Sony's PlayStation Tournaments are finally available to play on PS5, and the biggest upgrade may simply be the greater chance of joining an event. The eSports-for-everyone feature now centers around shorter tourneys at regular intervals — it should be easier to find a competition that fits your life. Sony will even create multiple brackets to keep the duration in check. You can sign up directly from your console, too, so you won't have to head to another device just to get started.

The new PlayStation Tournaments system also boasts a revamped interface that takes advantage of PS5 activity cards and notifications to help you find events, track (automatically updated) results, and let you know when it's time to play. You can locate competitions from games' home screen sections. And if you'd like to do more than just compete, a Discord community hub promises both chat as well as hosted interviews and game sessions.

Sony

Anyone in an eligible country with a PlayStation Plus membership can join, with the first PS5 tournaments focusing on FIFA 23, Guilty Gear Strive and NBA 2K23. Prizes range from in-game currency through to cash, PlayStation hardware and "experiences." To reel you in, Sony is running a "Win-A-Thon" leaderboard event between December 1st and January 31st that rewards you the better you fare in regional tournaments. The promo will also be available to PS4 owners.

As with Microsoft's Xbox Live tournaments, the PlayStation eSports offering is meant to keep you engaged and spending money. You might be more likely to buy the latest sports title if you know you can win real-world rewards. Even so, the PS5 expansion might be helpful by making eSports more accessible to current-gen console owners.

The Orion spacecraft's record-setting distance from Earth made for stunning photography, apparently. NASA has shared a photo taken by the Artemis I vehicle on Monday showing both Earth and the Moon in the background. Much like some Apollo photography or Voyager 1's "Pale Blue Dot," the picture puts humanity's home in perspective — our world is just one small planet in a much larger cosmos.

Orion took the snapshot around its maximum distance from Earth of 268,563 miles. That's the farthest any human-oriented spacecraft has traveled, beating even Apollo 13's record of 248,655 miles from 1970. Notably, Artemis I represents the first time explorers intended to travel this far out — Apollo 13 only ventured so far from Earth because NASA's emergency flight plan required the Moon as a slingshot.

Ars Technicanotes that this early Artemis flight has so far surpassed NASA's expectations. While the mission team has only completed 31 out of 124 core objectives so far, it's adding goals like extended thruster tests. About half of the remaining activities are in progress, with the rest largely dependent on returning to Earth.

Orion is expected to splash down off the San Diego coast on December 11th. The Artemis program has dealt with numerous delays, and now isn't expected to land humans on the Moon until 2025 or 2026. NASA originally hoped for a lunar landing in 2024. Still, Artemis I's current performance suggests the space agency's efforts are finally paying off.

Twitter's long-running effort to fight COVID-19 misinformation is at an end, at least for now. As Twitter users and CNNnoticed, the social media firm has quietly updated its transparency site to reveal that it stopped enforcing its COVID misinformation policy on November 23rd. It's not clear if the company will restore any accounts banned for sharing misinformation as part of Elon Musk's planned amnesty, but this indicates that the company won't suspend further users or delete content including falsehoods about the coronavirus or vaccines.

Twitter started cracking down on COVID-19 misinformation in January 2020, as the disease began spreading worldwide. The social network has since banned over 11,200 accounts, pulled over 97,600 examples of false content and "challenged" 11.7 million accounts through efforts like warning labels. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy even pointed to the company's policy as an example of how other technology platforms could fight bogus medical claims.

The company has effectively disbanded its communications team and isn't available for comment. However, Musk has routinely voiced his opposition to bans and some COVID-19 safety measures. Tesla defied early pandemic lockdowns by keeping factories open despite shelter-in-place orders. Musk also insisted during an April 2020 earnings call that these lockdowns were "forcibly imprisoning people," and threatened to move Tesla's headquarters from California to Texas in response. While the entrepreneur supports vaccination, he opposes mandates and voiced support for the anti-mandate occupiers that shut down the Canadian capital city of Ottawa for weeks.

The news comes amid reports Twitter is scaling back other teams dedicated to catching toxic behavior. Bloombergsources claim Musk has gutted the team dedicated to fighting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as part of his wide-ranging layoffs, cutting it from roughly 20 specialists to less than 10. The contacts say that the unit was already strained before, but is now "overwhelmed" despite Musk's assertion that fighting child exploitation is "priority #1." This could put Twitter in legal jeopardy as it's frequently required by law to remove CSAM — the UK's Online Safety Bill lets regulators fine companies if they don't move quickly to pull offending content.

The cutbacks may have also limited Twitter's ability to fend off bots and other fake accounts. The tech giant struggled to curb spam obscuring news of Chinese protests after Musk laid off Twitter's anti-propaganda team, for example.

