The European Commission and Amazon have reportedly come to an agreement that will allow the retail giant to avoid a fine for allegedly misusing seller data. According to The Financial Times, the company has pledged to give rival products equal treatment in the Buy Box section of its website, a move that should theoretically increase the visibility of the merchants selling those goods. Amazon also agreed to create alternate featured offers for customers less concerned about getting their purchase as quickly as possible, as well as give sellers free rein to decide on the company they want to deliver their goods.

According to The Times, the European Commission plans to announce the agreement on December 20th, though that date could shift. What won’t change are the terms of the deal. “There’s very little to discuss,” a source told the outlet. Once the agreement is formalized, Amazon will be required to honor its commitments for at least five years.

Amazon did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. In July, when the company promised it would take steps to make its seller program fairer, Amazon said it felt it was being “unfairly” targeted by legislation like the Digital Markets Act. At the same time, the retailer said it was "engaged constructively" with regulators to address concerns about its business.

A deal with the European Union would give Amazon the chance to put to rest at least one aspect of a long saga. The European Commission began probing the company’s use of merchant data in 2019, almost a full year before The Wall Street Journalpublished a report alleging that Amazon had used seller data to design competing products. However, the company would still need to mollify US lawmakers and regulators. In April, the Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly began investigating the company’s use of third-party data. Before that, the Senate asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Amazon over the possibility of criminal obstruction.

Since Amazon first announced its Luna cloud gaming service in 2020, Ubisoft has been one of the company’s closest partners. The publisher embraced the service early and came out of the gate with a dedicated channel. Now the two companies are deepening their partnership with an expansion of what you can do with Luna.

Starting today, it’s possible to stream Ubisoft games you already own on PC through Luna. You'll need an active Prime or Luna+ subscription to do so, as well as a set of linked Amazon Luna and Ubisoft Connect accounts. Once you have those in place, you can play your existing purchases wherever Luna is available, including on Fire TV devices, Chromebooks and phones.

The list of compatible titles features some of Ubisoft’s best-known games, including Watch Dogs: Legion, Riders Republic and nearly every Assassin’s Creed game you could ever want to play. There are also a few older gems on the list, such as Beyond Good and Evil and Child of Light. A Ubisoft spokesperson told Engadget the offer extends to games the publisher allowed Stadia users to transfer to PC after Google announced the service was shutting down. 

At first glance, Ubisoft letting PC players use Luna without paying for its channel may not make much business sense, but there’s an element of smart marketing to the plan. The best way for a company to attract new customers to a service is to give them the opportunity to use it and see the value in it themselves. After using Luna to play games you previously purchased, you may come out of the experience more inclined to subscribe to the Ubisoft channel. That would be a win for the publisher.

Microsoft’s pledge to stay neutral in unionization efforts is about to be tested in a big way. On Monday, quality assurance staff at ZeniMax Media went public with the news that they’re working to form a union. The approximately 300 workers involved in the effort want to be represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). That’s the same union that recently helped QA staff at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany win their organization bids.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. A company spokesperson told The New York Times Microsoft was “committed to providing employees with an opportunity to freely and fairly make choices about their workplace representation,” adding the campaign was “an example of our labor principles in action.”

ZeniMax Media is the parent company of some of Microsoft’s most prized first-party studios, including Arkane, Bethesda and id Software. Microsoft paid $7.5 billion in an all-cash deal to acquire the publisher in 2020. A successful unionization bid would affect all the studios under the ZeniMax umbrella.

According to The Times, QA staff at ZeniMax began voting on unionization on December 2nd, the same day testers at Blizzard Albany voted 14 to 0 to join the CWA. Staff at the Microsoft subsidiary can share their stance on the matter by signing a union authorization card or by voting through an electronic portal. A decision is expected before the end of the month.

In June, Microsoft announced it would respect all unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard following the close of its $68.7 billion deal to buy the publisher. At the time, the company signed a landmark neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America. Antitrust regulators in the UK and EU are currently conducting investigations of Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard.

Three years after bringing Facebook Dating to the US, Meta is finally adding a way for users to verify their age. As it did when it began testing age verification on Instagram this past summer, Meta is once again turning to a company called Yoti for help. If Facebook’s automated systems suspect a minor is trying to use Facebook Dating, the website will prompt that individual to provide more information. Users can prove they’re old enough to use the service either by submitting a copy of a photo ID card or a video selfie. In the latter case, Meta will share a video still with Yoti “and nothing else.” Yoti’s machine learning algorithm estimates your age based on your facial features. Once the company shares its estimate with Meta, Yoti will delete the image.

