Add a licensing misstep to the list of problems facing former President Donald Trump’s social media network. The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) says The Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) violated a licensing agreement when it recently launched a test version of TRUTH Social. The website ran on a modified version of Mastodon, a free and open-source platform for operating Twitter-like social media networks. Anyone can use Mastodon provided they comply with AGPLv3, the software license that governs its code.

One of the central provisions of AGPLv3 is that licensees must share their source code with all users. In the short time a test version of TRUTH Social was up earlier today, it did not do that. Now, the Software Freedom Conservancy, an organization that enforces open source software licenses, says TMTG has 30 days to comply with AGPLv3 or face the consequences.

“The license purposefully treats everyone equally (even people we don’t like or agree with), but they must operate under the same rules of the copyleft licenses that apply to everyone else,” SFC said in a blog post.

It says the company must “immediately” make TRUTH Social’s source code available to everyone who accessed the site earlier in the day. If TMTG fails to do so in 30 days, it will permanently lose access to the software it used to build its platform. “That’s how AGPLv3’s cure provision works — no exceptions — even if you’re a real estate mogul, reality television star, or even a former POTUS,” the SFC said. If TMTG doesn’t comply with the request, it could face a lawsuit. “We will be following this issue very closely and demanding that Trump’s Group give the corresponding source to all who use the site,” SFC said.

In closing, SFC shared details about how TRUTH Social was defaced earlier in the day. It says it found no evidence anyone “illegally broke” into the website. Instead, it notes the episode was the result of an improper configuration. “Once discovered, people merely used the site legitimately to register accounts and use its features,” the organization said.

Nintendo has delayed Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. The company will release the remake in spring 2022 instead of December 3rd, 2021, as previously announced. "The game just needs a little more time for fine tuning," it said of the delay.

Nintendo first announced the Switch title back at its E3 Direct back in June. The remake will bundle together "reimagined" versions of Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. The two games, long considered classics of the turn-based tactical strategy genre, first came out on the Game Boy Advance in 2001 and 2003. Intelligent Systems, best known for its work on the Fire Emblem franchise, was the lead developer on both titles.

Back at the start of the year, Google gave Meet hosts the ability to mute everyone in a call all at once. Now, the company has a solution for situations that require more nuance and control. It’s introducing an audio and video lock feature that allows hosts to turn off the microphones and cameras of select participants, in which case they can’t turn them back on until they’re allowed to do so again. 

Anyone using a version of Meet on Android or iOS that does not support audio and video locks will be removed from the call if the host enables the feature. If they try to join one such call, they’ll also be prompted to update their app. Google has begun rolling out the tool to rapid release domains today. Scheduled release domains will start getting access to it beginning on November 1st. The locks should be particularly useful for corraling rowdy participants, but some hosts may also find it helpful for encouraging specific individuals to participate more often. 

Less than a year after it first started testing live audio rooms, Twitter is opening up Spaces to nearly everyone. Starting today, anyone on Android and iOS can host a Space, no matter how many people follow them. As of this past May, the feature was open to any Twitter user with more than 600 followers. At the time, the company said it put that limit in place to ensure a “good experience.” Now that the option is available to all Android and iOS users, you can start your own audio room by tapping on the compose button and then the Spaces icon.

If there’s a reason Twitter waited almost a year to make hosting Spaces available to everyone, it’s because the company has spent the last few months adding features that enhance the experience significantly. Twitter recently added a topics tool that allows you to add pre-defined tags to make your audio room easier to find. It also recently added a co-hosting feature you can use to recruit people to help you with moderation. Those are all things that should make Spaces more appealing to first-time users.

Amazon may soon face a second unionization effort in less than a year. Per The New York Times, hourly workers at the company’s JFK8 fulfillment center in New York City are in the process of collecting signatures to file for a union election. They’re expected to contact the National Labor Relations Board on Monday. If the agency grants their request, it will lead to a vote with potentially significant ramifications for Amazon.