You're not the only one wondering if that social media star really used a hot new phone. The Federal Trade Commission and seven states have sued Google and iHeartMedia for running allegedly "deceptive" Pixel 4 ads. Promos aired between 2019 and 2020 featured influencers that extolled the features of phones they reportedly didn't own — Google didn't even supply Pixels before most of the ads were recorded, officials said.

iHeartMedia and 11 other radio networks ran the Pixel 4 ads in ten large markets. They aired about 29,000 times. It's not clear how many people listened to the commercials.

The FTC aims to bar Google and iHeartMedia from making any future misleading claims about ownership. It also asks both companies to prove their compliance through reports. The states, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Texas, have also issued judgments demanding the firms pay $9.4 million in penalties.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda told Engadget in a statement that the company was "pleased" to address the situation and took advertising laws "seriously." He added that Google didn't see this as a lawsuit (it's technically a proposed FTC order and state judgments), and that the tech giant was only settling with six out of the seven states.

Misrepresentative phone ads are far from new. Huawei and Samsung have both been caught passing off stock DSLR photos as representative of their phone cameras. There's also a history of celebrities marketing phones it's not clear they use. Gal Gadot had to defend herself against claims she pitched Huawei phones while posting on Twitter from an iPhone, for instance (it was her publicist).

However, the accusations here are more serious. The FTC and participating states are contending that Google set out to use false testimonials. It had a "blatant disrespect" for truth-in-ads rules, according to FTC consumer protection director Samuel Levine. While the punishment is tiny compared to the antitrust penalties Google has faced so far, it could damage trust in the company's campaigns for newer Pixels and other hardware.

You won't have much success finding news of China's growing protests if you search the country's larger cities on Twitter. As TechCrunchreports, analysts have noticed a surge in bots peddling porn and gambling around these queries just as demonstrations flared in Beijing and other cities over the past three days in response to China's "zero-COVID" policies. The spam is making it harder to track the rallies, particularly for local activists who are using Twitter through a VPN to avoid Chinese government censorship of the protests on domestic social networks.

Twitter has effectively dissolved its communications team and hasn't officially commented on the matter. However, The Washington Postnotes a Twitter employee told a researcher that the company is "working to resolve" the bot problem. It was easier to find word of the protests by late Sunday, but spam was still cluttering results. A former staffer told The Post that government-linked Twitter accounts have previously spammed en masse, but usually to attack individual accounts or small groups.

The protests largely grew in the wake of a deadly fire at an apartment in Xinjiang province's capital city Urumqi. Critics blamed the Chinese government's strict COVID-19 lockdown measures for delaying firefighters and otherwise contributing to deaths. Working conditions at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, including concerns about inadequate COVID safety measures, also led to protests. The street action is rare in its intensity — some protesters have called on President Xi Jinping and other members of the Communist Party to resign. Those demands could easily lead to prison time in the country.

There are concerns that Elon Musk's aggressive job cuts may have exacerbated the situation. TechCrunch pointed out that the entrepreneur laid off Twitter's anti-propaganda team, leaving only the core moderation group. Where Twitter previously reacted quickly to China's attempts to undercut Hong Kong protests, it took days to begin curbing spam this time around. The company has resumed hiring, but it's not clear how much support the anti-misinformation unit will get.

The spike also challenges Musk's stance on bots. He tried to back out of the Twitter acquisition over claims the social network was hiding the true number of fake accounts. Spammers and other bogus users may now be more of a problem than they were before, if just because Twitter isn't as well-equipped to deal with the threat.

Apple said the Watch Ultra would be more useful for divers once a key app arrived, and that moment is finally here. Hush Outdoors and Apple have released Oceanic+, effectively giving Ultra owners a recreation-oriented dive computer. The software tracks fundamentals like depth, no-decompression time (a figure used to set duration limits for given depths) and water temperature. The app is designed to be used without the touchscreen, and you can set compass headings using the action button. Even the haptic feedback is strong enough to be felt through a wetsuit.

You can plan dives to make the most of your trips, including the tides and currents. An after-dive review will show data that includes your water entry and exit locations. You'll find more information on your iPhone, such as depth graphs and the temperature ascent rate.

Apple

Basic Oceanic+ functionality such as depth, time and dive logging is free. You'll want to pay $10 per month or $80 per year for decompression tracking, location planning and other more advanced features. A $129 per year family plan allows access to five people. The app requires at least watchOS 9.1 as well as an iPhone 8 or later using iOS 16.1.

Apple is quick to caution that Oceanic+ isn't for professional scuba divers. This won't track remaining air like some dive computers, for example — the Apple Watch Ultra doesn't support transmitters that connect to your tank. This is strictly for enthusiast use, and only down to 130 feet. The watch can officially survive depths of 328 feet.