Yoti’s technology is controversial for a few reasons. To start, like other neural networks, it’s something of a black box. Yoti has said it doesn’t know exactly which facial characteristics its software uses to make judgments. The AI is also more likely to incorrectly estimate someone’s age depending on their gender and skin tone. In general, it’s the least accurate when examining female faces with dark skin and the most accurate when looking at light-skinned males. However, Meta claims it has found a lot of success using Yoti's software. On Instagram, for instance, it says that the technology has stopped 96 percent of teens from changing their birthdays to make it seem like they are over the age of 18. In the case of Facebook Dating, it’s also one of those instances where whatever concerns people have with the technology may be outweighed by the fact it’s being used to protect minors from online predators.

Facebook Dating age verification is currently only available in the US. Meta says it will bring the feature to more countries once it has had time to do more testing.

Why settle for a desk and an ultrawide monitor when you can buy a multi-purpose computing pod? That’s the question Cooler Master hopes the Orb X, its newly announced semi-enclosed work and gaming station (via Gizmodo), will prompt you to ponder. While the Orb X won’t completely isolate you from the outside world, your family and roommates will definitely accuse you of being antisocial once you’re cocooned inside its ABS plastic shell.

The built-in recliner is made from “genuine leather,” and features a fully adjustable headrest, lumbar support and leg rest. Once you’re seated, the motorized dome at the top of the Orb X lowers a screen to eye level. Speaking of screens, you can configure the pod with either a single 34-inch monitor or up to three 27-inch displays. Completing the multimedia experience, the Orb X also comes with a built-in surround sound system that Cooler Master says will let you enjoy a realistic soundstage without fancy headphones.

Cooler Master

Other nifty features include a hidden compartment where you can store your PC and consoles. Inside, you'll also find a desk with built-in wireless charging and a handful of USB-A and USB-C ports. Oh, and the whole thing obviously features RGB accent lighting.

While it’s far from a crowded market, Cooler Master isn’t the only company producing a behemoth like the Orb X. In 2018, Acer announced the $20,000 Predator Thronos before following it up with the more affordable Thronos Air one year later. Cooler Master has yet to announce pricing details for the Orb X, or, for that matter, a release date. If you’re keen on finding out when it’s available for pre-order, you can register for a waiting list.

DHL is turning to Ford for help to electrify 60 percent of its delivery fleet by the end of the decade. On Monday, the automaker’s Pro division announced it would supply the logistics company with 2,000 E-Transit electric vans by the end of 2023. The order is part of a €7 billion investment DHL has set aside through the end of the decade to build a zero-emissions fleet. Ford notes it has already delivered some of the vans covered by the deal to DHL, and that the vehicles are handling express deliveries throughout Europe and the Americas.

While 2,000 vehicles is a drop in the ocean for a company like DHL (the company already has 27,000 EVs in its fleet), the door is open for Ford to provide DHL with more E-Transit vans. The memorandum of understanding the two signed will see Ford grant DHL access to test vehicles. They also plan to work together on new products and charging solutions. Ford isn’t the only company providing electric vans to some of the biggest parcel delivery firms on the planet. In 2019, for instance, Amazon announced it would buy 100,000 EVs from Rivian.

Another Google service will soon join the company’s graveyard of apps. The search giant quietly announced this week it is shutting down Duplex on the Web. In a support page spotted by TechCrunch, the company notes the service won’t work after the end of 2022. “As we continue to improve the Duplex experience, we’re responding to the feedback we’ve heard from users and developers about how to make it even better,” a Google spokesperson told the outlet. “By the end of this year, we’ll turn down Duplex on the Web and fully focus on making AI advancements to the Duplex voice technology that helps people most every day.”

Google first announced Duplex on the Web in 2019 as an expansion of its Duplex phone reservation AI. Initially, the feature was designed to help Android users buy movie tickets. Duplex on the Web gave Assistant the ability to navigate websites on its own. Provided you had your credit card information stored on Chrome, Assistant could take care of all of the busy work of buying film tickets for you. Google later expanded the feature to protect users against online data breaches. At one point, you could also use it to check into flights and track discounts.

As for the reason why Google is shutting down Duplex on the Web, TechCrunch suggests it may have something to do with the cost of training an AI to parse websites. The feature’s support page notes Google used a special user agent to crawl websites as much multiple times per day. What's more, the performance of Duplex on the Web could suffer significantly if website administrators prevented the crawler from indexing their content.

