Fans of several Spotify live audio shows will soon have to say goodbye to their favorite programs. According to Bloomberg, the music and audio streaming service is ending the production of shows such as Doughboys: Snack Pack, Deux Me After Dark, which describes itself as the "place for the latest tea on your favorite celebrities," The Movie Buff with comedian Jon Gabrus, and A Gay in the Life, which provides a safe space for conversations about the LGBTQ+ experience. The aforementioned shows have either already ended or have announced that they're going off the air soon. 

A company spokesperson has confirmed the cancellations to Bloomberg. The news organization also heard from sources that Spotify ended some of the programs before their creators' contracts were up but that the service will still pay them the entire amount it promised. 

Several companies, including Spotify, saw live audio programming a new area for growth during the height of the pandemic when Clubhouse blew up in popularity. In Spotify's case, it gave Locker Room, the audio-based social network for sports fans that it acquired in March 2021, an overhaul and renamed it Greenroom. It launched a dedicated Greenroom app last year before rebranding it again as Spotify Live in April and integrating live audio inside of its main app. While cancelling multiple shows indicate that the company is stepping back from live audio, it's not killing the format completely. Bloomberg says The Fantasy Footballers and The Ringer MMA Show will continue as usual.

TikToksaid last year that it reached one billion monthly active users worldwide, so whatever it's doing is clearly working. That hasn't stopped the ByteDance-owned company from testing and introducing new features, though, including those that put it in direct competition with YouTube. Case in point, its latest experiment that gives select users worldwide access to a horizontal full screen mode for videos they watch on their phones. 

The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that users chosen to be part of this test will see a button on square or rectangle videos in their feed. If they tap on that button, the video will expand horizontally to take up the whole screen. TikToks are famous for being short vertical videos, and creators still have to put a "turn your phone" message at the beginning of theirs if they filmed in landscape mode. If the company does launch this feature, they wouldn't have to do that anymore, and other creators might be more inclined to film landscape videos. Of course, a wide release depends on testers' response to the feature, among other factors. 

This is but the latest move the company has made in an effort to capture audiences who might like YouTube's format better. Earlier this year, for instance, TikTok extended its maximum video length from three minutes to ten minutes. That said, it's not exactly lagging behind the Google-owned video platform: According to a previous TechCrunch report, kids and teens have been spending more time on TikTok than YouTube since the middle of 2020. 

Back in February, Tesla chief Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the automaker is working to bring Steam to its vehicles. Now, the company is officially rolling out Steam integration for the latest versions of its Model S and X cars as part of its holiday update. In its promo video of the feature, you'll see Tesla's infotainment system running Steam Beta and even graphically demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077. 

By "new" Model S and X vehicles, Tesla likely means their "Plaid" versions, which started deliveries last year. Both models' infotainment systems use AMD's RDNA 2 GPUs, which are also the technology behind PlayStation 5, and AMD's Ryzen chips. Tesla has been building its library of in-vehicle games over the past few years and has added titles such as Cuphead, PUBG Mobile and Fallout Shelter to its offerings. By bringing Steam to its vehicles, though, Tesla is adding more than just a game or two to the growing list. The automaker said in its announcement that the integration will bring thousands of games to the aforementioned cars. 

Tesla previously got into trouble with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for allowing people to play games even while driving. It disabled the capability following the agency's investigation, however, so people most likely can't play Steam games while the vehicles are in motion. 

In addition to Steam integration, Tesla's holiday update also gives owners access to Apple Music integration for their infotainment systems. It gives them the ability to schedule Light Shows on multiple vehicles simultaneously, as well, and to view their cabin camera from the Tesla app while in Dog Mode or Sentry Mode. 

Meta said it spent $5 billion on global safety and security last year and employs hundreds of people dedicated to anti-terror work. Not every company has those kind of resources, but Meta has shared a new open-source tool that can help combat child exploitation, terrorist propaganda and other types of abusive content for free. The tool is called Hasher-Matcher-Actioner (HMA), and it builds on the company's previous image and video matching software that it also released three years ago. 

HMA can keep websites free of unsavory content with the help of its users who label images and videos that violate rules and laws. The system will create a "hash" or a unique fingerprint of each piece of content that gets saved onto a database. Companies can use the tool to create and run their own databases, but they can also use existing hash databases to make sure they have everything covered. That means they don't have to save the offending images or videos themselves and can simply run all their content through the databases they use to find posts that potentially violate their rules. 

Meta has shared the tool shortly before it assumes the chair of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) board next month. That's the group it formed with Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to fight online extremism back in 2017. GIFCT runs a database that companies can use with the HMA, and Meta says when "more companies participate in the hash sharing database the better and more comprehensive it is — and the better we all are at keeping terrorist content off the internet, especially since people will often move from one platform to another to share this content." It added: "...many companies do not have the in-house technology capabilities to find and moderate violating content in high volumes, which is why HMA is a potentially valuable tool."

