Welcome, reader, to 2023! While some of us are still musing on New Year’s resolutions (we have the tech to help you right here), will 2023 be the year you finally break up with Twitter? There’s never been a better time. All this Elon Musk-induced chaos has breathed new life into the numerous Twitter alternatives. Of all of them, Mastodon has probably benefited the most. The open-source service gained notoriety back in 2017 when some Twitter users were upset with changes the company had made to the functionality of @-replies. (Back then, that was a big deal.) Mastodon isn’t the only app to get a boost from the turmoil at Twitter, though. Other apps like CounterSocial, which has a Tweetdeck-like interface, and Tribel have also seen increased user numbers. There are some new upstarts, too. Post News, a new service from former Waze CEO Noam Bardin, has also tried to capitalize on Twitter’s current state.

Meanwhile, Twitter hasn’t been paying its office rent in San Francisco. According to Bloomberg, Twitter was told on December 16th that it would default on its lease for the 30th floor of the Hartford Building. So far, it’s failed to pay $136,250 in rent.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft returns to Kennedy Space Center

The agency can now take apart the capsule.

POOL New / reuters

After completing its 1.4 million mile trip to the Moon and back at the start of last month, NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft has returned to the Kennedy Space Center. The homecoming occurred on December 30th. Artemis 1’s record-breaking journey began on November 16th, launching atop NASA’s next-generation Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. NASA will now conduct an “extensive analysis” of the component and determine precisely how it fared during atmospheric reentry. The agency will also remove Moonikin Campos, the test dummy NASA sent aboard Orion to collect data on how travel to the Moon might affect humans.

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TikTok says it’s getting better at detecting ‘borderline’ content

The app previously added age restrictions to some "mature" content.

TikTok is launching a new version of its “borderline suggestive model,” which the company uses to automatically identify “sexually explicit, suggestive, or borderline content.” According to a TikTok spokesperson, the new model can better detect so-called “borderline content,” videos that don’t explicitly break the app’s rules but may not be suitable for younger users. Elsewhere, the app is also allowing creators to restrict their videos to adult viewers.

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Grubhub ordered to pay $3.5 million to settle lawsuit

The Attorney General’s office accused the company of using deceptive techniques.

Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine has announced that his office has reached an agreement with Grubhub "for charging customers hidden fees and using deceptive marketing techniques." The company was sued earlier this year, accused of charging hidden fees and misrepresenting Grubhub+ subscription's offer of "unlimited free delivery" since customers still have to pay a service fee. The DC Attorney General's office also accused the company of listing 1,000 restaurants in the area without their permission by using numbers that route to Grubhub workers or creating websites without the eateries' consent. Under the settlement terms, Grubhub will pay affected customers in the DC area a total of $2.7 million.

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Samsung hires former Mercedes-Benz designer to lead its mobile design team

A different look to Galaxy phones?

Engadget

Samsung’s mobile division has a new design chief. The company announced Hubert H. Lee would head up its mobile design team, the unit responsible for designing some of Samsung’s most important products, including its flagship Galaxy S series of phones. Lee joins the electronics giant after a stint as the chief design officer of Mercedes-Benz China.

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New York governor Kathy Hochul has finally signed a right-to-repair bill into law, over half a year since the state legislature was passed. Representatives for Microsoft and Apple pressed Hochul's office for changes, as well as industry association TechNet, which represents many notable tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Dell and HP. Critics say the amendments will weaken the law's effectiveness. The bill's revised language excludes enterprise electronics, like devices used in schools and hospitals. Home appliances, motor vehicles, medical devices and off-road equipment were also previously exempted.

Whatever aims the right-to-repair bill had when first proposed have been weakened. Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG), a collective of consumer rights organizations, said in a statement to Engadget: "Such changes could limit the benefits for school computers and most products currently in use." It continued: "The bill now excludes certain smartphone circuit boards from parts the manufacturers are required to sell and requires repair shops to post unwieldy warranty language."

