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The US Department of Justice has settled a lawsuit it filed Monday with Activision Blizzard over suppressed eSports wages, according toReuters. The case, submitted in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, focuses on a rule that required independently owned teams to effectively pay double if they passed a soft salary cap. A federal judge will still need to approve the settlement.

The complaint, the fruit of an investigation first reported in 2021, said that in Activision’s Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues, the “competitive balance tax” was structured to penalize teams if their compensation exceeded a threshold set by Activision. “While players in other professional sports leagues have agreed to salary restrictions as part of collective bargaining agreements, the players in Activision’s esports leagues are not members of a union and never negotiated or bargained for these rules,” the DOJ clarified in the filing.

The case states that Activision would fine teams one dollar for every dollar that exceeded the cap — and redistribute the collected fees among all non-offending teams. For example, the filing says that “if Activision set a Competitive Balance Tax threshold of $1 million, a team that spent $1.2 million on player compensation in a season would pay a $200,000 fine, which would be distributed to the other teams.”

Additionally, the Antitrust Division filed a proposed consent decree that would bar Activision from imposing any further rules that would penalize a team for exceeding a set amount of compensation. It would also require the company to certify that “it has ended all Competitive Balance Taxes in its professional esports leagues, to implement revised antitrust compliance and whistleblower protection policies, and to provide notice and an explanation of the final judgment to teams and players in its professional esports leagues.” 

According to the DOJ, the Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues have generated millions of dollars. Microsoft is trying to clear regulatory hurdles to move forward with its planned purchase of Activision Blizzard.

“Video games and esports are among the most popular and fastest growing forms of entertainment in the world today, and professional esports players—like all workers—deserve the benefits of competition for their services. Activision’s conduct prevented that from happening,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter from the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s lawsuit makes clear that the Antitrust Division remains committed to protecting workers across all types of industries from anticompetitive conduct.”

I don’t know about you, but when Elon Musk took Twitter over last fall, the last thing I had on my bingo card was a Doge takeover of the website. Yet here we are. As of Monday afternoon, if you open the Twitter web client, the loading screen and main interface will display an icon depicting Kabosu, the Shiba Inu who inspired the Doge meme, instead of the company’s trademark blue bird.

Other than to share a not-so-funny meme, Musk has yet to explain what’s going on with the $20 billion website he paid $44 billion to buy. The Twitter press email, meanwhile, returned a poop emoji when Engadget sent a comment request. If this is an April Fool’s Day joke, I will point out it’s April 3rd. Perhaps Musk is trying to troll the investors suing him for $258 billion over accusations of running a Dogecoin pyramid scheme, but that would be a strange legal strategy, particularly given that the value of Dogecoin just shot up to a recent high of 10 cents due to this stunt. At any rate, we’ll probably have to wait until the next internal comms leak to learn how this particular situation came to pass.

You might not want to use Google Drive for large system backups or other many-file transfers. Ars Technica has learned Google quietly instituted a user "creation limit" of 5 million files sometime in February. As Reddit user ra13 discovered, personal (Google One) and business (Google Workspace) users get an error message if they try to directly upload any files past that ceiling. The cap doesn't apply to shared files, which are already limited to 400,000 items.

In a statement, Google says the file cap is meant to prevent abuses that might hurt the "stability and safety" of Drive. This isn't a limit on the total number of files in a drive. The number of affected users is "vanishingly small," the company adds.

The main problem, as you might imagine, is that there's a chance you'll reach the file limit before you run out of the storage you've paid for. Ra13 estimated that a user with a 2TB Google One account may face that dilemma if the average file size is 400KB or less. While Google is right that won't likely be an issue for most people, it could be problematic for fans of cloud backups or pros whose apps produce a flood of small files.

Moreover, Google hasn't publicly acknowledged the cap until now. The company's product and support pages don't mention the file creation limit. There's also no counter, so you don't know exactly how many files you'll need to delete or compress to make room for more. The lack of transparency has left some users racing to either trim their Drive libraries or find alternatives without similar restrictions.

