Google's classic "don't be evil" mantra may have been more of a philosophical statement than a practical guideline, but former staff members now want to hold the company accountable for it. NPR and The Verge say ex-engineers Paul Duke, Rebecca Rivers and Sophie Waldman have sued Google for allegedly violating the "don't be evil" segment of the company's code of conduct. They claim Google fired them for organizing worker opposition to controversial projects, like working with the Trump-era Customs and Border Protection. They were supposedly punished for pointing out evil like Google as instructed, in other words.

The one-time employees claimed Google rejected the famous phrase as it was both expensive and leading workers to organize. The internet firm supposedly decided it was better to fire people than admit its approach had changed and give up the "accompanying benefits" that came with its well-known motto.

There are concerns the lawsuit is too vague. What defines evil, exactly? However, plaintiff lawyer Laurie Burgess argued "don't be evil" was specific enough that it could be enforceable. The saying "must have meaning" if it was in the company code and thus binding, Burgess said.

We've asked Google for comment. It has previously accused all of the workers (plus Laurence Berland) of repeatedly violating data security policies by obtaining or sharing confidential data, but the workers and other critics have said this was just a cover for retaliatory action.

The lawsuit won't necessarily lead to stiff penalties. Google settled with Berland over his departure, for instance. There's a lot of pressure on Google to avoid a drawn-out legal battle when the National Labor Relations Board is still investigating the other firings. Still, this could be an important case — even if there is a settlement, it might open the door to other complaints about the company's ethical standards.

It might soon be easy to build living robots — because they'll build themselves. New Scientistreports Harvard University, Tufts University and University of Vermont researchers have learned that their frog cell-based Xenobots can self-reproduce. The custom organisms can collect "hundreds" of individual cells in their dishes to spontaneously assemble baby bots that grow up within a few days. As this happens over and over, you could use the reproduction to amass however robots you need to deliver drugs, remove microplastics from rivers or otherwise complete small-scale tasks.

The replication method is as notable as the bots themselves. The cells would normally develop into tadpole skin, but the computer-designed cell mix instead uses the "kinematic" (motion-based) replication normally seen only with molecules. No known animal or plant reproduces this way, according to study lead Sam Kriegman — the robots effectively broke the 'rules' of biology.

Yes, the researchers are aware of the technical and ethical problems with robots that copy themselves without prompting. The team's goal is to understand the self-reproduction and learn how to "control it, direct it, douse it, exaggerate it," according to project co-leader Joshua Bongard. Honing this development in a tightly-controlled lab could lead to carefully managed growth. That, in turn, could lead to regenerative medicine and anti-pollution tools that simply weren't possible before.

The holidays can be messy, but iRobot is betting its robot vacuums will make the cleanup somewhat bearable. It's updating the Roomba J7 and J7+ with the ability to recommend a Christmas tree zone through the iRobot Home app. Accept the suggestion and your bot should clean the pine needle carnage without touching the tree skirt or presents.

The upgrade might also be helpful if you're having guests over for the holidays. The J7 and J7+ can now detect loose shoes and socks. Your relatives won't find their footwear damaged or relocated if it wasn't sitting in a 'safe' area. This might help if your laundry doesn't always stay put in the basket or hamper.

And yes, there's an improvement if you're buying a Roomba (currently on sale, we'd add) or as a gift. All iRobot devices with Smart Mapping support, including Braava mops, can finally transfer existing maps to other compatible models. This will mainly be useful if you're either upgrading a not-too-old robot or buying a second model to complement the first, but it should save your robovac from having to re-learn a floor.

You now have a way to flaunt your NBA Top Shot NFT to house guests, provided you're willing to pay a premium for it. As The Vergenotes, Dapper Labs (the company behind Top Shot) and hardware startup Infinite Objects are now offering video "prints" of NBA NFTs in physical display frames. Link your Dapper Wallet and you can showcase a classic basketball moment wherever it's convenient, not just from a device like your computer. A QR code and a holographic sticker will help prove it's yours.

These are expensive pieces, to put it mildly. Attaching your NFT to a 7-inch display costs $199, while a 10-inch display will cost $399. Initial purchases should ship sometime in January. You're effectively buying a digital photo frame that can only display one picture, albeit one with intrinsic value.

There are multiple catches beyond this. You can't yet 'print' Moment Sets, Showcases or any moment that includes either a retired NBA player or anyone in the WNBA. Dapper and Infinite are working on support for all of these, but it's still an odd restriction if you were expecting these frames to serve like artwork — imagine not being allowed to buy Van Gogh prints that show the artist. Still, this does give you something to do with an NFT besides the occasional glance on your private devices.

Don't worry if you missed out on Black Friday multicooker deals — there are still big bargains available. Ninja's OS301 Foodi 10-in-1 cooker is back on sale at Amazon for $119, or 41 percent off its usual price. As with a similar deal in October, this might be the best value-for-money sale for one of Ninja's do-everything devices.

This Foodi model remains an easy pick. It offers the usual multicooker features like pressure cooking, slow cooking and and steaming, but adds air frying and other perks you don't always see. You might also appreciate a 6.5-quart capacity that's ever-so-slightly larger than the typical 6qt Instant Pot size.

Once gain, the main catch is simply the ecosystem. Ninja has its supporters, but Instant Pot's fan base offers plenty of recipes and other advice you won't necessarily find for competing cookers. If that's no issue, though, Ninja's machine is a safe pick at this price given the broad feature set.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

Cryptocurrency mining consumes a massive amount of energy, and that's prompting a crisis in Kazakhstan. The Financial Timesreports the country's electrical grid operator KEGOC said it would start rationing electricity for 50 registered miners after their demand reportedly invoked an emergency shutdown mode at three power plants in October. They'll also be the first disconnected if there are grid failures, the quasi-public company said.

