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As Elon Musk awaits his doctor’s permission to fight Mark Zuckerberg in an on-again / off-again cage match, the two billionaires’ companies continue to spar in the consumer adoption arena. Meta forged ahead with Threads’ aggressive update schedule today as it tries to challenge Musk’s erratic X (rebranded Twitter). Zuckerberg announced today that the young platform now supports sharing posts to Instagram DMs, custom alt text for photos and videos and a new mention button.

The Send on Instagram option lets users publish their Threads posts directly to Instagram DMs via the Send button. The feature could be seen as one of the “retention-driving hooks” Meta cooked up to ensure “people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads,” as Reutersreported Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said in a recent company meeting. The strategy is allegedly tied to reports of falling engagement after the fledgling platform added over 100 million users in less than a week. Zuckerberg reportedly described the decline as “normal” and expected retention to grow as Meta continues to flesh out the social channel, which launched in early July.

Meta

Meanwhile, the custom alt-text option is an accessibility feature allowing Threads users to add (or edit existing auto-generated) alt text for photos and videos before uploading. The new mention button makes it easier to tag profiles in your Threads posts. Finally, the platform is making it easier to verify your identity on fediverse platforms like Mastodon. “You can now add your Threads profile link on supported platforms to verify your identity,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted today.

These are only the latest additions Meta has rolled out in the past few weeks. It announced earlier this month that a much-needed web version is on the way, offering desktop use for the first time, along with a proper search function. Other post-launch additions include a chronological feed and the ability to sort your following list and view your liked posts.

For several years, 8BitDo has offered a dongle that lets folks connect modern controllers to the NES Classic Edition, SNES Classic and Sega Genesis Mini. The latest version of the Retro Receiver brings support for the likes of the Switch Pro Controller, Xbox Elite Series 2 and the DualSense Edge to older hardware in the form of the PlayStation 1 and the PlayStation 2. The $25 dongle includes Windows 10 and 11 support as well.

The device supports lag-free gaming, 8BitDo claims, as well as controller vibration functions. You'll be able to link controllers to it using Bluetooth or a wired connection.

Along with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo's peripherals, the Retro Receiver works with many of 8BitDo's own controllers. The supported gamepads are:

• DualShock 4, DualSense and DualSense Edge

• Xbox One, Series, Elite Series 2, Elite Series 2 - Core, and Adaptive Controller

• Wii U Pro and Switch Pro Controllers

• 8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth, Pro 2, SN30 Pro+, SN30 Pro, SN30 Pro for Android, Lite 2, Lite SE, and Lite Controllers; Arcade Stick v3; PS1 Modkit and PS1 Classic Modkit

There is a way to connect such controllers to a PS3 using 8BitDo's previous Retro Receiver, but having a plug-and-play option for Sony's first two consoles is a welcome move. It's especially great to see 8BitDo including support for the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which could make it possible for some folks to play classic PS1 and PS2 games on original hardware for the first time.

Baldur’s Gate IIIisn’t even fully released yet and it's already achieved the kind of buzz other developers would sell a kidney for. However, with that buzz comes increased public scrutiny, and it looks like the game failed to credit many of the workers who helped complete the project, as reported by Game Developer.

The issue was originally spotted by freelance localization producer Katrina Leonoudakis, who noted that the game’s credits failed to mention translators who worked on the Brazilian and Portuguese localizations. A company called Altagram Group handled these translations, and it’s worth noting that company executives and department leads appear in the credits. Additionally, translators who localized to other languages, like Italian, were properly credited, though these translations were handled by companies other than Altagram.

The issue goes beyond translators, as reports also indicate that outsourcing studios failed to list many devs involved with the project. The credits list each studio by name, but not specific employees who worked on the game.

For its part, Larian is on top of it. The company notes that “this was all Altagram group” and that it has “compelled them to fix this,” in a statement provided to Eurogamer. The developer goes on to say that a fix is coming soon.

It’s definitely a good thing that the developer is working to resolve the issue, as people deserve credit for their work. However, this has become an all-too-common practice within the games industry. Game Developer spoke to several localization experts and they described a “laissez-faire” attitude when it comes to properly crediting contractors. To that end, there have been multiple instances of this practice in the past year, from translators working onPersona 3 and Persona 4 not being properly credited to artists and developers of high-profile titles like Metroid Dread and God of War: Ragnarok not getting their moment to shine.

