Facebook is rebranding and changing its company name as soon as next week, according to The Verge. Apparently, the social media giant will have a new name that will reflect its focus on creating a metaverse. It's also possibly connected to its unreleased social virtual reality world called Horizon Worlds. The social network itself will likely retain the Facebook branding and will be under a new parent company, along with Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus. That would be similar to what Google did in 2015 when it put its various projects and divisions, along with itself, under its parent company Alphabet.

The Verge says the name change is a closely guarded secret at the moment and not even all senior leaders have knowledge about it. Mark Zuckerberg has long talked about wanting to make Facebook a metaverse company and has been taking steps towards that goal. Earlier this year, Facebook formed a team dedicated to building a metaverse, and just a few days ago, it talked about adding 10,000 "high-skilled" jobs across the European Union over the next five years to build its virtual and augmented reality experiences. It also released the Ray-Ban Stories augmented reality smart glasses in September.

We reached out to Facebook for a statement, and company spokesperson Joe Osborne said: "We don’t comment on rumor or speculation."

It's unclear how long Facebook been has planning on changing its name, but it's certainly a good distraction for the investigations it's facing and the bad press it's currently getting. Former executive-turned-whisleblower Frances Haugen provided the Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission with a treasure trove of internal documents, dropped several revelations about the company and accused it of choosing "profit over safety" — something Zuckerberg adamantly denied. 

In early October, she testified at a Senate hearing about research she says proves that the social network repeatedly lied about its platform, including the "efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems, and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages." Haugen has several ideas on what Facebook should change, but none of them has anything to do with changing its name. They include going back to chronological feeds from algorithmic ranking, adding some features that would prevent the spread of misinformation and opening Facebook research to people outside the company. 

Raspberry Pi has launched a new product that would make it easier to build robots out of LEGO components. The Build HAT (or Hardware Attached on Top), as it is called, is an add-on device that plugs into the Pi's 40-pin GPIO header. It was specifically designed to make it easy to use Pi hardware to control up to four LEGO Technic motors and sensors from the the toy company's Education Spike kits. Those sets are meant as a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) learning tool for young students. The HAT also works with motors and sensors from the Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit.

In addition to the Build HAT itself, the company has created a Python library that can help students build prototypes using a Raspberry Pi and LEGO components. Plus, Raspberry Pi designed a $15 power supply for the HAT that can also power the motors and sensors attached to it. The Build HAT will set buyers back $25 each, and it works with all 40-pin GPIO Raspberry Pi boards, including the Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi Zero. 

Those who want to make sure that their LEGO components will work with the HAT can also check out Raspberry Pi's handy list of compatible components. Finally, those who need a bit of help to get started can try follow one of Pi's project guides, which include a DIY game controller, a robot buggy that can be controlled via Bluetooth and a robotic face.

Zoox has been testing its Level-3 (L3) autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas and the Bay Area for four years, way before Amazon acquired the self-driving company in 2020. But to be able to train its technology further, it has to hold trials in other locations with different environmental conditions — like Seattle. Zoox has announced that it will soon start testing its L3 vehicles in the city to collect data and trial new hardware in the face of frequent rains. 

"It rains more frequently in Seattle than it does in San Francisco," the company said in its announcement. Zoox built special hardware into its sensors to give its vehicles the capability to automatically remove water and debris when needed. The Seattle trial will help it validate whether its system and new hardware will work as intended. At the beginning of its trial, the company will deploy a small fleet of L3 vehicles to assess the demands of the Seattle area, including its narrow tunnels and one-way roads, before expanding its tests.

Zoox introduced a fully autonomous robotaxi last year, which is a tiny four-wheeled bi-directional vehicle without a steering wheel. Its existing L3 vehicles, however, are Toyota Highlanders outfitted with Zoox's sensors and powered by its autonomous driving software with a human driver behind the wheel. That said, all its vehicles will use the same sensor architecture, so any data the L3 vehicles collect will also benefit its Level-5 robotaxis. 

A part of Donald Trump's campaign website looked different than usual until Monday morning. Its "action" subdomain, which usually houses his calls to action, contained a Turkish message instead. "Do not be like those who forgot Allah, so Ally made them forget themselves. Here they really went astray," the message in Turkish said, according to Newsweek. The page also contained a video embed of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as well as a link to the hacker's Instagram and Facebook pages.

A hacker calling themselves RootAyyildiz has claimed responsibility for the defacement — and for many others in the past. The National Intelligence Council released a report earlier this year linking them to the defacement of Biden-Harris' presidential campaign website, as well. Back then, Biden's website showed a message in Turkish, the country's flag and a photo of the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II. 

