Since 2018, Twitter has frequentlydisclosed the results of its efforts to shut down networks of accounts with ties to state propaganda campaigns. The company said it has suspended or removed another 3,465 accounts connected to eight operations in six countries.

Most of the accounts were suspended for violating platform manipulation and spam policies. All content linked to the campaigns has been scrubbed.

By far the biggest network of accounts Twitter removed this time around was one that “amplified Chinese Communist Party narratives related to the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang.” It detected and took action against 2,048 such accounts. The company also took down 112 accounts linked to Changyu Culture, a company that's backed by the regional government of Xinjiang. 

A network of 418 accounts found to be participating in “coordinated inauthentic activity” that supported the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, and his National Resistance Movement party is gone. So too is a group of 276 “inauthentic” accounts that mainly shared content supporting Mexican government actions linked to political parties and public health.

Elsewhere, Twitter removed 277 accounts that promoted the views of the Venezuelan government. It suspended an app called Twitter Patria, which it says people connected to the removed accounts were using.

Gone too are 268 accounts that were filing bad-faith reports against civil rights group FichuaTanzania, its founder and members and supporters. Some of those were tweeting pro-government messages as well. Lastly, Twitter says it removed two batches of accounts connected to Russia — 16 that promoted a pro-Russia perspective in the Central African Republic, and 50 that criticized the civic Libyan government and promoted Russia’s geopolitical position there and in Syria.

Since it started disclosing its efforts against state-linked manipulation campaigns three years ago, Twitter says it has removed more than 200 million tweets and nine terabytes of media connected to them. The company has taken action against operations originating in 17 countries.

Apple has brought in several high-profile figures for guest appearances on the Fitness+ series "Time to Walk." Among them are Dolly Parton, Randall Park, Camilla Cabello and Stephen Fry. To close out the second season, Prince William will make an appearance in a holiday-themed episode. He’ll discuss the importance of staying mentally fit as well as how listening can empower others. 

Apple Fitness+ users can check out the 38-minute episode on demand starting on December 6th. There will also be a few free airings on Apple Music 1 — at 8AM GMT and PST on December 6th and 8AM in Sydney’s time zone on December 7th.

Apple will make donations to three mental health charities chosen by Prince William. They are Crisis Text Line in the US, Shout 85258 in the UK and Lifeline in Australia. The latter provides free, around-the-clock crisis support and suicide prevention services. Shout and Crisis Text Line offer people in crisis support via text.

"Time to Walk" episodes are recorded while notable people take a stroll outside or in areas meaningful to them. They share stories, photos and music, and discuss lessons they’ve learned and their perspective on gratitude and purpose, among other things. The idea is that Apple Fitness+ will listen to episodes via an Apple Watch and connected earphones while going for a walk themselves. For those using a wheelchair, the series is renamed "Time to Push," and episodes center around a wheelchair workout instead of a walk.

Nissan has unveiled the lunar lander prototype it has been working on with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The automaker has been collaborating with the agency on driving controllability since January 2020.

To help ensure the rover doesn't get stuck on the lunar surface, Nissan has employed a version of its e-4orce all-wheel control technology. The company says its driving-force controls can minimize wheel spin "in accordance with surface conditions." Not only could that prevent the rover's wheels from digging into the moon's powdery, rocky terrain, it might help the lander conserve precious energy.

Nissan announced the e-4orce powertrain system early last year. The tech, which is featured in the Ariya electric crossover and upcoming next-gen Leaf, allows for precise, independent control for all four wheels. The Ariya has front and rear motors, and the torque of each can be controlled individually to deliver traction during acceleration.

The company believes "the knowhow gained from this joint research with JAXA will lead to innovations in our vehicles that will bring benefits to customers," according to Toshiyuki Nakajima, general manager of Nissan's Advanced Vehicle Engineering Department.

The current design of the rover isn't aesthetically exciting, unfortunately. Right now, it's a rectangular box on wheels. But, as is usually the case, it's what's on the inside that really counts.

Much like Assassin's Creed, Battlefield is morphing into a "connected universe." EA is plowing more resources into the series and revamping the structure of its studios to support that vision, despite a lukewarm reception (to put it generously) for Battlefield 2042. 

"As a whole, we're all-in on Battlefield," EA chief operating officer Laura Miele told GameSpot. "Collectively, we are out to unlock its enormous potential."