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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TikTok will be banned on most US federal government devices

Included in a mammoth $1.7 trillion bill that President Biden just signed.

TikTok will be outlawed on almost all devices issued by the federal government after lawmakers passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill. Officials recently added the No TikTok on Government Devices Act (what a name) to the bill, which the Senate unanimously approved last week. The mammoth 4,155-page legislation was fast-tracked to avoid a partial government shutdown. It will fund the government through September. The legislation requires the Biden administration to establish rules to remove TikTok from government devices by mid-February. The bill carved out exceptions for elected officials, congressional staff, law enforcement agents and other officials. However, the House of Representatives separately banned TikTok on devices it owns and manages.

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Samsung's new smart fridge has a massive 32-inch display

Think of it like a smart TV with a fridge attached to it.

Samsung

CES is nearly here, which means we're once again writing about refrigerators. With its Family Hub Plus, Samsung has boosted the touch display size to 32 inches from 21 inches, although it’s still a vertical screen. Samsung has added support for Google Photos, along with the OneDrive integration seen on past models. There’s also a new SmartThings hub so you can control multiple smart home devices from your… kitchen, including robot vacuums, air conditioning, lighting and more. It also supports Amazon's Your Essentials service, letting you order groceries and other products directly from the touchscreen. Those groceries go inside.

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The EV revolution became an eventuality in 2022

It's been a busy year for the industry.

It’s been a decade since the first Tesla EV made its commercial debut and the electrification of American automotive society began in earnest. Over the past ten years as battery capacities have grown and range anxieties have shrunk, electric vehicles have become a daily sight in most parts of the country. Now, virtually every notable automaker on the planet has jumped on the electric bandwagon with sizable investments in battery and production technologies and pledges to electrify their lineups within a decade or so.

Not even recent years’ production slowdowns and supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID pandemic managed to stall the industry’s momentum. The International Energy Agency in January reported that EVs had managed to triple their market share between 2019 and 2021 with 6.6 million units being sold globally last year. And as eventful as 2022 turned out to be, 2023 and beyond could be even bigger for the EV industry. We’re expecting EV debuts including the VW ID.3; the Lucid Gravity, Polestar 3, Jeep (one of four!) and Honda’s Prologue SUVs.

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As we approach the end of the year, it’s time for Engadget to wrap up the successes and failures in tech from the last twelve months. While it might be easier point out the messes made by the likes of crypto, Google’s Stadia cloud gaming platform and, ugh, Twitter, there were some highlights too. These include the eventual arrival of Steam’s handheld gaming PC, all those Wordle options, and some dazzling new views of space. The worst of 2022 centers an awful lot on tech bros, if you hadn’t rolled your eyes at them enough in the preceding years. From the collapse of FTX to the precarious state of Twitter, it’s been a mess. Meanwhile, the likes of Peloton have struggled to hold onto their pandemic user base, and Toyota’s EV efforts haven’t been great. Check out all our hits and our misses of 2022.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Amazon might be making a standalone sports streaming app

No word yet on when the company expects to launch the service.

A report from The Information says that Amazon is working on a new standalone streaming app to declutter Prime Video and better highlight its deals with the NFL, the UK’s Premier League and New York Yankees. The development follows recent comments from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who highlighted live sports content as one of the areas where the company plans to continue spending money even as it cuts costs in other areas. The Information says it doesn’t know when Amazon might release the app, nor if the company plans to charge separately for access to Prime Video’s sports content. The outlet also notes Amazon may decide to shelve the app. Amazon did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. Earlier this month, Google reportedly agreed to pay between $2.1 billion and $2.2 billion for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package.

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The Evie is a smart ring designed 'for women'

It can measure heart rate, clinical SpO2, skin temperature variability and more.

Evie

Health company Movano has teased its first smart ring, the Evie, designed for health, fitness and cycle tracking. It looks like a rival to Oura's latest smart ring, though the company says it's "designed uniquely for women." It offers many of the health metrics seen on Oura's ring and wearables from Apple and others. It can measure heart rate, blood-oxygen, skin temperature variability, steps, calories, sleep, period and ovulation tracking, and more. Movano plans to provide a closer look next week at CES 2023.

