Excerpts from Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk biography are coming to light ahead of its release next week, revealing some new details about the billionaire's decision to provide Ukraine with Starlink access amid the country's war with Russia. According to an excerpt CNN reported on, Musk allegedly told SpaceX workers to shut down Starlink access close to the Crimea coast to prevent a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's naval fleet.

Musk, who has reportedly been in contact with Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin, is said to have been worried that the attack would lead to Russia retaliating with nuclear weapons. Ukrainian leaders seemingly begged Musk to reactivate Starlink access but drones that were approaching Russian warships “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” CNN cites Isaacson as stating.

Musk's alleged actions have had significant consequences for Ukraine, according to Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Podolyak wrote on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk owns) that in preventing drones from attacking the Russian ships, Musk enabled them to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities. "As a result, civilians, children are being killed," Podolyak claimed. "This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego."

According to Musk, however, Starlink was not active in those areas and so SpaceX had nothing to disable. “There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol. The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor," he wrote on X. "If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

Regardless of how he's framing the situation, Musk has admitted to making another decision that has impacted the Ukraine-Russia conflict in one way or another. A report late last year indicated that around 1,300 Starlink terminals Ukraine was using temporarily went offline due to a dispute over payments for the internet service.

Apple has its fingers in many pies and now it's getting into the monster business with an upcoming TV show. The company has released the first trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and while the title might not make it super clear, this is very much a Godzilla series.

The show is based on Legendary's Monsterverse and it ties into the studio's recent Godzilla movies. It's partially set in the wake of a battle between Godzilla and the Titans that destroyed much of San Francisco, but it takes place across several three generations. Real-life father and son Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell play the same character, Army officer Lee Shaw, in different eras. Shaw encounters a pair of siblings who are exploring their family's connection to the shadowy organization Monarch, which tracks Godzilla, King Kong and other giant beasts.

The trailer doesn't give a ton away about the show other than to provide looks at the iconic monster (including a shot that invokes the first T. rex encounter from Jurassic Park), some of the cast in action and a ruined San Francisco. But it does seem that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will include much of the spectacle fans have enjoyed from the movies. You'll be able to watch the first two installments of the 10-episode season on November 17, and a new one will arrive on Apple TV+ each week until January 12.

Having pulled in more than six million players in less than a week, Starfield is Bethesda’s biggest game launch of all time. Some of those players are already poking at the game’s limits by creating mods and speedrunning it. One has found another way to break the game, namely by building a ship that enemies can’t figure out how to consistently hit.

The player, who goes by Morfalath, figured out that the enemy AI targets the center of your ship. By building a spacecraft that’s essentially a hollow cube with a few missing edges, they created what they claim is an “unbeatable ship.”

It’s as if the enemy AI thinks you have a glowing red weak spot in your ship’s midsection even if the vessel's "stomach" is completely missing. In a video of a dogfight that Morfalath shared, the unusual ship catches an errant shot or two on its frame, but the butt-ugly design appears to outfox even high-level enemies.

Meanwhile, even though Xbox execs claimedStarfield would be Bethesda's least buggy game launch ever (despite the publisher's long track record of its title having glitches when they first arrive), players have captured a litany of very strange moments. Perhaps you'll see characters who have a missing head save for their eyeballs and mouth, or maybe you'll encounter individuals who rudely butt into conversations. Starfield might not have had as disastrous a debut as Cyberpunk 2077 in terms of bugs, but some of them are pretty funny nonetheless.

For the first time in Joe Biden's presidency, Democrats will have a majority at the Federal Communications Commission and the ability to undo a wave of Trump-era deregulation in the internet and communications industries. The Senate has confirmed Anna Gomez as the agency's third Democratic commissioner, bringing an end to a long-standing partisan split on the panel.

Biden nominated Gomez, who is currently a State Department communications policy adviser, to the FCC in May. The president's previous pick for the FCC's open chair was Gigi Sohn, who withdrew from consideration in March after enduring attacks from politicians and industry lobbyists. Republicans and certain Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin refused to confirm Sohn, who is an advocate for affordable broadband.

However, senators found Gomez a more palatable choice and confirmed her to the panel on Thursday with a 55-43 vote. Gomez worked for the FCC in several positions over a 12-year period before moving into the private sector then onto the State Department earlier this year. She will be the FCC's first Latina commissioner since Gloria Tristani stepped down in 2001.

