Microsoft was most likely ready for rigorous anti-trust scrutiny around the world when it decided to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal is the tech giant's biggest yet, and it's also set to become the largest all-cash acquisition ever. In the US, the proposed acquisition will be reviewed the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department, according to Bloomberg. The two agencies are in charge of investigating mergers in the country and typically decide between themselves which one will take charge of a case. 

FTC's investigation will reportedly take a close look at how Microsoft's ownership of Activision could harm rivals by limiting access to the developer's biggest games. Activision owns hugely popular IPs, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. It's unclear if Microsoft has plans to release titles exclusive to Xbox and Window PCs in the future, but it's worth noting Sony is still ahead of Microsoft in terms of gaming hardware sales and that a large chunk of Activision's revenue comes from PlayStation gamers.

Microsoft expects to close the acquisition by June 2023, and it's probably not going to be easy for the company. As Bloomberg notes, the FTC vowed to adopt a more aggressive approach towards investigating mergers and acquisitions last year under new chairperson Lina Khan. In December, the FTC sued to block NVIDIA's $40 billion purchase of ARM over concerns that the deal would stifle competition for various technologies, such as those for data centers and car computers. 

A more recent Bloomberg report said NVIDIA is making preparations to walk away from the deal and that current ARM-owner SoftBank is looking to take the company public if the acquisition falls through. Still, the Microsoft seems to be confident that the acquisition will take place — Reuters says the tech giant committed to paying a $3 billion break fee if the deal fails to go through. 

Before Microsoft announced the Surface Duo in 2019, the company spent several years working on an operating system codenamed Andromeda. It was envisioned as a reboot of Windows Phone with an emphasis on inking. The company worked on the software until it eventually decided to instead include Android on the Surface Duo. Until now, we’ve only seen glimpses of Andromeda in things like patent filing. But Windows Central recently obtained an internal build of the operating system and installed it on a Lumia 950.

Outside of a rare look at an unfinished project, what’s interesting about seeing Andromeda after all these years is how many of the ideas Microsoft was working on then either made their way to the Surface Duo or apps the company has released since. On the lock screen, for instance, you can see an early version of the Surface Duo’s peek functionality. Meanwhile, a lot of the features you see on the “Journal” home screen eventually made their way to the company’s Whiteboard app, and that’s something you can download from the Microsoft Store.

At the same time, it’s an interesting look at what could have been. Even in the software’s unfinished state, there’s a lot we see in the video that’s genuinely different from anything Android and iOS offer, even to this day. The fact Andromeda allowed you to jot down notes directly on the lock screen, and that they would still be there the next time you unlocked the phone, is something that looks genuinely useful.

Of course, there are probably many good reasons Microsoft ultimately decided not to pursue Andromeda. Launching a device that does something different, let alone a completely new operating system, is no easy task in a mature marketplace. Unless a device does nearly everything right, it’s difficult to overcome the fact most people tend to stick with products they know and are comfortable with.

Blizzard Entertainment boss Mike Ybarra has promised in a blog post to "rebuild your trust" in the studio, marking his first comments since Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Blizzard Activision. The developer of blockbuster titles like World of Warcraft and Overwatch has been under pressure since it was sued by the state of California, which accused it of being a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women."

Ybarra promised new measures to improve the company's culture, starting with tying executive and management compensation to "our overall success in creating a safe, inclusive and creative work environment at Blizzard," he said. He also outlined new roles designed to address discrimination and other issues, including: 

"A Culture leader who will help us maintain the best aspects of what we have today, and change and evolve where needed to ensure everyone brings their best self to Blizzard; a new organizational leader for Human Resources who will build trust, empower our teams, and help foster a safe, positive work environment for everyone; [and] a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) leader solely focused on our progress across multiple efforts in this area."

He said the company has tripled the size of its compliance and investigation teams, shared representation data internally, and created an "upward feedback program" to help employees evaluate managers. He didn't share representation data in the blog, but Activision Blizzard's workforce is reportedly around 80 percent male. 

Microsoft announced the acquisition while Blizzard Activision was at a point of weakness due to the misconduct scandal, as Bloomberg noted. Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer acknowledged the issues with the studio, saying "we’re looking forward to extending our culture of proactive inclusion to the great teams across Activision Blizzard." Microsoft also recently launched a third-party review over its own harassment and discrimination policies. 

There are other unresolved issues with Blizzard, particularly around leadership. It's still not clear if embattled CEO Bobbie Kotick will remain with the studio, or for how long. He addressed employees yesterday following the acquisition, but many weren't impressed, noting that he didn't acknowledge culture issues or potential layoffs, according to The Washington Post.

