I’ve always wanted an Apple TV, but the high price and locked-down features made me opt for Roku’s ecosystem instead. And while I appreciate the freedom Roku offers, Devindra Hardawar’s review of the new TV 4K almost turned my head.

The 2022 model is cheaper, smaller and runs more efficiently than its predecessor, and it still packs that fancy Siri remote as standard. The box’s speed is its greatest strength, letting you leap between video streaming apps in the time it takes for your cable box to wake up.

Of course, there’s always a fly or two in the ointment, like the $129, 64GB model has a compromise or two. If you, for instance, want a built-in Ethernet port, or Thread IoT integration, you’ll need the $149, 128GB model. Never change, Apple.

– Dan Cooper

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Astronauts will 3D print part of a human knee in space

It’s part of a test of a battlefield bioprinter.

It would be great if we could simply 3D-print parts of our bodies that we’ve damaged or worn out through overuse. It’s something NASA will try out with a bioprinter designed to do just that, in the hope of using it for soldiers. During its stay in the heavens, the printer will craft a human meniscus for study, to treat – without the use of inorganic implants – one of the most common knee injuries.

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‘Symbiogenesis’ is some NFT garbage from Square Enix, not a ‘Parasite Eve’ revival

The worst kind of switcheroo.

Square Enix

When Square Enix registered Symbiogenesis as a trademark, a small legion of fans got very excited. They, not unreasonably, believed the company was working on a follow-up to Parasite Eve, a beloved horror RPG from 1998. Imagine their dismay when the project turned out to be little more than an NFT grift from a games giant who should know better.

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AMD's first RDNA 3 GPUs are the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT

The launch came with plenty of sass for NVIDIA.

AMD

When NVIDIA launched the teeth-meltingly powerful RTX 4090, everyone waited to see what AMD would offer in return. The company has now shown off a pair of Radeon RX cards, the 7900 and 7900 XTX, powered by its new RDNA 3 architecture. AMD says these cards won’t melt your power supply (unlike its rival) and, at $999, won’t hollow-out your wallet (unlike… you get the idea).

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WiFi security flaw lets a drone track devices through walls

This isn’t ideal.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a system to track WiFi-enabled devices through walls. The technique relies on the protocol’s automatic contact response and can pinpoint equipment to within three feet of its location. To demonstrate the need for better WiFi security, the team equipped an off-the-shelf drone with a WiFi scanner that cost just $15 to make. They flew it around the outside of a house, pinpointing the home’s occupants and WiFi-enabled hardware, such as security cameras. There are several worrying uses for such technology, including looking for unguarded areas of a home for burglary or unauthorized surveillance, none of which are particularly good.

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Twitter is facing a class action lawsuit over its ongoing mass layoffs today, which could likely cut its workforce in half. According to Bloomberg, employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company in San Francisco federal court, arguing that Twitter's actions run afoul of the US Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Under the labor law, companies with 100 or more employees are required to notify them of mass layoffs 60 days in advance.

The New York Times reported earlier that Twitter will begin layoffs on Friday and that around half of the company's staff members will lose their jobs. In an email seen by The Washington Post, Twitter said that the layoffs are "unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward." The company also told employees to stay at home today and to wait for an email. If they get one in their Twitter account, their job is safe. But if they receive the email in their personal account, that means they're being let go. Some people are reporting on the social network that they already got locked out of their work emails and had been removed from company Slack. 

The plaintiffs are asking the court to issue an order forcing Twitter to obey the WARN Act. They also want the court to prohibit the company from soliciting employees to sign away their right to litigate. Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said they filed the complaint "in an attempt to make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights."

Liss-Riordan was also the lawyer who handled the lawsuit against Tesla in June over layoffs that cut 10 percent of the automaker's workforce. Similar to this complaint, the plaintiffs back then argued that Tesla violated the WARN Act. Company chief Elon Musk, who took over Twitter a week ago, called the lawsuit "trivial" in a talk with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait. The court had also sided with the company and ruled that employees should negotiate with Tesla in a closed-door arbitration instead.

Cherry is releasing the MX Black Clear-Top (aka the "Nixie") a new version of a keyboard switch from the '80s prized for its typing feel and acoustics. It was manufactured for a German company called Nixdorf (hence the nickname) that mainly built keyboards for terminals, servers and mini computers. Because the Nixie was only built for a few years, used switches are rare and command high prices — a fact that no doubt inspired Cherry to start building an updated version.