Industry bodies and figures such as the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association and former FCC chair and Broadland campaign co-chair Mignon Clyburn have welcomed Gomez's appointment. “At long last, at this critical time for the US telecommunications and media industries, we have a full roster of FCC commissioners,” Communications Workers of America President Claude Cummings Jr. told Engadget in a statement. “Anna Gomez is a dedicated public servant who is highly qualified to serve on the FCC. We are looking forward to working with her to realize the potential of the bipartisan infrastructure bill to bring affordable internet service to all Americans and to reverse the decline of local news that threatens the foundations of our democracy.“

After Gomez is sworn in, the Biden administration will be able to fulfill some of its major communications policy goals after a years-long partisan deadlock at the FCC. The agency has long had two Democratic and two Republican senators, who have often been unable to agree on policy votes since former chair Ajit Pai left the panel in January 2021.

The FCC is now expected to reverse some telecommunications sector deregulation efforts that the agency carried out under Donald Trump. Those include the potential restoration of Obama-era net neutrality rules, which the agency scrapped in 2017. In recent years, Democratic commissioners have had their hands largely tied, preventing them from taking meaningful action on issues such as internet data caps. However, the agency has still taken action on some fronts, including tackling problems such as robocallers and banning telecom equipment made by Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE.

The Democratic commissioners may need to act quickly to carry out agenda items on behalf of the Biden administration, however. Biden has nominated Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks for a second term. His initial term expired last year, but he has remained on the panel in an acting capacity. Unless the Senate re-confirms Starks, the FCC may be back in a deadlock scenario in the not-too-distant future.

Here's some news that might shock you: drivers really don't like paying extra for car features they expect as standard. BMW is one of several automakers that have been nickel and diming customers, including with a monthly subscription for heated seats in certain models and territories. The company has dropped that controversial practice to focus on paid software services — it no longer plans to charge drivers extra to use hardware features that are already in their cars.

Pieter Nota, BMW's board member for sales and marketing, told Autocar that the brand will train its attention on paid software features such as driving assistance and parking assistance. Nota suggested that's a more accepted practice, akin to downloading a movie or accessing a paid feature in an app.

However, drivers didn't take to the $18 per month heated seats subscription in the countries where BMW offered that, er, perk. “We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high," Nota said. "People feel that they paid double — which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that.”

It sounds like a classic case of supply and demand. Drivers didn't want to pay for heated seats (or the likes of heated steering wheels), so BMW stopped doing that. Owners may be heartened to learn that the brand won't make them pay extra for hardware functions going forward either, which is a step in the right direction. Best of all, BMW has clarified its position on heated seats just before the chillier fall weather starts in the northern hemisphere — the subscription didn't even make it to a second winter before BMW canned it.

The Nintendo Switch isn't dead quite yet. Nintendo has a solid-looking slate of games lined up for its console stretching well into 2024, including Super Mario Bros. Wonder (which I absolutely cannot wait for), Detective Pikachu Returns and maybe, possibly Metroid Prime 4. But there's no denying that the 6.5-year-old console is getting long in the tooth, so Nintendo is gearing up for what's next. To that end, the company reportedly showed developers tech demos for its next-gen system behind closed doors at Gamescom last month.

One of the Switch 2 demos was a beefed-up version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That's according to Eurogamer, which points out that this was a tech demo and there's no guarantee of a remastered or upgraded version of BOTW coming to the Switch 2, so don't get your hopes up. That said, the demo was said to show BOTW running at a higher frame rate and resolution than the original Switch can handle.

Perhaps more intriguingly, VGC reports that Nintendo also showed The Matrix Awakens running on the dev kit. The captivating tech demo was originally designed to show off what Unreal Engine 5 can do on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but Nintendo managed to get it working on an early version of its next system too. What's more, the Switch 2 demo was said to feature NVIDIA’s DLSS upscaling tech, ray-tracing and visuals comparable to those seen on the PS5 and Series X.

It's unlikely that the Switch 2 will compete with the Sony and Microsoft systems in terms of pure horsepower. It definitely won't if Nintendo retains the hybrid handheld format of the Switch, unless the company is content with a battery life of about 20 minutes. DLSS support is key, as that could help Nintendo run games at higher frame rates and resolution without having to jam more powerful components or an oversized battery into the Switch 2.