Cadillac revealed its first all-electric Escalade today. The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ is a $130,000-and-up extravagance using GM’s Ultium batteries to offer a 450-mile range. But its price isn’t the only thing that’s formidable about the SUV: It’s even bigger than standard gas-powered Escalades — and nearly as long as the long-wheelbase model, the Escalade ESV. However, Cadillac says it’s still “estimated to be the most aerodynamic full-size SUV ever produced by GM.”

A 24-module Ultium battery powers the SUV, producing over 200kWh of available energy. It supports 800-volt DC fast charging and can provide up to 100 miles of range in 10 minutes of charging on 350-kW DC charging stations. It supports up to 19.2 kW AC with an estimated 37 miles of range per hour of charging.

The Escalade IQ has two electric motors supplying 680 horsepower (505 kW) and 615 lb-ft (834 Nm) of torque in normal mode. However, it can reach 750 hp (560 kW) and 785 lb-ft (1,064 Nm) in a Velocity Max mode. It’s rated to reach 60mph in less than five seconds in Velocity Max.

Cadillac

The Escalade IQ will make its presence known on roads, joining the ranks of electrified behemoths like the Hummer, Silverado, GMC Sierra Denali and Ram 1500 EV. The new Cadillac measures nearly 19 feet long, eight feet wide and over six feet high. But you get significant room inside with 119.2 cubic feet of cargo volume with the second and third-row seats folded. (It also has a frunk that adds another 12 cubic feet of storage.) The SUV can tow up to 8,000 lbs. It has a dash-spanning 55-inch dual-screen LED display, and its infotainment system runs Android Automotive OS (including Google Assistant, Google Maps and the Play Store). Higher-end tiers offer 360-degree audio through an AKG 40-speaker array.

Production for the 2025 Escalade IQ will begin next summer at GM’s Factory Zero assembly center in Detroit. Pricing “starts at around $130,000,” including destination charges.

Epic Games has lost an attempt to force Apple to change its App Store payment practices sooner rather than later. The Fortnite maker asked the Supreme Court to overturn a US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that delayed an injunction against Apple over App Store rules. However, Justice Elena Kagan denied the request without providing an explanation, as Bloomberg reports.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals originally upheld the injunction in April. However, it suspended the injunction in July so Apple could take the case to the Supreme Court. 

Following a blockbuster trial between Apple and Epic Games in 2021, a lower-court judge ruled that Apple violated California's Unfair Competition law by blocking third-party developers from directing users to alternative payment options. The judge issued the injunction to stop that practice.

For the last three years, the companies have been battling over the issue of in-app payments on iOS. Epic raised the ire of Apple (and Google) when it told mobile Fortnite players they'd get a discount on the in-game V-Bucks currency if they bypassed the iOS and Android payment systems. Apple and Google take up to a 30 percent cut of in-app transactions on iOS and Android.

The mobile platform holders swiftly yanked Fortnite from their respective app stores, Epic sued them both and the legal battles are still rumbling on. The Google case (in which Match Group is involved as a plaintiff) is set to go to trial this November.

Regardless of what happens in the US, Apple and Google are already being forced to open up their platforms to third-party payments systems in certain markets, such as South Korea and the Netherlands. It has also been reported that Apple plans to allow third-party app stores on the iPhone as soon as next year, in large part to comply with incoming European Union rules. Epic is already prepared for that, as its own mobile app store is ready to go.

Special counsel Jack Smith was granted a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account as part of his investigation into the events of January 6th, 2020. The warrant was first reported by Politico after court documents detailing the warrant surfaced.

Smith obtained the warrant in January, but had trouble getting the records from Twitter. First, his investigators apparently encountered an “inoperative” website typically used for law enforcement to make legal requests. After they were able to serve the warrant, Twitter was slow to respond, according to court records.

The issue, according to newly unsealed court documents, was a nondisclosure agreement that barred Twitter from disclosing the existence of the warrant, including to Trump. The company argued it had a First Amendment right to notify Trump about the warrant, which resulted in months of legal wrangling between Twitter and the special counsel’s office.

