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Almost precisely three years after it launched, Apple TV+ has claimed the Best Picture Oscar for a streaming service with CODA. In another historic moment, Troy Kotsur became the first Deaf male actor to win an Oscar. Apple paid $25 million for the distribution rights to the film, which had a limited theatrical run and is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

Reuters

It beat Netflix's favorite in the category, The Power of the Dog, which picked up Best Director for Jane Campion. And while Netflix registered a record 27 nominations for this year’s Oscars, losing out to Apple for arguably the biggest prize probably smarts after years of campaigning for its movies and shows.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Crunchyroll ends free ad-supported simulcast streaming

• Hitting the Books: The Soviets once tasked an AI with our mutually assured destruction

• Russia's invasion of Ukraine has destroyed a historic computer museum

• Gene losses allow vampire bats to live solely on a diet of blood

‘Halo’ wishes it was ‘The Mandalorian’

The show can’t compete with modern sci-fi TV.

Paramount+

Many, many years in the making, the interesting elements of Halo are somewhat outweighed by the show's simplistic writing, stiff acting and sometimes dodgy special effects. If it came out in 2015, when we first expected it to arrive, it would have been more impressive. But with The Mandalorian and other shows like Foundation on Apple TV+, there’s a lot of premium sci-fi TV to get into — and that’s before we even touch all the myriad Star Trek shows filling up Paramount+, the home of Halo.

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Apple may release its next iPad Pro this fall

The tablet will reportedly feature a new chip and MagSafe charging.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman expects Apple will release its next-generation iPad Pro sometime this fall. Gurman anticipates the new tablet will feature MagSafe charging and Apple’s long-rumored but as yet unannounced M2 chip.

Apple only just updated the iPad Pro last year, adding 5G, Thunderbolt connectivity and its first-generation Apple Silicon system-on-a-chip. Details on the M2 remain sparse, but it has reportedly gone into production.

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Uber secures 30-month London taxi license

The extension ends a long-running spat with city regulators.

Following a years-long dispute with the city’s transit regulator, Uber has earned a 30-month license to continue operating in London. Transport for London (TfL) said the ride hailing service had been granted a London private hire vehicle operator’s license” for a period of two and a half years.”

Uber’s dispute with TfL dates back to 2017 when the agency said the company wasn’t “fit and proper” to operate in the city and revoked its taxi license. Among other issues, TfL said Uber had failed to properly conduct driver background checks and report serious criminal offenses.

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Whistleblower says Microsoft spent millions on bribes abroad

The former employee estimates "a minimum of $200 million each year."

In an essay published on the whistleblower platform Lioness, former Microsoft manager Yasser Elabd alleged Microsoft fired him after he alerted leadership to a workplace where many regularly engaged in bribery. He further alleges that attempts to escalate his concerns resulted in retaliation within Microsoft and eventual termination from his role.

Elabd claims in his essay that he worked for Microsoft between 1998 and 2018 and had oversight into a "business investment fund " — essentially a slush fund to "cement longer-term deals" in the Middle East and Africa. But he grew suspicious of unusual payments to seemingly unqualified partners.

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Ukraine is selling NFTs to support its military

The collection is meant to document the history of the war.

Ukraine's Ministry for Digital Transformation has launched an NFT collection to help fund its military. The project was first announced in early March, but the NFT collection of illustrations by Ukrainian and international artists, called “Meta History Museum of War,” is now live. The collection is meant to be an “NFT museum” documenting the history of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The collection currently comprises 54 NFTs documenting the events of the first three days of the war.

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Samsung's latest Smart Monitor, which we first got a look at during CES, is now available to pre-order. The Smart Monitor M8 has support for streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, as well as cloud gaming platforms. You won't necessarily need to connect to external speakers, since two built-in 5W speakers and a tweeter will deliver 2.2-channel audio.

The display comes with a magnetic, detachable SlimFit Cam that you can use for video calls. The full-HD webcam has face tracking and auto zoom functions, so it can follow you as you move around and automatically focus on your face. There's a far-field microphone as well, which will come in handy if you want to bark instructions at Alexa or Bixby from across the room.

What's more, the M8 has an integrated SmartThings hub, which will allow you to control compatible smart home devices. You can connect wirelessly to a Windows PC or Mac and mirror your smartphone screen to the display as well. There's also the option to browse the web, edit documents and work on projects without connecting to a computer, in part thanks to built-in Microsoft 365 support.

Samsung

The M8 is 11.4mm thick, which Samsung says is around a quarter of the depth of previous displays. The 32-inch display has a UHD resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 and HDR 10+ compatibility. It has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. There's support for 1.07 billion colors, which covers 99 percent of the sRGB spectrum.

The refresh rate tops out at 60 Hz, which may not cut it for some folks, while the response time is 4ms. On the connectivity front, the display has a one micro HDMI port and two USB-C ports, along with WiFi 5, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 4.2 support. It comes with a height-adjustable stand for which you won't have to pay an extra $400.

