If you've been using Twitter's For You feed this week, you might’ve noticed the algorithmic feed showed a lot of Elon Musk's tweets and replies. According to Platformer, which interviewed Twitter employees, engineers tweaked the social network to benefit their CEO. Elon's cousin and Twitter employee James Musk sent an urgent message on the company's Slack on Monday morning. He called the situation "high urgency" and asked everyone who can write code to help.

What had happened? President Biden's Super Bowl tweet about rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles got more engagement than Musk's. Apparently, the president's tweet generated almost 29 million impressions, whereas Musk's generated only 9.1 million before he deleted it.

The fix they came up with, Platformer says, was code that artificially boosted Musk's tweets by a factor of 1,000. Musk acknowledged the change in his own way, by posting the "forced to drink milk" meme. He also asked people to stay tuned while Twitter adjusted the "algorithm." According to the report, Musk's tweets are still artificially boosted, it seems, just not quite as much.

– 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.

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Qualcomm's new phone modem may help overcome 5G's flaws

• Tesla will open up 7,500 charging stations to other EVs by 2024

• Every actor on our ruined planet will star in Apple TV+'s 'Extrapolations'

• Apple's pay later approvals could depend on previous Apple purchases

• Verizon expands its 2Gbps Fios home internet to the five boroughs

• ‘The Mageseeker’ is a League of Legends RPG from the studio behind ‘Moonlighter’

• Traeger's redesigned Ironwood grills pack touchscreen controls and more efficiency

• 'Horizon Forbidden West' is coming to PS Plus Extra and Premium on February 21st

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on

Fixing the foldable's shortcomings.

Engadget

Oppo has been watching the foldable competition. Last year, it revealed its second generation of foldable phones would compete with the same form factors as Samsung. Now, while the West won’t be getting the bigger Find N2 Fold, in the UK and Europe, we will get the Oppo Find N2 Flip. In many ways, the Find N2 Flip attempts to address some shortcomings of the existing foldables, with a bigger cover screen and a larger battery. Sadly, however, there are no plans to launch the phone in the US.

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Our verdict on PlayStation’s ‘pro’ DualSense Edge controller

Customization and a higher price.

Engadget

The original Xbox Elite controller came out way back in 2015, so it's a wonder why Sony took so long to release its take on a premium, customizable gamepad. But now the PlayStation 5 is more widely available (kind of), the $200 DualSense Edge is here. It costs a bit more than its Xbox rival but offers a few nifty features you don't get on Microsoft's controller. However, it’s not perfect: Its short battery life is definitely a downer.

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Apple's MLS Season Pass will stream games in 1080p

The company and the league have more info on the service.

Apple already announced many details on its MLS Season Pass, the company's biggest entry into live sports streaming yet. However, the company and the league still had a few details they hadn't yet revealed. As the start of the new season draws closer, the two collaborators shared more info, including that every game will stream in 1080p. That's the same quality the company offered for its weekly Major League Baseball games last year.

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Final Fantasy VII’s Midgar is the latest grimy locale coming to 'PowerWash Simulator'

Five more filthy free levels are coming to the relaxing game on March 2nd.

PowerWash Simulator developer FuturLab will soon give players more stuff to clean up with their trusty pressure washers, as it's adding another free crossover expansion. Five levels set in Final Fantasy VII's Midgar are coming to the game on March 2nd. Yes, it’s a game where you powerwash stuff. And it’s wonderful.

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Apple already announced a lot of the details on its MLS Season Pass, the company's biggest entry into live sports streaming yet. However, the company and the league still had a few details they hadn't yet revealed. As the start of the new season draws closer, the two collaborators announced more info today, including streaming and audio quality in addition to scheduling, the number of games and studio show formats

In what will be a disappointment for some, Apple will stream every game in 1080p. That's the same quality the company offered for its weekly Major League Baseball games last year. However, it's an improvement for MLS as every game wasn't available in 1080p previously. The plan is to have more cameras on the field at each match, so despite a lack of 4K, the comprehensive nature of the visuals should be better than what fans are used to seeing. All MLS regular season and Leagues Cup matches will also be streamed with Dolby 5.1 audio as well as alternate broadcast options like local radio. 