This past April, Amazon beat back a historic union vote at its BHM1 fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama. Approximately 1,700 of the more than 3,000 employees who took part in the election voted against unionization, handing Amazon a comfortable majority. However, the election was mired in controversy, with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which sought to represent the approximately 5,800 workers at Bessemer, accusing the company of unfairly influencing the vote. In August, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Amazon had violated US labor laws, and recommended that workers in Bessemer hold a new election.

Amazon employs more than 5,000 workers at JFK8. Beyond its sheer size, the facility has been the site of multiple protests since the start of the pandemic. Among those leading the unionization effort at JFK8 is Christian Smalls. Amazon fired Smalls after he organized a walkout over the company’s handling of COVID safety at the warehouse. At the time, the company said Smalls broke a quarantine order by attending the event. At the start of the year, New York sued Amazon, alleging the company had retaliated against Smalls.

When Engadget reached out to Amazon about the effort, the company noted its employees have always had the option to join a union but said it was against the idea.

As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Every day we empower people to find ways to improve their jobs, and when they do that we want to make those changes — quickly. That type of continuous improvement is harder to do quickly and nimbly with unions in the middle. The benefits of direct relationships between managers and employees can’t be overstated — these relationships allow every employee’s voice to be heard, not just the voices of a select few. We’ve made great progress in recent years and months in important areas like pay and safety. There are plenty of things that we can keep doing better, and that's our focus — to keep getting better every day.

Even if the National Labor Relations Board calls an election after Monday, the workers at JFK8 face an uphill battle. They’re up against one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful corporations. From competitive wages to Twitch ads, Amazon has consistently used nearly every tool available to it to dissuade its workers from unionizing.

Google plans to bring Android’s work profile feature to more devices. If you’re not familiar with the tool, it separates your work and personal apps from one another and adds a toggle to your phone you can use to disable the former when you need to disconnect.

When you flip the switch, any work-related apps you have installed on your device can’t send you notifications and access your location. It also silos the data from your personal apps, ensuring that your company’s IT department can’t access your personal information.

At the moment, the tool is only available to enterprise customers, but starting in 2022 Google will begin rolling it out to Workspace users. It then plans to make it available to other identity providers. “This will eventually allow anyone using Android for business purposes to separate work and personal apps in one interface and pause all work-related apps in one click,” the company said. The feature’s expansion should be of great help to business owners and freelancers but nearly anyone can benefit from having a better work-life balance.

At I/O 2021, Google reiterated its commitment to Matter with a handful of smart home-related Nest and Android updates. If you need a refresher, Matter was known as Project CHIP, or Connected Home over IP, before a rebranding this past May. It’s a pact between some of the biggest companies in tech, including Google, Amazon and Apple, that aims to bring standardization to the fragmented smart home space. When it launches in the first half of 2022, it will support a variety of voice assistants and networking protocols, including Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri as well as WiFi, Thread and Bluetooth LE.

At its simplest, the promise of Matter is that you’ll be able to buy a new device and it will simply work with your existing smart home setup. To support that vision, Google is introducing new tools to help developers build and integrate Matter devices into its wider smart home ecosystem. It starts with a new but familiar name for the company’s smart home devices and developer platform: Google Home. “By bringing our platform and tools under the same roof, it gives us a simpler way to show you why and how integrating your devices with Google Home makes them more accessible and helpful across the Google ecosystem,” the company said.

As part of the rebranding, will launch a redesigned Developer Center early next year. It says the dashboard will include everything developers need to build devices and applications that work with the wider Google Home ecosystem. It will support Matter at launch and Google will release two software development kits. The first of those is a Google Home Device SDK. The company says it will be one of the fastest ways to create Matter devices. Google also plans to update Nest and Android devices to support the protocol, a move it says will enable the seamless setup of Matter devices on those platforms. Once it rolls out the update, Google claims the process of adding a new smart home will be as easy as connecting a new set of headphones. One of the other ways the company hopes to support developers is by allowing them to create their own suggested routines.