The Smart Monitor M8 starts at $700 for the white model. The spring green, sunset pink and daylight blue models will cost you a little extra at $730.

Apple's AirPods Max offer excellent sound, solid active noise cancellation (ANC) and good battery life, but the regular $549 price is a bit hard to swallow. Now, you can pick a pair up at Amazon for just $439, or $110 (20 percent) off. That's close to the lowest price we've seen at Amazon, and you can choose between three colors: Sky Blue, Silver and Pink.

The AirPods Max achieved a solid 84 Engadget review score and made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They offer a uniquely Apple-esque design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, are comfortable to wear. Once you get used to it, the rotating crown makes it easy to adjust sound.

Audio quality is more natural than other headphones we've tried with bass that's accurate and not overpowering. Sony's WH-1000XM4 headphones have more effective ANC, but the AirPods Max come close. Meanwhile, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC if you need to hear what's going on. The biggest drawback is the lack of lossless audio support, but they work great with Dolby Atmos surround sound on most Apple devices. 

The AirPods Max are ideal if you're in the Apple ecosystem, with the H1 chip letting you quickly switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example. There's no question that they're very expensive at the regular $549 price, so Amazon's latest discount presents a good buying opportunity if you've been eyeing a pair. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Three years and three days after it was first unveiled, Apple TV+ has captured the first ever Best Picture Oscar for a streaming service with CODA. The film also took a historical win for Best Supporting Actor, as Troy Kotsur became the first Deaf male actor to win an Oscar. Writer and director Sian Heder also won for Best Adapted Screenplay. 

The film, with a mostly Deaf cast, follows Ruby (played Emilia Jones), a high school student who navigates life as the only hearing member of a Deaf family in Gloucester, Massachusetts. "This is a really big moment for the Deaf community. It’s a really big moment for the disability community," said Heder in a backstage ABC interview, via an ASL interpreter, as Variety reported. "Marlee Matlin won an Oscar 35 years ago, and not that much has changed in Hollywood, so I want to thank the Academy for making that change. Let this one be the first of many, many films to come out of this beautiful community."

Apple paid $25 million for the distribution rights to the film, which made a limited theatrical run and is currently streaming on Apple TV+. It beat out Netflix's The Power of the Dog, which was another favorite in that category.

After a record 27 nominations, Netflix didn't go away empty-handed, though. Jane Campion took a historic Best Director Oscar for The Power of the Dog, becoming only the third woman to win the award. (Chloé Zhao took the prize last year for Nomadland, while Katheryn Bigelow previously won for The Hurt Locker.) The Power of the Dog was nominated for 12 Oscars, including in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories, but Campion was the only winner. 

Brian Snyder / reuters

Sci-fi fared particularly well at this year's Oscars. Dune, released simultaneously in the US on HBO Max and in theaters, won no less than six Academy Awards. The highlight was Greig Fraser's win for Best Cinematography, presented live during the telecast (above). However, the film's other awards were presented prior to the ceremony for the first time in Oscar history, something decried by several attendees including Steven Spielberg. They include wins for Best Production Design (Patrice Vermette, Zsuzsanna Sipod), Best Film Editing (Joe Walker), Best Sound (Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, Ron Bartlett), Best Visual Effects (Paul Lambert) and Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer).

Dune doesn't count as a streaming release, though, nor do others like Disney's Encanto, which won Best Animated Feature. Overall, streaming films fared poorer than last year, taking four statues compared to seven at the 2021 Oscar ceremonies.

A hunter must hunt, and so too must they race, according to the creator of the recently released PS1 “demake” of FromSoftware’s classic 2015 action role-playing game. This week, Bloodborne PSX developer Lilith Walther announced she’s working on Bloodborne Kart, a project she plans to release “when it’s ready.” As you can probably guess from its title, Bloodborne Kart looks to reimagine the sprawling city of Yharnam as the setting for an arcade racer.

The teaser Walther shared didn’t include much in the way of gameplay, but we do get to see Bloodborne’s protagonist and their slick new motorcycle depicted in the iconic pixelated style of a classic PS1-era game. In an interview with Kotaku, Walther said she hopes it won’t take her as long to finish Bloodborne Kart as it did her original demake. That’s due in part to the fact she already has existing assets and code to work with. In the meantime, you can follow her progress in an ongoing Twitter thread dedicated to the project’s development.

Crunchyroll quietly announced on Friday it is ending one of the primary perks of its free tier. In an update spotted by Anime News Network, the company said it no longer plans to offer ad-supported simulcast streaming of new series. Previously free users could watch new shows shortly after their Japanese debut as long as they were willing to wait a week and sit through commercials. By subscribing to one of Crunchyroll’s premium plans, you can watch simulcasts one hour after their premiere in Japan.