RootAyyildiz told Motherboard that they used a technique called Server Side Template Injection (SSTI) to inject their own code into the site's template and that they had control of the site for three months. According to Forbes, references to RootAyyildiz first appeared on the website on October 9th, at the latest. The hacker added in a statement to Motherboard: "There are many areas of hacking attacks, for example, hacking social media accounts or websites, I am a hacktivist and I have been working on websites for a long time and I choose this management to have my voice heard." 

Before the US Presidential Elections last year, hackers were also able to gain control of Trump's website. They replaced its About page with a message threatening to discredit the then-POTUS by sharing incriminating data. 

If you ever wished as a child that your fake Fisher-Price telephone would actually work, well, ready your credit card, because you can now make that dream come true. The toy company has launched a special edition the iconic Chatter telephone for its 60th anniversary — one that's fully functional and can make and receive calls. Before you start planning on where to display it at your home, know that it doesn't work as a landline unit. It connects to your iOS or Android phone via Bluetooth instead and has to be within 15 feet of your mobile device to work. 

You'll get nine hours of talk time on the Chatter phone on a single charge, and it comes with a speakerphone button. Other than the features that make it a working device, this Chatter for grown-ups looks just like its toy counterpart with its rotary dial, red handset and wheels. While the device can't do anything other than make or take calls — and we doubt you'd carry it wherever you go just for that purpose — it's a cool piece of novelty gadget that can bring on the nostalgia. You can get the fully functional Chatter for $60 exclusively from Best Buy's website, starting today until supplies last.

Fisher-Price

You may soon be able to give McDonald's plant-based burgers a try. The fast-food chain will offer the McPlant at eight restaurants across the US starting on November 3rd and until supplies last. It's a limited-time trial run for the burger, and it's supposed to help the company figure out how having the item in its menu will impact its kitchen operations. 

The burger's patty is made with Beyond Meat plant-based meat. It's supposed to be different from the company's patties offered by Carl's Jr., Del Taco and other fast-food chains, though, because Beyond Meat co-developed it with McDonald's itself. Back when the McPlant was first announced, the fast-food giant said it "delivers [its] iconic taste in a sink-your-teeth-in (and wipe-your-mouth) kind of sandwich. It’s made with a juicy, plant-based patty and served on a warm, sesame seed bun with all the classic toppings."

While McDonald's didn't mention the exact locations of the stores that will sell the McPlant, it said that they can be found in Irving and Carrollton, Texas, Cedar Falls, Iowa, Jennings and Lake Charles, Louisiana and El Segundo and Manhattan Beach, California. McDonald's is also trialing the burger in other countries, including Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and the UK. While the McPlant is simply a burger for now, McDonald's previously said that it could represent a whole line of plant-based menu items in the future, including chicken substitutes and breakfast sandwiches. 

The astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station had to initiate emergency protocols after the spacecraft tilted and turned by 57 degrees on Friday. All is well now, but the Roscosmos and NASA ground teams had to spring to action and alert their personnel in space after noticing the change in orientation. According to The New York Times, the incident happened while cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky was testing the engines aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that's currently docked with the station. 

NASA spokesperson Leah Cheshier told the publication that "the thruster firing unexpectedly continued" when the engine testing was scheduled to end. By 5:13 AM Eastern time, the ISS lost control of its orbital positioning. Russian controllers in Moscow immediately told Novitsky that the station turned 57 degrees, while NASA's mission control in Houston told its astronauts to begin emergency procedures. Flight controllers were able to regain control of the station around 30 minutes later. The Soyuz spacecraft that caused the incident is expected to fly a Russian fillm crew — that same one that flew to the ISS to shoot the first feature film there earlier this month — back to Earth.

"During the Soyuz MS-18 engines testing, the station’s orientation was impacted. As a result, the International Space Station orientation was temporarily changed. The station’s orientation was swiftly recovered due to the actions of the ISS Russian Segment Chief Operating Control Group specialists. The station and the crew are in no danger," Roscosmos said in its announcement.

As The Times notes, this is the second such emergency on the station. Back in July, the thrusters on Russia's Nauka module fired "inadvertently and unexpectedly" causing the ISS to tilt by about 45 degrees. At the time, NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said the ISS lost "attitude control," which is also what happened in this case, and that the event was quite rare.