The Yale Assure Lock 2 can automatically open your door, takes voice commands and let guests in with a code. Right now at Amazon, the keyless configuration of the smart lock is down to its lowest price since its debut, with a 17 percent discount that makes it $216 instead of $260. The deal applies to the black finish only — the nickel finish is seeing a nine percent, or $15, discount and the bronze version is full price. The discounted model includes both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and has a touchscreen keypad for access for visitors or when you're not using your phone. Best Buy is offering the same discount, so if you prefer shopping there, you can still save. 

We were impressed with the lock, giving it a particularly high score of 87 in our review. In most cases, it only requires a Phillips head screwdriver to install and it took our reviewer about a half hour, and that included some minor troubleshooting with customer service. Keep in mind that this replaces your entire deadbolt, so it may not be an option for renters. Once installed, you can assign multiple entry codes for different family members or other visitors and the lock instantly notifies you of anyone who's gained access. 

Primary users can set up the Assure Lock 2 to open when their Apple Watch is nearby, or by using the app on a smartphone or home hub/smart display. The lock also works with voice controls using any smart home assistant, but requires a spoken pin for added security. Exposing any system to remote access capabilities can leave room for exploitation, so Yale includes two-layer encryption, two-factor authentication and biometric verification to make things more secure. 

One drawback is that the lock uses disposable AA batteries. Due to fire safety regulations, there's no option for a rechargeable battery pack. If the batteries happen to die when you're out an about, you can hold a 9-volt battery up to the bottom of the lock to give it enough juice to let you in so you can swap out the cells. 

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Sony’s upcoming WF-C700N earbuds have leaked courtesy of Best Buy. In a listing spotted by WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, the retailer revealed the true wireless buds will go on sale on April 21st for $120. That’s $20 more than the WF-C500 model they’re expected to replace.

According to Android Police, which saw the listing before it was removed by Best Buy, the WF-C700N will offer active noise cancellation, thanks to the inclusion of Sony’s “Noise Sensor Technology.” Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity means the earbuds will also support two simultaneous connections. Additionally, the WF-C700N will carry over a few features from the WF-C500. Expect the inclusion of Sony’s Digital Sound Enhancement Engine for restoring lost detail in Bluetooth audio and IPX4-certified splash protection.

MySmartPrice

Battery life reportedly comes in at 15 hours total with the included charging case. It’s unclear if that takes ANC use into account. For comparison, you can get up to 20 hours of total playtime from the WF-C500, but then they don’t feature noise cancelation. One thing Best Buy didn’t reveal is what Bluetooth codecs the WF-C700N will come with out of the box. It would be nice to see aptX and LDAC support, but given that the WF-C500 limit you to SBC and AAC, that may be hoping for too much. Provided the listing is accurate, we’ll get clarity on those details soon enough.

Late last year, Nintendo announced that it would be establishing a joint venture called Nintendo Systems with mobile developer DeNA, and now the company has officially launched, right on time. So what exactly will Nintendo Systems make? Things are still murky. There is an official website but that is about where the information ends. A press release from November states that the company will work to “strengthen the digitalization of Nintendo’s business” and create new “value-added services.” 

Nintendo and DeNA have been closely tied together since 2015, as the latter developed a number of mobile titles based on Nintendo IPs. This relationship allowed for the release of popular smartphone games like Super Mario Run, Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, among others. So one likely outcome here is that the just-announced Nintendo Systems will develop and publish forthcoming mobile titles.

There is another, less-glamorous, option. In addition to developing mobile games, DeNA also handles some of the infrastructure regarding Nintendo Accounts services. Nintendo has stated that they will continue to use dedicated Nintendo Accounts moving forward into new console generations, so the new company could just be a way to keep everything in-house.

After all, the website also suggests Nintendo Systems will assist with the “development and operation of systems related to the digital part of Nintendo’s business." This is a loose translation from Japanese, though it certainly sounds boring enough to be related to accounts stuff. We reached out to Nintendo for some clarification and will update this post when we know more. In the meantime, there are just a few more weeks until that Breath of the Wild sequel drops.

