all-hands-on meetings today at Twitter is because a senior decorated executive said that the company was committing fraud. That’s our fault? That’s our chaos? That’s their chaos.”

AT&T is suing T-Mobile. On Tuesday, the carrier filed a complaint with a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, accusing its rival of false advertising. T-Mobile’s recently launched “Verizon and AT&T Ban Senior Discounts” campaign is at the center of the lawsuit. The activation includes a website that claims “92 percent of seniors in the US can’t get a wireless discount from Verizon and AT&T because they don’t live in Florida.”

The campaign aims to draw attention to a promotion that dates back to John Legere’s tenure as CEO of T-Mobile. Since 2017, the carrier has offered Unlimited 55+ plans that give people 55 and older discounted access to its network. For instance, the current base level package starts at $40 per month with autopay and includes “unlimited” talk, text and smartphone data.

In early 2020, AT&T began piloting its own Unlimited 55+ plan. At the moment, however, it’s only available in Florida. “Until Verizon and AT&T offer senior discounts outside of Florida, we’re helping their customers get access to the wireless discounts they deserve as part of our Carrier Callout,” T-Mobile says.

T-Mobile

AT&T contends T-Mobile’s campaign is “intentionally designed to deceive senior citizens.” The carrier says T-Mobile’s website includes claims that are “literally false.” Moreover, it notes that “AT&T has not ‘banned’ seniors from getting discounted services outside the state of Florida.” The company points to a program it has had in place since March 2015. AT&T offers members of AARP, a nonprofit organization that represents more than 38 million seniors in the US, a $10 discount off its Unlimited Premium plan, among other perks. That promotion is available in all 50 US states. 

“T-Mobile’s claims are outright dishonest and completely false. It is not the first time they have spread misleading information,” an AT&T spokesperson said. “AT&T offers wireless discounts to people of all ages, including seniors in all 50 states. The only way to stop the un-truthful carrier is apparently in a court of law, and that’s where we are.”

T-Mobile did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. AT&T is seeking damages and an injunction against the campaign. The Unlimited 55 promotion isn’t the first time T-Mobile has gotten in trouble for its advertising. In 2020, the carrier said it would stop claiming its 5G network was more reliable than that of its competitors after Verizon filed a complaint with National Advertising Review Board.

Finding a PlayStation 5 may be as difficult as ever, but that’s not stopping Sony from adding more customization options for those who already own the console. This fall, the company will release the Gray Camouflage collection. It consists of a new set of plates for the console, as well as a matching DualSense controller and Pulse headset.

“The PlayStation design team reimagined our camouflage pattern to reflect a fresher, more contemporary feel. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the iconic PlayStation Shapes have been subtly incorporated into the pattern,” Sony says of the new design.

Preorders for collection open on September 15th. The plates and DualSense controller will arrive on October 14th, with the Pulse headset heading to store shelves sometime in December. Sony did not announce pricing for the new accessories. They come after the company recently said it was increasing the price of the PS5 across much of the globe.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is navigating a ransomware attack on its information technology systems. The cyberattack originated over Labor Day weekend, starting on September 3rd, though it hasn't disrupted school operations and classes are scheduled as usual. The district says in-school safety and emergency systems weren't affected by the attack, nor were employee payroll and health care networks.

LAUSD officials are already working with the Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to uncover the source of the attack, and they've implemented protocols to protect email and other internal IT applications. The district says that while investigations into the attack are ongoing, some business operations may be delayed, but transportation, food and Beyond the Bell services won't be affected.

"Los Angeles Unified is immediately establishing a plan of action, informed by top public and private sector technology and cyber security professionals, to determine additional protections for the District, and to provide an independent opinion on system-wide protective measures," officials said.

The district says it will establish an independent information technology task force that will develop recommendations for schools within 90 days, reorganize its departments to better safeguard its IT systems, and establish advisers to oversee cybersecurity best practices, among other responses. LAUSD officials said they will provide updates on the cyberattack as investigations progress, and you can find these on Twitter.

The days where Kiwi Farms is a functioning website appear to be numbered. After Cloudflare cut the forum off over the weekend, other essential internet services, including hCaptcha, followed suit. Kiwi Farms briefly moved to a Russian domain and DDoS-Guard on Sunday, but as of Tuesday morning, visiting the website returns an error page that says it can’t load.

