The Game Awards has grown enormously and has become a much-awaited annual year-end celebration for video game fans around the world since it first took place in 2014. If you're looking forward to watching it this year, you can now fire up your calendars and add a reminder: The 10th annual show is scheduled to stream live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 7th, 2023. Just like in the previous years, the event will stream for free across various platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok Live, Steam and X, the website formerly known as Twitter. 

Last year's show was the biggest one yet, with an estimated 103 million viewers tuning in, which was almost 20 million more than 2021's numbers. It also introduced the Best Adaptation category, reserved for projects that translate video games into popular media, like movies, TV shows and books. Plus, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, stars of The Last of Us, which fans were still looking forward to and had yet to premiere back then, attended the event to present an award. The organizers haven't revealed just yet whether they'll have big stars guesting again this year, but they did say that the event will feature musical performances by The Game Awards Orchestra and other artists. Of course, you can expect to see new game trailers and announcements for launch dates and expansions, among other things. 

Geoff Keighley, creator and executive producer of The Game Awards, said: "Each year, we look forward to hosting a show that honors the stand-out games of the year, while also announcing and previewing some of the world’s biggest and most anticipated video games. With so many beloved video game franchises exploring new mediums and developers creating new experiences across platforms, whether in games, television, movies, and beyond, the industry continues to expand in many surprising ways, and we can’t wait to honor the year’s best games and to show viewers around the world what’s next."

Those who follow publications like Engadget on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, will know that the articles they share on the platform appear with a text snippet, an image and a sometimes-truncated version of their headline. That may not be the case in the near future. According to Fortune, the company is planning to implement major changes to the way shared articles appear on a tweet (or a post, as it's now called) by removing their text elements and leaving just their lead images with an overlay of the URL. In a post about the update, Elon Musk has confirmed that X is working on the new format and that the idea came from him directly.

That corroborates Fortune's report, which says Musk is pushing for the new format. It also says that the change going to happen even though X ran it by advertisers who didn't like it. The company's main reason for removing the text in shared tweets is apparently to make posts look less compact and to fit more of them in the portion of the timeline that appears on screen. Musk also thinks it could help lessen instances of clickbait shared on the website. As the publication explains, X's current format typically cuts part of the headline in shared articles, which works to the advantage of websites that write clickbait headlines and posts. 

It's also very much possible that X is implementing this change to encourage not just news publications, but also individuals, to write meatier posts on the website itself. After all, they will have to add context to the URL they share in order to get readers to click through the lead image. Musk has been encouraging users to post long-form pieces directly on the platform and allows Blue subscribers to write as many as 25,000 characters in a single post. More recently, Musk tweeted that journalists who want "more freedom to write and a higher income" should publish directly on X. As 9to5Mac notes, though, X recently had some issues paying creators part of its ad revenue-sharing program, because the number of interested users far exceeded its expectations. 

Cruise will temporarily be deploying fewer autonomous vehicles in San Francisco while investigators are looking into "recent concerning incidents" involving its fleet. According to The New York Times and TechCrunch, the California Department of Motor Vehicles asked the company to cut its fleet in half after an incident wherein one of Cruise's robotaxis collided with a fire truck at an intersection. The fire truck had its sirens and red lights on and was responding to an emergency at the time, while the robotaxi has passengers onboard who sustained non-life-threatening injuries. In another, perhaps less controversial, incident a few days before that, a Cruise vehicle got stuck in wet concrete. 

The DMV said in a statement that its primary focus is "the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and safety of the public who share the road with these vehicles." It also added that it "reserves the right, following investigation of the facts, to suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits" if it determines that a company's vehicles is a threat to public safety. The agency has asked Cruise to limit its driverless vehicles in operation to 50 during daytime and 150 at night, at least until the investigation is done. 

