Sony is still struggling to keep up with the demand for the PlayStation 5 due to the global chip shortage issue affecting companies across industries. It even recently dropped its sales forecast and told analysts that the company expects the console to continue to be in short supply this year, especially in the first half. Indeed, retailers' PS5 listings often show that it's "Out of Stock" or "Currently Unavailable" most of the time, and catching a restock is a race against scalpers and other fans also on the lookout for a unit. Now, Sony has launched a contest that gives you (the semblance of) a chance to finally get your hands on a PS5. 

Over the next few weeks until March 7th 10AM PST/1PM EST, Sony will be releasing 14 unique codes resembling the PlayStation controller through various means. It will post some online, on its social media channels, but it will also release them through high-profile events in sports, gaming, film and music. In other words, you'll have to keep their eyes peeled and maybe even make friends to turn the hunt into a group effort. Finding them doesn't automatically mean you win a console, after all. 

Nope — each code will only give you the opportunity to win a draw for the PS5. You'll have to enter the code in the dedicated page for the promo and then answer a question relevant to where the code was shown before you can be eligible. Oh, and the promo is only open to residents of participating territories:

Argentina, Canada, Chile, Mexico and United States, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Poland, United Kingdom.

At least you'll have 14 chances to win if you can find all the codes (and live in the right country,) but you may have a better chance just refreshing the PS5's Best Buy listing over and over again. 

The 3DS and Wii U shops' days are numbers. In a new support page, Nintendo has revealed that it's shutting down the eShops for the Wii U system and the 3DS family of consoles in late March 2023. That means after that date, you won't be able to purchase any content from the shops anymore, download demos and redeem download codes. The shutdown process will start much earlier than March next year, though: You won't be able to use a credit card to add funds to your eShop account starting on May 23rd, 2022. 

Further, while retailers will sell Nintendo eShop Card cards until supplies last, you can't use them to add funds to your account anymore starting on August 29th, 2022. You can add as much funds as you want until those dates, however, and you can redeem download codes until late March 2023. After the eShops officially shut down, you can only use them to redownload any content you already own and to install software updates.

Nintendo wrote in the FAQ section of the page that the the move "is part of the natural lifecycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time." Both systems are getting up there in years, and Nintendo stopped manufacturing the 3DS back in 2020. Meanwhile, the Switch has become Nintendo's best-selling home console last year after selling a total of 103.54 million units since it launched in 2017. 

As Kotaku notes, Nintendo is also removing the only way to buy some classic games for older platforms by shutting down the shops. Apparently, the gaming giant deleted a section in its FAQ talking about how the Nintendo Switch Online "is an effective way to make classic content easily available to a broad range of players." It added: "We currently have no plans to offer classic content in other ways." Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription service, though, and you can only access its library of classic games as long as your membership is active. 

The BlackByte ransomware group has compromised entities in at least three US critical infrastructure sectors, according to a joint warning issued (PDF) by the FBI and the US Secret Service on February 11th. Days after that, right before the Super Bowl, the group has also infiltrated servers owned by the San Francisco 49ers. The team's representatives have confirmed the hack after BlackByte posted a file that it supposedly stole from the 49ers on its website, according to Ars Technica. That 379MB file reportedly contained billing statements sent by the team to its partners that include AT&T and Pepsi.

The 49ers' reps said they believe "the incident is limited to [their] corporate IT network" and has no indication that it involved outside systems, such as those "connected to Levi's Stadium operations or ticket holders." They've notified law enforcement and are working with third-party cybersecurity firms to investigate the incident. "We are working diligently to restore involved systems as quickly and as safely as possible," the reps said. As for the critical infrastructures that were affected, the FBI and the Secret Service didn't name them, but they did say they're government facilities and in the financial and food & agriculture sectors. 

BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that allows affiliates to use its ransomware for a percentage of the proceeds. It first surfaced in July last year, but a flaw in its system allowed security firm Trustwave to release a decryption tool that victims were able to use for free instead of paying the group to have their files unlocked. An updated version of the ransomware patched that flaw. 

In their warning, the authorities said some victims reported that the bad actors used a known Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerability to gain access to their networks. The authorities have also released filenames, indicators of compromise and hashes that IT personnel can use to check their networks for presence of the ransomware. 

SpaceX has to wait until March 28th to find out if the Federal Aviation Administration is giving it clearance to launch Starship flights out of its facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The agency is conducting an environmental assessment of the company's plans to launch the massive reusable vehicle out of the facility and looking into whether it will have significant environmental impact on the area. This isn't the first time the agency has moved its target date for completion either: It previously pushed back its original target date of December 31st, 2021 to February 28th, 2022. 

Now, the FAA has updated the project page to reflect the new target date and explained that the delay is "to account for further comment review and ongoing interagency consultations." The agency received over 19,000 public comments on the draft version of the review published in September last year. 