The court sided with the government and Twitter was required to hand over the data. During the litigation, the government amended the nondisclosure order to allow Twitter “to notify the former President of the existence and contents of the warrant” provided they withheld the identity of the case agent.

But the company missed a court-ordered deadline for turning over all its records, and was fined $350,000 after being held in contempt. “Although Twitter ultimately complied with the warrant, the company did not fully produce the requested information until three days after a court-ordered deadline,” the filing states.

The legal wrangling underscores the role Trump’s Twitter account played in the events of January 6th. The company suspended the @realdonaldtrump account the evening of the riot after he tweeted support for the violent mob. Trump’s account was reinstated after Elon Musk acquired the company last year, but the former president has yet to return to the platform.

The company, now known as X, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The surprisingly emotional and strangely addictive “dystopian document thriller” Papers, Please just turned ten years old and has officially sold five million copies across multiple platforms throughout the past decade. To celebrate the milestone, developer Lucas Pope and his company 3909 LLC released a web game called LCD, Please that allows players to go through certain aspects of the original title.

Just like the real game, LCD, Please tasks you with approving or denying passport and transit requests. As the name suggests, the graphics style emulates those LCD portable devices of yesteryear, like Nintendo’s Game & Watch series. The sound is monotone, the controls are simple and the gameplay is addictive, making it a great way to accidentally waste a few minutes during the work day.

The web game isn’t the only way the developer is celebrating the success of Papers, Please. There’s also an official soundtrack, available now on Spotify and Apple Music, a developer’s log with insider information chronicling the game’s original pitch and a store selling related merchandise. To the latter, you can pick up posters, shirts, stickers and more.

Since the game’s initial release in 2013, Papers, Please has gone on to launch on over 40 platforms, according to the developer. Most recently, the title was released for Android and iOS devices last year. The game’s success also inspired a short film, which was well-received and lauded for capturing the spirit of the source material. Since making Papers, Please, developer Lucas Pope has gone on to create the seafaring whodunnitReturn of the Obra Dinn.

Lyft plans to kill off surge pricing in an attempt to boost its rider numbers. On the company's second-quarter earnings call, CEO David Risher admitted the controversial practice is a "a bad form of price raising" that riders loathe "with a fiery passion."

Surge pricing, which Lyft calls Prime Time, typically kicks in when there aren't enough drivers to meet demand. The idea is that off-duty drivers will smell an opportunity to make more money and be more inclined to hop in their car and work for a while. However, riders by and large do not like surge pricing at all.

"We're trying to really get rid of it," Risher said. "Because we've got such good driver supply, which we've worked really hard to get, it's decreased significantly."

A Lyft spokesperson told TechCrunch that its supply of drivers is the highest it's been in three years (since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic). Its driver base has grown by 20 percent year-over-year and the number of average hours each driver works is at a new high, beating 2019 levels. This, Risher said, has helped to reduce the share of rides impacted by surge pricing by 35 percent compared with the previous quarter.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that means Lyft is making less money. "But it's good for our riders, and it's good for our overall market itself," Risher noted.

Lyft has been lowering prices to stay competitive with Uber and entice riders to use its service. The company's revenue per rider dipped by five percent from the previous quarter. However, the number of active riders grew by nine percent.

Our local and state level government systems are hacked and held ransom with disheartening regularity. At the Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the Biden Administration revealed its plans to better defend the nation’s critical digital infrastructure: It's launching a DARPA-led challenge competition to build AI systems capable of proactively identifying and fixing software vulnerabilities. That’s right, we’re having a hackathon!

The “AI Cyber Challenge” (AIxCC) is a two-year development program open to competitors throughout the US. It’s being hosted by DARPA in collaboration with Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. Those companies are providing both their expertise in the field and access to their AI technologies.

“The challenge is critical in bringing together the cutting-edge in automatic software, security and AI, which will empower our cyber defenses by being able to quickly exploit and fix software vulnerabilities,” Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, said during a press call Tuesday.

“This is one of the ways that public and private sectors work together to do big things to change how the future unfolds,” Arati Prabhakar, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, added. “That's why the White House asked DARPA to take on the critical topic of AI for cybersecurity.”

