Apple has already updated the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch for the holiday season, but we're still waiting on an update to the Mac lineup. There have been plenty of rumors about a totally redesigned MacBook Pro coming out this fall, and the reliable Mark Gurman at Bloomberg reported in his Power On newsletter that an M1X-powered MacBook Pro will arrive "in the next month." Apple has typically held Mac-focused events in October or early November; the first M1-based Macs were announced in early November of last year.

As noted by 9to5Mac, Gurman predicts that there will be two M1X variants, both 10-core processors with eight high-performance cores and two efficiency cores. The difference between the two chips are in the graphics department — Apple may be offering an M1X with either 16 or 32 graphics cores. As for Apple's other Macs, Gurman says that the company is working on a high-performance chip for a future Mac Pro, and an M2 for the MacBook Air, iMac and lower-end MacBook Pro models. 

Rumors have swirled all year long about Apple's next MacBook Pro revision; the first 13-inch M1 model that was released last fall was essentially identical to the one it replaced, aside from the Apple Silicon inside. And Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro hasn't been updated since it was released in late 2019, so the whole lineup is due for a refresh. 

Potential changes include new 14- and 16-inch models with a redesigned case that'll bring back more ports like HDMI and an SD card slot. It might also bring back a MagSafe-style power charging port, and Apple is expected to drop the Touch Bar, which was first introduced with the 2016 MacBook Pro revision. 

Apple says the basic iPad is its most popular tablet. And why not? Back in 2017, the company introduced its cheapest-ever iPad as a budget option for schools or people who don't need top-of-the-line specs. This device has always used hardware that’s a few years old — but Apple’s chips are so powerful that this hasn’t been an issue. Now in its ninth generation, though, the form factor is starting to feel stale; it's virtually unchanged from the iPad Air that Apple released back in 2013. Then again, at this price who cares?

It’s not a tablet meant for early adopters like me. It’s for those who want a fast, lightweight tablet with a nice display and tons of apps, without having to spend too much or consider whether a device like the iPad Pro is the future of computing. As such, there are just a few basic questions I want to answer with this review. If you have an old iPad, what’s new and better about this one? And if you don’t have an iPad, is this the one to buy?

What’s new

To make that evaluation, let’s recap what’s new about the ninth-gen iPad. The processor powering it is Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, which first appeared in inside the iPhone 11 from 2019. It’s one year newer than the A12, which powered last year’s iPad, and it’s faster and more efficient than its predecessor. Naturally, it’s slower than the newer chips powering the iPad Air and the just-updated iPad mini, but it still delivers more than enough horsepower for a $330 tablet.

I didn't experience any noticeable slowdowns, whether I was multitasking between Slack, writing this review in Google Docs, juggling various tabs in Safari or playing Apple Arcade games. Since this iPad has less RAM than the iPad Pro I use as my daily driver, I noticed that apps needed to refresh their content more frequently when I was heavily multitasking. But everything was quick to load up and I was back on my way again in no time.

For most people’s “standard iPad” use cases — browsing the web, editing photos, playing games, watching movies, messaging, drawing or taking notes with the Apple Pencil, writing emails or working on documents with the Smart Keyboard folio — the A13 Bionic is more than powerful enough. In fact, in our review of last year’s iPad, we found the device capable of easily transcoding and exporting 4K video into 1080p clips. It wasn’t as fast as the iPad Pro, but it was still faster than we anticipated. The A13 will only help if you’re the kind of person who likes to push their hardware.

Another new thing about the 2021 iPad is you get double the storage for the same amount of money. That means the $329 iPad has 64GB of storage this year, while the $479 comes with a healthy 256GB. As usual, you can also add LTE connectivity to these devices for an additional $130. (I reviewed the 256GB model with LTE, which costs $609.) This change is easy to evaluate: More storage is better, and it was sorely needed, particularly on the base model. 64GB should be enough for most people, but if you want to load up the iPad with games and save a lot of movies and photos to local storage, spring for the 256GB model.

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

The iPad’s display is essentially unchanged from the prior two models. It’s a 10.2-inch touchscreen with 2,160-by-1,620 pixel resolution. There is one change to the screen, though: It has Apple’s True Tone technology for the first time, which automatically adjusts the color temperature based on the ambient light in the room around you. Apple has offered this feature on more expensive iPads and all of its iPhones for years now, so it’s nice to see it finally in use at the lower end.