One key thing that will be a welcome change for MLS fans is that the league has standardized game start times and scheduling. With a few exceptions, games will be on Saturday or Wednesday nights and they'll start at 7:30PM local time. There are some Sunday matches scheduled and a few afternoon games, but since MLS is dealing primarily with one broadcaster now, it had the ability to make things a lot easier to follow. Fans can expect at least 13 matches every Saturday or Wednesday night and they'll start at one of four times: 7:30PM Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific.

Billy Steele/Engadget

This schedule change also makes it easier to plan studio programming. Apple and MLS will offer three options: a preview show (MLS Countdown), a post-game show (MLS Wrap-up) and continuous "whiparound" coverage for the entire five hours games take place (MLS 360). A typical Saturday will begin with MLS Countdown 30 minutes prior to the east coast games kicking off. There will also be 15-minute installments of Countdown before the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zone matches begin. During the entire night, MLS 360 will offer coverage of key moments (goals) as they happen with live look-ins of in-progress matches with studio commentary. Finally, Wrap-up will air when all the games have concluded as a recap of all of the day's action.

In total, Apple and MLS will offer up almost 1000 games through Season Pass. That's every regular season game, the All Star Game and MLS Cup playoffs. Then there's the 77 matches of the Leagues Cup that will include every team from MLS and Mexico's Liga MX (group stage and knockout rounds). Season Pass will also stream 250 live MLS Next Pro matches from league-affiliated development teams, including playoffs and the championship game. There will also be over 100 games from the MLS Next youth level, some of which are tournaments or qualifying tournaments, with MLS club academies on display here. 

As Apple has said before, MLS Season Pass will be available everywhere you find the Apple TV app. That includes the web, Apple TV (4K, HD and 3rd generation), iPhone, iPad and Mac as well as Samsung, Vizio, LG, Sony, Panasonic and Hisense smart TVs. You'll also find it on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV and Google TV streaming devices and it's available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Comcast in the US, Sky in the UK, Free in France, Magenta TV in Germany and B TV in Slovakia are TV providers that offer access. 

The 2023 season starts February 25th, but MLS Season Pass has already launched. There's plenty of on-demand content to prepare you for the season if you want to sign up now. The streaming plan costs $15 per month or $99 for the season. If you're an Apple TV+ customer, you'll get the discounted rates of $13/month or $79 a season. There will be a number of free games during the season, including every match on opening weekend. For a list of what you'll be able to watch without a subscription for the first month, check the MLS schedule here. Some games will also air on FOX and FS1.

After years of neglect, Valve is preparing to release a major update for Team Fortress 2. This week, the studio published a rare blog post on the official TF2 website (via Kotaku), asking the game’s community to submit new content to the Steam Workshop ahead of May 1st. “The last few Team Fortress summer events have only been item updates. But this year [Valve’s emphasis], we’re planning on shipping a full-on update-sized update – with items, maps, taunts, unusual effects, war paints and who knows what else?!” Valve said.

By our count, the “as as-yet-unnamed, un-themed, but still very exciting summer-situated (but not summer-themed)” update Valve has planned will go down as TF2’s first major content release since the company came out with the Jungle Inferno update in 2017 for the game’s 10-year anniversary. Valve has released smaller updates since then mostly to address the botting problem that made it impossible to play the game, but new content additions have been few and far between.

A new racing series could one day make it easier for young drivers to take part in Formula E competition. At this weekend’s Hyderabad E-Prix, former Mahindra Racing team lead Dilbagh Gill announced the launch of the Ace Championship. Gill is positioning the series as “a feeder platform for drivers and engineering talent to move into other racing series.”

When the series begins next year, the Ace Championship will consist of two levels of competition. Teams will use a single pair of cars for both Challenger and Championship tiers. At the higher level, the vehicles will output more power. As a result, participating teams won’t need to field four cars to compete.

According to The Race, the Ace Championship plans to use Formula E’s outgoing Gen2 chassis to build new designs, a move that would likely further reduce entry costs for potential participants. The series recently tested a modified Gen2 car in Barcelona. It showed off the same vehicle at the Hyderabad race track with former Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld behind the wheel. Ace Championship organizers told The Race there’s already been “significant interest” from existing racing teams to join the circuit – though no organization has announced its participation just yet.