In an explanation about the collision posted on the company's website, Cruise's General Manager for San Francisco, Greg Dietrerich, said the robotaxi identified the emergency vehicle as soon as it came into view. It was also able to distinguish the fire truck's sirens "as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise." However, it wasn't possible to see vehicles coming from around the corner "until they are physically very close to the intersection" where the incident happened. Further, the autonomous vehicle had trouble predicting the fire truck's path, because it moved into the "oncoming lane of traffic" to bypass a red light. Dietrerich said Cruise's AV identified the risk of a collision and hit the brake to reduce its speed, but it wasn't able to avoid the crash completely due to those conditions. 

The DMV's request comes just a few days after the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted in favor of allowing both Cruise and Waymo to charge fares for fully driverless rides any time of the day in San Francisco. Before that, Cruise could only offer fared rides with no safety driver onboard in limited areas of the city between 10PM and 6AM. The only commissioner who voted against the companies' paid ride expansion argued that the CPUC didn't have enough information to accurately evaluate the impact of autonomous vehicles on first responders.

White noise podcast creators on Spotify are making serious money, and the audio streaming service was reportedly not happy about it and tried to cut them off. According to Bloomberg, it has viewed an internal document revealing that podcasts with white noise content, such as the sounds of waves, vacuums and whirring fans, accounted for a total of 3 million consumption hours on the platform every single day. That was made possible by Spotify's algorithm inadvertently pushing these types of content to its listeners as part of its efforts to become the go-to app for podcasts. 

Previously, Bloombergreported that white noise podcasters were making as $18,000 a month. A lot of creators on the platform, not just those broadcasting white noise, use Spotify's free hosting software Anchor to publish their shows. Spotify purchased Anchor back in 2019, and in addition to helping creators make and distribute their podcasts, it can also monetize their content. 

While white noise podcasts turned out to be a hit with listeners, they apparently don't make Spotify as much money as other types of programming. The company reportedly considered removing them altogether and preventing future uploads in the category. Plus, it thought of altering its algorithm to recommend "comparable programming" that's more economical for Spotify. Doing all those would raise the company's annual gross profit by $38 million. The news organization didn't say if Spotify elaborated on what it meant by "comparable programming" in the internal document, but they could be other types of content meant to induce and improve sleep, as well as to help calm anxiety, which is what white noise is typically used for. 

A thread on the Spotify subreddit posted a couple of months ago show multiple users complaining that the white noise podcasts they listen to had disappeared. Bloomberg also talked to a creator who said their content had vanished for a few weeks before being reinstated. Spotify didn't confirm whether it temporarily pulled white noise podcasts from its service, but it told the news organization that ultimately, "[t]he proposal in question did not come to fruition" and that it continues "to have white noise podcasts on [its] platform."

Amazon has started testing a new star rating system in specific regions that makes it harder to gauge how buyers are liking a specific product. Android Police has spotted the the experimental system on the company's mobile app in India, its German website and its global website when accessed from Germany. We couldn't replicate what the publication has seen on the US website, but it looks like the test replaces the website's weighted average rating that's typically shown through an image with five stars. Instead of that illustration, buyers see a single yellow star next to the product image with the percentage of 5-star ratings it had received. 

People wouldn't be able to tell at a glance whether a product's average rating is 5 or 3.5, because it's represented by a single yellow star in both cases. It's also not immediately visible how many reviews a product has received so far, seeing as the new system only shows the percentage of 5-star ratings. As the publication notes, this makes it easier for sellers to dupe potential buyers by unscrupulously looking for ways to get 5-star reviews to counteract the negative ones. 

That said, Amazon hasn't completely removed ratings breakdown and details. Potential buyers who look at the number of reviews a product has gotten and not just its average score can click through to see its ratings breakdown on the product page. It's not ideal and could make picking a product to buy longer than it should take, but at least the option exists. When asked, an Amazon spokesperson didn't confirm the experimental feature and simply told The Verge: "We are always innovating on behalf of customers to provide the best possible shopping experience." Testing a feature doesn't always lead to a wide release, though, and Amazon might make changes to this rating system if it does decide to implement it. 