During the most recent Starship presentation, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said the company doesn't know where things stand with the FAA exactly. However, they apparently got a rough indication that the agency will complete its environmental assessment in March. In case SpaceX doesn't get an approval or if the FAA issues an environmental impact statement (EIS) to dig deeper into the company's plans — a process that could take years — it does have a backup plan. 

Musk said during the same event that SpaceX had already secured approval to launch the Starship from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and it will delay the vehicle's first orbital flight if needed to build a tower for it in the location. SpaceX has been conducting all of the Starship's development and testing in Starbase and only has a launch tower for the vehicle in Boca Chica. 

Even if SpaceX does get permission from the FAA to launch the Starship once its environmental review is done, it doesn't mean we'll get to see the vehicle lift off for its first orbital flight soon. Musk said hardware readiness is on track with regulatory approval, but we'll have to wait for the company's announcement for a concrete date. 

Intel could soon announce a nearly $6 billion acquisition that would give its fledgling foundry business a boost, according to The Wall Street Journal. The chip giant is reportedly close to clinching a deal to purchase Israeli chip company Tower Semiconductor, and it could be announced sometime this week unless the talks suddenly fall apart. 

Tower, which has a market value of around $3.6 billion, produces various types of chips for clients across industries, including automakers and medical and industrial equipment manufacturers. Its website shows that it has seven fabrication facilities located in Israel, Italy, the US and Japan making 6-inch, 8-inch and 12-inch chips. Tom's Hardware says the manufacturing processes it uses aren't cutting edge, but the chips it makes don't need the latest technologies anyway. Tower only needs to reliably and regularly generate large volumes of chips. 

Before Tower, Intel was reported to be in talks to purchase the much larger chip manufacturer and AMD spinoff GlobalFoundries for around $30 billion. It didn't push through, however, and GlobalFoundries chose to pursue an initial public offering instead. 

Intel launched its foundry services back in 2021 when it committed $20 billion to build two Arizona factories and explained that it will be run as its own business unit. Earlier this year, the company also revealed its plans to build a massive semiconductor facility in Ohio that it's hoping would become "the largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet." It will use the fabs in the complex to manufacture both its chips and chips for clients under its foundry services.

Zoom has rolled out an update for its Mac app to fix a bug that could potentially cause privacy issues for users. As noticed by 9to5Mac, a company representative has responded to a post on the Zoom community forums made by a user who noticed that their mic indicator was on even when they were not in a meeting — they simply had their Zoom client open at the time. Upon accessing Control Center, they discovered that Zoom was accessing their microphone. 

The original poster wasn't the only one who aired their complaint on the forum, and a lot of commenters said they had noticed the same thing. In the company's response, the representative said Zoom for Mac version 5.9.3 solves an issue wherein "the orange indicator light [could] continue to appear after having left a meeting, call or webinar." The rep is advising users to update their app to patch the bug and to switch on automatic updates to get future releases as soon as they're out. 

Zoom has had some serious privacy issues in the past, including telling users that their meetings were protected with end-to-end encryption since 2016. In reality, it only started rolling out the feature in 2020, and the company had to settle with the FTC over its privacy practices. In 2021, it also agreed to pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the video chat giant of violating privacy and allowing trolls to drop into people's chats in a practice called "zoombombing."

Amazon's warehouse workers won't be required to wear masks in the workplace anymore, so long as they're fully vaccinated. According to The Wall Street Journal, the e-commerce giant told workers in a memo that it has eased its mask requirements due to the "sharp decline in COVID-19 cases across the country over the past weeks." It also mentioned the increasing vaccination rates in the US as "a positive sign" of its return "to normal operations."

The company required all workers to wear masks again in December following a spike of COVID cases in the US caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. That came half a year after it allowed fully vaccinated individuals to unmask while working, which some workers saw as a premature move. Amazon made its decision in the same week some states started rolling back their mask mandates and other pandemic restrictions. Walmart has dropped its mask rule for vaccinated workers at the same time. 

In addition to easing its mask mandate, Amazon is also ending paid leave for workers who contract COVID-19 if they're not vaccinated. Workers must be done with their second jab by March 18th to be qualified for paid leave. How workers feel about this change in rules remains to be seen, but Amazon has a history of clashing with its employees when it comes to COVID-related guidelines. In 2020, workers at its Staten Island warehouse sued the company, accusing it of failing to follow guidelines stated by the CDC and the government of New York. Then in 2021, Amazon agreed to pay $500,000 after the California attorney general found that it concealed its true COVID-19 case numbers from workers.

Twitch wants everyone to have nicer, more family-friendly usernames. The video streaming website has updated its policy to prohibit usernames that have hate speech, threats of violence and personally identifiable information in them. It will now also ban usernames with references to "sexual acts, arousal, fluids or genitalia," as well as references to hard drugs. Those with some kind of reference to weed, alcohol or tobacco don't have to worry about a thing, though — those three are A-OK and don't fall under the new "hard drugs" rule.