Gamers are no strangers to delayed seasons, but The Division 2 players are in a particularly awkward situation. Ubisoft has revealed that a development "error" has broken the shared-world shooter's build generation system, and thus the studio's ability to update the game. The team not only can't introduce the new season it delayed last week, but can't extend the outgoing one until it repairs the build functionality.

Ubisoft says it has made "good progress" in fixing the issue in recent days, and there are hints a solution is in sight. The company is in the midst of a three-hour "unscheduled maintenance" session as we write this, and it's using the downtime to fix problems that include an inability to make seasonal in-game purchases. The servers should be back online around 1PM Eastern if there are no complications.

The timing is particularly bad for this issue. Ubisoft recently cancelled three games in response to sinking revenue, and workers at its Paris studio went on strike last month to protest what they say are unfair working conditions. Things aren't going smoothly at the publisher, and it may be a while before there's a degree of stability.

An estimated two thirds of the US population watched the Super Bowl last year – and it didn’t even have Rihanna. Super Bowl 2023 will take place in Glendale, Arizona at the State Farm Stadium on Sunday, February 12th with a kick off time of 4:30pm Mountain (or 6:30pm Eastern/3:30pm Pacific). The Philadelphia Eagles will play against the Kansas City Chiefs to see who takes home the Lombardi trophy this year. Whether you show up for the snacks, the halftime show or actual football, here are all of the ways to watch Super Bowl 2023.

Who’s airing the Super Bowl this year?

Fox will televise the game this year, and have confirmed it will air in 4K as the network did in 2020. Airing rights to the Super Bowl rotate annually between broadcasters and since 2007, the game has alternated between CBS, Fox and NBC (ABC will get a turn in 2027). As it’s Fox’s year, you can watch the game on local Fox broadcast stations and on Fox channels offered through your cable or satellite TV provider, including Fox Sports 1 and the Spanish-language Fox Desportes. You can also watch through certain live TV streaming services and the NFL+ app on mobile. If you’re watching outside the US, here is a list of international channels that will carry the game.

How to watch with cable or satellite TV

If you already pay for cable, you’re set. Even basic cable services include access to your local Fox channel, and most also include Fox Sports 1, both of which will air the game. You can find your local Fox channels here. Having a cable or satellite subscription also means you can log into the standalone Fox Sports app and watch via your smart TV or computer.

How to watch Super Bowl 2023 without cable

For those who’ve cut the cord, live TV streaming offers a bunch of ways to watch. A few – but not all – of those services will let you watch the Super Bowl this year. Here’s a list of providers that carry Fox Sports, along with their monthly subscription fees:

• Sling Blue - $40 per month, $20 first month

• YouTube with Live TV - $65 per month

• Hulu with Live TV - $70 per month

• FuboTV (Pro tier) - $75 per month

• DirecTV Stream (Entertainment tier) - $75 per month

Sling TV is the cheapest way to watch the game with live streaming, and the channel lineup confirms access to Fox Sports 1 with their Blue package. Many of these services also include a free trial period, so you could sign up before the game and cancel afterwards to avoid a charge.

How to watch the Super Bowl on mobile

If it’s just you watching and you’re thinking of using your smartphone or tablet, NFL+ is an over-the-top subscription app that’s $5 per month or $13 for the NFL season (which ends with the Super Bowl). We should note that the app won’t work on a TV and doesn’t support casting, so this is only a good option if you were already planning on watching on mobile.

How to watch the Super Bowl for free

Local Fox stations will broadcast the Super Bowl over the airwaves and access is free, provided you have a way to receive the signal. Indoor HD digital antennas are available for between $20 and $100. These devices plug into your RF connection input (the coaxial port) on your TV and tend to work best when placed in a window. They’re not all that beautiful to look at, and there is an initial cost, but they do give you the ability to grab content out of the air for (almost) free.

An estimated two thirds of the US population watched the Super Bowl last year – and it didn’t even have Rihanna. Super Bowl 2023 will take place in Glendale, Arizona at the State Farm Stadium on Sunday, February 12th with a kick off time of 4:30pm Mountain (or 6:30pm Eastern/3:30pm Pacific). The Philadelphia Eagles will play against the Kansas City Chiefs to see who takes home the Lombardi trophy this year. Whether you show up for the snacks, the halftime show or actual football, here are all of the ways to watch Super Bowl 2023.