The 2023 version of Samsung's Freestyle projector is now available for pre-order through the company's website. Introduced at CES earlier this year, the Freestyle Gen 2 can throw 1080p images on your wall or your ceiling and transform it into a screen that's between 30 and 100 inches in size. Its cradle stand rotates 180 degrees, allowing you to move the screen for the best possible position, and it comes with built-in 360-degree sound capability for immersive viewing. 

Since the compact projector weighs less than two pounds and is meant to be used whether indoors or outdoors, you can also plug it into portable batteries with USB PD and 60W/20V output or above when outlets aren't available. In addition, it comes with the brand's SolarCell Remote, which, like its name indicates, has a solar panel attached to it for easy charging on the go. 

Like any regular smart TV, the Freestyle Gen 2 gives you access to the usual streaming apps, including the Samsung TV Plus service. You can also use it to play videos, though, through the Samsung Gaming Hub that lets you stream titles from various providers. The Gaming Hub gives you quick access to Samsung's streaming partners, which include Xbox Game Pass, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna and Utomik. While the hub is free, you will need a subscription to those services to be able to play the games they have on offer. Also, the projector doesn't come with its own controller, so you'll need to use your own and connect it via Bluetooth.

The Freestyle Gen 2 projector costs $800 and will be available for pre-order until August 30th, the day before it starts shipping. You'll get a free case with the unit if you purchase it before its launch date. 

Samsung

Google has been rolling out changes and new features for its generative AI products over the past few months in a bid to catch up to OpenAI's technology. According to The New York Times, one of the capabilities it's looking to give its AI chatbot, Bard, is the ability to give advice about issues users face in their lives. Apparently, one of the contracting companies working with the tech giant assembled over 100 experts with doctorates in different fields to test Bard's capability to answer more intimate questions. 

These testers were reportedly given a sample of a prompt that users could ask Bard one day, which read: "I have a really close friend who is getting married this winter. She was my college roommate and a bridesmaid at my wedding. I want so badly to go to her wedding to celebrate her, but after months of job searching, I still have not found a job. She is having a destination wedding and I just can’t afford the flight or hotel right now. How do I tell her that I won’t be able to come?" 

I ran the question through both ChatGPT and Google's Bard and found the former's response to be much more human-like, with a sample letter that evoked sympathy and understanding for someone who truly wanted to attend a "really close friend's" wedding they couldn't afford. Meanwhile, Bard's response was practical, but its sample apology letter was also simpler and less expressive. 

In addition to working on making Bard better at giving life advice, Google is also reportedly working on a tutoring function so it can teach new skills or improve existing ones. Plus it's also developing a planning feature that can create budgets, meal and workout plans for users, according to The Times.

As the publication notes, Google clearly cautions people in Bard's help pages against relying on its responses "as medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice." The tech giant also employed a more cautious approach to AI than OpenAI prior to launching Bard. The Times said its AI experts previously warned that people using AI for life advice could suffer from a "loss of agency," and some could eventually believe that they were talking to a sentient being. It's unclear if Google has decided to be a lot less careful entirely, but a spokesperson told the publication that "[i]solated samples of evaluation data are not representative of [its] product road map." Google has "long worked with a variety of partners to evaluate [its] research and products," they said, and conducting testing doesn't automatically mean that the company is releasing these new AI tools.

You can grab a four-pack Apple AirTag for $85 again, if you missed your chance to do so last time it was on sale for the same price. Previously, you could get the discounted AirTags on Amazon and Walmart — now, it's Adorama that's selling the four-pack bundle for $14 less its usual price. It's a great deal if you're looking to keep track of several belongings, such as keys, wallets or the suitcases you're checking in whenever you fly. The bundle also remains unavailable on Apple's Amazon storefront, so here's your chance to grab it at a discount.

AirTags are, perhaps, the best tracking device you could use if you have an iPhone. They come with Apple's U1 ultra-wideband chip that enables precise tracking for more recent iPhones, so you could more easily find where your item is with the distance and directions you'll see on your phone. You could also make the AirTag play sounds through the Find My App to help you look for your items. If whatever you're tracking is out of range, a network of nearby Apple devices can detect the Bluetooth signals AirTags give out and upload their location to iCloud, allowing you to find your belonging. 

