DirecTV is now its own company again after AT&T closed the deal with private equity firm TPG, which it first announced back in February. Under their agreement, TPG would own 30 percent of the spinoff, while the mobile giant will retain a 70 percent ownership. As its own company, DirecTV will no longer operate under AT&T and will own and run the AT&T TV and U-verse video services under a single brand known as "DirecTV Stream" debuting later this month. The new spinoff says customers won't even feel the transition: The streaming services will continue being available and subscribers won't be blindsided by hidden fees.

AT&T received $7.1 billion in cash for the sale, which is but a tiny fraction of the $49 billion it originally paid when it purchased DirecTV in 2015. Back then, former AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said combining DirecTV with AT&T "is all about giving customers more choices for great video entertainment integrated with mobile and high-speed internet service." According to Los Angeles Times, AT&T has lost 40 percent of the DirecTV's original subscriber number since then, and in the second quarter of 2021, DirecTV reported having 15.4 million premium video subscribers.

The telecom giant has been trying to offload DirecTV since at least 2019, but it hasn't announced anything concrete until earlier this year. This deal doesn't include the HBO Max streaming service, which will be part of the company's separate WarnerMedia spinoff. In May, AT&T announced a $43 billion deal that would see its WarnerMedia division merge with Discovery. It's expected to close in mid-2022, four years after AT&T finalized its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. Both that deal and this DirecTV spinoff will help AT&T's debt reduction efforts. As Deadline notes, it has taken several steps, including selling off assets, over the past few years to reduce the debts it has acquired due to its massive multimedia acquisitions.

Telegram has expanded the group video calling feature it launched in June to be able to accommodate more participants — a lot more. The latest version of the messaging app now allows up to 1,000 people to join a group video call. While the number of participants that can broadcast video from their camera or their screen remains capped at 30, an additional 970 people can tune in and watch. 

As Telegram said when it first launched the feature, it was always planning on increasing the number of people that can join a group chat as it expands its voice and video calls to support live events. In its new announcement, the company said it'll keep on increasing the limit. In addition, Telegram has updated the video messaging feature so users can watch them at a higher resolution. Users can now also share their screen with sound during 1-on-1 video calls and set their messages to auto-delete after one month instead of within a day or a week like the older options allowed. 

Telegram's updated media editor makes the brush width smaller upon zooming in, allowing users to draw finer details on photos and videos. Other new features include more password reset options and animated emoji. For the Android app, the latest version also includes support for 0.5x, 1.5x and 2x playback speeds, as well as new sending animations. Meanwhile, iOS users will have access to a new in-app camera that can use all their device's zoom levels, as well as the ability to forward messages to multiple recipients. 

Telegram

A group of scientists has discovered two unusually red objects in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, and they may have originated from farther in the solar system. These objects — called 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia — are redder than the reddest known objects in the asteroid belt and may have migrated to the area from beyond Neptune. If that's true, then they could provide insight into the chaos of the early solar system and into how the solar system as we know it today came to be.

The team led by JAXA's Sunao Hasegawa identified the objects through observations collected at the Infra-red Telescope Facility and Seoul National University Astronomical Observatory, according to the paper they published. As The New York Times points out, most objects in the inner solar system tend to reflect blue light, because they're devoid of or have very little organic materials. Objects from the outer solar system such as the Kuiper belt, however, tend to be redder. That's because they have a lot of organics like carbon and methane, which may have been the building blocks of our planet. As you may know, the Kuiper belt is the region extending from the orbit of Neptune where you can find remnants of our solar system's formation.

If Pompeja and Justitia truly were transplants from beyond Nepture, then they'd serve as evidence for the hypothesis that a fraction of the asteroids between Jupiter and Mars came from the Kuiper belt. They'd also support the set of theories, called the Nice Model, on how our gas giants settled into their orbits. The Nice model says our giant planets formed closer to the Sun until an instability forced Neptune, Uranus and Saturn to move outwards and Jupiter to move inwards. The event would've caused asteroids rich in organic materials to scatter and move around the solar system. 

Of course, more observations and evidence are needed to be able to prove that the two objects are from the Kuiper belt. The good thing is that since the asteroid belt is much closer to us than Neptune, it would take a spacecraft less time to reach them if ever Earth's space agencies decide to send a probe to study them more closely.

Back in 2019, Tesla pushed an over-the-air update to its Model S sedans following an incident wherein the vehicle caught fire in a Hong Kong parking lot. As CNBC notes, it said at the time that the update will revise "charge and thermal management settings" on Model S and Model X vehicles to "help further protect the battery and improve battery longevity." Some Model S owners claimed, however, that the update reduced their maximum battery voltage, prompting them to take Tesla to court. Now, the automaker has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the class action lawsuit filed against it.

