Whistleblower Aid says it has filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission that accuse Meta of misleading investors about efforts to mitigate climate change and COVID-19 misinformation across its platforms. The nonprofit, which represents Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen, claimed the company made “material misrepresentations and omissions in statements to investors” over how it was handling misinformation, according to The Washington Post, which viewed redacted copies of the documents.

“The documents shared with the SEC make it totally clear that Facebook was saying one thing in private and another in public regarding its approach to climate change and COVID-19 misinformation,” Whistleblower Aid senior counsel Andrew Bakaj told Engadget. “That’s not just irresponsible to the public, it’s actively misleading investors who have a legal right to truthful answers from the company.”

In one of the filings, which were based on disclosures by Haugen, Whistleblower Aid reportedly claimed that Meta didn't have a clear policy on climate change misinformation until last year. The complaint alleges that such misinformation was abundant on Facebook, despite assertions from executives to investors that the company was committed to battling the "global crisis," according to The Post.

In the other complaint, the nonprofit reportedly cited internal documents showing that COVID-19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy proliferated on Facebook. That's despite Meta executives making public comments about measures it was taking to stem the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.

Since 2020, Meta has offered factual information about COVID-19 and climate change in its information centers.

The company has long struggled to stem the flow of misinformation on Facebook and its other platforms. Documents supplied to news organizations by Haugen last year led credence to critics' arguments that the company puts profits before user safety. In September, it was reported that the company gave misinformation researchers incomplete data.

“We’ve directed more than 2 billion people to authoritative public health information and continue to remove false claims about vaccines, conspiracy theories and misinformation," Meta spokesperson Drew Pusateri told Engadget. "We’ve also created our Climate Science Center in over 150 countries to connect people to factual and up-to-date climate information, while also partnering with independent fact checkers to address false claims. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to stopping the spread of misinformation, but we’re committed to building new tools and policies to combat it.”

Kanye West says fans won't be able to stream his next album on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music or YouTube Music. He plans to release Donda 2 exclusively on his $200 Stem Player, a portable device that makes it a cinch for users to remix music.

"Today, artists get just 12 percent of the money the industry makes," West, who claimed he rejected a $100 million deal from Apple, wrote on Instagram. "It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own."

His fans might not find it easy to listen to Donda 2 legally, however. West said 67,000 units of the Stem Player are currently available, though another 3,000 are being manufactured every day.

The device can be used as a regular music player to listen to music as the artist intended. Those who want to play around with songs can control the volume on four different tracks or stems. With Donda 2, West says, users will be able to play just the vocals, drums, bass or samples, or any combination of those. The Stem Player also allows users to add effects and create loops they can reverse, speed up or slow down. Owners can upload other songs to the device through the Stem Player website.

West brought his last album, Donda,to the Stem Player, but it's available to stream elsewhere too. As with pretty much everything West says, it's worth taking this announcement with a grain (or an entire shaker) of salt until he actually releases Donda 2, which appears to have 22 tracks. Even so, it's not impossible to imagine the album winding up on other platforms later.

An off-road racing series that uses hydrogen cars is expected to debut in 2024. Extreme H will be a companion championship to Extreme E, an off-road motorsport with electric vehicles that held its first race last year. The two series will hold races in the same locations on the same days using the same format. According to Alejandro Agag, who also founded Formula E, organizers are looking at two options for hydrogen integration: combined racing or full transition.

Development on the Extreme H car is underway and there are plans to have a prototype ready by early 2023. The vehicle will have the same powertrain and chassis that's used in Extreme E. The main difference is that the central power source will be a hydrogen fuel cell instead of a battery.

Extreme H organizers say that the fuel cells will be powered by green hydrogen, which combines water and solar energy. Extreme E uses the same process to power EV batteries, while the paddock runs on a combination of batteries and green hydrogen.

As soon as Spotify struck a deal with Joe Rogan in 2020 to become the exclusive distributor of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, it was evident that the company was paying him a pretty penny. Initial reports pegged the value of the deal at around $100 million. However, in the wake of a firestorm over claims that Rogan was enabling the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, a new report suggests Spotify is paying much more than that.

According to The New York Times, the three-and-a-half year deal is worth at least $200 million, with a possibility of additional payments. As the report notes, that's more than Spotify paid to buy major podcast production companies Gimlet Media and The Ringer — each of those deals was worth a little under $200 million.

Rogan's show is Spotify's most popular podcast in 93 countries, including the US. Episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience can garner tens of millions of listeners. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek reportedly told employees this month that big exclusive deals such as the Rogan one helped make the company as successful as it is. Spotify has remained behind Rogan, even after his use of racist language on the show came under the spotlight. Rogan removed some episodes containing that language from Spotify.

The backlash against Rogan and the company ramped up after hundreds of doctors, nurses, scientists and educators sent an open letter to Spotify in January urging the company to take more action against the spread of misinformation. They sent the request after Dr. Robert Malone made claims about COVID-19 vaccines on The Joe Rogan Experience that they called "false and societally harmful assertions."

Notable critics including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell accused Spotify of spreading harmful misinformation and pulled their music from the platform. Around the same time, Brené Brown put episodes of her Spotify-exclusive podcasts on hold. Film director Ava DuVernay struck a podcast deal with Spotify last year, but cut ties this month before producing any content for the company. Reports suggest Barack and Michelle Obama may not renew their Spotify deal, which is set to expire in a few months.

Spotify has also faced criticism from employees over Rogan. The host and editor of Gimlet's Science VS podcast said they'd no longer make episodes of their show until "Spotify implements stronger methods to stop the spread of misinformation on the platform." There was one exception to that stance, though. Wendy Zukerman and Blythe Terrell are publishing episodes that debunk misinformation being spread on the platform. They released one earlier this month that examines some of the claims made in Rogan's chat with Malone. 