Those interested can checkout the Hasher-Matcher-Actioner tool on GitHub.

If you'd been meaning to catch up on Westworld even though it was cancelled before its fifth and final season, you may want to do so soon. The show is leaving the streaming service just over a month after it was cancelled, according to Deadline and Variety. The Nevers, the sci-fi series Joss Whedon created for HBO, has also been cancelled and will be removed from the streaming platform before the second half of season one could debut next year. 

As Variety notes, HBO Max owner Warner Bros. Discovery is saving money with this move, as it will no longer have to pay residuals to cast and crew. That, of course, on top of the money it's saving by discontinuing the shows' production. Chief Executive David Zaslav promised investors that the company would find a way to cut $3.5 billion in costs after the $43 billion WarnerMedia and Discovery merger was finalized earlier this year. The company has been cutting down on spending since then and has cancelled shows other than these two. 

Deadline says, however, that it's possible for both Westworld and The Nevers to come back as offerings on another one of the company's platforms. Zaslav previously talked about entering the free ad-supported TV streaming space, and the sci-fi shows could apparently be offered on a future service with that business model. If that does happen, the second half of The Nevers — a show set in Victorian London that follows a group of women who manifest abnormal abilities — will debut on that service. It remains to be seen if we're going to see the ending Westworld's showrunners envisioned for it. The show's fifth season didn't get the chance to start production, unlike The Nevers that's already done shooting the back half of its first season.

Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council via email and less than an hour before its members' Zoom meeting with the company's executives, according to The Washington Post and NPR. The council was reportedly supposed to discuss recent developments and changes on the website under Elon Musk, but the email said that the members' help is no longer needed. Its members were apparently informed that Twitter is "reevaluating how best to bring external insights" and that the council is no longer "the best structure to do this."

The company disbanded the group just a few days after three members resigned from their voluntary positions. In their letter, they said the well-being of Twitter's users is on the decline despite Musk's claims and that the executive should not be allowed to define digital safety. In a response to the news of their departure, Musk tweeted: "It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!" After that tweet, NPR said some remaining members sent a letter to Twitter demanding the company to stop misrepresenting the council's role, as attacks against former and current advisors continued to grow worse. 

The Trust and Safety Council members aren't employees handling moderation on the website, and they have no power to make decisions or to review banned accounts and specific tweets. They're a group of external advisors from expert and anti-abuse organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, YAKIN (Youth Adult Survivors & Kin in Need), the Samaritans and GLAAD, volunteering their time to help Twitter figure out how to fight hate and harassment. When Twitter formed the council in 2016, it said the group's purpose is to make the website a less toxic place so that "anyone, anywhere can express themselves safely and confidently." 

More members were on the verge of resigning before the group was dissolved, Larry Magid, chief executive of Silicon Valley nonprofit ConnectSafely, told The Post. He said: "By disbanding [the council], we got fired instead of quit. Elon doesn’t want criticism, and he really doesn’t want the kind of advice he would very likely get from a safety advisory council, which would likely tell him to rehire some of the staff he got rid of, and reinstate some of the rules he got rid of, and turn the company in another direction from where he is turning it."

Musk said in October that he will form a "moderation council" made up of members with "widely diverse viewpoints" before he reinstates banned accounts. But in an interview in November, he admitted that he will still have the final say in making decisions. Twitter has yet to introduce a moderation council, but Musk has already reinstated previously banned accounts', such as Donald Trump's and Andrew Anglin's, the neo-Nazi creator of The Daily Stormer. 

Mastodon has been gaining popularity ever since Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. Shortly after the deal became official, Vivaldi became the first browser to create its own Mastodon "instance" called Vivaldi Social. Now, the browser has announced that it's integrating the platform into the sidebar of its desktop browser, giving users an easy way to view posts from the accounts they follow. 

The Twitter alternative bears similarities to Musk's social network and gives users a way to make short posts. Unlike Twitter, which a single entity runs, Mastodon is a decentralized service that runs on an open-source protocol. Users can create and run their own servers or "instances" that other people can join, and Vivaldi Social is just one of them. Instances can communicate with one another, and people from different servers can still follow each other and see the other's posts. 

With the browser's latest update, its users can now find Vivaldi Social in the sidebar, though they can also add any Mastodon instance they want. When they access an instance from the panel, it pops up and is displayed on the side to create a split-screen view. 