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A Stan Lee documentary will hit Disney+ next year

Marvel announced the news on Lee’s 100th birthday.

Yesterday was Marvel legend Stan Lee's 100th birthday and the comic giant marked the occasion by revealing that a documentary about his life will hit Disney+ next year. Lee, who died in 2018, is a critical part of Marvel’s legacy. The many, many characters he’s credited with co-creating include Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, Ant-Man, X-Men, The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk. Disney has mined its history for several documentary projects for its streaming service. When Disney+ debuted three years ago, it featured a docuseries on the Imagineers, the minds behind its theme parks.

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Researchers develop blood test that can reliably detect Alzheimer’s disease

The test could replace lumbar punctures and brain scans.

When doctors need to confirm an Alzheimer's diagnosis, alongside brain scans, it can involve a lumbar puncture – an invasive and painful procedure that’s more commonly known as a spinal tap. The next best tool for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease is a blood test. While some tests can detect abnormal tau protein counts as a possible indicator of Alzheimer’s disease, they’re less effective at spotting the telltale signs of neurodegeneration. But this week, in the journal Brain, a multinational team of researchers from Sweden, Italy, the UK and US detailed a new antibody-based blood test that can detect brain-derived tau proteins specific to Alzheimer’s disease. Following a study of 600 patients, the team found their test could reliably distinguish the illness from other neurodegenerative diseases.

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German researchers who purchased biometric capture devices on eBay found sensitive US military data stored on the machine’s memory cards. According to The New York Times, that included fingerprints, iris scans, even photographs, names and descriptions of the individuals, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many individuals worked with the US army and could be targeted if the devices fell into the wrong hands, according to the report. One device was purchased at a military auction, and the seller said they were unaware that it contained sensitive data. There was an easy solution too: The US military could have eliminated the risk by simply removing or destroying the memory cards before selling them.

– Mat Smith

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A third Blizzard studio pushes to unionize

The campaign involves all non-management workers.

Workers at Proletariat, a Boston-based studio Blizzard bought earlier this year, announced they recently filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Proletariat is the third Activision Blizzard studio to announce a union drive in 2022. However, past campaigns at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany involved the quality assurance workers at those studios – the effort at Proletariat includes all non-management workers. The employees at Proletariat say they aim to preserve the studio’s “progressive, human-first” benefits, including its flexible paid time off policy and robust healthcare options. Additionally, they want to protect the studio from crunch – compulsory overtime during game development.

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LG's new minimalistic appliances have upgradeable features and fewer controls

Upgradeable, to an extent.

LG

LG is taking a more minimalist approach to its kitchen appliances in 2023, with less showy profiles, colors and, seemingly, controls. While we’re not getting a close-up look at all the dials and buttons yet, the appliances look restrained compared to previous years’ models. In the past, we’ve seen a washing machine whose flagship feature was an entire extra washing machine. There was also a dryer that had two doors. Just because. LG says it’s used recycled materials across multiple machine parts, adding that its latest appliances also require fewer total parts and less energy than typical kitchen appliances. This would dovetail with the company’s announcements at the start of the year, where LG said it would offer upgradability for its home appliances. So far, that’s included new filters for certain use cases and software upgrades with new washing programs for laundry machines.

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US House of Representatives bans TikTok on its devices

Lawmakers and staff members who have TikTok on their phones would have to delete it.

TikTok is now banned on any device owned and managed by the US House of Representatives, according to Reuters. The House's Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) reportedly told all lawmakers and their staff in an email that they must delete the app from their devices, because it's considered "high risk due to a number of security issues." Further still, everyone detected to have the social networking application on their phones would be contacted to make sure it's deleted.

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LG teases a smaller smartphone camera module with true optical telephoto zoom

It could lead to smaller smartphone camera bumps.