“This meme about Russia being a free country is a joke,” Kiwi Farms founder Joshua Moon wrote on Telegram, adding that he could not see a future where the website would be able to operate normally. Moon’s post references 8chan and Daily Stormer, two websites that, while they continue to exist, are essentially inaccessible after public efforts to deplatform were successful.

“The campaign is over. We won,” streamer and political commentator Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti wrote in a statement she shared on Friday. Sorrenti was a recent target of a coordinated and vicious harassment campaign that originated on Kiwi Farms and saw her doxxed and swatted. Sorrenti started the DropKiwifarms hashtag to urge Cloudflare and other critical internet infrastructure providers to drop the website. The campaign gained critical mass after NBC News published a story about Kiwi Farms, detailing the forum's sordid past. Since its founding in 2013, at least three suicides have been linked to harassment campaigns that originated on the website.

“Many sites that have faced pressure campaigns to be deplatformed, like 8chan and Daily Stormer, are still online. They are nevertheless completely impotent," Sorrenti said. "Whether or not we are able to completely remove Kiwi Farms from the internet is irrelevant to the fact that the goals of our campaign have not only been achieved, but have achieved more than we could have ever expected.”

Night City is going to get bigger next year with Phantom Liberty, an expansion adding new characters and a fresh location to Cyberpunk 2077. It's a spy thriller starring V, the game's protagonist, and Johnny Silverhand, the ghostly character played by Keanu Reeves, and it involves espionage work for the New United States of America. However, Phantom Liberty is only heading to Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, PC and Stadia, skipping Xbox One and PS4 altogether.

CD Projekt RED's decision to drop last-gen console support isn't surprising, considering the difficulties developers had delivering a functional game on those platforms. Cyberpunk has received plenty of patches since its release in December 2020, with most of the focus on fixing major issues with the game's performance; it was incredibly buggy and unplayable in some cases at launch, and it particularly struggled on older-gen hardware. Phantom Liberty is a narrative and world update featuring new content, locations and characters, and it marks a significant step forward in the game's post-launch development cycle, even though it leaves Xbox One and PS4 players in the dust.

Ahead of Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a bit of DLC tied to Edgerunners, the coming anime based on the game. The anime, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, will hit Netflix on September 13th, and the game update is live right now. Patch 1.6 is known as the Edgerunners Update and it adds items from the Netflix show to the game, including the protagonist's jacket and another character's shotgun. It also unlocks new secrets to be discovered in Night City — but like the Phantom Liberty rollout, these won't be available on Xbox One or PS4. 

"Due to some technical challenges, this change isn't available on the previous generation of consoles," the update blog reads.

The Edgerunners Update adds three new gigs, six new firearms and five new melee weapons, plus it unlocks cross-progression and brings a new mini-game called Roach Race to the arcade cabinets scattered throughout Night City. Roach Race is also available on Android and iOS today, no Cyberpunk required. On top of all this, there's a litany of gameplay, UI and other updates hitting Cyberpunk in Patch 1.6.

Meta Connect, the company’s annual event devoted to augmented and virtual reality, is just over a month away. The newly renamed event will take place October 11th, Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on Facebook.

As with last year, the event will be virtual and streamed live on Reality Labs’ Facebook page. For now, there are few other official details available. The Meta Connect website says more information about speakers and the schedule for the day are “coming soon.”

But we already know a bit about what to expect. Meta is likely to finally show off Project Cambria, its new high-end VR headset that may be called Meta Quest Pro. In his Facebook post, Zuckerberg seemed to tease the big reveal, with a photo of him wearing a headset that was almost entirely obscured. Zuckerberg also recently promised “major updates” to Horizon avatars after his own low-res VR likeness was mercilessly dragged.

Meta

It will also be the company’s first big VR event since Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s rebrand to Meta at Connect last fall. At the time, he tried to articulate his vision for the metaverse and the social network’s role in it. But that vision hasn't always been clear. And the idea of a "metaverse" has still been a source of confusion (and sometimes derision, as evidenced by the reaction to Zuckerberg’s avatar). Meta Connect will also be Zuckerberg’s latest opportunity to not only hype the company’s latest hardware, but to try to build excitement for an eventual metaverse.