The display otherwise looks good whether you’re watching videos, playing games or browsing the web. It’s not nearly as good as the screens on the other iPads that Apple sells, though. I’m used to my iPad Pro screen, which is laminated directly to the front glass and has a 120Hz refresh rate with support for the wide P3 color gamut. But, after just sitting down and using the new iPad, I mostly didn’t think about these things. For a $330 device, it’s perfectly usable; pleasant, even. I did notice the “air gap” on the new iPad that comes from not having its display bonded to the glass, but I can accept that as a cost-cutting measure.

Finally, Apple put a new front-facing camera on the new iPad. In a somewhat surprising move, it’s the same one used on the iPad Pro (minus all the depth sensors and extra hardware needed for Face ID). It’s also identical to the one inside the new iPad mini. It’s a 12-megapixel shooter with an extremely wide field of view. That wide angle enables a feature Apple calls “Center Stage.” When you’re on a FaceTime call, the camera automatically crops in around you, rather than show the full 122-degree field of view. But since the camera has all that space to work with, it can follow you as you move around the frame. It’s an interesting feature, though usually I’m stationary during video calls. It does do a decent job of making up for the fact that the iPad’s front camera is off-center when you’re using the iPad in landscape mode, though.

I imagine Center Stage is something that will feel handy once you start to use it regularly, and I’m generally glad to see that Apple seems to have recognized that the iPad needed a better front camera. The 1.2-megapixel FaceTime camera on older iPads just doesn’t cut it in this current moment where we're all constantly on video calls.

What’s old

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Everything else about the new iPad remains unchanged. It’s the same size and weight as the last two models and features the same size screen. It has the same sizable bezels, 8-megapixel back camera, Lightning port for charging (not USB-C) and a home button with Touch ID built in. It works with the first-generation Apple Pencil (sold separately for $99), which Apple has offered since late 2015, plus the Smart Keyboard folio ($159) that Apple built for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro back in 2017. There are still two speakers at the bottom when you’re holding it in portrait orientation, which means audio still comes at you from one off-center spot when you’re watching a video. But, there’s a headphone jack!

This means it’s not the most exciting device for someone like me, but there are otherwise a lot of benefits to Apple keeping things unchanged. For one, someone replacing an iPad they bought a few years ago will be able to use the same chargers and accessories as before — something that’s particularly important for education programs and other institutions that bought iPads in bulk.

As always, Apple says the iPad’s battery lasts for 10 hours of browsing the web or watching videos over WiFi. I got a little less than that when using the iPad and its keyboard for a full day of work, but the iPad far surpassed that estimate when I was watching videos. I got closer to 14 hours before the battery finally kicked it. Naturally, you’ll enjoy less runtime when doing more intensive tasks like gaming.

Living with iPadOS 15

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Despite the ho-hum design, the user experience felt fresh, thanks largely to iPadOS 15. I’ve been using the updated software in beta since the summer, and I’m glad to say that the final release is solid. Apple addressed the biggest problems I had with iPadOS 15 (some illogical design changes to Safari), and many of the changes make the iPad experience significantly better.

Quick Notes is a great feature for Apple Pencil users and makes the iPad a much better note-taking device. Obviously, it’s handy to be able to quickly summon a new space to scribble in, but the fact that Notes recognizes when you’re on a website or specific Map location and lets you save them to the note is particularly useful.

Now that Safari has restored a traditional tab view instead of the cramped compact view from iPadOS 15 betas, I can appreciate some of the other changes this year to the browser. Tab Groups are a convenient way to organize things when you want to separate out what you’re browsing by category; I often use it to keep research for stories all in one place. And being able to find links that were shared with me through the Messages app is handy, too.

The variety of new multitasking gestures took a little getting used to, but they make it easier to set up various spaces with the right combination of apps for what you’re trying to do. The iPad’s 10.2-inch screen is almost too small for doing much in multitasking mode, but it’s still useful to have a bunch of my most-used apps a swipe aways in Slide Over. And the new “shelf” that appears when you launch an app to show you other spaces the app is running in is another smart addition I’ve been using a lot.