The original Nixie switch was a variant of Cherry's MX Black switch with very specific modifications. Namely, the actuating force was bumped slightly from 60 to 63.5 centinewtons, and a diode was integrated into the switch for n-key rollover (NKRO) which allows the keyboard to register every key press, even if done simultaneously. 

The new version carries the same specs and looks, including "the familiar milky top housing, black bottom housing, and a black stem," Cherry wrote in a press release. It has the same actuation force of 63.5 centinewtons, a pre-travel of 2 mm, and a total travel of 4 mm. The company also retained the same vintage design for the spring. 

At the same time, though, it's being built using the company's latest production systems so it's up to the quality of its latest MX switches. Cherry will offer the MX Black Clear-Top both with or without grease works, with the latter being for enthusiasts who want to do any lubrication themselves. The switches arrive at the beginning of 2023, but Cherry has yet to announce the price. 

PayPal has revealed in its latest earnings report (PDF) that merchant users in the US will be able to accept payments using their iPhones in the near future without the need for dongles and card readers. The payment solution will be integrating Apple's Tay to Pay technology "soon." That means businesses and sellers will easily be able to receive payments made via contactless debit or credit cards, as well as via mobile wallets including Apple Pay, through the PayPal or Venmo app. They simply have to make sure that they're using an iPhone XS or a newer model. 

Apple first announced the Tap to Pay feature on iPhone in February this year. A few months later, staff members at the Apple Park visitor center in Cupertino were seen testing the the feature. Since it makes payments as easy as bumping phones together, it seemed like it could be a threat to payment companies like Square. However, Square quickly got on board and launched Tap to Pay integration in September after running an early access program. 

In addition to its Tap to Pay news, PayPal has also revealed that it's adding Apple Pay as a payment option to its checkout solution for merchant platforms. And starting next year, customers in the US will be able to add their PayPal and Venmo credit and debit cards to their Apple Wallets. In a statement sent to Bloomberg, PayPal Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman said the company is "very pleased to be working with Apple to enhance [its] offerings for... PayPal and Venmo merchants and consumers." It's also worth noting that PayPal briefly touched on making Venmo available as a checkout option for some Amazon users in the US in its earnings report. The company reiterated that the feature will roll out to everyone in the country this coming holiday season. 

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) recently announced plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into one streaming service set to debut in the summer of 2023. Now in the company's latest earnings call, WBD President and CEO David Zaslav said the combined service will arrive in the US earlier than expected in spring of 2023.

The streaming services combined now have 94.9 million subscribers, with the large majority of those from HBO and HBO Max, according to Fierce Wireless. That includes 2.8 million new subscribers, with most of those (2.3 million) coming from overseas markets. 

Along with the combined streaming service, WBD plans to launch its own free ad-support streaming TV service (FAST) in 2023. "As the company with the largest TV and film library in the industry... that allows us to distribute our content in multiple ways," said Zaslav. The company also said its investing in content at historic levels, citing the hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-chairmen and CEOs of DC studios.

It's still not clear what form the combined streaming service will take or what it will be called. However, WBD recently started transferring Discovery+ content to HBO Max like Fixer Upper: The Castle, and it's became a top five show in just a few days, Zaslav said. 

Like many other streaming services over the past year, Hulu raised its subscription prices in October from $7 to $8 per month for its ad-supported tier. Now, the Disney-owned streaming service is also raising the prices for its Hulu + Live TV bundle. In an email sent to an Engadget editor, it said that the Hulu + Live TV (with ads), Disney+ (no ads) and ESPN+ (with ads) bundle will cost $75 per month on their first billing cycle after December 8th. That's $5 more than the current monthly price of $70. 

Our editor also got a note that they can switch or cancel their subscription. But the legacy plan they're subscribed to will no longer be available after December 8th, so they won't be able to switch back afterward. To note, according to Apple Insider, those paying for a bundle wherein Hulu has no ads will have to pony up $83 a month starting on December 8th instead of $76 like what they're currently paying. 

Seeing as Disney announced in August that Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ are all raising their prices, perhaps it doesn't come as a surprise that the Live TV bundle is getting a price hike, as well. Back then, Disney revealed that it incurred operating losses worth nearly $1.1 billion from running its streaming services. It also said that the third quarter of the year added 14.4 million subscribers to Disney+ alone, and the company is clearly hoping to earn some of the money it lost but charging its viewers more. 