Intel has shed more light on the roadmap for its Arc gaming GPUs, including more clarity about when consumers can expect to get their hands on them. As previously announced, the GPUs will debut in laptops from Intel's OEM partners this quarter, presumably alongside 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs.

However, desktop gamers will need to wait a little longer before they can plug Arc GPUs into their rigs. Intel says those graphics cards will ship in Q2. It previously said those would arrive in Q1 as well. As for add-in GPUs for workstations, those will be available in Q3.

The first-gen Alchemist GPUs will have support for hardware-based ray-tracing, mesh shading, variable rate shading and DirectX 12 Ultimate. Gamers can expect to harness Intel's AI-driven super sampling tech too.

Intel says its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group (AXG) expects to ship more than 4 million discrete GPUs this year. Elsewhere, the company has started architecture work on the third generation of Arc GPUs, which are codenamed Celestial. Those will be geared toward the "ultra-enthusiast segment." The second-gen GPUs, codenamed Battlemage, are also in development.

Meanwhile, at an investor meeting, Intel revealed plans for a service that will enable access to Arc GPUs via the cloud. It says Project Endgame, which will be available later this year, is "an always-accessible, low-latency computing experience," but it hasn't shared additional details as yet.

Tandem Diabetes Care says the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its smartphone app to program and cancel insulin doses from the t:slim X2 insulin pump. The company claims it's the first time the FDA has cleared a phone app for such a purpose.

The t:connect mobile app on iOS and Android will enable users to program and cancel bolus insulin doses from the pump, according to Tandem Diabetes Care. When connected to the pump, the app can display information about the last 24 hours of a user's glucose trends, changes in status (including alerts and alarms) and insulin therapy data.

Pumps typically require users to dial in insulin doses manually. Given that they are often able to view glucose readings on their handset, patients will be able to use their phone to determine how much insulin they need and then program their dose.

The FDA clearance could be a step toward a more convenient way for diabetes patients to administer insulin doses. Tandem Diabetes Care plans to offer the feature at no extra cost to new and in-warranty t:slim X2 insulin pump customers via a software update. The plan is to grant access to a limited number of users in the spring ahead of a broader rollout this summer.

OtterBox says it has detected an issue with early units of its OtterSpot system. The company released the wireless charging batteries back in August 2019. It says that units that were manufactured between July and August that year may swell “under multi-stack and higher temperature conditions.”

As yet, no injuries have been reported due to the issue, OtterBox told The Verge. The company is contacting customers it knows bought an affected unit, but if you have any OtterSpot battery packs, it's worth checking the serial numbers. If the number starts with 229, 250 or 259, the unit could be affected by this issue and it's worth calling customer service at 1-855-688-7269. OtterBox says it will replace potentially defective batteries at no cost.

The conditions under which affected units could swell may not be rare. One of the key selling points of OtterSpot is that it comprises a base unit and stackable battery packs, which you can use to wirelessly charge devices on the go. Up to three packs can be charged on the base simultaneously. You can juice up a Qi-compatible device at the same time by placing it on top.

The issue might not affect too many units, since OtterBox says it only had a limited quantity at launch. Still, if you have one, it's worth checking the serial number just in case.

Snap says it will soon roll out a much-requested and long-awaited feature to all users: a way to change their Snapchat username. The company started testing the option recently, and it will be available for everyone on iOS and Android as of February 23rd.

You'll be able to switch your handle without setting up a new account and having to start over with your friends list, memories, Snap score and so on. However, users will only be able to change their name once per year. To do so, go to your profile and open the settings. Tap Username and then select the Change Username option.

Snap acknowledged that people grow and change over time. Many of them won't want to be stuck with a bad Snapchat username they came up with a decade ago, perhaps when they were a young teen. So, this feature might come as music to the ears of those whose usernames include a "Gangnam Style" reference.

Starting today, everyone who is running a bot account on Twitter can add a label to make it clear the tweets are automated. The company started testing the label in September and is now rolling it out globally.

Some bot accounts focus on things like emoji mashups, breaking news and weather updates. Twitter says the label will provide users with more details about a bot account and its purpose. That, Twitter suggests, will help folks decide which accounts to follow and engage with, while perhaps adding a layer of trust and transparency.

The company announced in 2020 that all "high-quality" bot accounts would need to make it clear they weren't manually being run by someone. Under that rule, operators of certain bot accounts need to state that they're automated and display the name of the person behind them.

Amazon workers at a warehouse on Staten Island in New York will hold a union vote next month. Derrick Palmer of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), an independent group that's seeking to represent workers at JFK8, says the election will take place in person between March 25th and March 30th.

The workers refiled a union petition with the National Labor Relations Board in December after failing to obtain enough signatures in their previous attempt. This time around, the workers reached the union vote threshold, which is usually 30 percent of a workforce. More than 5,000 workers are employed at JFK8.

The NLRB has accused Amazon of threatening, surveilling and interrogating workers at JFK8 to dissuade them from unionizing. A union avoidance consultant reportedly called organizers "thugs" and said the union drive would fail.

Earlier this month, workers at another Staten Island warehouse called LDJ5 filed a petition with the NLRB to unionize with the help of the ALU.

Another union vote is taking place at a facility in Bessemer, Alabama. The NLRB ordered a second election at BHM1 after it determined Amazon interfered in the first vote, in which a majority of employees voted against unionization. Votes will be counted starting on March 28th. Last month, a union supporter at the warehouse accused Amazon of retaliating against him.

Engadget has contacted Amazon for comment.