Multiple studios in North America and Europe are said to be working on Battlefield games and experiences. One of those is Battlefield Mobile, which will be released next year.

Vince Zampella, the head of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Apex Legends studio Respawn Entertainment, is now in charge of the Battlefield franchise. Zampella, who took over at DICE LA last year, will continue to run Respawn. In addition to producing the original Call of Duty, he has worked on Titanfall and Medal of Honor games.

"We intend to build a Battlefield universe, one with multiple projects that are interconnected with the player at the center," Zampella said. "We will continue to evolve and grow Battlefield 2042, and we'll explore new kinds of experiences and business models along the way that we can add to that foundation to provide an awesome array of experiences for our players."

Byron Beede, another Call of Duty veteran EA hired as Battlefield general manager this year, said EA has a "long-term plan" for the series. However, the main focus right now is on supporting Battlefield 2042. 

Ripple Effect, which worked on Battlefield 2042'sPortal customization mode, and a new studio run by Halo designer Marcus Lehto will help DICE improve that game. DICE just rolled out a patch that targeted Battlefield 2042's clunky user interface and fixed a ton of bugs.

Meanwhile, DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson will leave the company at the end of the year. Former Ubisoft Annecy studio director Rebecka Coutaz is taking over that role.

The last couple of years haven’t exactly been great for most people, but if the planet’s most-used emoji are anything to judge by, at least we’re still in fairly good spirits. The Unicode Consortium says the top 10 most-used emoji are mostly unchanged from 2019 (the group didn't release a list last year).

The Tears of Joy (😂) emoji reigned supreme again. It accounted for five percent of all emoji use, even though many Gen Z-ers find it deeply uncool. It was also the top emoji in 2019 and the most tweeted one last year.

The Unicode Consortium said the only emoji that gets close to the popularity of Tears of Joy is the Red Heart ❤️. The rest of this year's top 10 most-used emoji, which mostly have positive vibes, are:

• 🤣 - Rolling on the Floor Laughing

• 👍 - Thumbs Up Sign

• 😭 - Loudly Crying Face

• 🙏 - Folded Hands (aka the prayer emoji)

• 😘 - Face Blowing a Kiss

• 🥰 - Smiling Face With Three Hearts

• 😍 - Smiling Face with Heart-Shaped Eyes

• 😊 - Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes

It seems most of us aren't super creative in our emoji use. The top 100 account for around 82 percent of total emoji shares, even though there are more than 3,600 to choose from, not to mention the mashups on Gboard.

Smiling faces and hand-based emoji are generally very popular, as are the plant-flower and emotion (i.e. hearts) categories. The least popular emoji category is flags. Country flags are used the least, even though there are more emoji in that category than any other and the Summer Olympic Games, one of the biggest demonstrations of national pride, took place this year.

Given that we've been enduring a pandemic for almost two years, it's not too surprising that there's been a rise in the use of health-related emoji. Even so, only 🥵 (Hot Face) and 🥴 (Woozy face) made it into the top 100 this year — 🦠 (Microbe) squeaked into the top 500. After all, instead of using a specific emoji depicting sickness, many people are likely to just say they're feeling like 💩.

It's heartening to know that despite the turmoil the humanity has endured lately, our emoji use trends toward happiness, love and positivity. It's far better to be a 😎 than a 🤡.

Uber has announced more safety features for the platform. The company already allows drivers and passengers in 14 countries to record the audio of their rides, and now the feature is coming to the US. It will pilot audio recordings in three US cities starting later this month.

Before they get in a car, riders will see in the Uber app whether their driver has opted into audio recordings — you can cancel the ride if you don't want to be recorded. You can capture audio by tapping the shield button on the app's map screen and choosing the Record Audio option. Everyone can record individual trips, and drivers have the choice to leave the feature on the entire time they're available for rides.

Although the recordings are stored on riders' and drivers' devices, they won't be able to listen to them. The recordings are encrypted and Uber says it can't access them unless a driver or rider submits a safety report with an attached audio file. A safety agent can decrypt and listen to the recording when they review the report, and then take appropriate action if necessary.

Uber debuted the feature in Latin America two years ago. It says almost 70 percent of drivers and riders surveyed in Rio de Janeiro felt safer when using it.