You no longer have to fret about missing an act during YouTube's live Coachella streams. The company has confirmed that, for the first time, it will stream all six stages during both weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which kicks off April 14th, 2023 at 7PM Eastern and resumes April 21st at the same time. Previously, you had to make do with three streams. Replays will be available until the next day kicks off.

To no one's surprise, YouTube is using Coachella to pitch its services. Premium subscribers will have access to backstage "pre-parties," while Shorts creators can use their videos to influence the set lists of Calvin Harris, Becky G and Burna Boy. You can also expect special merch drops during the streams, and you can watch through the YouTube Music app in addition to YouTube itself.

Coachella 2023 has a packed lineup. The headliners include artists like Bad Bunny, Blackpink and Frank Ocean. There's also a mix of up-to-the-minute and legendary stars, including Bjork, Underworld, Yaeji and Wet Leg. YouTube's expanded coverage lets you indulge your personal preferences instead of having to 'settle' for some musicians. We'd add that tickets for the first weekend are already sold out as of this writing — this may be the only way you can attend some gigs this year.

There's no mystery behind YouTube's strategy. This is less about direct revenue and more about getting YouTube's name into the spotlight. In theory, you may drift away from TikTok and other video apps competing for your free time.

Have you heard about the Scandoval? I asked a handful of friends this question over the past week, and a surprising number confirmed this strange new word had recently popped up in their news feeds, attached to stories from The New York Times, CNN and Vanity Fair. My friends didn’t quite know what it was, aside from the vague notion that it was related to the Real Housewives shows. More importantly, they didn’t know why it was being recommended to them, considering they didn’t follow Bravo shows or reality television.

That’s because this is the March Madness of reality TV. The Scandoval is an explosive cheating scandal involving the cast of Vanderpump Rules — and it’s unfolding in real time, with cameras on, allowing viewers to look for signs of deceit in every scene as it airs. There are clear villains and an obvious heroine, and it’s all leading up to the reunion, which was filmed at the end of March and has already provided a drip feed of drama and staged paparazzi encounters. The Scandoval is so monumental in the Bravo multiverse that it’s culturally important for people outside of this bubble to know what’s going on — just like folks who don’t follow sports are subjected to the NCAA’s media cycle every year.

Jeff Daly/Peacock

It’s not all about the Scandoval, either. This is a golden era for Bravo and its streaming home, Peacock. Nearly every Housewives franchise is popping off in its own special way, and many of them are making mainstream news headlines: Jen Shah of Salt Lake City was just sentenced to six and a half years in prison for running a telemarketing scam and her surprise arrest was caught on camera; Erika Jayne of Beverly Hills continues to display obscene greed as her estranged husband, disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi, is federally indicted on charges he stole millions of dollars from victims of corporate malfeasance. Miami, a streaming-only series exclusive to Peacock, just wrapped a beautiful fifth season and cemented itself as a blueprint for future Housewives shows; Ultimate Girls Trip, a crossover event that brings wives together like the third act of a Marvel film, is in its third season and already serving hype for its fourth. Married to Medicine continues to be a powerful, captivating and hilarious franchise centered on Black women and doctors in Georgia, and it’s bringing in a notorious wife from the Atlanta history books for its upcoming season.

That’s not even all of it, and the above list doesn’t address the biggest bit of Bravo drama happening right now: the Scandoval. Here’s a brief summary, for the culture: Vanderpump Rules is a spin-off of Beverly Hills starring the servers and bartenders of trendy Los Angeles restaurants. Its tenth season is currently airing, and as it kicked off, news broke that Tom Sandoval, a bar owner with Peter Pan syndrome, had been cheating on his partner of nine years, Ariana Madix, with a younger cast member named Raquel Leviss for the past six months. Details about the affair have been dripping out online — lightning bolt necklaces will never be the same — and viewers are scouring each new episode for signs of the pair’s lies. Meanwhile, Bravo picked cameras back up after the affair came to light, and the mid-season trailer promises intense, intimate reactions from everyone involved, plus plenty of vengeful edits for Ariana. The reunion is poised to be a spectacle like Bravo has never seen.