More than 240 metro stations across Moscow now allow passengers to pay for a ride by looking at a camera. The Moscow metro has launched what authorities say is the first mass-scale deployment of a facial recognition payment system. According to The Guardian, passengers can access the payment option called FacePay by linking their photo, bank card and metro card to the system via the Mosmetro app. "Now all passengers will be able to pay for travel without taking out their phone, Troika or bank card," Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin tweeted.

In the official Moscow website's announcement, the country's Department of Transport said all Face Pay information will be encrypted. The cameras at the designated turnstyles will read a passenger's biometric key only, and authorities said information collected for the system will be stored in data centers that can only be accessed by interior ministry staff. Moscow's Department of Information Technology has also assured users that photographs submitted to the system won't be handed over to the cops.

Still, privacy advocates are concerned over the growing use of facial recognition in the city. Back in 2017, officials added facial recognition tech to the city's 170,000 security cameras as part of its efforts to ID criminals on the street. Activists filed a case against Moscow's Department of Technology a few years later in hopes of convincing the courts to ban the use of the technology. However, a court in Moscow sided with the city, deciding that its use of facial recognition does not violate the privacy of citizens. Reuters reported earlier this year, though, that those cameras were also used to identify protesters who attended rallies.

Stanislav Shakirov, the founder of Roskomsvoboda, a group that aims to protect Russians' digital rights, said in a statement:

"We are moving closer to authoritarian countries like China that have mastered facial technology. The Moscow metro is a government institution and all the data can end up in the hands of the security services."

Meanwhile, the European Parliament called on lawmakers in the EU earlier this month to ban automated facial recognition in public spaces. It cited evidence that facial recognition AI can still misidentify PoCs, members of the LGBTI+ community, seniors and women at higher rates. In the US, local governments are banning the use of the technology inpublic spaces, including statewide bans by Massachusetts and Maine. Four Democratic lawmakers also proposed a bill to ban the federal government from using facial recognition. 

Amazon's deal of the day includes a bunch of monitors and Chromebooks on sale for up to 26 percent lower than their usual price. Dell's 27-inch QHD curved gaming monitor, for instance, will set you back $270, which is an all-time low for the product on the website. That's a $60 discount from its usual price of $330. The 27-inch monitor has a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate that enables fast-moving visuals and faster reaction times. 

LG's 27-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) 27GL83A-B IPS display is also on sale for $300, down $80 from its usual price and only $3 more than its all-time low. It's NVIDIA G-SYNC compatible and has an adjustable stand. Likewise, the 27-inch Acer Predator XB273U IPS gaming monitor is now available for $398, or $152 less than its usual price of $550. It's a widescreen 2560 x 1440-pixel resolution display that's also NVIDIA G-SYNC compatible and has a refresh rate of 170Hz. IPS displays have wide viewing angles, exhibiting minimal image distortion when viewed from different positions. They also have great color reproduction and visibility in sunlight. 

If you play competitive video games and need a monitor that can respond rapidly and make sure you don't miss anything onscreen, you can get Dell's 24.5-inch S2522HG full HD monitor instead. It has a refresh rate of 240Hz and can make fast-moving visuals more visible — it also uses IPS display tech for better viewing angles. This option will set you back $225, or $97.50 lower than its full price of $322, which is also an all-time low for the product on Amazon.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Tesla now offers car insurance in Texas, its new home state, a couple of years after launching the product in California. According to Electrek, though, the insurance available to Texans is quite different than the one owners can get in The Golden State: It calculates for a customer's insurance premium using their real-time driving behavior. Their credit, age and gender that are typically used by other insurance providers apparently don't matter to Tesla. The automaker says it won't even look at customers' claim history and driving records.

Instead, Tesla will look at their "safety scores," which is a feature it introduced with the Full Self-Driving Beta version released in September. That could make things quite tricky, since the premium that needs to be paid can change every month based on the conditions the driver encounters on the road. Every forced collision warning and forced Autopilot disengagement will affect their score. Following other vehicles from an unsafe distance, braking too hard and turning corners aggressively could lower their score, as well. Safety score is still a beta feature at this point, and Tesla said it should improve over time.

Owners can now apply for a quote, wherein which the automaker will assume a 90 safety score to start their policy. The price will depend on the client's performance after that, and it could be higher or lower than what a traditional provider charges. During Tesla's shareholder meeting, where its new home state was also revealed, Elon Musk said the company plans to upgrade its offering in California to be based on real-time driving behavior, as well. It's not allowed to implement the change just yet, but it's currently trying to ask permission from regulators.