Even so, the launch could be important. This fulfills a promise Apple made in early September, and makes the Watch Ultra considerably more useful if you frequently plunge underwater. The timepiece launched with only basic depth tracking that wasn't much help if you wanted to avoid the bends or find your way back. While this won't replace dedicated hardware for particularly committed divers, it might save money if you wanted one watch you could wear both above and below the surface.

You now have your chance to explore most of Charles Darwin's personal writing. The University of Cambridge has published all of the evolutionary scientist's surviving correspondence online, including 400 letters that have either surfaced or are newly "reinterpreted." The searchable collection now covers over 15,000 letters written between 1822 and 1882, ranging from his influential time aboard the HMS Beagle to On the Origin of Species and end-of-life reflections.

The internet archive may even be the only way to see a fuller picture of Darwin's life. The university notes that the final print edition, due in early 2023, doesn't include letters that arrived too late to reach physical copies. Many writings include footnotes and bibliographies to put sayings in context.

This last batch of correspondence illustrates how attitudes toward evolution changed in the researcher's lifetime. By 1882, Darwin observed that natural selection had largely been established as fact among younger scientists — a sharp contrast to the initial hostility to On the Origin of Species upon its initial release in 1859. The letters also illustrate how Darwin was still experimenting months before his death.

This won't be the same as holding the physical letters in your hands. However, it's a classic demonstration of the internet's value to academics, not to mention anyone who's curious. As with other archival projects, you can get a sense of history without traveling to an archive and putting on some cotton gloves.

Hubble is still providing dramatic pictures of the universe despite the arrival of the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA and the ESA have released a Hubble image of Arp-Madore 417-391, a strange galaxy collision about 670 million light-years away. Their gravitational tug-of-war has produced an odd ring-like shape where the two galactic cores are relatively close and the star "plumes" form a circle.

The telescope spotted the merger using its long-serving Advanced Camera for Surveys, which has helped detect strange galaxies and even dark matter. Researchers are using the orbital hardware to build a list of follow-up observations for the much newer James Webb telescope, which has sometimes been used in tandem with Hubble to study space objects.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton

You may not see Hubble leading these discoveries for much longer. The telescope has suffered a number of system failures in recent years, and is expected to plummet to Earth as soon as 2030 if there are no interventions. While NASA and SpaceX are considering boosting Hubble's orbit to keep it active, that extended lifespan isn't guaranteed. This galaxy crash may represent one of the telescope's last hurrahs, even if the observatory has years left in space.

If you've wanted a robot vacuum but were put off by the sometimes-high prices, now's your chance to dive in. Anker's Eufy brand is holding a Black Friday sale on Amazon that includes major discounts for its robotic cleaners, including lower-priced models. The RoboVac 11S Max is down to just $130, or 48 percent off its usual price. One of the company's best devices, the RoboVac X8, has dropped to $300 instead of its usual $500. Other products are typically at least 30 percent off.

The RoboVac 11S Max is a more powerful version of the base 11S that made it to our list of the best budget robot vacuums. That model is not only capable and intelligent, but slim enough to clean under chairs and tables that might block some competitors. The improved suction might increase noise, but it should also catch more crumbs than its standard counterpart.

The RoboVac X8, meanwhile, is a non-hybrid variant of one of the best robot vacuums we've seen at any price. It won't mop like the X8 Hybrid, but you can still expect strong suction, laser navigation and WiFi. This machine will not only suck up more debris (including pet hair) than some of its rivals, but do so more efficiently. At this price, it's easier to rationalize than mid-tier competitors costing hundreds of dollars more.

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This may be your best chance to get Apple's latest 'starter' tablet on sale this holiday season. Amazon is offering the new 64GB WiFi iPad for $426, or $23 below the official price. This is the first time we've seen a bargain for the device. You'll see similar five percent discounts for 256GB and cellular models, and you don't have to be picky about colors.

The 2022 iPad is a mostly welcome redesign. Apple has finally ditched the thick bezels of past base models, and has replaced the Lightning port with USB-C. The Smart Connector allows for improved peripherals like the Magic Keyboard Folio, and the front-facing camera is finally in the right place for typical landscape-oriented video chats. Toss in a still-speedy A14 chip and healthy battery life and this is a fine tablet for everyday use. It might even replace a laptop in the right circumstances.

There are some foibles. The screen isn't as sophisticated as that of the iPad Air, and the A14 rules out iPadOS 16's Stage Manager. And you'll want to spring for the Air if you're the artistic sort — the new entry model only supports Apple's first-generation Pencil (not included), and you'll have to attach an adapter just to pair and charge the stylus. At a reduced price, though, the new iPad is both a better value for less demanding tasks and easier to justify versus last year's cheaper variant.

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