Nintendo is expected to release the Switch 2 (or whatever the console will actually be called) in 2024. It will be doing so in a far different gaming landscape than the groundbreaking Switch ventured into due to the likes of the Steam Deck and more advanced mobile gaming experiences. We're seeing a new handheld PC gaming system show upalmost every week at this point. Thanks to emulation (and poor piracy protections on the original Switch), it's not exactly difficult to run Nintendo games better than the company's current console can handle, even while you're on the go.

Nintendo might have its work cut out to convince gamers that both an upgrade from the original Switch is worthwhile and that the Switch 2 is a better option for them than a handheld gaming PC. Still, more advanced hardware, the company's stellar track record of exclusive games and quality-of-life features like an easy way to transition to the Switch 2 could make the next-gen system enticing enough for those who might have been on the fence about snagging the upcoming console.

Max looks set to move into the sports streaming business in the coming weeks. Warner Bros. Discovery may try to get users hooked by offering live sports at no extra cost for several months before charging extra for them.

When WBD revealed the new-look Max (formerly HBO Max) in April, it indicated that it would reveal plans for live sports streaming at some point this year. The company airs NBA, MLB and NHL games across its linear networks and, according to Bloomberg, it has been working with the leagues to determine if it has the rights to stream the games as well.

The report suggests that Max may offer live sports to subscribers at no extra cost until February or March before WBD starts requiring users to pony up more cash for them. That's because the March Madness college basketball tournament is one of the biggest sports events of the year and WBD may feel that could help it to get users to pay a premium for live sports on Max.

Live sports are big business for media companies and they're one of the safest bets to make. Still, broadcast and cable viewership has been waning for years as consumers' attention shifts elsewhere. Some organizations are trying to face that head on by streaming live sports as well.

Disney is reportedly planning on offering a standalone ESPN streaming service. Paramount+ and Peacock (both of which are run by legacy media companies) place a major focus on live sports. YouTube, meanwhile, now holds the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket. Offering access to baseball, basketball and hockey games could help WBD get people who may have already ditched cable TV to sign up for its service, even if they need to pay more than they would for a base Max plan to watch live games.

YouTube is testing a different approach to ads on smart TVs, as well as its apps on connected devices like Apple TV and game consoles. The platform is experimenting with having longer ad breaks but fewer of them on those devices, which it refers to as connected TV or CTV experiences.

The idea is to show you ads in a way that's better aligned with each platform where you watch YouTube. On mobile, you might be more inclined to watch content like Shorts in more bitesize chunks, so shorter, rapid-fire ad breaks may make more sense. However, YouTube notes that nearly two-thirds of CTV watch time in the US lasts at least 21 minutes — around the length of a sitcom episode on broadcast TV.

The service cites research indicating that 79 percent of viewers would prefer that YouTube bunch ads together rather than spreading them out over the duration of a longer video. As such, YouTube believes that minimizing disruption is the way to go, and having longer, fewer ad breaks is one idea it's trying.

It sounds a bit like the UK TV industry's approach to advertising versus how US networks handle things. You might have time to make a cup of tea during a Coronation Street ad break in Blighty, but good luck doing that between segments of a Grey's Anatomy episode Stateside.

It's unclear exactly how YouTube plans to divvy things up, such as if it will have one four-minute break per hour instead of four one-minute ad slots. The service also didn't say whether it will show more ads overall if it moves forward with this plan.

YouTube

In addition, YouTube is looking into ways of being more transparent about the total length of ad breaks rather than showing the time remaining for each individual spot. Romana Pawar, YouTube Ads director of product management, wrote that the platform will soon publicly test an ad experience along those lines — you'll see just how long you have to wait before you can skip the remaining ads.

YouTube has been tinkering with CTV ad formats for quite some time. Earlier this year, it announced unskippable 30-second ads for its TV apps. You can probably expect the service to keep experimenting with how it presents ads across platforms. Alternatively, you can free yourself from having to put up with (seemingly less frequent) interruptions by stumping up for YouTube Premium's ad-free experience.

The person behind an AI-generated song that went viral earlier this year has submitted the track for Grammy Awards consideration. The Recording Academy has stated that such works aren't eligible for certain gongs. However, Ghostwriter, the pseudonymous person behind "Heart on My Sleeve," has submitted the track in the best rap song and song of the year categories, according to Variety. Both of those are songwriting honors. The Academy has suggested it's open to rewarding tracks that are mostly written by a human, even if the actual recording is largely AI-generated.