In the immediate future, Crunchyroll will allow free users to access a “seasonal sampler” that will include a selection of simulcast content from the platform’s upcoming spring lineup. That sampler will allow free users to watch the first three episodes of shows like Spy x Family, Dawn of the Witch and Tomodachi Game one week after their platform debut until May 31st. To watch all new and continuing series in their entirety, free users will need to subscribe to one of Crunchyroll’s premium tiers, which start at $8 per month. All currently available content will continue to be available to watch for free.

“We want to encourage as many fans as possible to explore new shows and see the full benefits of Crunchyroll premium access,” the company said. “Crunchyroll makes more than 1,000 hours available for viewers to sample free of charge through our ad-supported tier, and will continue to offer free content going forward.” 

The announcement comes just weeks after Crunchyroll, following Sony’s $1.175 billion deal to buy the service in 2020, said it was adding more than 50 Funimation series to its back catalog, and that all future shows acquired by Sony would debut on its service.

Apple has closed a loophole that had allowed some Russians to continue using its mobile payments service despite the ongoing economic sanctions against Russia. According to Reuters, the company told the country's largest lender on Thursday it would no longer support Russia's homegrown Mir payments system through Apple Pay.

"Apple has informed NSPK it is suspending support for Mir cards in the Apple Pay payment service," the National Card Payment System said Friday. "Starting from March 24th, users cannot add new Mir cards to the service. Apple will stop all operations of previously added cards over the next few days."

Google took similar action last week as well. According to a separate report from The Wall Street Journal, the company paused a pilot that had allowed Russians to connect their Mir cards to Google Pay. "Google Pay is pausing payments-related services in Russia as a result of payment services disruption out of our control," a Google spokesperson told the outlet.

As The Verge notes, the Central Bank of Russia established Mir after the US and other countries imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea in 2014. According to statistics shared by the Central Bank, Mir cards are involved in more than 25 percent of all card transactions within the country. Previously, cards from major Russian financial institutions like VTB Group and Sovcombank stopped working with Apple Pay and Google Pay shortly after the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th.

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman expects Apple will release its next-generation iPad Pro sometime this fall. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says he anticipates the new tablet will feature MagSafe inductive charging and Apple’s long-rumored but as yet unannounced M2 chip, corroborating a previous report from 9to5Mac.

As of the company’s most recent hardware event, the iPad Air and iPad Pro both feature M1 chips. Apple last updated the iPad Pro in 2021 to add 5G and Thunderbolt connectivity, and its first-generation Apple Silicon system-on-a-chip. The iPad Pro has more or less featured the same design since 2018 when the company refreshed the tablet to give its now-iconic edge-to-edge display. Since then, Apple has filtered out that design to most of its other tablets, including the iPad mini and the aforementioned iPad Air.

Details on the M2 remain sparse, but as of last April, it had reportedly gone into production. Most reports suggest the M2 will feature the same eight-core CPU layout as its predecessor while being faster and more efficient thanks to TSMC’s new 4-nanometer fabrication process.

Since late Friday afternoon, Among Us developer Innersloth has been trying to contain a DDoS attack against both its North American and European servers, leaving the popular game unplayable for many. “Service will be offline while the team works on fixing it, but might take a bit, hang tight! Sorry!” Innersloth said on Friday in a tweet spotted by Eurogamer.

As of the writing of this article, Innersloth has managed to restore some servers, but the situation does not appear to be fully resolved with the game’s official Twitter account still stating “Among Us servers down” in its profile. “Can’t believe I’m working on a Saturday right now, I was supposed to go and get a croissant,” Innersloth said in one particularly desperate-sounding update over the weekend.

Thanks to its popularity, Among Us is no stranger to disruptive hacking attacks. In 2020, the game experienced a far-reaching spam attack that affected as many 5 million players after an individual named “Eris Loris” found a way to hack millions of games. The event led to no small amount of grief and frustration among the game's community, with many taking to Reddit to vent their frustration at the hacker.

Earlier this week, Club 8-bit, one of Ukraine’s largest privately-owned computer museums, was destroyed during the siege of Mariupol. Kotaku spotted news of the event after its owner, Dmitry Cherepanov, took to Facebook to share the fate of Club 8-bit.

“That’s it, the Mariupol computer museum is no longer there,” he said on March 21st. “All that is left from the collection that I have been collecting for 15 years are just fragments of memories on the FB page, website and radio station of the museum.”

Club 8-bit’s collection included more than 500 pieces of computer history, with items dating from as far back as the 1950s. Gizmodo visited the museum in 2018, describing it at the time as “one of the largest and coolest collections” of Soviet-era computers to be found anywhere in the world. It took Cherepanov more than a decade to collect and restore many of the PCs on display at Club 8-bit. What makes the museum’s destruction even more poignant is that it documented a shared history between the Ukrainian and Russian people.

Thankfully, Cherepanov is alive, but like many residents of Mariupol, he has lost his home. If you want to support Cherepanov, he has opened a PayPal account accepting donations to help him and other Ukrainians affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the war, nearly 10 million people have been displaced by the conflict, making it the fastest-growing refugee crisis since the second world war.