In addition, Uber plans to remind riders to buckle up with audible seat belt alerts at the start of a trip. The driver's phone will provide the audio reminder and the rider will see a notification on their own device. Uber says it will roll out the feature across the US in early 2022.

On top of that, Uber has upgraded its RideCheck feature, which arrived in 2019 and uses GPS and sensors in the driver's phone to detect possible crashes and abnormally long stops. The feature can now identify when a trip unexpectedly goes on a different route or ends before the destination the rider entered into the app.

If RideCheck flags a possible problem, Uber will ask the rider and driver if everything is in order via a notification. If not, they can tap the emergency button or report the problem to Uber.

Qualcomm is expanding its lineup of ARM-based chips for Windows and Chromebook with Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and 7c+ Gen 3 platforms. In addition, the company aims to power handheld gaming devices using Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 chipsets.

Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, which builds on last year's Gen 2, is the first 5nm PC platform, according to Qualcomm, which designed it with ultra-slim and fanless laptops in mind. It says that moving to a 5nm process node and other optimizations allowed for improved Kryo CPU performance while sustaining similar power consumption levels as Gen 2 chipsets. The company claims the chipsets will deliver up to 85 percent improved performance compared with the previous generation and up to 60 percent better per-watt performance than x86 chips.

Along with 5G and WiFi 6/6E connectivity, the platform is said to offer multi-day battery life, upgraded camera and audio functions and chip-to-cloud security. Systems with 8cx Gen 3 chipsets will be able to take advantage of "29+ TOPS of AI acceleration," which Qualcomm claims is three times the performance of "the leading competitive platform." The AI acceleration could speed up tasks like face detection and background blur on calls. In addition, Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 supports up to 4K HDR camera quality, and as many as four cameras.

Qualcomm also says 8cx Gen 3 will offer up to 60 percent improved performance over previous-generation chips during GPU-intensive tasks thanks to the Adreno GPU. You'll be able to play games in Full HD at up to 120 fps, and Qualcomm claims the platform is optimized to let folks play up to 50 percent longer "than certain competing platforms."

Qualcomm

As for Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3, that platform's designed for entry-level PCs and Chromebooks, and it emerged only six months after the previous generation. It too supports 5G, both sub-6 and mmWave, thanks to the inclusion of the Snapdragon X53 5G Modem-RF system. You can also expect Wi-Fi 6 and 6E support. Qualcomm says the 6nm 7c Gen 3 platform will deliver up to 40 percent improved CPU performance and as much as 35 percent improved graphics performance over the previous-gen chipsets.

ARM-based Windows machines haven't exactly set the world alight, and it remains to be seen whether Qualcomm can help the Windows on Snapdragon platform turn the corner with its latest, more powerful options. Devices with Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and 7c+ Gen 3 chipsets are expected to debut in the first half of 2022.

Qualcomm

Elsewhere, Qualcomm is making moves in a new chipset category: gaming handhelds. It says the Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 Gaming Platform will support game streaming from consoles and PC, cloud gaming services and Android games and apps. The Adreno GPU can run games at 144 fps and at 10-bit HDR, according to the company, while the FastConnect 6900 system offers 5G mmWave and sub-6 and WiFi 6/6E connectivity.

To show off the platform, Razer collaborated with Qualcomm on a handheld gaming dev kit that's available to developers starting today via Razer's website. The device features a 120hz, 6.65-inch OLED display with 10-bit HDR support, four-way speakers and a built-in controller. The device can even be used for live streams that include audio and video feeds from players, since it has a 1080p 60 fps camera and dual mics.

Should Snapdragon-powered handhelds come to market, they'll be vying against the likes of the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, smartphones and tablets. It's a competitive sector, but one that's growing rapidly, so there might be room for devices with Qualcomm chipsets to carve out a niche.

Qualcomm

Microsoft has unveiled Teams Essentials, a version of Teams aimed at small businesses. It's a standalone product that nestles between the free Teams plan and the features that come with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Teams Essentials costs $4 per user per month. It includes unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours and as many as 300 participants, compared with a 60-minute time limit and a maximum of 100 participants on the free plan. Users also get 10GB of cloud storage — twice as much as those on the free tier — and integration with Outlook and (soon) Google calendars.