Ybarra, who only left Microsoft for Blizzard in 2019, was originally installed as Blizzard co-lead along with Jen Oneal to replace former president J. Allan Brack — who was named in California's lawsuit. However, Oneal stepped down shortly afterward and reportedly said in an email to the company's legal team that "it was clear that the company would never prioritize our people the right way," according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ybarra also seemingly acknowledged recent delays to Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. "We also know we need to deliver content to our players on a more regular basis and innovate both in and beyond our existing games," he said. "We have some exciting things to announce, and I’ll be sharing more next week." Microsoft's acquisition of Blizzard is still pending approval by regulators. 

After introducing S Pen support to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and not launching a new version of the Note series last year, Samsung's next Unpacked event would be a timely opportunity to address concerned fans. Though the company has yet to confirm an exact date beyond the month of February (rumors suggest it might take place Feb. 8th), president TM Roh has written a blog post on what we can expect at the launch. Samsung has also shared a teaser trailer.

"We know many of you were surprised when Samsung didn’t release a new Galaxy Note last year," he wrote. "At Unpacked in February 2022, we'll introduce to you the most noteworthy S series device we've ever created." The company is expected to unveil the Galaxy S22 series this year.

Roh also said "the next generation of Galaxy S... [brings] together the greatest experiences of our Samsung Galaxy into one ultimate device." He teased nighttime photography, power and performance as some areas to look out for, ending his post with "Get ready for the ultimate Ultra experience." That could mean the best upgrades could be limited to the Ultra model again, as in previous years.

The rest of Roh's post is mostly recap of its S and Note series, as well as vague allusions like "we haven't about these [Galaxy Note] experiences you love." There aren't any details on what exact Note-esque features we might see in the next S flagship, and our biggest clue is the use of the word "noteworthy" to describe the upcoming product.  

Finally, Samsung also announced today that tomorrow (Jan. 21st) at 10am ET, it'll open its Reserve Now offers ahead of time like it's done for previous launches. If you want to guarantee you can get whatever Samsung announces in February, you can reserve early and get perks like a $50 Samsung credit towards other Galaxy products during pre-order, as well as more deals when it's time to pre-order.

There's now a more affordable way to wear your devotion to gaming on your wrist. Razer and Fossil have teamed up to release a limited-edition Gen 6 smartwatch built with gamers in mind. The new wristwear adds three custom watch faces — yes, including an RGB-inspired "Chroma" face. You'll also receive two custom silicone straps that include a sober black and Razer's iconic (if slightly eye-searing) green.

This is otherwise the Gen 6 you've come to know. The 44mm steel case, Snapdragon Wear 4100+ chip, 3ATM water resistance, blood oxygen monitoring and 1.28-inch circular display will be familiar if you've shopped Fossil's recent smartwatches. Not these are necessarily bad things — the Razer watch should be a fast, capable timepiece. You won't get LTE and you'll have just 8GB of storage, but the very fast charging (80 percent in 30 minutes) should keep the device powered even if you regularly use sleep tracking.

The Razer x Fossil watch will be available worldwide later in January for a reasonable $329. You'll need to scramble to get one, though. The two companies are making an appropriately nerdy 1,337 units, so you might have to 'settle' for a standard Gen 6. Much like TAG Heuer's Super Mario piece, this is more about exclusivity and flexing than making smartwatches a staple of the gaming community.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

It’s CES, which means that HP is busting out a whole host of new laptops with upgraded internals to suit the new silicon coming from Intel. That includes a bunch of Elite-branded machines, including the Elite x360 1040 G9, EliteBook 1040 G9, EliteBook 800 G9 and EliteBook 600 series. All of them are getting 12th-generation Intel Core processors, a redesigned chassis, 16:10 display and optional 5G. Not to mention that HP is pledging that there is at least 30 percent post-consumer recycled plastic in the machine’s body. All of those machines are expected to arrive in March, with pricing to be announced closer to release.

HP

At the same time, the company is also updating the ZBook range with the new ZBook Firefly G9, available in both 14-and-16-inch versions. Both, HP says, will offer “professional level performance,” and a number of high-spec options including the new 12th-generation Intel Core processors. You can pair whatever silicon you choose with NVDIA’s T550 GPU and up to 64GB RAM, and it’s unmistakably a good-looking machine. This, too, will be available to buy in March, and HP is similarly remaining tight-lipped as to how much cash you’ll need to fork over in order to get one.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

Companies like Razer, Alienware and Asus ROG have been offering laptops with RTX 3080 and 3070 GPUs inside for a while now, but over the summer NVIDIA launched a pair of upgraded desktop cards: the 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti. Now, the company is bringing the “Ti” brand over to laptops.