LG may not make smartphones anymore, but it's still building components for them. The company's LG Innotek arm just unveiled a periscope-style true optical zoom camera module with a 4-9 times telephoto range. Most smartphone cameras use hybrid zoom setups that combine certain zoom ranges (typically 2x, 3x, 10x, etc.) with a digital zoom to fill in between those (2.5x, 4.5x, etc.), leading to reduced detail. LG's "Optical Zoom Camera," however, contains a zoom actuator with movable components, like a mirrorless or DSLR camera. That would help retain full image quality through the entire zoom range, while potentially reducing the size and number of modules required. Could this mean the death of the camera bump?

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LG’s latest upgraded appliances, including washing machines, refrigerators, ovens and a dishwasher, feature, well, less. It’s taking a more minimalist approach in 2023 with less showy profiles, colors and, seemingly, controls. While we’re not getting a close-up look at all the dials and buttons, the appliances look restrained compared to previous years’ appliances. In recent years, we’ve seen a washing machine whose feature was an entire extra washing machine. There was also a dryer that had two doors. Just because. LG also once even experimented with creating washing machines that could clean your clothes without any water. 

This year's appliances will have a simpler design language, with what LG says is an "elegantly clear control experience." The company says it’s made its latest range to ensure it can “match with any kind of décor, color scheme, or interior trend.” It used recycled materials across multiple machine parts, adding that its latest appliances also require fewer total parts and less energy than typical kitchen appliances.

This would dovetail with the company’s announcements at the start of the year, where LG said it would offer upgradability for its home appliances. So far, that’s included new filters for certain use cases and software upgrades to offer new washing programs for laundry machines. The company said it planned to introduce 20 models with upgradeable features but hasn’t confirmed how many actually arrived. Simpler, more streamlined hardware could make for easier for LG to replace more substantial parts, like motors and heating elements, to be even more efficient or effective.

However, will fewer buttons mean fewer features or less flexibility? We don’t know yet, but I like the subtler aesthetic. LG will reveal its new appliance family at CES 2023 — a show that always sneaks in countless kitchen appliances alongside the latest TVs, EVs and more. The show kicks off in Las Vegas in a week’s time.

YouTube is ready for some more football. The streaming service has snagged the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which offers access to out-of-market games that air on Fox and CBS each Sunday. DirecTV, the current home of Sunday Ticket, has held the rights since 1994, but the bundle will move to Google’s streaming service next season. YouTube and the NFL didn’t announce the terms of the deal, but according to The Wall Street Journal, YouTube will pay $2 billion per year in a seven-year pact – around $500 million more per season than DirecTV is paying.

Having exclusive rights to a bundle with many out-of-market NFL games should draw even more users to YouTube. Live sport coverage is turning into the next battleground for streaming. Amazon Prime Video has an 11-year deal to stream Thursday Night Football games that started this season. Meanwhile, Apple is pushing further into live sports as well, with a 10-year deal to stream every Major League Soccer game via Apple TV starting in 2023.

– Mat Smith

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The best shows to binge-watch over the holidays in 2022

Catch up on some of these excellent shows.

Apple

2021 was a bit of a reset for the entertainment industry, with more of us returning to theaters and plenty of must-watch TV shows hitting streaming networks. If you've gotten used to catching up on everything on your couch, don't worry — there's still plenty to watch over the holidays. We’ve covered HBO Max, Disney Plus, Netflix and the rest.

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How to permanently delete all your Facebook and Meta-owned accounts

Breaking up with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp can be complicated.

‘Tis the season to be done with social media. For Facebook, Instagram and other Meta-run services, deleting an account entirely isn’t necessarily straightforward, either, with no single centralized way to delete all your Meta-associated accounts. We run through how to download all your data and digitally clean up after yourself, just in case you need something fun to do over the holidays.

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The Lastpass hack was worse than the company first reported

Because of course it was.