Earlier this year, electric vehicle startup Canoo warned it was running low on cash. Since then, the company’s prospects have taken a turn for the better. Over the span of two days in July, Canoo announced separate agreements to provide Walmart with 4,500 EVs and the US Army with a test vehicle. This week, the company shared an update on its Pentagon contract, announcing it had delivered a prototype of its new Light Tactical Vehicle to the army.

The LTV looks like a modified version of Canoo’s pickup truck. According to the company, it incorporated carbon Kevlar to make the vehicle more durable without increasing its weight. The LTV can be converted from a pickup to a flatbed truck, allowing it to carry construction material and tactical equipment. It even includes a stealth configuration. Canoo says the all-wheel drive LTV can produce up to 600 horsepower. It also features air springs, a raised suspension system and 32-inch tires to make it fit for traversing difficult terrain.

The US military is among the biggest polluters on the planet. It has a larger carbon footprint than about 140 nations, including first-world countries like Sweden and Denmark. At the start of 2022, the Defense Department announced a net-zero emissions plan that, among other tactics, called for the army to electrify its combat and support vehicles. While there's no guarantee Canoo will be part of that initiative, securing the US Army as a customer would be a significant boon for the startup.  

Following an explosive end to the battle royale's third chapter, Fortnite's newest season has arrived. Chapter four comes complete with an entirely new island for players to fight over. It features a handful of landmarks that draw on fantasy tropes, including a castle known as The Citadel that’s home to “The Ageless.” There’s also Anvil Square, a picturesque medieval town surrounded by trees at the peak of their autumn colors. On a different part of the island, players will find an abandoned farm ominously named the Frenzy Fields.

Chapter four also introduces new gameplay tweaks, and if there’s a theme to the season, it’s mobility. Dirt bikes called Trail Thrashers allow you to perform tricks and fire your weapons while on the move. Now you can also vault over obstacles by sprinting at them. Additionally, in areas where there’s snow, you can use a pickaxe to create a snowball. You can then jump into the snowball to take your enemies down by rolling over them.

However, the most interesting addition is a feature called Reality Augments. At a few intervals during a game, you’ll get to choose between two random buffs that you can keep until your character dies or you win the match. Light Fingers, one of the 22 Reality Augments available with the start of the new season, allows you to reload weapons that use light ammo faster. Speaking of weapons, there are several new ones to try, including a Shockwave Hammer you can use to launch yourself at your teammates and enemies.

On the technical front, Epic has moved Fortnite to the latest version of the Unreal Engine. On PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, players can look forward to ray-traced reflections on glossy materials and water. Of course, a new season also means a fresh battle pass for players to purchase and complete. The pass includes Doom Slayer, the protagonist of Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, as well as Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series. Separately, an Incredible Hulk skin will arrive in the Item Shop “soon.” Chapter four, season one is available to play starting today.

According to Elon Musk, Apple has “fully resumed” advertising on Twitter. The billionaire made the comment during a Twitter Spaces conversation he broadcast from his private plane on Saturday evening. On November 28th, Musk claimed Apple had “mostly stopped advertising on Twitter” and threatened to remove the platform’s iOS client from the App Store. “Do they hate free speech?” Musk asked his followers and went on to play up the censorship angle.

The New York Times reports Apple temporarily stopped advertising on Twitter following the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs on November 19th. The outlet notes brands tend to their dial back their Twitter ads following shootings and disasters, primarily because they don’t want to see their products next to tweets about human tragedy.

Two days after blasting Apple, Musk said he had met with Tim Cook. “We resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store,” he posted. “Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.” On Saturday, Musk added Apple was the largest advertiser on Twitter. That same day, he thanked advertisers “for returning to Twitter.”

Separately, Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer reported on Saturday that Amazon also had plans to start advertising on Twitter again. The retail giant has reportedly committed to spending approximately $100 million per year, “pending some security tweaks to the company’s ads platform.”

News of Apple and Amazon returning to Twitter comes amid ongoing reports that the company’s advertising revenue has dropped significantly since Musk’s takeover in late October. During the first week of the World Cup in Qatar, the company only made about 20 percent of the ad revenue it expected to during that period, according to The Times. In recent weeks, the company has repeatedly cut its internal revenue projections for the final three months of the year. Initially, Twitter reportedly expected to earn about $1.4 billion in Q4 but has since cut that number to $1.1 billion. Musk previously told employees the company was in dire financial straits and warned bankruptcy was “not out of the question.”