According to Reuters, the court documents show that the software update affected 1,743 Model S sedans in the US. The voltage limitation was temporary, but the plaintiffs experienced a 10 percent battery reduction for three months and a seven percent reduction lasting for another seven months, the plaintiffs' lawyers said. Tesla rolled out the final update that fully corrected the issue in March 2020. Among the affected vehicles, 1,552 had their max battery voltage restored, while 57 vehicles had battery replacements. The settlement documents said that any vehicle still experiencing battery throttling problems would have their maximum voltage restored over time.

While the company has agreed to pay $1.5 billion, a huge chunk of that would be used to cover lawyers' fees: Owners are expected to get only $625 each from the settlement. Affected owners in Norway could get a much bigger payday after a court in the country ordered the company to pay them $16,000 each to settle a lawsuit over the same issue. In the US, aside from agreeing to pay up, Tesla has also agreed to provide battery-related diagnostics and notifications for cars under warranty whenever battery repairs may be needed.

Amazon's first-gen Echo Show 5 dropped down to $45 from its original price of $80 ahead of Prime Day back in June. If you missed the chance to get the Alexa-powered smart display at a discount, though, now's your chance to get one: It's available for $45 again on Best Buy. That's the lowest price we've seen for the device, even on Amazon, where it's been selling for around $50 these past months. It's also $40 cheaper than the second-gen Echo Show 5, which isn't that much different from the first-generation device anyway.

Buy Amazon first-gen Echo Show 5 at Best Buy - $45

As we mentioned in our review for the newer smart display, the changes are pretty minor. The second-gen Echo Show 5 has a 2-megapixel camera instead of a one-megapixel, and it comes in a light blue color in addition to black and white. However, it still has a much lower resolution than the Echo Show 8, and it doesn't support a lot of the bigger smart display's capabilities. 

If you're not bothered with the one-megapixel camera difference and the lack of an extra color option, you can just get the first-gen Echo Show 5. Its 5.5-inch screen has the same 960 x 480 resolution as its newer counterpart, it has a fabric-wrapped speaker and it has several clock faces to choose from. The device supports Amazon Prime, NBC and Hulu, so you can use it to watch shows, as well as to display images and videos. 

If you find its screen too small for serious bingeing, though, you can also use it as an alarm clock with several clock faces to choose from. It even comes with a sunrise feature, which slowly brightens the screen fifteen minutes prior to your alarm time to mimic the effects of daylight's arrival. While the device isn't available in blue like its newer sibling, you can get either the "Charcoal" (black) or the "Sandstone" (white) color options for $45 on Best Buy.

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Rocket Lab has successfully launched a US military satellite in its first mission since its 20th Electron launch ended up in failure back in May. The company's Electron rocket made its way to space from its New Zealand launch site, carrying a small demonstration satellite from the US Space Force called the Monolith. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO, tweeted shortly after the event that the payload was deployed and praised the team for a "flawless" launch.

Monolith's target location is in low-Earth orbit around 370 miles above our planet. The satellite will demonstrate the use of a deployable sensor, "where the sensor's mass is a substantial fraction of the total mass of the spacecraft, changing the spacecraft’s dynamic properties and testing ability to maintain spacecraft attitude control," Rocket Lab explained in the official mission webpage. The results from the demonstration will help companies build more affordable satellites within shorter timeframes.

Rocket Lab's 20th mission failed in May when it suffered an "anomaly" after the second stage ignition. The company lost both its Electron rocket and BlackSky's Earth observation satellite payloads as a result of its second launch failure within the span of a year. After investigating the issue, Rocket Lab determined that the root cause was a problem with the second stage engine igniter system that "induced a corruption of signals within the engine computer." The company says it has since implemented fixes "to prevent any future reoccurrence."

If you have an older Amazon Kindle with 3G internet, take note that you may not be able to wirelessly access and download new content anymore starting in December. As The Verge reports, Amazon has sent out emails to owners with old Kindles, telling them that previous-generation devices will lose internet access after mobile operators transition from 2G and 3G networks to 4G and 5G.

The e-commerce giant listed the particular devices that will be affected by the switch in its FAQ page. It noted that the first- and second-generation Kindles, as well as the Kindle DX, won't be able to connect to the internet at all since they don't have WiFi connectivity to fall back on. The other devices in the list are the Kindle Keyboard (3rd Generation), Kindle Touch (4th Generation), Kindle Paperwhite (5th, 6th and 7th Generation), Kindle Voyage (7th Generation) and Kindle Oasis (8th Generation), all of which have WiFi connection.