Password manager app Lastpass announced on Thursday the most recent hack was much more damaging than initially reported. The attackers made off with users' password vaults in some cases – that is, entire collections of encrypted personal data, if not the immediate method to unlock them. "No customer data was accessed during the August 2022 incident," LastPass CEO Karim Toubba, explained. However, some of the app's source code was lifted and then used to spearphish a Lastpass employee into giving up their access credentials, those keys were then used to decrypt and copy off, "some storage volumes within the cloud-based storage service." That data could include basic customer account information like company names, billing, email and IP addresses and telephone numbers.

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Tesla reveals an angular $300 wireless phone charger

I preferred the flamethrower.

Tesla

The latest baffling peripheral from Tesla has nothing to do with its cars – even if it’s inspired by the boxy angles of the Cybertruck. It’s a wireless charger that can juice multiple compatible devices, with a suede-ish finish and a tiny Tesla logo on the edge. It’s also $300. You could buy a new phone for that, or subscribe to Twitter Blue for over two years.

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In Japan, the big premiere week of James Cameron’s Avatar sequel was hit with technical problems in some movie theaters. One venue in central Japan was forced to reduce the 48 fps frame rate down to the traditional 24 fps – one of the major technical innovations of Avatar: The Way of Water. The Avatar sequel is actually available in multiple formats, including 2D 48 fps, 3D 48 fps and regular 24 fps. If you see the 48 fps version, it only uses the HFR tech for action sequences, while dialog and slower scenes are dialed down to 24 fps by duplicating frames. Intrigued by high frame rates? Check out Devindra Hardawar’s (spoiler-free) review of Avatar: The Way of Water, right here.

Despite being the widest movie release of all time in Japan, Avatar: The Way of Water failed to claim the top ranking last weekend, beaten by the anime basketball movie called The First Slam Dunk.

– Mat Smith

Hands-on with LG's 240Hz UltraGear gaming monitors

Setting a new bar for OLED refresh rates.

Engadget

Earlier this year, Alienware released what’s arguably the best all-around gaming monitor on the market right now: the AW3423DW. But last week, LG quietly announced its latest batch of UltraGear gaming monitors. LG’s monitors are available in two sizes intended for slightly different use cases. There’s the 27-inch option with a flat panel, meant for both general use and more demanding competitive play, while the 45-inch monitor has a curved display with an 800R radius, designed to deliver a more immersive experience. Regardless of which one you pick, both feature 240Hz refresh rates – the highest you can get from any OLED monitor available today.

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Ukraine strikes deal with SpaceX for thousands more Starlink antennas

Several EU countries will reportedly share the costs.

Ukraine will receive an additional 10,000-plus Starlink satellite dishes from Elon Musk's SpaceX to help provide internet amid Russian attacks on communications infrastructure. Financial issues around the terminals have reportedly been resolved, with several European countries stepping up to share the costs, according to Ukraine's deputy prime minister Mykhailo Federov. The 10,000 new terminals add to the 22,000 already received and will be used to "stabilize connections for critical situations," according to Federov. "There is no alternative to satellite connections," he added.

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The best free games for 2023

Some great games don't cost a thing.

Blizzard

Free games used to mean ropey puzzle games and knock-off clones of games that had a price tag. But now, courtesy of in-app payments and the ease of offering both a sample of a title alongside its full-fat version, there are plenty of great games to play without spending a dime. Following the continued success of titles like Fortnite, the level of quality across mobile, PC and consoles has never been higher. Put your card away, and consider this your starting point. Oh and while it’s not in the current edition of our guide, check out Vampire Survivors too — my latest addiction, and free-to-play on smartphones.

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Canada plans to enforce an ambitious zero-emission vehicle sales quota by 2026

At least 20 percent of new vehicles sold will need to be zero-emission models.

The Canadian government has announced enforceable quotas for zero-emission vehicle sales. By 2026, a fifth of all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the country will need to be zero-emission models, such as electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. "We're moving forward with a regulated sales target that requires at least 20 percent of new vehicles sold by 2026 to be zero emission, increasing that to 60 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035," Julie Dabrusin, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. There's still some way to go. In the first six months of 2022, EVs (including plug-in hybrid models) made up 7.2 percent of new car registrations.