Nicole Weingart/Bravo

To put it back in sports terms: The Scandoval is like David Beckham cheating on Victoria with Emma Bunton. Or like Scottie Pippen’s ex-wife starting a relationship with Michael Jordan’s son — a storyline that literally happened on the latest season of Miami. See? As Quad said on season nine of Married to Medicine when asked whether she’d cheated on past boyfriends, our cup runneth over.

This all means Peacock is getting my money for the foreseeable future, no high-budget original series required. I mean, I loved Poker Face, but I haven’t thought about it much since watching the final episode of season one. Housewives and its related series live outside of the app, on message boards and social media and podcasts, filling the silence even between seasons. Meanwhile, the Scandoval is driving viewership for Peacock, where Vanderpump is available to stream next-day. Peacock is also the only place to watch Miami and Ultimate Girls Trip, two shows that already make it essential in my own app lineup. I never expected to get so much use out of an NBC streaming service, but here we are.

The next app to get my business will be whichever one picks up Married at First Sight Australia. If you’ve made it to this point in this article — a Real Housewives fever dream somehow published on a technology website — do yourself a favor and find a way to watch it (in between Vanderpump Rules episodes, of course).

NASA has finally named the astronauts that will orbit the Moon during the Artemis 2 mission. Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch will fly for the US, while the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen will represent his country. The crew will spend up to 21 days aboard an Orion capsule that will spend about 42 hours in high Earth orbit before touring the Moon and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

Koch is best known for the longest stay in space by a female astronaut. Wiseman, meanwhile, is a Navy pilot who was also a test pilot in the F-35 Lightning II program. Glover made history by participating in the first operational Crew Dragon mission in 2021. Hansen is a fighter pilot and one of four current Canadian astronauts.

If Artemis 2 remains on track, it should launch in November 2024 and will represent the first time humans have flown to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis 1, an uncrewed lunar flyby mission, launched in November last year and broke an Apollo flight record with its roughly 26-day trip. People won't land on the Moon until Artemis 3's scheduled launch in December 2025. That mission will use a variant of SpaceX's Starship for the actual landing.

NASA has been steadily building publicity for Artemis in recent months. In March, it unveiled the spacesuit for the Artemis 3 landing. The Axiom Space-made prototype accommodates more body types and is more flexible, letting astronauts kneel and otherwise  

The crew selection comes as NASA appears to have overcome the setbacks that plagued its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, including engine trouble, fuel leaks, Hurricane Ian and Tropical Storm Nicole. With that said, the agency originally wanted an Artemis lunar landing in 2024. The current timeline assumes there won't be any significant technical hurdles, and there are no guarantees of that between SpaceX's ongoing Starship issues (it still hasn't conducted an orbital flight test) and the inherent challenges of putting people on the Moon.

Developing...

About an hour into my time with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Cal Kestis, the game’s protagonist, reunites with Greez Dritus, the cranky pilot from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The two embrace after five years apart, one of Greez's four arms now replaced by a robotic prosthetic. It's a moment that encapsulates how I felt playing the upcoming game at a recent preview event Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment held in Los Angeles. Playing Jedi: Survivor feels like reuniting with a friend you haven’t seen in a few years. 

Right from the start, Jedi: Survivor feels like a more refined Jedi:Fallen Order. The preview began on Koboh, one of the first planets players will visit when they get their hands on the game later this month. Exploring Koboh is immediately compelling since Cal has all the abilities he rediscovered by the end of Jedi:Fallen Order, plus a new grappling hook for quickly traversing across some gaps. Cal also feels more satisfying to control, as there’s more weight and precision to his movements. When he jumps, he doesn’t float the way he did in Jedi:Fallen Order. In combat, Cal feels more deadly and proficient with his lightsaber.