Sling TV is raising its monthly subscription prices for the fourth time in the last five years, the company announced in a blog post seen by The Verge. Both the Sling Orange and Sling Blue packages are going up by $5, from $35 to $40, while the all-inclusive package with both Orange and Blue is going up by $5 as well to $55. 

Sling TV President Gary Schanman said the company made the hike because the "price of programming continues to rise," while noting that it hadn't raised prices in "nearly two years." The move happens less than a month after Disney went dark on Sling TV for two days, with the streaming service saying that Disney wanted $1 billion more to extend its carriage contract. 

Sling TV launched in 2015 at a $20 per month price tag, but that price has gradually gone up and now sits at double the original rate. It's still one of the cheaper live TV streaming options, though, as YouTube TV costs $65 per month (up nearly double its original $35 price), and DirecTV runs $70, minimum. 

Schanman said that Sling TV has new features coming down the road, "including plans to add 150-plus new channels through 2023, new user profiles for your household and auto binge watching capabilities."

Twitter will reportedly begin laying off workers on Friday, only a week after Elon Musk officially took control of the website. Around half of the company's staff members will lose their jobs, according to internal messages seen by The New York Times and The Washington Post. That's consistent with the previous reports that came out earlier this week.

Musk didn't waste much time in making personnel changes after taking over Twitter. His first act was to dismiss then-CEO Parag Agrawal and other members of the leadership team. Several other executives have left the company over the last week. In an email sent to staff members, Twitter said that it has to "go through the difficult process of reducing [its] global workforce on Friday" and that the move "is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward."

Twitter's offices will be closed on Friday, and all employees are asked to stay home and wait for an update regarding their fate. Those who get to keep their jobs will receive an email with the subject line "Your Role at Twitter" via their work emails. Twitter will contact people getting laid off through their personal emails with the next steps to take.

Since Twitter is now a privately held entity, it doesn't ostensibly have to answer to shareholders anymore. However, the company still needs to improve the bottom line. It's on the hook for roughly $1 billion a year in interest payments on the debt Musk saddled the company with when he bought it. In the three months to June 30th, Twitter posted a net loss of $270 million. So, it needs to make more money and/or reduce costs, and to do so pretty swiftly.

Some major advertisers are skittish about the new regime and Twitter is trying to diversify its sources of revenue. Musk plans to charge $8 per month for Twitter Blue, which verified users will need to pay for to retain their blue checkmark. The service will offer new features, according to Musk, with subscribers seeing fewer ads and the ability to include longer videos in tweets. Reports suggest the Twitter Blue may go up from $5 to $8 per month as soon as Monday. The company is also reportedly working on a plan to offer paid video posts, which it may use to monetize adult content.

Mariella Moon contributed to this report.

Now that AMD has unveiled Radeon RX 7900 GPUs that can output 8K video at high refresh rates, gamers will need displays that can handle them — and Samsung is happy to oblige. The company has teased a new generation of its Odyssey Neo G9 that will supposedly be the first 8K ultrawide gaming monitor. You won't see a full launch until CES in January, but you'll need a DisplayPort 2.1-capable video card to help that screen reach its potential. We'd also add that AMD bills the 8K as "horizontal only," so you may not get as many vertical pixels as you might like.

Other high-res DisplayPort 2.1 monitors are coming from Acer, ASUS, Dell and LG starting in early 2023. AMD unfortunately didn't share more details.

This will likely be an expensive monitor when the previous-gen Odyssey Neo G9 currently sells for $2,200 with 'just' a 5,120 x 1,440 resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. However, the bigger cost may be the PC attached to that 8K panel. On top of one of the new Radeons, you'll need a CPU that won't create a bottleneck for the graphics hardware.

There's also the question of content. Even many recent games can struggle at 8K, and older titles won't benefit much. Do you really need to play CS:GO at that resolution? AMD has promised that some games will run well on its cards with the help of upscaling, such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Death Stranding, Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted, but it's not clear how well native 8K will perform just yet. Samsung's monitor may be more of an investment in the future than instant gratification.

Now that NVIDIA has kicked off the latest video card wave with the insanely powerful RTX 4090, all eyes are on AMD to see how it will respond. Today, the company announced the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT, two confusingly named GPUs powered by its new RDNA3 architecture. On stage during its Las Vegas launch event, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su claimed the new hardware offers a 54 percent increase in performance per watt over the previous GPUs. She also emphasized that AMD is focused on delivering complex performance with reasonable power usage, a clear knock against NVIDIA's power-hungry (and PSU cable-melting) RTX 4090.

Developing...