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Twitter news whiplash continues. Elon Musk has said he’ll step down as CEO of Twitter once he’s found a suitable replacement. You might remember Musk ran a poll at the weekend asking if he should leave the role, and the Twitter-using public overwhelmingly told him, well, yes. There was no immediate response to the results of the poll, but by late Tuesday, after suggesting he might change it so only paying users could vote, he seems to be acting on the result. According to his tweet, Musk plans to stay on and run the software and server teams.

The job as Twitter CEO will be viewed by many as a poisoned chalice. Roughly 70 percent of the staff have either been laid off or quit, hate speech and trolls have thrived and many advertisers have dropped or reduced their advertising spending. On top of all that, the company is also now facing increasing pressure from the US government.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Lenovo's Swiss Army lamp kicks off the weird gadgets of CES 2023

A 4K webcam, wireless Qi charging pad and multiple USB-C ports for $329.

Lenovo

Lenovo’s Go Desk Station with Webcam is for those of us with limited desk space. It’s a webcam, adjustable desk light, Qi wireless charger and expansion hub all in one, and it doesn't compromise on any of those things. But it is priced accordingly. The primary feature is the Lenovo Go 4K Pro Webcam, which is also available as a standalone camera. It can stream 4K at up to 30 fps and includes autofocus and auto-framing with an adjustable field of view, along with auto ambient light adjustment, via the built-in desk light. That desk light rides on a height-adjustable and rotating arm.

The hub has a full-function 65-watt USB-C port for laptop power, to start with. It also has a 15-watt Qi compliant charging pad for mobile devices, a 20W USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A 3.1 ports and an HDMI 2.0 output for external displays. This beastly peripheral arrives in March 2023, starting at $329.

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‘Sifu’ is getting an arena mode

And heading to Xbox and Steam in March 2023.

Sifu’s long-awaited Arenas challenge mode will arrive next March. Developer Sloclap made the announcement through IGN, which shared a trailer for the upcoming DLC. The studio first teased the mode last April when it published a free content roadmap for Sifu. Sloclap told IGN: “Completing the new Arenas challenges will also unlock new cheats and exclusive new outfits.” The Arenas mode update will coincide with the game’s release on Xbox and Steam.

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NASA's InSight lander says goodbye from Mars

"This may be the last image I can send," the InSight Twitter account said.

NASA

This is likely the final photo NASA's Mars InSight lander will ever send back to Earth. Since landing on the planet in November 2018, the robot has been snapping pics and gathering data about the Martian environment, accumulating dust on its solar panels that entire time. As NASA predicted earlier this year, the layer of debris has finally become too thick for the solar panels to operate. The InSight Twitter account officially said goodbye on December 19th with a final image from the surface of Mars.

"My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send," the tweet reads. "Don’t worry about me though: My time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me."

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How Meta flunked its first year as a metaverse company

Meta finishes in a much worse place than it started.

This time last year, the company once known as Facebook had finished rebranding as Meta, with Mark Zuckerberg explaining: “From now on, we're going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook first.”

The company has lost billions of dollars on Reality Labs, the division overseeing its metaverse work. Its stock has cratered. The company has, for the first time, shed thousands of employees in mass layoffs. Perhaps most crucially, given its new goals, Meta hasn’t articulated what the metaverse is or effectively made the case for why we should care. Karissa Bell breaks down Meta’s first year.

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Lionel Messi's World Cup celebration is now the most-liked post on Instagram

The legendary footballer took the record away from a photo of an egg.

Hannah Mckay / reuters

Soccer legend Lionel Messi posted a slideshow of him and his Argentinian teammates celebrating after winning the World Cup and, at the time of writing, the post has more than 68.7 million likes, breaking the record for the most-liked post on Instagram. The previous record-holder, a stock photo of an egg, claimed the top spot in early 2019 and currently has north of 57.3 million likes.