You'll still be able to access your books on an older device and can do wired transfers if you want, though. And if you have a newer 4G or WiFi-only Kindle, you won't be affected at all. In its email, Amazon included a code customers can use to get $50 off a new Kindle Paperwhite or Oasis, along with $15 in eBook credits. You may want to check your inbox to see if you got the company's notice in case you've been looking to upgrade anyway.

Joe Rogan's podcast has become one of the most listened-to shows on Spotify since the platform added it to its lineup last year. It's also become one of the most controversial due to Rogan's choice of guests and his own views. Spotify doesn't have any plans to do anything about it, though, because the company's CEO doesn't believe the platform should have any say on podcasters' content. When Axios asked Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in an interview whether the company should have editorial responsibility over podcasts like Rogan's, Ek responded that Rogan is just one of its many content creators.

Axios pointed out that Rogan may be just one of them, but he's also one of the most well-paid. Ek responded, however, that rappers earns tens of millions of dollars from the platform, but Spotify doesn't dictate what they can put in their songs either. Rogan signed a $100 million deal with the audio streaming service in May 2020 to make The Joe Rogan Experience available to Spotify listeners. Before the year ended, the podcast became a Spotify exclusive.

According to a Wall Street Journal report from last year, Spotify employees expressed concerns over the materials in his podcast that they felt was anti-transgender. Rogan has guested several polarizing figures on the show since its debut on the platform. They include Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, and InfoWars owner Alex Jones who spread coronavirus misinformation on the podcast. More recently, Rogan said he doesn't think people should get the COVID-19 vaccine, though he did backtrack and told listeners not to take his advice seriously. 

In Spotify's most recent earnings report, it said Rogan's podcast performed "above expectations." Clearly, whatever he's doing is getting people to tune in, so the company probably doesn't see any reason to step in.

There's still half a year to go before you start seeing Google Play's new safety section, which will show you an Android app's privacy information, in listings within the store. Google announced the upcoming feature that's similar to the Apple App Store's nutrition labels back in May. In a new post on the Android Developer blog, though, Google has given us a glimpse of what that section may look like. 

Within a listing, you will see a summary from the developer on what kind of data an app collects, so you can make a decision whether to install it or not. You'll also see safety details the developer chooses to highlight, such as whether an app encrypts your data, whether it's suitable for children and families and whether it's been independently validated against a global security standard.

Google

Further, you can tap the summary to see more details about the type of data an app collects and how it's used. It can show you whether an app collects location and contact data, personal information such as name and email address, as well as financial information. The section can also tell you whether the app uses your data for its features, for personalization or for other purposes. In addition, it can let you know whether you can opt out of getting your data collected or if giving an app access to your information really is necessary to be able to use it.

Google says the details might still change before the feature goes live, but all developers are required to provide a privacy policy for their apps and must provide accurate information for the safety section. Developers can start declaring privacy information in October and have until April 2022 to do so, but you'll start seeing the section pop up on Google Play sometime within the first quarter of next year. 

Cassie, a bipedal robot that's all legs, has successfully ran five kilometers without having a tether and on a single charge. The machine serves as the basis for Agility Robotics' delivery robot Digit, as TechCrunch notes, though you may also remember it for "blindly" navigating a set of stairs. Oregon State University engineers were able to train Cassie in a simulator to give it the capability to go up and down a flight of stairs without the use of cameras or LIDAR. Now, engineers from the same team were able to train Cassie to run using a deep reinforcement learning algorithm.

According to the team, Cassie teaching itself using the technique gave it the capability to stay upright without a tether by shifting its balance while running. The robot had to learn to make infinite subtle adjustments to be able to accomplish the feat. Yesh Godse, an undergrad from the OSU Dynamic Robotics Laboratory, explained: "Deep reinforcement learning is a powerful method in AI that opens up skills like running, skipping and walking up and down stairs."

The team first tested Cassie's capability by having it run on turn for five kilometers, which it finished with a time of 43 minutes and 49 seconds. Cassie finished its run across the OSU campus in 53 minutes, 3 seconds — it took a bit longer, because it included six-and-a-half minutes of dealing with technical issues. The robot fell once due to a computer overheating and then again after it executed a turn too quickly. Jeremy Dao, another team member from the lab, though, said they were able to "reach the limits of the hardware and show what it can do." The work the team does will help expand the understanding of legged locomotion and could help make bipedal robots become more common in the future.