Vivaldi

Juul has faced numerous lawsuits over the past few years, accusing the company of targeting underage users with its marketing and sales tactics. Now, according to Bloomberg, Juul has agreed to pay $1.2 billion in settlement, which will resolve around 10,000 lawsuits — including 8,500 personal injury cases, over 1,400 cases by government entities and school districts, as well as 32 tribal cases. California, for instance, sued Juul in 2019, accusing the company of targeting minors in the state, failing to verify the age of its customers and failing to warn users of their exposure to chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects. 

The San Francisco Unified School District, which also filed a lawsuit against Juul over its marketing practices, reportedly said it was "very pleased" with the settlement. Who can actually participate in the settlement and how much each plaintiff will get are still under discussion. The plaintiffs' lawyers said people eligible to sign onto the deal will receive a minimum gross amount of $1,000 before attorney fees and other deductions. They also said that most people are expected to receive "substantially higher settlements." Plaintiffs who sued the company over personal injury will learn how much they'll get in February, according to the lawyers. US District Judge William Orrick will still have to approve this proposed settlement before it can be finalized.

Juul has been under scrutiny since 2018 after the US Food And Drug Administration ordered e-cigarette brands to stop selling flavored pods if they can't prove that they can keep them out of minors' hands. It's been facing one lawsuit after another since then. In addition to this particular deal, the company also agreed to pay $439 million to settle a two-year investigation by multiple states and Puerto Rico that accuse Juul of marketing products to teens. 

Back in November, New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) voted to increase the pay rates of Uber and Lyft drivers to make up for the rise in inflation and and operational costs. The new rates were supposed to be implemented on December 19th, but now Uber has sued the commission to block the new rates from taking effect. According to Bloomberg, Uber said in its lawsuit that it would have to spend an additional $21 million to $23 million a month if the new rates are implemented and that it wouldn't be able to recover those costs without raising fares.

To note, drivers' per-minute rates are going up by 7.4 percent and per-mile rates by 24 percent under the new rules. That means for a 7.5-mile trip that takes 30 minutes, a driver would earn at least $27.15, which is $2.50 more than current rates. The drivers are also getting another pay bump in March 2023, based on inflation rates comparing December's to September's this year. A company spokesperson told the news publication that by increasing drivers' pay this December, TLC is locking in "this summer's high gas prices in perpetuity." They added that TLC "should have followed its usual annual adjustment and instituted a temporary gas surcharge when gas prices were actually elevated" instead. 

The company's lawsuit seems to indicate that it intends to pass the costs associated with drivers' pay increase to riders. "Such a significant fare hike, right before the holidays, would irreparably damage Uber’s reputation, impair goodwill, and risk permanent loss of business and customers," its lawsuit said. In a strongly worded response to the lawsuit, TLC said acknowledged that Uber already charges 37 percent more today compared to 2019, but it said that the company is keeping money earned from fare hikes over the past few years to itself. 

The commission's statement reads: "Just in time to steal Christmas from New York families, Uber is suing to stop the raise the TLC enacted for app drivers after months of public hearings, years of stalled wages, and the pandemic decimating incomes. Uber's Grinch move is on top of denying a fuel surcharge to only NYC drivers when costs skyrocketed due to record high inflation, forcing drivers in one of their most profitable markets to choose between groceries and fueling up. 

Uber is already charging passengers 37% more today compared to 2019 AND KEEPING IT FOR THEMSELVES but says this modest raise for drivers is what will break the company. Shame on you, Dara Khosrowshahi. We call on the City to stand firm and defend the rights of drivers to labor with dignity. Uber seeks chaos. We seek dignity. We are confident we will prevail."

The ride-hailing giant is now asking the court to declare the new pay rates as invalid and to prevent the first increase's implementation this month while the lawsuit is ongoing. 

You can now play Square Enix's action RPG Forspoken after several launch delays — as a demo, that is. The developer and publisher has released a demo for the PS5 game on the PlayStation Store at this years Game Awards, where it also announced that Final Fantasy XVI will be available for Sony's current-gen console on June 22nd, 2023. 

Forspoken was originally supposed to be released in May, but it got pushed back to October 11th and then again to January 24th next year. It looks like Square Enix truly is gearing up for the game's release this time, now that we're just a bit over a month before its latest launch schedule. The game puts you in control of Frey Holland, a woman from New York City who's transported to another world called "Athia," where she gains magical abilities. There, she must find her way home while battling monsters and the Tantas, who were once "benevolent matriarchs [that] now rule the lands as evil and maddened sorceresses."

Square Enix says the demo will give you a "deeper look at the devastating effects of the Break," which is the powerful force responsible for corrupting everything it touches, the Tantas included. Forspoken will also be available on PC via Steam, Epic Games and the Microsoft Store, but the demo only seems to be available for the PS5. If you don't have access to the console, you can also watch the game's new trailer below: