Apple is more than a little angry at NSO Group for developing spyware tools. The iPhone maker has filed a lawsuit against NSO to "hold it accountable" for governments spying on and targeting Apple device users. In addition to punishing NSO, Apple also seeks to ban the surveillance software developer from using Apple products for future research.

Developing...

The Game Boy Advance is useful in the modern era for more than watching Christopher Nolan blockbusters. Gizmodonotes that tinkerer Rodrigo Alfonso has Nintendo's 20-year-old handheld running PlayStation (and Genesis, and SNES) games without special modifications. The trick, as you might imagine revolves around a custom cartridge — you're technically running the game on a separate system.

The cartridge houses a Raspberry Pi 3 mini-computer running the RetroPie emulator and streaming both video and input through the GBA's multiplayer-oriented Link Port. Yes, that's constraining as you think it is — you can't transfer more than 1.6Mbps bi-directionally, and the Pi has to routinely give the "poor" GBA's processor a break for a few microseconds. Alfonso suggests lowering the stream resolution from the console's native 240 x 160 if a high frame rate is important.

Still, the results are mostly impressive. The special cart can handle classics like the Crash Bandicoot series and Spyro the Dragon at smooth frame rates, albeit with some video artifacts that reflect the limited bandwidth. You can overclock the GBA's processor to improve the frame rate and quality.

You'll have to build the cartridge and load code yourself, although Alfonso has helpfully provided both on GitHub. This probably won't replace a PSP if you want the most authentic PlayStation handheld experience you can get. It might, however, give you a reason to dig your GBA out of the closet.

Activision Blizzard is facing increasing scrutiny from the government and the games industry over its handling of the ongoing sexual harassment scandal, and its latest effort might not help. As Kotakureports, the developer has formed a "Workplace Responsibility Committee" to help it implement new anti-harassment and anti-discrimination efforts. While that sounds useful at first, there's a concern the initial committee is more symbolic than functional.

The committee will launch with just two members, both of whom (chair Dawn Ostroff and Reveta Bowers) are existing independent board members. They, in turn, will report to the board and key Activision Blizzard executives — including CEO Bobby Kotick, who some argue is partly to blame for the scandal. The duo will work with an outside coordinator and a consultant following the company's settlement with the EEOC, but there's no mention of involving regular company staff or outsiders who weren't part of that court agreement.

As such, it won't be surprising if the committee does little to satisfy critics. Employees and others have called on Kotick to resign, among other more substantial changes. There's also low confidence in leadership's ability to police itself — Jennifer Oneal, Blizzard's first female leader, allegedly left her position feeling she was the target of discrimination by a seemingly irredeemable company culture. Bloombergnoted that some board members (including Ostroff) are Kotick's longtime friends and connections, for that matter. The committee might need to take aggressive steps if it wants to prove it's more than a superficial gesture.

Blue Origin is still eager to grab headlines with spaceflight passengers even as it pushes some boundaries. Jeff Bezos' outfit has revealed that its New Shepard mission on December 9th will be the first to carry a full six passengers into space, including Laura Shepard Churchley — that is, Alan Shepard's daughter. You can also expect a swell of TV coverage with Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan also coming along for the ride.

Other passengers include Voyager Space chief Dylan Taylor, engineer and investor Evan Dick, venture capitalist Lane Bess and his child Cameron Bess (who will also be the first Twitch streamer to go to space). The launch is currently slated for 10AM Eastern on the 9th, with Blue Origin's livestream starting 90 minutes earlier.

This 19th New Shepard flight could be considered a consolation prize following Blue Origin's failed lawsuit disputing NASA's SpaceX lunar lander contract. It should show that New Shepard can handle its full complement without a hitch, though, and takes the company one step closer to fulfilling ambitions that include New Glenn and a planned space station.

You won't have to book a trip to Florida to try Disney's Amazon-based voice assistant. Disney has revealed that "hey, Disney" is coming to Disneyland hotel rooms sometime in 2022. As in Walt Disney World, it'll be available alongside Alexa in your room's Echo speaker and handle request ranging from amenities through to stories and jokes.

Guests will also see some more technology when they're visiting the park itself, as MagicBand+ wearables will also reach Disneyland in 2022. You can use the wristband to enter the park, make purchases and otherwise go touch-free, but they'll also use a mix of lights, haptic feedback and gesture control to enliven your experiences in certain areas. The interactions will be specific to Disneyland, so you won't have to worry about rehashed 'magic' moments.

Both additions could save time and may be helpful as a lingering pandemic still leaves some people jittery about physical contact. And to some degree, this is about updating the image of the parks themselves. Disney clearly wants to portray the parks as tech-savvy, and the combo of voice control with wristworn devices might help.

Love Hultén's fondness for strange synthesizers has taken a new, more modern-looking turn. The artist has unveiled Synth#boi, a hybrid soft synth and "interactive visualizer" built with help from the designer Lirona. The blocky, austere art project translates input from a MIDI keyboard to an Intel NUC PC with an S-Engine MKII sound module, a circular display and an eerie humanoid visualizer. The more you play, the more the 'person' in the visualizer lights up — it's as if the device is staring back at you and judging your performance.