The 3080 Ti will be available in laptops priced $2,499 and above. NVIDIA says it’s faster than last generation’s Titan RTX desktop card, and will be able to play (unspecified) games with 1440p ultra settings at over 120 fps. It also features 16GB of GDDR6 clocked at “the fastest ever seen in a laptop.” Exact details beyond that haven’t been shared yet, but the first 3080 Ti laptops will be available in February, so we won’t have long till we find out exactly what they’re capable of.

The 3070 Ti will be available in laptops priced $1,499 and above. NVIDIA says this one is “70 percent faster than the RTX 2070 Super laptops,” which isn’t a particularly helpful figure but hey-ho. It’ll apparently be able to run 1440p games at ultra settings at 100 fps, and, again, will start appearing in laptops in February.

Finally, NVIDIA announced some new technologies for Max-Q laptops, including an AI CPU Optimizer which can control the frequencies and power draw of certain Intel and AMD "nex-gen" CPUs, Rapid Core Scaling which can turn off some GPU cores while boosting the frequencies of others for productivity tasks, and Battery Boost 2.0, which will tune both your game and your hardware to apparently improve gaming while on battery. NVIDIA claims that last one can increase your battery life by 70-percent, presumably at the expense of in-game performance.and fidelity.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

While we saw the Mac Mini M1 drop in price during the holiday shopping season, you have another chance to grab the desktop for less right now. Amazon has the base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $649, or $50 less than usual. It's not a record low — the machine dropped to $570 last month thanks to a sale combined with an addition coupon — but it's a noteworthy discount for this time of year in which most gadgets return to normal prices after the seasonal rush.

The Mac Mini M1 runs on the same processor as the latest MacBook Air, which means you should notice a big improvement in performance, especially if you're coming from an aging device. It has an eight-core CPU and an eight-core GPU, along with a Neural Engine that handles machine-learning tasks. In our experience with the Air, the M1 chipset was blazing fast, helping sites load almost instantly and running native apps smoothly. And you'll get all of that in the most affordable M1 machine if you go with the Mac Mini — even at its normal price of $699, the Mini is $300 cheaper than the $999 MacBook Air, making it a good option for those who don't want to break the bank while investing in a newer, faster computer.

If you appreciated the minimalist design of previous Mac Minis, you'll like the latest model because it hasn't changed much. Its silver exterior is only interrupted on one edge by the machine's port array, which includes two Thunderbolt ports, two USB-A connectors, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. If you've been itching to update your family's computer, or you just want to add a capable desktop to your home without spending too much money, this sale on the Mac Mini M1 is worth considering.

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AT&T and Verizon aren't delaying their 5G expansions any further after all. Bloombergnotes the two carriers' CEOs have issued a joint letter rejecting a request from the FAA and Transportation Department to stall their C-band service rollouts beyond January 5th to address concerns of interference with aircraft systems. The companies argued that the government's proposed plan would effectively give oversight of the network expansions to the FAA for an "undetermined number of months or years," and wouldn't cover rivals like T-Mobile.

The move would represent an "irresponsible abdication" of network control, the CEOs said. They also believed honoring the request would be to the "detriment" of customers.

Instead, AT&T and Verizon tried to negotiate a compromise. They vowed not to deploy C-band 5G towers near some airports for six months, but only so long as the aviation industry and regulators didn't do more to halt C-band deployments. American transportation agencies had asked on December 31st for a general delay no longer than two weeks, but called for a gradual deployment of service near "priority" airports through March to safeguard important runways.

It's not clear how the FAA and Transportation Department will respond. The rejection isn't shocking, mind you. C-band service promises to deliver more of the long-touted speed advantages of 5G without the short range and poor indoor service of millimeter wave technology. It could also add capacity to keep 5G networks running smoothly as more users upgrade their devices. However, officials and the aviation industry have a lot to lose as well —they're worried C-band 5G could disrupt flights and put passengers at risk. You might not see either side capitulate quickly.

Illegal streaming could be particularly costly in Malaysia. TorrentFreakreports the country has passed amendments to its Copyright Act that punish those who enable pirate streaming. People who offer streaming services and devices that "prejudicially" hurt copyright owners can face fines equivalent to $2,377 or more, prison sentences up to 20 years, or both.

The updated law also discourages companies from either participating in streaming piracy or tolerating its presence. Unless managers can show they were unaware of a violation and took "all due diligence" to stop such acts, they'll be considered guilty of the relevant crime.

Copyright laws worldwide frequently cover digital piracy, but some of them were designed to tackle downloads and other, older forms of bootlegging. That was a problem for Malaysia, which couldn't use the Copyright Act against people selling piracy-oriented streaming devices until a High Court decision allowed those cases.

The potential punishments are strict, and the wording suggests it may be difficult for some companies to avoid entanglements with rogue employees. How much diligence is necessary, for example? Still, this shows how some countries may specifically address streaming through legislation, and might please the US and other copyright-driven nations worried their neighbors might tolerate illegal internet services.