As promised, Meta has restored former president Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, two years after it suspended him from both platforms. The company previously said it would apply extra "guardrails" to his accounts to "deter repeat offenses."

Meta, like Twitter and other services, kicked Trump off of its platforms in January 2021 after he praised those participating in the Capitol Hill insurrection. The company initially locked the accounts for 24 hours over two policy violations before it suspended him indefinitely. Meta's Oversight Board was among those who criticized the handling of the ban. 

The company later said Trump's accounts would remain suspended for two years, after which it would reassess things. In late January, it emerged that Trump would soon regain access to the platforms, not long after it was reported that he had pushed Meta to restore his accounts. 

By 2:30PM ET, Trump, who is running for the White House for a third time, had not posted anything on either platform. He has an agreement with his "free speech" app Truth Social, whereby he has to share social media posts there first and can't plop them anywhere else for at least six hours. Twitter restored Trump's account on its service late last year, but he hasn't returned to what was once his favored social media platform either. Maybe he's still too butthurt about that one thing Chrissy Teigen wrote about him.

Flipboard's iOS and Android apps now include the notes feature that the company rolled out on the web in December. The update brings more social elements to the Flipboard mobile apps. The company says notes are a simple way to start conversations, share ideas and perhaps build micro communities around a shared interest or theme.

With notes, creators can add original content to shared magazines, such as commentary, images, links and video embeds. They have the option to mention other users in notes and comments to bring them into the fold. To start a note, tap on the create (i.e., pencil) icon in a magazine.

Flipboard suggests that notes really sing in group magazines, as the feature enables all contributors to add their perspectives and kick off conversations. Magazine owners and contributors will all get a notification when someone in the group adds a note or comment. Moreover, notes added to followed magazines may pop up in users' For You feeds.

Tesla's Autopilot was not at fault in a 2021 crash in which two people died, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). In a final report spotted by Ars Technica, the agency determined that the 2019 Model S accelerated just before hitting a tree in Spring, Texas, just north of Houston. Neither occupant was in the driver's seat when they were found, leading to questions about the use of Autopilot.

Based on information provided by Tesla, the NTSB found (PDF) that the car's rapid acceleration from 39MPH to 67MPH two seconds before the crash and a loss of control of the EV was likely due to "impairment from alcohol intoxication in combination with the effects of two sedating antihistamines, resulting in a roadway departure, tree impact and post-crash fire." The NTSB says data indicated that Autopilot had not been employed "at any time during this ownership period of the vehicle." Investigators did not find any "evidence of mechanical deficiencies" that could have contributed to or caused the crash.

One of the occupants was found in the front passenger seat, while the other was in the rear. It's presumed that the driver was in the back seat because he was trying to escape. Security footage showed that the men were in the front seats as they set off, while data showed that both front seatbelts were buckled at the time of the crash — the car left the road around 550 feet from the driver's home. The men died as a result of the collision and post-crash battery fire.

Lucid’s luxury Air electric vehicle exceeds the thresholds for federal tax credits, but the company is still offering what it’s calling an “EV credit.” Until March 31st, those who buy certain configurations of Lucid Air Touring and Air Grand Touring models will be able to save up $7,500.

"We think our customers still deserve a $7,500 credit for choosing an EV," Zak Edson, the company’s vice president of sales and service, said in a statement. "With this limited time offer, we hope to get Lucid Air into the hands of even more customers so they can experience the best for themselves."

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the $7,500 federal tax credit applies to electric cars, sedans and wagons priced under $55,000. SUVs are eligible if the sticker price is under $80,000. All Lucid Air models exceed those limits, as the base Pure variant starts at $87,400. Even so, that model is not eligible for Lucid’s so-called credit.

The Lucid Air Touring starts at $107,400 and the Grand Touring version starts at $138,000. While a $7,500 discount will always be welcome, it gives buyers savings of under seven percent. That’s a far cry from Tesla being able to effectively drop the price of a five-seat Model Y Long Range by almost a third from $65,990 with the help of tax credits (Tesla slightly increased the price earlier this month). While Lucid is operating in a different market to rivals that sell more moderately-priced EVs, it seems like the company is doing what it can to keep up with the tax credits that they're eligible for.