Other features from the free tier are included, such as access to Office web apps, chats with colleagues and customers, file sharing, polls and group projects. Meetings, chats, calls and files are all encrypted. Users can send meeting invites to someone who doesn't have a Teams account — they just need that person's email address. Virtual backgrounds for calls, Together mode (which displays attendees in the same virtual space) and live closed captions are also available.

It's a little less expensive than Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which costs $5/month per user (increasing to $6 in March), but the savings can add up. That plan's features include meeting transcripts, real-time translations, mobile versions of Office apps and 1TB of cloud storage per person. 

Teams Essentials is available from Microsoft's cloud partners or directly from the company.

A few months later than originally planned, Sony has opened pre-orders for its first drone for professionals. The company says the Airpeak S1 is the smallest drone that supports a full-size, mirrorless Alpha camera.

The debut model in the Airpeak line works with several Sony cameras, including the Alpha 1, Alpha 7S series, Alpha 7R series and Alpha 9 series. The company says the S1 has proprietary technology that supports smooth movement at high speed and provides stable wind resistance in service of helping cinematographers and photographers to capture high-quality footage and photos from the sky.

Sony claims the S1 can fly for up to 22 minutes au naturale, and up to 12 minutes with a heavy payload, such as the Alpha 7S III with a FE 24mm F1.4 GM lens. The drone has a top speed of just under 56mph.

The Airpeak Flight app for iOS provides real-time status info and updates on the hardware. With the Airpeak Base web app, users can create advanced, repeatable flight plans, manage the drone and camera and troubleshoot issues. There's also a dual operation mode, which allows one person to control the drone and another to operate the camera and gimbal. Both users can see what the camera is capturing.

The Airpeak S1 comes with two sets of propellers, two rechargeable batteries and a controller. Sony has shaved $1,000 off the previously announced price — the drone now costs a still-eye-watering $9,000. The S1 should ship on December 24th, so it might arrive a little too late to be an extremely generous holiday gift.

There's an optional cloud service called Airpeak Plus that offers extra storage, enhanced geofencing tools and flight log importing and exporting. It costs around $300 for 12 months.

Google has revealed a slew of features and updates for Android 12. Starting today, the digital car key function that was announced at Google I/O in May is available on Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 for compatible BMW vehicles in select countries. You can use your phone to lock and unlock the doors, and start the engine. The feature is likely coming to other vehicles later — Google has been working with other, unnamed automakers on support for digital car keys.

There's now an option to open Android Auto automatically when you connect your device to a compatible car. In addition, the home screen will have an always-on play button, so you can fire up your favorite music with a single tap.

Smart reply options (which will arrive in the coming months) will offer more ways to respond to text messages while you're driving. You can tap to reply or create a custom message with the help of Google Assistant. Also coming soon, there'll be a faster way to search for music in your media apps. Just tap the search button and say the name of your favorite artist or song.

Other media-centric options are coming to the home screen of Android 12 proper. A YouTube Music widget, for instance, includes playback controls and recently played songs. Two other widgets are rolling out next week. One for Google Play Books offers access to your library of books and could help you keep track of where you are in audiobooks.

A Google Photos People & Pets widget, meanwhile, provides an easy way to bring your loved ones to the home screen. Select a few faces and a frame, and your family, friends and pets can take pride of place on the home screen.

Elsewhere in Google Photos, you'll start to see Memories in the photo grid. It's a curated selection of photos and videos from holidays and events like birthdays and graduations, which are displayed in a stories format. Along with renaming, personalizing and correcting them, you'll have the option to remove Memories from the grid.

Google is bringing Family Bell from smart home products to mobile devices. You can set up the feature to alert you and your family with bells and notifications when it's time to do certain things, such as picking up kids from school or getting to bed at a decent hour. Family members can set or customize as many bells as they like on their own devices to keep stay on schedule. Google will offer suggested bells too, including holiday-themed ones like volunteering for a local cause or watering the tree.

In Gboard's Emoji Kitchen, you'll see thousands more emoji mashups. They'll be available for Gboard Beta users starting today and for everyone in the coming weeks.

Last, but not least, Google announced another Android security measure. To help protect your privacy, your device will automatically turn off runtime permissions (which allow apps to access data or carry out actions for you) in apps you haven't used in a while. You can turn these permissions back on in the app or the device settings. The feature will be available on Android 12 at first. Starting next month, Google plans to roll it out to devices with Google Play services running Android 6.0 or later.