Ghostwriter composed the song's lyrics rather than leaving them up to, say, ChatGPT. But rather than sing or rap those words, they employed a generative AI model to mimic the vocals of Drake and The Weeknd, which helped the song to pick up buzz. The artists' label Universal Music Group wasn't happy about that and it filed copyright claims to remove "Heart on My Sleeve" from streaming services. Before that, though, the track racked up hundreds of thousands of listens on Spotify and more than 15 million on TikTok.

Over the last few months, Ghostwriter and their team have been making overtures to industry bigwigs such as Academy higher ups, according to The New York Times. As it turns out, Ghostwriter may actually have a shot at picking up a Grammy. “As far as the creative side, it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human,” Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told the Times.

It seems there's one major roadblock as things stand, though. For a song to be eligible for a Grammy, it needs to have "general distribution" across the US through the likes of brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers and streaming services. Ghostwriter is reportedly aware of this restriction, but it's unclear how they plan to address that.

In any case, this may well be a canary in the coal mine for rewarding the use of generative AI in art. Many creatives are concerned over the issue. Some have accused the operators of generative AI systems of using copyrighted work to train their language learning models, while a major sticking point in the ongoing actors' strike is whether performers will be compensated fairly for the use of their digital likenesses. Whether the output of generative AI models can be considered truly original work is a contentious topic as well.

The European Union has confirmed the first six tech "gatekeepers" that will need to abide by strict new rules under the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA). The names of these companies should be pretty familiar: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft. The European Commission (EC), which is the EU's executive branch, noted that after assessing whether certain companies met thresholds related to revenue, valuation and user numbers, Samsung hasn't been designated as a gatekeeper as yet.

The EC stipulates that digital platforms can be designated as gatekeepers "if they provide an important gateway between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services." The gatekeepers now have until March 2024 to make sure their applicable services comply with the DMA regulations. Between the six companies, the EC has designated 22 core platform services that the law applies to:

• Alphabet: Google ads, Google Search, Android, YouTube, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Shopping

• Amazon: Amazon Marketplace and Amazon ads

• Apple: iOS, App Store and Safari

• ByteDance: TikTok

• Meta: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Meta Marketplace and Meta ads

• Microsoft: LinkedIn and Windows

The DMA stipulates that gatekeepers can't favor their own services over rivals' offerings and can't keep users locked into their own ecosystems. They have to let third-party entities interoperate with their services in certain situations too.

Microsoft and Apple have argued that, despite meeting the thresholds the EC laid out, Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising and iMessage don't qualify as gateways and shouldn't have to comply with the DMA. The EC has opened a market investigation in each case to review the companies' claims. 

Meanwhile, the EC notes that iPadOS doesn't meet the thresholds, but it has opened a market investigation to determine whether it should be designated as a core platform service. Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser did meet the thresholds, but their respective owners (Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung) successfully convinced the EC that none of these services qualify as gateways for core platform services. 

The rules are likely to have a major impact on Apple in particular. The company has tried to keep a firewall around the iOS ecosystem despite jailbreakers' efforts to sideload apps onto iPhones over the years. Reports previously indicated that Apple is set to allow third-party app stores and sideloading in iOS 17 — we could find out more about that next week when the company holds its fall iPhone event. Microsoft (specifically Xbox) and Epic Games are among the companies that are preparing their own mobile app stores for when the wall around the iOS garden crumbles.

Apple has also so far rebuffed Google's (slightly embarrassing) efforts to convince it to support the RCS messaging standard. The former very much understands the value of iMessage and blue text bubbles. However, if the EC designates iMessage as a gateway, Apple could be forced to play nicely with RCS and other messaging services.

To that end, Apple told Reuters that it's concerned about the privacy and security risks that may emerge as a result of DMA compliance. "Our focus will be on how we mitigate these impacts and continue to deliver the very best products and services to our European customers," the company said.

If a gatekeeper fails to abide by the DMA rules, there may be serious consequences. The EC can fine an infringing gatekeeper as much as 10 percent of its global turnover. That can rise to 20 percent if the gatekeeper continues to break the rules. The EC has also given itself the power to force a gatekeeper to sell a business and to block it from buying related services in cases of systematic DMA violations.