After years of rumors, Nintendo is finally bringing Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles to its Switch Online service. The company revealed during its latest Nintendo Direct that games from its early handhelds will be available on Switch today.

The Game Boy titles you can spend the entire rest of your week on include Tetris, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, Gargoyle's Quest, Game & Watch Gallery 3, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Wario Land 3 and Kirby's Dream Land. You'll be able to play the games with Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color screen filters and there's support for two-player local and online play.

As for GBA titles, you can play Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgames, Kuru Kuru Kururin, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap today. There's support for four-player multiplayer both locally and online.

The Game Boy titles will be available on the base version of Switch Online. You'll need to plump for the Switch Online + Expansion Pack to access the GBA ones. More titles for both platforms will be added later, including several Zelda titles, Pokémon Trading Card Game, Metroid Fusion and Fire Emblem.

Get ready, Nintendo fans: it’s almost time for the company’s first Direct of 2023. The showcase will mostly focus on games coming to Switch in the first half of this year and it will run for around 49 minutes. The Nintendo Direct starts at 5PM ET and you can watch it below.

It’s not totally clear which games Nintendo plans to show off, but there are a few safe bets. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, one of the biggest games of the year, will arrive on May 12th — it would be a surprise if there isn’t at least a mention of it here. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is likely to make an appearance, since that's out in March. Super Nintendo World will open at Universal Studios Hollywood next week and The Super Mario Bros. Movie is fast approaching, so they'll likely pop up as well.

Everything else is largely a mystery, and that's part of the fun of a Nintendo Direct. Rumor has it that Nintendo will release the delayedAdvance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp imminently and many folks are hoping for news on Metroid Prime 4 and Hollow Knight: Silksong. Luckily, we won't have to wait much longer to find out more about what Nintendo has in store for the next few months.

Google Translate is getting an AI-powered upgrade in the coming weeks to help you find more accurate translations, particularly for words with multiple definitions. The app will offer additional contextual translation options with descriptions and examples.

Let's say you're looking for a translation of the word "row," which has multiple meanings in English. It could refer to an argument, a line of seats on a plane or using an oar to propel a boat. Google Translate should soon offer translations for all of those variants, along with examples of how they're used.

Google

Google says the app will provide "the context you need to accurately translate and use the right turns of phrase, local idioms or appropriate words depending on your intent." All going well, this should help you communicate more clearly in different languages. The upgraded contextual translations will be available for languages such as English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish starting this month, with more surely to follow.

Meanwhile, the company recently rolled out a Translate redesign on Android. It's coming to the iOS app soon. The revamped app introduces more gestures that should make it easier to use, including swifter access to language selection and the option to swipe to bring up recent translations. Google says translations are now more readable, while an extra 33 languages are available for on-device translation, including Basque, Hawaiian, Hmong, Kurdish, Sundanese, Yiddish and Zulu.

Turkey may be blocking access to Twitter, two days after a pair of catastrophic earthquakes struck the area. Thousands of people are still trapped in buildings in Turkey and Syria, where the death toll is approaching 12,000.

According to Bloomberg, people in Turkey started having trouble accessing Twitter on Wednesday afternoon. Some have resorted to VPNs to use the service. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, has accused the government of blocking Twitter.

It's not clear why the Turkish government might want to prevent access to Twitter amid such devastation. The social media service is still a valuable disaster response tool and users have also been sharing images of the destruction caused by the earthquakes. Twitter does not have a communications team that can be reached for comment.

This would not be the first time that Turkey has stopped residents from accessing social media services. It has also done so during cross-border military operations and terror attacks. In 2014, Turkey temporarily banned Twitter. Users were sharing voice recordings and documents that purportedly showed corruption within then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's sphere of influence. Erdoğan became Turkey's president later that year and he remains in power. His government has faced criticism for its response to this week's disaster.