“Cal has a bit of swagger now, and that was intentional. We wanted the player to feel that,” Game Director Stig Asmussen tells me during a break from the preview. “Keep in mind [Jedi:Fallen Order] was the first time for us,” he says. Before Jedi: Fallen Order, those who worked at the studio were best known for creating first-person shooters like Titanfall and Call of Duty. “We were learning while we were making that game – we’re still learning – but as we were building it, we got better at building it.”

Respawn Entertainment / EA

Asmussen and his team have also hit a comfortable stride in executing the specific demands of the series they’re building. Take Koboh, for instance. I can safely say it is larger and more intricate than Zeffo, Jedi:Fallen Order’s most fully realized planet. Asmussen recommended those of us at the event stick to the game’s critical path to see as much as the preview had to offer, but I couldn’t help but get sidetracked by all the optional content I found on Koboh. One of my favorite discoveries involved an ancient ruin with a particularly devious puzzle inside that had me stumped for a few minutes. Another highlight involved investigating an abandoned mine that it turned out was home to a deadly rancor.

Koboh also does something surprising for the series. Early in his first visit to the planet, Cal comes across a small settlement of people trying to eke out an existence away from both the Empire and a local gang of raiders. The game offers a few options here. Cal can talk with the townsfolk, take on a side quest to explore the aforementioned mine and trade with a merchant who will give you cosmetics in exchange for crystals you can find throughout the game. Cal can also visit a canteen full of colorful characters, including a smooth-talking droid bartender named MXNK-6. The inclusion of a hub world might not be mechanically groundbreaking, but it goes a long way to making Koboh feel less like a level in a video game and more like a place that could actually exist in a galaxy far, far away.

“We’ve gotten better as storytellers,” Asmussen says. "There were very important decisions we had to nail down while making the first game – like how high could Cal jump – before we could have conversations about how to decorate this corner to make it feel like an authentic, lived-in space.”

I didn’t progress far enough in the game to unlock some of Cal’s more exciting new tools, including the crossguard lightsaber and blaster pistol, but at the end of the preview, I did get to see a Respawn developer put those weapons to use. In combination with his Force powers, Cal’s new armaments allow for more creative ways to approach combat. At one point in the showcase, the dev lifted all of the scout troopers in front of him, and then proceeded to shoot them all out of the air with a series of rapid blaster bolts. It wasn’t a very Jedi way of dispatching Cal’s enemies, but I would be lying if I told you it didn’t look cool.

One other thing the dev did was use Cal’s entire move set, including all five of his available combat stances, without resting at a meditation circle to switch between them. In the preview, I could only map two of Cal’s available stances to the d-pad. The combat showcase was the last thing Respawn showed during the preview, so I didn’t get a chance to ask questions about what I saw. But if I had to take a guess, you can eventually freely switch between all of Cal’s combat styles.

Respawn Entertainment / EA

If that sounds intimidating, you’re free to play Jedi:Survivor like an RPG. Cal’s progression occurs across multiple skill trees, with each one dedicated to a different aspect of his kit. Additionally, there’s a new perk system that allows you to further augment Cal’s combat abilities. Asmussen said it’s possible to earn enough skill points to unlock all of Cal’s skills, but you can also choose to specialize in the combat abilities that fit your playstyle. On that note, there are also more options for customizing Cal’s appearance. The clothing system is more robust, allowing you to change individual parts of Cal’s outfit. You can also give him different haircuts and beards.

At the end of the preview, I left even more excited to play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor than when I first arrived at the event. I will say it does feel like a safe sequel. I didn’t get to see some of the game’s more interesting new mechanics, including Cal’s newfound ability to tame mounts and fight with NPC companions, but I doubt those additions will transform the series into something it wasn’t before. If Jedi:Fallen Order didn’t do it for you, Jedi:Survivor is unlikely to change your mind. For everyone else, I think what you can expect is a bigger and better realization of Respawn’s original vision. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on April 28th.