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Dyson’s Zone is a headset-visor that processes the air you breathe and pumps it, well, into your face. Now we know the price ($949!) and launch date (March 2023), the company invited press to strap the baffling device on and test it a little more extensively.

In a dark blue with copper accents, it looks a little subtler than the press images. But it’s still going to turn heads. The Dyson Zone is not designed to protect against COVID-19 or other viruses, as it does not seal to your face. The air purifier filters have a dual-layer design with potassium-enriched carbon to capture acidic gasses. The company claims the filters will block 99 percent of particles, including those as small as 0.1 microns for "filtering city fumes and pollutants." However, you can use inserts like an N95 mask attachment – also offered by Dyson.

You can check out Engadget’s Cherlynn Low wearing the Dyson Zone around New York.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Elon Musk will find someone else to run Twitter, according to his poll

He asked users if he should step down, and they decisively voted yes.

Elon Musk put his own leadership of Twitter on the line at the weekend. "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll," he tweeted. The poll ended and 57.5 percent of users voted "Yes," compared to 42.5 percent who voted no (with 17,502,391 votes) – a decisive 15-point margin. It remains to be seen if (and how, and when) Musk will abide by his poll, as he has yet to issue any comment about the results. Shortly after publishing the vote (and when it was already tilting toward Yes), he tweeted "as the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it."

The vote follows a flurry of activity on Twitter after it announced a sudden rule change prohibiting users from linking to competing platforms and banning several influential users soon after. A massive backlash ensued, prompting an apology from Musk, who also tweeted that "going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes." Then, in yet another poll yesterday, @TwitterSafety asked users whether it should "have a policy preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms."

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The Final Fantasy 'Pixel Remaster' series heads to Switch and PS4

And you can buy a pricey physical edition of the first six games.

Square Enix

If you were looking for a late (and spendy) Christmas gift for your favorite Engadget newsletter editor (hi, me), Square Enix has you covered. To celebrate the Pixel Remaster series’ arrival on Switch and PlayStation, the company is selling a limited-edition bundle of all six entries in the Pixel Remaster series – Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI – as well a vinyl soundtrack set, a 128-page art book and a set of pixel art figurines. A mere $260 to make my Christmas.

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The best Nintendo Switch games for 2023

A guide for beginners, from A to Z trigger.

In time for holiday shopping, we’ve updated and expanded our guide to the best Switch games, covering all the major games that have wowed us since the console’s launch. Sure, there’s Zelda and Mario in here, but there’s also a bug knight, a witch with guns on her shoes and a skateboarding world to explore.

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Instagram lets you create your own 2022 Recap Reel

Select at least three photos or videos and the app will automatically combine them into a Reel.

Instagram

Instagram has been placing a bigger focus on Reels this year, and that extends to how users create their 2022 Recap – whether you want it to or not. Select at least three photos or videos and Instagram will automatically stitch these together into a Reel with narration templates from the likes of Bad Bunny, Priah Ferguson and DJ Khaled. Hopefully, those can be toggled off, too.

Reels have been a major focus for Meta over the past year. Across Instagram and Facebook, the company now says Reels are played over 140 billion times every day. Meta has been bolstering its answer to TikTok by making it easier to create Reels, launching an in-app Reels scheduler and ways to post to Reels from third-party apps.

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European Commission tells Meta that Facebook Marketplace is unfair to rivals

It 'abused its dominant position.'

Europe has hit Facebook owner Meta with a complaint that its Marketplace classified service is unfair to competitors. By tying its main social media site to Marketplace, it has a "substantial distribution advantage" over rivals, the EU Commission wrote in a press release.

"With its Facebook social network, Meta reaches globally billions of monthly users and millions of active advertisers," EU Antitrust Commissioner said in a statement. "Our preliminary concern is that Meta ties its dominant social network, Facebook, to its online classified ad services called Facebook Marketplace. This means that users of Facebook automatically have access to Facebook Marketplace, whether they want it or not." This all infringes on EU rules that prohibit the abuse of a dominant market position. The EU has the power to impose a fine of up to 10 percent of Meta's annual revenue and prohibit the behavior. Meta's head of EMEA competition said the "claims made by the European Commission are without foundation."