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Other new changes are taking me longer to set up the way I’d like. The notification summary feature, which lets you set up a time for notifications from specific apps to be delivered, is a clever idea in theory. But I haven’t yet figured out which apps I want to relegate to the summary and which ones I'd rather show up immediately. Similarly, the new Focus features let you set up multiple do not disturb scenarios, each of which can have its own schedule, apps or people allowed or blocked and home screens that are hidden or active. It’s extremely flexible, but I haven’t yet figured out how to make the most of it.

The learning curve aside, iPadOS 15 is a solid release, and it runs well on the new iPad. If you buy this tablet now, it should receive similar updates for years to come, which will go a long way toward keeping it fresh even though it was never a cutting-edge device.

Wrap-up

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Coming from the iPad Pro, I was pleasantly surprised at how capable the new iPad is. I’ve gotten used to using the Magic Keyboard and its trackpad for work, so I found the new iPad’s $159 Smart Keyboard folio lacking. Between that and the smaller screen, it’s not my first choice for tasks that require me to keep an eye on multiple things simultaneously.

But it was a great device for drafting this review plus all the “iPad things” I want to do when I’m not working. I found myself using the iPad handheld, with its keyboard tucked away, more often than I expected. Being able to quickly flip back the keyboard t and use the iPad with two hands and then switch to typing when I wanted to bang out an email or reply to a message became a pretty common couch workflow.

Overall, I could do just about everything I can with my iPad Pro on the new iPad. There are a few slight changes and compromises here — but for the consumers Apple is targeting, those things might be moot. The iPad remains a very good tablet at a fair price. If you want something more modern, I don’t blame you, and would instead point you toward the iPad Air, which hits a sweet spot of performance, features and price.

If you’ve bought an iPad in the last two years, there’s no need to upgrade — but people with one older than the fall 2019 iPad will find some significant improvements here. If you’ve never bought one before, the new iPad delivers a surprisingly deep experience, despite its aging design.

Last year, Amazon announced Alexa Care Hub, a free service that uses Alexa to let people check in on family members. The so-called "caregiver" can see notifications and alerts when someone uses Alexa as a way of letting you know that someone they want to keep an eye on is up and about. It also lets the "care receiver" say "Alexa, call for help" and it'll contact the caregiver immediately. Amazon didn't charge for this, but today it's adding a new feature called Alexa Together to the service. It'll be a $20/month service that gives an aging family member 24/7 access to Urgent Response, which Amazon describes as a professional emergency help line. 

Alexa Together will also make caregiving easier to share among multiple family members by letting multiple people be designated as support contacts for a single individual. Other features include support for third-party devices that can detect when someone has fallen at home, the ability to add contacts to an individual's Alexa account so they can make hands-free calls, and set reminders on someone else's device or link up a music service for them to play tunes through. 

At a high level, it sounds like Alexa Together basically makes it easier for other people to manage a family member's Alexa-capable device so they use it more. And if they use it more, the caregiver will see that it's being used and know their family member is going about their normal day. It's a bit convoluted, but the 24/7 access to Urgent Response might be worth the $20 per month cost. Alexa Together will have a free six-month trial period (or one full year if you've been using the Alexa Care Hub already) when it launches later this year.

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s fall hardware event right here!

Apple isn't worried about 13 being an unlucky number. The company just unveiled its latest generation of smartphones, the iPhone 13, and is giving us the rundown on all the changes to this year's models right now. Unsurprisingly, it looks nearly identical to last year's iPhone 12, but our first glimpse of it showed a 20 percent smaller notch on the front for Face ID as well as a redesigned back camera module — but by and large, it's visually nearly identical to the iPhone 12.

More crucially, the iPhone 13 also has a bigger battery, something that should be welcome for both phones, particularly the iPhone 13 mini. Yep, Apple is keeping the smaller phone around this year. Both phones also have brighter displays this year, but Apple says most iPhone 13 mini users will get an extra 1.5 hours of usage, while the standard iPhone 13 will last 2.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12. Given that battery life was probably one of the biggest downsides of last year's iPhones, this should give users a little relief.

As usual, the new iPhone features Apple's latest A-series chip, and this year it's the A15 Bionic processor. It's a 5nm chip with nearly 15 billion transistors that Apple says is 50 percent faster than its competition.

As for the cameras, Apple has a new wide camera sensor and lens; Apple says its the largest camera sensor it has ever put into a dual-camera system on its phones, and it has bigger pixels than the prior phone. The iPhone 13 is also getting the sensor-shift optical image stabilization system that first came to the iPhone 12 Pro Max last year — having this system available on a much more inexpensive phone will be a nice boost. There's also a new ultra-wide camera sensor, as well.