At I/O 2022, Google revealed an Immersive View feature for Maps that uses computer vision and AI to combine Street View and aerial photography into a 3D format. The idea is to create a detailed perspective of buildings and other aspects of the environment. 

The feature is rolling out in five cities today. You'll be able to check it out in London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. Google started offering a preview of the feature in those cities in September. Immersive View is coming to other cities over the next several months, including Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence and Venice.

Google is pitching Immersive View as a way to help folks plan a trip. The feature adds contextual information, including traffic, the weather and how busy a location typically is at different times of the day. You'll be able to soar over buildings and see things like the location of an entrance to an attraction, so you don't end up walking around an entire block to find a museum's front door (nope, I definitely haven't done that).

The company built Immersive View using an AI technique called neural radiance fields (NeRF), which converts photos into 3D representations. With the help of NeRF, Google can "accurately recreate the full context of a place including its lighting, the texture of materials and what’s in the background," according to a blog post. "All of this allows you to see if a bar’s moody lighting is the right vibe for a date night or if the views at a cafe make it the ideal spot for lunch with friends."

Google laid out some other Maps updates as well. A feature called "glancable directions" will help you track your journey from your lock screen or route overview whether you're walking, on your bike or using public transit. It can tell you where to turn and keep you updated on the estimated time of arrival, and it will update the info if you switch up the route. Glancable directions will arrive on iOS (where it will be available through Live Activities) and Android in the coming months.

Moreover, there are more features on the way to electric vehicles with Google built-in. The system will factor in charging stops for shorter trips that require one, and it will suggest the best charging station based on variables like traffic, your current battery level and how much energy your EV is using. You'll have access to a "very fast" filter to locate "stations that have chargers of 150 kilowatts or higher." In addition, you'll be able to filter search results for locations that have charging stations to help you figure out, for instance, which supermarket to go to so you can top up your battery while buying groceries.

Meanwhile, Google is expanding Search with Live View and Indoor Live View to more locations in the coming months. The company has also offered a peek at its upcoming Search chatbot, Bard, but things didn't entirely go smoothly.

Over the last several months, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has been working to smush HBO Max and Discovery+ together into a single, giant streaming service, which is expected to debut this spring. However, it seems the company has rethought its strategy, as Discovery+ is sticking around as a standalone platform.

"Our plan for the enhanced platform that will bring together HBO Max and Discovery+ content remains unchanged," WBD spokesperson Jeff Cusson told Engadget. "In addition, we have decided to keep the lower-priced offering of Discovery+ in the US marketplace."

According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, executives were concerned that a sizable number of the current 20 million Discovery+ subscribers may not be willing to pay a higher price for a service that features HBO Max content. It doesn't seem that there are plans to keep HBO Max as a standalone app as well. As such, folks who want to watch shows like The Last of Us and Succession without a cable subscription may need to pay more for a service that combines HBO Max content and most of the offerings from Discovery+.

Discovery+ costs $5 per month with ads or $7 to go ad-free, while the ad-supported version of HBO Max costs $10 per month (or $16 without ads). The upcoming service is expected to be pricier than HBO Max.

The report suggests the new service and Discovery+ will feature Shark Week content and lifestyle shows from the Magnolia Network. Other programming will be available on both platforms. 

Discovery+ has low operating costs and is turning a profit, according to the Journal's sources. However, WBD is cutting billions in costs since it formed last year as a result of a merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. The company has been yanking shows from HBO Max and canceling streaming-exclusive projects, reportedly in favor of using them as tax write-offs.

Meanwhile, the report suggests that WBD is gearing up to roll out its own free, ad-supported (FAST) service with streaming channels that feature content from across the portfolio. This move makes sense, as the company recently inked deals with Roku and Tubi to offer an array of FAST channels featuring shows like Westworld and The Nevers, which it pulled from HBO Max in December.