Google has just sent out media invites for its next hardware event. After teasing the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel Watch earlier this year at I/O 2022, the company will provide additional details about those devices on October 6th, with a live broadcast from New York City starting at 10AM ET. 

We know from the company's May preview that Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will feature Google's second-generation Tensor chipset, upgraded cameras and Android 13. As for the Pixel Watch, the search giant previously said it would include Wear OS 3, deep integration with Fitbit and all the fitness tracking features people have come to expect in a modern smartwatch. On Tuesday, Google said it would also have new Nest devices to show off. 

One interesting detail in the invite is that all of the devices the company plans to show off on October 6th will go on sale that same day. Whatever the company has in store for us, you can expect comprehensive coverage from Engadget before, during and after the event.  

The Biden administration has revealeddetails of how it plans to invest $50 billion into kickstarting the US semiconductor industry, a month after President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act. The Commerce Department says the funding will "revitalize the domestic semiconductor industry and spur innovation while creating good-paying jobs in communities across the country."

Over half (roughly $28 billion) of the CHIPS for America Fund has been earmarked for boosting production of logic and memory chips in the US using the most advanced processes available. The agency plans to disburse the funds through grants and loans, which will be used to build and expand facilities for making, testing, assembling and packaging chips.

The government is looking to ramp up production of older chips as well. Approximately $10 billion will go toward building semiconductors for cars, communications tech, medical devices and defense, as well as other critical commercial sectors. On top of that, the Commerce Department says $11 billion of the funding will go into research and development.

The agency plans to start accepting applications by early February. It says loans and grants will be provided on a rolling basis, as soon as it can "responsibly" process, evaluate and negotiate applications. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told The New York Times that the department could start releasing the funds as soon as next spring.

It will likely take a few years before domestic production of chips meaningfully increases, as it will take some time to build or expand semiconductor fabs. The impact of the CHIPS and Science Act, which passed with bipartisan support, could help mitigate any fallout from tensions between the US and China over Taiwan, where more than two thirds of the most advanced semiconductors are built. The Commerce Department notes that the US currently makes "zero percent" of the planet's supply of state-of-the-art semiconductors, even though many are designed in the country.

If you’re in the market for external storage, Amazon has discounted a handful of Samsung SSD products. Starting with the T7 Touch, the 1TB model in black is currently $125, down from its usual $160. With the $35 price cut, the T7 Touch is currently at the lowest price it has ever hit on Amazon. While there are faster external SSDs out on the market, Samsung’s portable drive hits the sweet spot between performance, features and affordability. Connected to a USB 3.2 Gen 2-compatible port, it offers sequential write speeds of up to 1,000MB/s. It’s also one of the more secure drives you can buy thanks to the inclusion of AES 256-bit encryption and a built-in fingerprint sensor. Another nice thing about the T7 Touch is that it ships with both USB-C and USB-A cables.

The T7 Touch is sturdy, but if you’re worried about how it will hold up on trips and your daily commute, Samsung also offers a ruggedized version. The T7 Shield is just as fast as its Touch counterpart, but it also comes with an elastomer layer that Samsung claims will protect the drive from 9.8-foot drops. It’s also IP65-certified against water and dust. At the moment, you can buy the 1TB model for $110, down from $160. That’s close to the lowest price we’ve seen on the T7 Shield. Amazon has also put the 2TB model on sale. After a 31 percent discount, it’s $200. You can buy the T7 Shield in three colors – blue, black or beige – and all three colorways are included in Amazon’s promotion.

Lastly, if all you need is a microSD card for your Nintendo Switch, action camera or Android phone, you’re in luck. Included in the sale are Samsung’s Evo Select microSD cards. The 512GB model is currently $47 after a 45 percent discount. You can also get the 256GB model for 50 percent off, making it $20 at the moment and just a few dollars more than the 128GB variant. I haven’t personally used an Evo Select memory card, but Samsung’s microSD has about all the features you would want in a mid-range memory card. It features a UHS-1 interface with Class 10-rated transfer speeds, meaning it can move data at up to 130MB/s.

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