Apple has made a video a big focus in recent years, and that's the case with the iPhone 13 as well. The company is showing off a new mode called "cinematic mode," but they haven't said exactly what that's all about yet. We did get to see it in action in a clip they showed, and it seems that it lets the camera move focus seamlessly between the foreground and background. As Apple says, focus transitions will move focus automatically and follow character's attention so that it knows where to direct your attention. Naturally, you can still tap to change focus at any time.

5G support for the iPhone 13 has been expanded, as well — the antenna system works on more carriers than ever. By the end of the year, Apple says 5G will work on 200 carriers in 60 countries.

As for pricing, Apple kept things the same this year: the iPhone 13 mini starts at $699, while the iPhone 13 starts at $799. Both phones come with 128GB of storage (doubled from a year ago), which is another major upgrade over last year's model. Somewhat surprisingly, Apple didn't say when the iPhone 13 would arrive — but maybe we'll hear about that after the iPhone 13 Pro update.

Follow all of the news from Apple’s iPhone event right here.

Sonos has sold home theater products for a long time, but the company has made the living room even more of a priority in recent years. It started with the Sonos Beam, a smaller and more affordable version of the flagship Playbar soundbar. And 2020’s new flagship, the Sonos Arc, was the company’s first soundbar capable of Dolby Atmos playback.

Today, the Beam is getting a major upgrade. The new, second-generation Beam goes on sale today for $449 and will be available on October 5th. That’s $50 more than before, in line with the other price increases Sonos announced last week. The good news is that the new Beam is more capable than its predecessor in a number of ways. We’ll have to review it before we can really say if it’s worth the extra $50, but there are a number of notable new features here.

The new Beam looks nearly identical to its predecessor, aside from a new perforated polycarbonate grille instead of the cloth front found on the original. It also has the same speaker components inside: a center tweeter, four woofers, and three passive bass radiators. What’s different is that the new processor inside the Beam is 40 percent faster, which opens up a lot of new audio formats.

Sonos

Most notably, the gen-two Beam supports Dolby Atmos, for movies, TV and music (the latter in a limited fashion, for now). Scott Fink, a product manager at Sonos who worked on the new Beam, says that the horsepower from the new CPU let the company increase the speaker arrays — not the specific speaker components, but, as Fink explains, “the set of software that coordinates the playback and interaction of all the speakers together in the soundbar.” The new Beam has five arrays, up from the three in the older model, and Fink said that the extras are dedicated to surround sound and height info.

All told, the Beam supports the same home theater audio formats as the Arc (including Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital Plus, Multichannel PCM and more), which costs twice as much as the Beam. In addition to the increased processing power, the new Beam has HDMI eARC to facilitate these new formats. Sonos says the speaker should have improved dialog clarity thanks to the additional audio processing power, something that should make the currently-available speech enhancement feature work better than before.

The hardware also supports additional music formats, as well. The Beam (as well as the Arc) will soon support the Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos formats from Amazon Music. Some Sonos speakers have worked with a handful of HD music services for a while now, but this is the first time that a 3D music format will work with the company’s products. I asked if there were any plans to support Dolby Atmos on Apple Music, and unsurprisingly the company wasn’t willing to say yet. But, there shouldn’t be any technical reason, it’s just a matter of Sonos and Apple working together to get more Apple Music formats supported.

Sonos

As with other Sonos products, the new Beam connects to the company’s other speakers for multi-room playback; you can also use other Sonos speakers as surrounds. You can tune the speaker to your room to improve the sound using Trueplay, assuming you have an iOS device. The Beam also has far-field microphones so it can receive voice commands through either Alexa or the Google Assistant, but that’s not required (there’s a mic mute button right on top of the Beam, too). Like some other recent Sonos speakers, the new Beam has NFC to make setup even easier — playing your phone running the Sonos app near it will automatically connect it to your WiFi network.

Based on what Sonos has said so far, the new Beam is probably not a crucial upgrade for most, unless you’ve been itching to get Dolby Atmos into your setup without spending a ton of money. But given that the Beam is already the best-selling compact soundbar (according to NPD data), these upgrades should help it keep its lead over the competition — even with that $50 price hike.