And unlike many of Hultén's projects, this is something you can buy. The creator is selling 10 examples of Synth#boi as "physical NFTs" through Dissrup starting on November 22nd at 10AM Eastern. While there's no mention of pricing, we'd expect the limited run and novelty to carry a premium. It might be worthwhile, though, if you're determined to have a conversation piece that also satisfies your music-making impulses.

El Salvador's government is throwing even more of its weight behind Bitcoin. Coindesk and BBC News report President Nayib Bukele has unveiled plans to build a "Bitcoin City" near a volcano along the Gulf of Fonseca, between La Unión and Conchagua. The metropolis will have its own geothermal power plant to help support crypto mining, and there will be no capital gains, income, payroll or property taxes, just value added tax.

The city will be shaped like a coin. While it should include the full amenities you'd expect from a city, people in La Unión could travel to work in the new development.

Bukele didn't provide a timeline for the city's creation. However, he simultaneously unveiled a $1 billion US "Bitcoin bond" where half would be used to build energy and mining infrastructure, with the rest used to buy more of the digital currency. The strategy chief for bond developer Blockstream, Samson Mow, said El Salvador would start selling crypto holdings after five years and pay an extra dividend to bond holders. With an initial 6.5 percent yield, this could represent a significant windfall for the country if all goes well.

The move is a huge gamble for a company with a gross domestic product of just over $24.6 billion in 2020. Bukele's administration is counting on Bitcoin to spur economic growth, independence and investment, but this also assumes the monetary format remains on an overall upward trajectory. It's also unclear if would-be residents and investors will flock to a Bitcoin-oriented city even with tax incentives. This is new territory for cryptocurrency, and it's not certain if there's enough support to help the project thrive.

It didn't take long for Netflix to greenlight more Arcane. Deadlinereports Netflix has renewed the League of Legends-based series for a second season now in production. Core stars Ella Purnell (Jinx), Hailee Steinfeld (Vi) and Katie Leung (Caitlyn) are already set to reprise their roles.

There's no mystery behind the decision: the show is a success. Co-creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee said they were "beyond happy" with the reaction. The numbers also back them up — the first season of Arcane racked up nearly 34.2 million viewing hours in its first week on Netflix's new top 10 chart, making it the second-most popular TV series in any language behind Narcos: Mexico (almost 50.3 million).

The popularity isn't a shock. Both Netflix and League creator Riot Games heavily promoted the show, to the point where LoL included multiple crossovers. You knew Arcane was available if you were even vaguely interested in the game that inspired it. And yes, it helps that Arcane happens to be well-received by many accounts.

The renewal doesn't necessarily hint at a new wave of game-inspired Netflix shows. It does, however, suggest that relatively high-budget game productions have a healthy future at the streaming pioneer. Don't be surprised if Netflix takes more chances on projects like this.

Artists have a lot of clout at streaming music services, but Adele might have more power than most. BBC Newsreports Spotify has removed the shuffle button from all album pages after Adele pressed the company to make the change in sync with the launch of 30. Albums should be listened to "as [artists] intended" as they tell "a story," the singer explained in a follow-up on Twitter.

You can still shuffle an album using the controls for individual songs. This mainly adds an extra step and pushes you to choose a first track. Rivals like Apple Music still let you tap a "shuffle" button from an album page.

There's no question some albums are meant to be played in order, including 30. It weaves a narrative around an important time in Adele's life. However, critics have already raised concerns about removing a feature to please an artist. It's one thing to recommend playing albums a certain way, but it's another to take control away from listeners to dictate that order — and what about artists who are happy to allow shuffle play?

Spotify has an incentive to make changes like this, at least. Adele's lead single for 30, "Easy On Me," broke a single-day Spotify streaming record previously held by K-pop megagroup BTS. While Spotify hasn't outlined its rationale, the company probably isn't eager to antagonize one of its most important musicians and risk losing customers.

Meta's push for a more private experience will take longer than the company initially hoped. According to The Guardian, safety head Antigone Davis wrote a commentary for The Telegraph warning that the rollout of default end-to-end encrypted messaging in Facebook Messenger and Instagram was delayed to "sometime in 2023." The social media firm had originally planned for the move to wrap up as soon as 2022, but it wanted the extra time to "get this right," Davis said.

The extra privacy is already enabled in WhatsApp, but Facebook Messenger and Instagram still require that you start an encrypted chat ("Secret Conversations" in Messenger). Meta, then Facebook, started a broader push toward encryption and other privacy features in 2019.

The delay could lead to awkward timing, at least in the UK. The country is enacting a safety law in 2023 that will require tech companies to prevent abuse and safeguard children. While it doesn't require encryption backdoors, current UK home secretary Priti Patel hasn't been shy about opposing default encryption — she claimed it would "severely" limit law enforcement's ability to pursue criminals. Meta might face pressure to change its plans by the time the law takes effect.

Davis said Meta would still have the power to detect abuse through a combination of unencrypted info and user reports. The delay might also offer time to reassure governments and head off potential conflicts. Chat encryption isn't under immediate threat, then, but the longer timeframe adds some uncertainty.