White House officials concede that properly securing the nation’s sprawling federal software systems against intrusion is a daunting task. “They don't have the tools capable of security at this scale,” Perri Adams, Program Manager, Information Innovation Office, DARPA, said during the call. “We've seen in recent years, hackers exploiting the state of affairs, posing a serious national security risk.”

Despite those vulnerabilities, “I think we have to keep one step ahead and AI offers a very promising approach for that,” Adams said. There’s nearly $20 million in prize money up for grabs. And to ensure that the competition isn’t dominated by the teams with the deepest pockets, DARPA is making $7 million available to small businesses who want to compete as well.

The research agency will hold an open qualifying event next spring where the top scoring teams (up to 20 can potentially qualify) will get invited to the semifinals at DEF CON 24. That cohort will be whittled down to the top five teams, who will win monetary prizes at the competition and be invited back to DEF CON 25 for the finals. The top three scoring teams from DC25 will win even more money. You land first place, you get $4 million — but to do so, your AI had better be able to, “rapidly defend critical infrastructure codes from attack,” per White House officials. Ideally, the resulting system would scour networks seeking out and autonomously repairing any software security bugs it finds. 

The winning team will also be strongly encouraged to open-source their resulting program. The competition is bringing on The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), a Linux Foundation project, as an advisor to the challenge. Their job is to help ensure that the code is put to use immediately, “by everyone from volunteer, open-source developers to commercial industry,” Adams said. “If we're successful, I hope to see AIxCC not only produce the next generation of cybersecurity tools in this space, but show how AI can be used to better society by defending its critical underpinnings.”

“The president has been completely clear that we have got to get AI right for the American people,” Prabhakar said. Last fall the Biden White House unveiled its Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, which defined the Administration’s core values and goals on the subject. Follow-up efforts included pushing for an AI risk management framework and investing $140 million in establishing seven new national research institutes to AI and machine learning. In July, the White House also wrangled a number of leading AI companies to agree to (non-binding) assertions that they will develop their products responsibly.

Federal regulatory agencies have fined 11 financial institutions a combined $549 million for using “off-channel” messaging apps (WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal and text messages) for conversations about trades and other business. Securities laws require investment firms and banks to preserve communications records and ensure employees only carry out business through authorized channels. “The firms did not maintain or preserve the substantial majority of these off-channel communications, in violation of the federal securities laws,” the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wrote in a statement today.

The Wall Street firms were fined over half a billion dollars in penalties for using messaging apps instead of email, approved messaging platforms or other easily archived channels. Firms penalized by the SEC include Wells Fargo ($125 million), BNP Paribas ($35 million), SG Americas Securities ($35 million), BMO Capital Markets ($25 million), Mizuho Securities ($25 million), Houlihan Lokey Capital ($15 million), Moelis & Company ($10 million), Wedbush Securities ($10 million) and SMBC Nikko Securities America ($9 million). Meanwhile, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Wells Fargo ($75 million), BNP Paribas ($75 million), Société Générale ($75 million) and Bank of Montreal ($35 million).

“Recordkeeping failures such as those here undermine our ability to exercise effective regulatory oversight, often at the expense of investors,” said Sanjay Wadhwa, the SEC’s Deputy Director of Enforcement. “The Commission’s message could not be more clear — recordkeeping and supervision requirements are fundamental, and registrants that fail to comply with these core regulatory obligations do so at their own peril,” said CFTC Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley.

Federal regulators said all firms admitted to the facts about unapproved communications in agreeing to the penalties. “As described in the SEC’s orders, the firms admitted that from at least 2019, their employees often communicated through various messaging platforms on their personal devices, including iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal, about the business of their employers,” the SEC wrote in a statement. “The firms did not maintain or preserve the substantial majority of these off-channel communications, in violation of the federal securities laws. By failing to maintain and preserve required records, certain of the firms likely deprived the Commission of these off-channel communications in various SEC investigations.”

Both government agencies stressed that the problem was pervasive and not limited to entry-level employees and junior staff. “The failures involved employees at multiple levels of authority, including supervisors and senior executives,” the SEC said.