Sonos makes some excellent connected speakers and home theater products, but no one ever said they were cheap. As of this Sunday, September 12th, they'll cost even more here in the US. The company just announced it is raising the price of almost all its speakers; most will go up about 10 percent. 

A few to note: the Sonos One, probably its most popular speaker, will now cost $219 instead of $199. The One SL (which is the same as the One, but without mics for voice assistants) now costs $199 rather than $179. The new Sonos Roam portable speaker is getting a $10 price bump, to $179.

The flagship Sonos Five audio speaker will now cost $549 instead of $499, and the flagship Arc soundbar costs $899, a full $100 more expensive than before. The Sub, which is primarily geared towards home theater but can also be used with music speakers, is up $50 to $749. The only speaker that isn't going to cost more is the Move, which is staying at $399. Sonos didn't mention any changes to the Beam in its price list, either.

Sonos first announced that it would increase prices on its quarterly earnings call back in early August, but didn't provide details at the time. As for why now, the company gave some unsurprisingly vague details around "assessing market dynamics" to achieve growth goals and maintain innovation across its entire portfolio, including software and services as well as hardware. Obviously, no customer wants to see price increases, but given that Sonos solid the $199 Play:1 and then the One, its successor, at that price point for the better part of a decade, a 10 percent increase isn't too crazy. Given how new the Arc is, though, a $100 bump on an already expensive product might limit its broader market appeal a little. Though on the other hand, most home theater aficionados are probably used to opening their wallets for good hardware.

It's been about a year since Sony first said that God of War Ragnarök was officially on its way, and today we're finally getting our first look at the game. As expected, it look like God of War, with the familiar dual-weapon wielding that Kratos excelled at in the 2018 game. His son, Atreus, looks like he's grown up in the last few years, and he's challenging his dear old dad's decisions as well as proving to be a more capable fighter.

As for the game's story, it looks to be setting up a conflict with the Norse pantheon of gods — just as Kratos destroyed all of the Greek gods in the first trilogy of games, he might be on that path again here. But he's definitely fighting it, while Atreus sounds like the one who is more convinced that full-on war is necessary here. As noted in an extensive blog post about the new game, a lot of the conflict seems to come from Atreus trying to understand what his now-dead mother wanted for him, after it was revealed he was part-giant at the end of the first game.

As for the enemies, Freya, an ally-turned-foe, will be a main antagonist, as will Thor. We only saw brief teases of each character, but both characters have lost family to Kratos and Atreus, and they seem about as thirsty for revenge as Kratos used to be when he was a Greek god. Particularly intriguing is the news that veteran actor Richard Schiff (The West Wing) will play Odin, king of the Norse gods.

Unsurprisingly, the game looks fantastic, with a variety of new environments and enemies as well as more ways to use Kratos' Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos. But the familiar boat returns, as does the disembodied head Mimir, so get ready for more story time and cutting remarks about Kratos' perpetually grumpy mood.

Sony unfortunately didn't have a release date to share; a year ago, the company said God of War Ragnarök would arrive in 2021, but the blog post said "see you next year" at its end.

We did learn in a post-show interview that Eric Williams, a longtime Santa Monica Studio veteran will be directing God of War Ragnarök, rather than Cory Barlog, who helmed the 2018 title. Williams has worked on every God of War title so far, so he seems a logical choice for the job. Williams mentioned that each game has historically had a different director, with Barlog the only one doing two installments. "You're really exhausted at the end of finishing one of these things," Barlog said, "so you've gotta con someone else into doing it, like him." 

Apple's AirPods Pro are some of the best true wireless earbuds that an iPhone user can buy, and they're on sale for $180 again, at both Amazon and Best Buy. We scored them an 87 in our review when they were released almost two years ago, and while there have been a host of true wireless earbuds released since then, these are still worth a look.

Naturally, these headphones offer some notable upgrades over the standard AirPods, which typically cost $160 (though they're often on sale, too). Their in-ear design means you'll get a better seal, and they have active noise cancellation to block out more sound. They also support Apple's spatial audio technology, which means that they can stream Apple Music's new Dolby Atmos format. They also come with a wireless charging case, while you need to pay extra to get that with the standard AirPods. 