The energy ministry estimated that electricity demand has jumped by eight percent so far in 2021 versus the more typical one or two percent. There have been blackouts in six regions since October.

Officials and observers have pinned the power cuts on climbing numbers of unregistered crypto miners illegally generating currency from their homes or even factories. China's war against cryptocurrency may be partly responsible. Energy demand started climbing when mining firms moved from China in early 2021, and it jumped again when China made mining illegal this May. Electricity has been relatively inexpensive in Kazakhstan, making it a haven for companies hoping to make larger profits from crypto operations.

Kazakhstan is trying to compensate for the power shortages. It's asking a Russian energy company to supplement the national power grid, and it will charge registered miners a compensation fee of 1 tenge (about $0.0023) for every kilowatt-hour starting in 2022. Both efforts will take time, however, and this is forcing miners to either scale back or move equipment.

There are also worries the government isn't being honest about its problems. The University of Glasgow's Luca Anceshi argued to The Times that Kazakhstan was scapegoating miners for reliability problems with the country's electrical grid. Whether or not that's true, it's safe to say the mining demand hints at the potential problems for other countries if their local crypto production takes off.

AMC is extending its fondness for the blockchain to the freebies you get with ticket pre-orders. The theater chain and Sony Pictures are giving away 86,000 NFTs to Stubs Premiere, A-List and Investor Connect members who buy or reserve tickets for Spider-Man: No Way Home showings on December 16th. Redeem a code through a special website and you'll get one of 100 designs available through the more eco-friendly Wax blockchain.

You'll need to order your tickets through the AMC Theatres website or mobile app when pre-orders launch on November 29th. If you qualify, you'll get your code on December 22nd and will have until March 1st, 2022 to claim the NFT.

This is a first for AMC, but not shocking. On top of the company's existing crypto enthusiasm, chief Adam Aron said moviegoers and shareholders were "calling" for NFTs. This could also be considered an experiment — AMC and Sony will find out how many viewers are eager to own a purely digital collectible. There are no guarantees the promo will translate to stronger ticket sales, but this might become relatively commonplace if there's enough interest.

You might get a surprise boost in computing power if you buy a Tesla Model Y, at least in China. Electrek has learned Tesla is shipping the electric crossover in China with an AMD Ryzen processor running the infotainment system instead of the usual Intel CPU. Performance variant owners have noticed the swap so far, but Tesla has historically used the same computing platform for all trim levels of a given model.

It's not certain if this is the exact same Ryzen APU as in the latest Model S and X. It's also unclear if Tesla is limiting the AMD switch to China or will make this change elsewhere in the world. Tesla is believed to have disbanded its PR team and hasn't responded to requests for comments in recent years.

Multiple factors could play a role, however large the leap to AMD may be. This may be another attempt to counter chip shortages by using more readily available parts or consolidating around one supplier. It could help lower costs, too. This could also represent a transition to Ryzen chips across the Tesla lineup, although we wouldn't count on any ubiquity in the near future.

Australia could soon make life difficult for internet trolls — if at a significant cost. Reutersreports Prime Minister Scott Morrison has unveiled plans for legislation that, in some cases, could force social networks to reveal the identities of trolls and others making defamatory comments. A complaint mechanism would require online platforms to take these hostile posts down. If they don't, the court system could order a given site to provide details of the offending poster.

Morrison likened the current internet to a "Wild West" where anonymous attackers could "harm people." If that can't happen in real life, there's "no case" for it happening online, the Prime Minister said.

The proposed laws come weeks after Australia's High Court ruled media companies could be held liable for comments on Facebook posts. CNNlimited access to its Facebook pages in the country over those liability concerns. The intended legislation would take this a step further by mandating certain actions if a post is deemed harmful.

The move raises privacy questions. Anonymity might help trolls, but it also protects political dissenters and other innocuous critics — will Australia make sure any identity disclosure laws aren't used to discourage challenges to authority, as they are in China? And without examples of the legislation, it's unclear just what would constitute an offense serious enough to warrant revealing an identity.

Black Friday online sales tend to climb ever higher each year as people grow comfortable with shopping from home, but not this time around. Adobe estimates combined Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day internet sales saw their first ever overall year-over-year decline in 2021, dipping from $9 billion in 2020 to $8.9 billion. That's not a calamitous drop, but Adobe saw it as a sign of shifting trends.

The tech firm believed the dip reflected a shift toward earlier shopping as buyers took advantage of internet deals starting as early as October. Why cram your shopping into a single day when you can take advantage of discounts weeks in advance? While Adobe expected more spending on Cyber Monday (between $10.2 billion to $11.3 billion), its data suggested the buying frenzy just wasn't as strong this year.

The products people were buying changed as the weekend progressed. Black Friday sales were dominated by Instant Pots, air fryers and toys, but Saturday sales were led by tech that included AirPods, entry-level iPads, the Meta Quest 2 and TVs from the likes of Samsung, TCL and Vizio. Game sales included Just Dance 2022 and last year's Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Adobe also noticed that more people were comfortable making the final purchase from their phones. While some Black Friday shoppers were merely browsing on their phones before buying at a computer (62.2 percent of all visits were from handsets), mobile purchases represented 44.4 percent of all online Black Friday sales, a 10.6 percent jump versus 2020. Don't be surprised if many people never touch a computer for their holiday shopping in the years ahead.