For Google, the motive for doing all of this is straightforward. The easier it can make it for third-party developers to integrate their devices and applications with Google Home, the better experience consumers will find. In turn, they’ll be more likely to invest in the company’s ecosystem.

In a few short years, the cost of 5G access has dropped dramatically. What used to be a feature you could only find on premium devices like the Samsung S10 5G has made its way to phones as affordable as the $449 Pixel 5a. But we haven’t seen that trend play out the same way in the tablet space. For the most part, you still either have to pay a premium or forgo the feature altogether. Enter the TCL Tab Pro 5G, a new $400 tablet that’s exclusive to Verizon and comes with n260 and n261 mmWave support.

Outside of the fact it can connect to a 5G network, the most intriguing aspect of the Tab Pro 5G is that it comes with an 8,000mAh battery. With TCL’s On-the-Go reverse charging, you can use the tablet as an impromptu power bank for your other devices. Powering the Tab Pro 5G alone, TCL claims you can expect about 17 hours of mixed-use battery life. Using the included 18W power adapter, it takes about four hours to charge the device to full.

TCL

Otherwise, the Tab Pro 5G is about what you would expect when it comes to a $400 tablet. Internally, it features a Qualcomm 480 5G chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. You can add up to 1TB of additional space through a micro SD card. The 10.36-inch 1,200 x 2,000 resolution display is limited to 60Hz but includes TCL’s NXTVISION technology, which allows it to convert an SDR video into an HDR one. For taking photos, it comes with a 13-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel selfie shooter.

The Tab Pro 5G is available to buy today from Verizon. If you purchase online, you can save $100 on the tablet through the carrier’s Buy More, Save More Promo — but that means also buying an eligible Android phone.

On Wednesday, Clark County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve plans for The Boring Company’s Vegas Loop system. With the decision, the Elon Musk venture moves one step closer to the day when it can start digging the 29 miles of tunnel that will make up the project. Once complete, the 51-station network will connect various hotels and other destinations between Allegiant Stadium and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The company now needs to obtain the necessary permits before it can start excavating.

Boring President Steve Davis Told the Las Vegas Review the company will build the system in phases. Once it completes work on an individual station, it will open immediately. Boring hopes to build five to 10 stations within the first six months of the project, and then between 15 and 20 every year thereafter. The goal is to finish construction within three years.

The Boring Company is making some ambitious claims about how efficient the Vegas Loop will be once it’s complete. Davis said the network will move approximately 57,000 riders per hour. He also said it will be a point-to-point system, meaning passengers won’t have to stop at every station on the way to their destination. The LVCC, the company’s first loop, has thus far not lived up to claims made by Elon Musk. When it was first pitched, the system was supposed to move up to 4,400 passengers every hour. But as of earlier this year, it was only capable of moving about 576 passengers per hour.

PayPal is reportedly in late-stage talks to acquire Pinterest. According to Reuters, the payments company made a $45 billion offer on Wednesday to buy the social network. News of the potential sale was first reported by Bloomberg earlier in the day. The outlet put the value of the deal at approximately $39 billion, noting PayPal planned to finance it mostly through stock.

At first glance, PayPal’s interest in Pinterest may seem like a head-scratcher, but an acquisition could help the company gain a foothold in the growing social commerce space. That’s an area where Pinterest has been an active player since 2015. In a way, Pinterest is also a safe purchase. It has managed to avoid many of the problems with misinformation that have plagued Facebook and Twitter.

It’s also worth pointing out PayPal has spent much of the past year and a half expanding outside of its traditional wheelhouse. For instance, it recently spent $2.7 billion to solidify its presence in the buy-now-pay-later space and has gotten into cryptocurrency trading in a big way.

We’ve reached out to Pinterest and PayPal for comment.