It's worth noting that Apple's fall events are coming soon, and some rumors point to new standard AirPods coming out in the next few months. As for new AirPods Pro, the latest rumors indicate that they'll have some fitness-tracking features on board. If that's of interest to you, it might be worth waiting, but at $70 off, the current AirPods Pro are still worth a look.

Horizon Forbidden West, probably the biggest PlayStation exclusive announced since the PS5 launch, is set to arrive in February. With the release date coming soon, developer Guerilla Games is opening pre-orders and detailing the many different editions of the game that will be available on February 18th, 2022. 

Perhaps the most important thing most buyers will need to know is that the standard "launch" editions of Horizon Forbidden West, whether you're buying a physical or digital copy, will only work on a single console. (You can clearly see this stated in an FAQ Sony published today.) Even though the game is being released for both PS4 and PS5, you'll have to choose which console you want and stick with that; there's no ability to upgrade for a fee later. As with most AAA games these days, the PS4 versions costs $60 and the PS5 $70. There are also special edition steelbook version for both consoles that also include a mini art book and digital copy of the soundtrack for $10 more.

If you're really not sure which console to buy for, there's a digital deluxe edition that might be the way to go. For $80 (the same as the PS5 steelbook version), you'll get the game on both PS4 and PS5. It also comes with a number of digital goodies including the art book, soundtrack, a digital comic and some in-game outfits and items. One unlock we haven't heard of before is for the game's photo mode; you'll unlock special face paint and a unique pose for Aloy.

As with other popular AAA titles, there are a couple of lavish and expensive editions for hardcore fans (like the author of this post). The highlight of the $200 Collector's Edition is a seemingly massive statue of the game's Tremortusk enemy alongside a much smaller statue of Aloy. It also includes the same physical art book and steelbook display case that comes with the special editions, plus all the digital gear included with the deluxe edition. 

Sony

The $260 "Regalla" edition (so named for an enemy faction in the new game) steps things up with an even more detailed statue that includes special armor and enemy warriors riding the Tremortusk. It also includes two artwork cards, a replica of Aloy's Focus, a canvas map and two replicas of "Strike" pieces from the game. Strike is apparently a type of board game that the characters in Horizon Forbidden West play; we'll have to learn more about them later.

Both of these massive editions come with the game for both PS4 and PS5 — but, they do not include the game on disc. Instead, you'll receive a download card. It makes some degree of sense, given that Sony now sells a PS5 with no disc drive, but it's definitely a bummer for people who don't want to have to wait for what will surely be a massive game download. 

Confused yet? Let's make it simple: If you want both PS4 and PS5 versions, you'll need to spend $80 on the digital deluxe edition, which is not a bad idea considering you get the two game versions plus a bunch of digital goodies for only 10 bucks more than the standard PS5 edition. The other option is buying the pricey Collector's or Regalla editions. But if you're set on buying a disc, you'll have to stick with whatever console you pick when you buy it, as there are no plans to offer an upgrade path to the PS5.

You can see and pre-order all the various editions here.

Since the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, a "Select Committee" has been formed in the House of Representatives to investigate the circumstances that led to a mob breaching the country's seat of government. Part of that wide-ranging investigation will apparently involve a close look at the biggest social media companies in the world. The committee today announced that it was requesting records relating to the attack from 15 companies, who were asked to respond in the next two weeks.

It's a who's who of the biggest players on the internet, including Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Snap, Twitch, Telegram and TikTok. On the list are a number of smaller, pro-Trump sites that have sprung up in recent years, including Gab and Parler, as well as known cesspools 4chan and 8kun (formerly 8chan). 

Specifically, the Select Committee wants records relating to the spread of misinformation, efforts to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, efforts to prevent certification of the election, foreign influence attempt in the election, and domestic violent extremism. Additionally, the Committee is also looking for materials from these companies relating to any policy changes that were considered or adopted to address misinformation, violent extremism and foreign malicious influence. 

Notably, the Committee wants to hear both about policy changes that were put into place as well as things that the companies "failed to adopt." One example of a change that came about in response to the attack happened recently at Facebook, where the company adopted a recommendation from its Oversight Board. The company walked back its policy that allowed politicians to circumvent some of its rules under the guise of “newsworthiness,” though politicians still do get special treatment around other rules, like fact-checking.

It's been clear since the Select Committee came together that it was going to take the time to gather a huge amount of information to properly investigate the events of January 6th, and that extends to its requests to these companies. Now, the ball is in their respective courts.