"Although we’ve removed many reported, offensive usernames under our current policy, we believe establishing a stronger standard is needed to cultivate a diverse, inclusive global community on Twitch," the Amazon-owned streaming platform said in its announcement. 

Twitch is giving all users until March 1st, 2022 before it starts enforcing its new guidelines. That way, creators will have time to think of a new handle and fix their branding without their disrupting their streaming activities. After the deadline passes, Twitch will suspend users if their names are clearly "hateful, harassing, violent or typically representative of malicious behavior." 

It will, however, give people with references to sex and hard drugs in their names a chance and will only require them to reset their handles. Same goes for instances wherein it's not clear if a handle violates the new policy. The website built a tool that allows people to reset their names without losing their account history, subs, follows and bits, and people can continue their activities as usual after they use it. While Twitch is giving users the freedom to make changes on their own, it said a machine learning feature will keep an eye on any new handle people try to create to make sure it doesn't violate its policy, as well. 

The CIA has been conducting a secret mass surveillance program that affects Americans' privacy, according to a newly declassified letter (PDF) by US Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). In the letter dated April of 2021, the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee urged the agency to tell the public the kind of records it collected, the amount of American records' maintained and the nature of the CIA's relationship with its sources. 

The Senators also asked the Director of National Intelligence to declassify the studies conducted by a watchdog called the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which prompted the letter in the first place. PCLOB did in-depth examinations of two CIA counterterrorism-related programs back in 2015 as part of a larger oversight review of Executive Order 12333, a Reagan-era EO that extends the powers of US intelligence agencies. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, surveillance activities conducted under EO 12333 — like the CIA's bulk program — aren't subject to the same oversight as those under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The publication also notes that that the CIA isn't legally allowed to conduct domestic spying, but some Americans' information get scooped up in certain instances. One example is if they're communicating with an overseas target via phone or the internet. Intelligence agencies are required to protect any information from the US, as well, such as redacting Americans' names unless they're pertinent to the investigation. According to the Senators, PCLOB noted problems with how the CIA handled and searched Americans' information under the program.

The Senators said the existence of the program was hidden not just to the public, but also to the Congress. An intelligence official told The New York Times, though, the the Intelligence Committee already knew about the data collection. It's the program's tools for storying and querying that collected data, which are discussed in PCLOB's reports, that it may not know the details of.

While both the Senators' letter and one of PCLOB's studies have now been released, they've both been heavily redacted. It's impossible to tell, based on the documents that came out, what kind of information was collected and what the nature of the program was. Or is — it's also unclear whether the program is still ongoing or if the CIA has already ended it. The CIA said in a statement:

"CIA has kept, and continues to keep, the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence (SSCI) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) fully and currently apprised of its intelligence programs, to include the activities reviewed by PCLOB. Moreover, all CIA officers have a solemn obligation to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans. CIA will continue to seek opportunities to provide better transparency into the rules and procedures governing our collection authorities to both Congress and the American public."

Elon Musk has given SpaceX's first huge Starship update in years, and during his presentation, the company showed off what a launch with the massive launch system would look like. The Starship system is composed of the Starship spacecraft itself on top of a Super Heavy booster. SpaceX is working towards making it rapidly and fully reusable so as to make launches to the Moon and to Mars feasible. After making its way outside our planet, the booster will break off and return to its launch tower, where it will ideally be caught by the tower arms. As for the spacecraft, it will proceed to its destination before making its way back to Earth. 

Musk said the booster will spend six minutes in the air over all, two upon ascent and four for its return trip. In the future, the system could be reused every six to eight hours for three launches a day. SpaceX says achieving a fully and rapidly reusable system is "key to a future in which humanity is out exploring the stars." Musk also talked about how in-orbit refilling — not "refueling," since the vehicle's Raptor engines use more liquid oxygen than fuel — is essential for long-duration flights. 

The Super Heavy booster, Musk said, has more than twice the thrust of a Saturn V, the largest rocket to ever head to space so far. In its current iteration, it has 29 Raptor engines, but it could eventually have 33. Speaking of those engines, Raptor version 2 is a complete redesign of the first, costs half as much and needs fewer parts. The company is capable of manufacturing five to six a week at the moment, but it could apparently be capable of producing as many as seven by next month. 

Aside from being able to carry hundreds of tons, the Starship could revolutionize space travel if SpaceX can truly make launches as affordable as Musk said it could. He revealed during the event that a Starship launch could cost les than $10 million per flight, all in, within two to three years. That's significantly less than a Falcon 9 launch that costs around $60 million. 

SpaceX wants to launch the Starship from its Boca Chica, Texas facility called Starbase, where it's been building the rocket's prototype. It has yet to secure approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to do so, and Musk said the company doesn't know where things stand with the agency exactly. However, there's apparently a rough indication that the FAA will be come with its environmental assessment in March. SpaceX also expects the rocket to be ready by then, which means Starship's first orbital test flight could be on the horizon.