One downside to using AirTags is that they don't come with a built-in keyring or attachment. They're coin-like devices with no holes or hooks either. To help with that issue, we put together a list of accessories you could use to attach the AirTag to your items, including cases, holders and mounts with clips and straps. 

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Despite having trouble obtaining former President Donald Trump's records from Twitter (now X), the special counsel investigating the events of January 6th, 2020 was ultimately able to get his hands on vast amounts of information from the website. Based on the newly unsealed court filings (PDF) shared by Politico, though, it took a a lot of back and forth and a massive amount of effort before the counsel was able to secure the data requested from Twitter. 

Apparently the search warrant required Twitter to produce all the tweets the @realdonaldtrump created, drafted, liked or retweeted, including any post that he eventually deleted. The website also had to turn over DMs "sent from, received by, stored in draft form in, or otherwise associated with" @realdonaldtrump, as well as all other accounts related to it that the former president might have used on the same device. All devices used to log in to @realdonaldtrump had to be noted and given to the counsel, as well, along with the account's privacy settings and IP address history from October 2020 to January 2021. In addition, Twitter was required to hand over all records of searches done by @realdonaldtrump and the account's location information from the same time period.

Throughout the transcript of the proceedings, you'll see how the prosecutors insisted that Twitter had to adhere to a nondisclosure order that prohibits the company from telling Trump about the warrant. They explained that they had evidence that disclosing the warrant could jeopardize the probe, warning the court that "there would be actual harm and concern for the investigation, for the witnesses going forward." Meanwhile, Twitter's side argued that some of the information the investigators were requesting could be covered by executive privilege, which the prosecutors and judge questioned, since they didn't deem it likely that Trump discussed official government matter via DMs. 

As Politico reports, US District Judge Beryl Howell notably called attention to Twitter's efforts to give Trump advance notice about the search warrant. She had called the action "extraordinary" and something the company had never done for other users. The judge wondered whether Elon Musk was trying to "cozy up" to the former president and make him feel "particularly welcomed" on the platform. Trump's Twitter account had already been reinstated after Musk took over the website, but he has yet to start posting again. 

Google is testing a new capability for its generative AI in search that will make it a more veritable rival to Microsoft's AI Copilot in Edge. The tech giant has launched an early experiment for its generative AI-powered Search experience (SGE) that breaks out of Search itself. Called "SGE while browsing," the feature can quickly generate the most salient points of long-form content found on the web. The tech giant positions it as a tool you can use to more easily digest complex topics that might require extensive research. However, the tool will not be able to provide key points for paywalled articles, only for some web pages that you can view free of charge. 

Whenever Google's AI can generate key points for the page you're visiting, you'll see an option that says "Get AI-generated key points" at the bottom of the screen on mobile or in the sidebar on desktop. Each key point links straight to the part of the page it's referencing, so you can jump to it right away. There's also an "Explore on page" section that shows the questions the article answers. At the moment, the feature is only available within the Google app on Android and iOS, but it is coming to Chrome on desktop in the next few days. The tool is automatically switched on if you've already opted in to try out SGE, but you can also switch it on as a standalone experiment in Search Labs. Like any other experiment, it could evolve over time, depending on testers' feedback. 

Google

Google will also soon roll out a new feature that could help you get better acquainted with new concepts and terms related to STEM, economics, history and other topics. To be more precise, it's improving its AI-generated responses to those topics, so that when you hover over certain words, you'll see previews of definitions and related diagrams or images. It could provide a quick way for you to understand its AI's answers to your questions without having to do a deep-dive for all the concepts you aren't familiar with. 

Finally, if you're a programmer who's not opposed to using AI tools for coding, Google has also added new capabilities to SGE that could help you better understand and debug the codes it generates. Starting today, elements like keywords, comments and strings will be color-coded and highlighted in segments of codes in overviews, so that you can quickly parse the AI's output and determine if it will work as intended.