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OnePlus 11 5G launch event set for February 7th

The Alert Slider and Hasselblad camera tuning are back.

OnePlus has revealed when it will formally show off its flagship products for 2023. The Cloud 11 event will take place in New Delhi, India, on February 7th. The company will showcase the OnePlus 11 5G, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and more. Along with revealing the event date, OnePlus said it would bring a couple of fan-favorite features back for its next flagship smartphone. The OnePlus 11 will once again feature the company's Alert Slider, which offers an easy way to shift between silent, vibrate and alert modes.

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Could the state of Twitter get any worse? Of course it can. While a lot of us were glued to the World Cup final, the social network made major policy changes, deciding to halt any kind of “free promotion” of competing social media sites. Or, at least, it did for a moment.

Twitter announced yesterday it would remove links to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Post and, er, Truth Social, from accounts whose "main purpose" is to promote content on those platforms. This includes links in Twitter bios and even, it seems, links to YouTube channels and profiles. The company would even restrict the use of third-party aggregators, like Linktree and Link.bio. Funnily enough, if you were willing to pay, you’d be fine. Twitter said it would continue to allow paid promotion for any of the platforms on its new prohibited list.

Twitter began enforcing the policy almost immediately. Yesterday, at 2:17 PM ET, Paul Graham, the founder of startup accelerator Y Combinator – and Silicon Valley royalty – said he was done with Twitter, following the rule change, and told his more than 1.5 million followers to find him on Mastodon. A few hours later, Twitter suspended Graham's account.

But then late last night, the official tweets announcing the link ban were deleted, as was the policy itself from Twitter’s website. So, well, we’re not entirely sure now. Musk also tweeted a poll asking if he should stick around as Twitter boss. At the moment, the answer is no.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Riot Games wants a court to end its ‘League of Legends’ sponsorship deal with FTX

It is owed at least $6.25 million.

Riot

Riot Games has filed a motion with the court overseeing FTX’s bankruptcy case to end the seven-year sponsorship agreement the two companies signed last August. In a brief spotted by crypto critic Molly White, Riot says the exchange still owes half of the 12.5 million it agreed to pay in 2022 for the studio to display FTX branding at LCS events. Riot adds the disgraced firm will owe it another nearly $13 million in 2023.

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Apple has reportedly dropped out of NFL Sunday Ticket negotiations

The new frontrunners are Amazon and Google.

In 2021, Apple was the frontrunner to secure streaming rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket game coverage. Now, a year later, the company has reportedly dropped out of negotiations. With Disney bowing out of the negotiations as well, the talks have become a two-horse race between Amazon and Google. Amazon’s Prime Video is already the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football for the next decade. Last year, The Athletic reported the NFL was asking for more than $2 billion per year for Sunday Ticket rights, at least $500 million more than DirecTV had been paying to air Sunday games.

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A Horizon multiplayer game is on the way

Guerrilla is working on more ‘epic solo adventures for Aloy,’ too.

A VR spinoff and Horizon Forbidden West expansion won’t be the last we see of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon universe. The studio has at least two more games in the works for the PlayStation franchise, including a multiplayer title. Guerrilla made the announcement in a recruitment tweet. Along with working on more “epic solo adventures for Aloy,” the star of the first two games, the studio has a separate team to create an “online project set in Horizon’s universe.” It added that the latter will feature new characters and a “unique stylized look.”

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Fujifilm X-H2 camera review

A perfect blend of speed, resolution and video power.

Engadget

Fujifilm’s 40-megapixel X-H2 is the highest-resolution APS-C camera yet and the first with 8K video. It has a good balance between resolution and speed, with autofocus that’s good but not quite up to par with Canon and Sony. It has plenty of features for video, and the only drawback is rolling shutter, but even that’s not as bad as other rival APS-C cameras. Read on for our full review.

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