Who’s airing the Super Bowl this year?

Fox will televise the game this year, and have confirmed it will air in 4K as the network did in 2020. Airing rights to the Super Bowl rotate annually between broadcasters and since 2007, the game has alternated between CBS, Fox and NBC (ABC will get a turn in 2027). As it’s Fox’s year, you can watch the game on local Fox broadcast stations and on Fox channels offered through your cable or satellite TV provider, including Fox Sports 1 and the Spanish-language Fox Desportes. You can also watch through certain live TV streaming services and the NFL+ app on mobile. If you’re watching outside the US, here is a list of international channels that will carry the game.

How to watch with cable or satellite TV

If you already pay for cable, you’re set. Even basic cable services include access to your local Fox channel, and most also include Fox Sports 1, both of which will air the game. You can find your local Fox channels here. Having a cable or satellite subscription also means you can log into the standalone Fox Sports app and watch via your smart TV or computer.

How to watch Super Bowl 2023 without cable

For those who’ve cut the cord, live TV streaming offers a bunch of ways to watch. A few – but not all – of those services will let you watch the Super Bowl this year. Here’s a list of providers that carry Fox Sports, along with their monthly subscription fees:

• Sling Blue - $40 per month, $20 first month

• YouTube with Live TV - $65 per month

• Hulu with Live TV - $70 per month

• FuboTV (Pro tier) - $75 per month

• DirecTV Stream (Entertainment tier) - $75 per month

Sling TV is the cheapest way to watch the game with live streaming, and the channel lineup confirms access to Fox Sports 1 with their Blue package. Many of these services also include a free trial period, so you could sign up before the game and cancel afterwards to avoid a charge.

How to watch the Super Bowl on mobile

If it’s just you watching and you’re thinking of using your smartphone or tablet, NFL+ is an over-the-top subscription app that’s $5 per month or $13 for the NFL season (which ends with the Super Bowl). We should note that the app won’t work on a TV and doesn’t support casting, so this is only a good option if you were already planning on watching on mobile.

How to watch the Super Bowl for free

We reached out to Fox Sports to ask how to watch the game for free and a customer service rep said, "Super Bowl 57 has been made available to all who would like to stream without a TV provider. Super Bowl 57 will stream on a number of platforms: watch it on theFox.com, FoxSports.com FOX Sports app, FOX NOW app, and the NFL+ app." They went on to say this access only applies to the game itself. You'll need to enter your TV provider credentials to access other Fox content before and after the game. 

Local Fox stations will broadcast the Super Bowl over the airwaves and access there is also free, provided you have a way to receive the signal. Indoor HD digital antennas are available for between $20 and $100. These devices plug into your RF connection input (the coaxial port) on your TV and tend to work best when placed in a window. They’re not all that beautiful to look at, and there is an initial cost, but they do give you the ability to grab content out of the air for (almost) free.

Following a rocky release, it looks like Overwatch 2 is starting to hit a stride. On Monday, Blizzard detailed all the content that’s coming with the game’s latest season, and there’s plenty here for fans to be excited about. To start, season three will introduce the franchise’s first crossover event. Starting on March 7th, players will have the chance to earn cosmetic items inspired by One-Punch Man, the popular superhero series created by Japanese manga artist One. Specifically, one of the skins sees Doomfist recast to look like One-Punch protagonist Saitama.

If One-Punch Man means little to you, thankfully there will be plenty of other skins you can earn this season. After season two took inspiration from Greek mythology, season three will feature cosmetics themed around "Asian mythology." Players who complete the latest premium battle pass will earn the new Amaterasu Kiriko skin. As the name suggests, the skin is inspired by the Japanese Shinto goddess of the sun. What’s more, Blizzard says it has listened to player feedback and made it easier to earn cosmetic items. The season three battle pass will feature 10 additional free reward tiers for players to unlock. Blizzard is also bringing almost all of the skins it released during the availability of the original Overwatch to Overwatch 2’s in-game store, and tweaking the price of those skins to make them cost fewer credits.

On the gameplay front, players can look forward to a new Control map modeled after the Antarctic, a location that has important significance to Mei. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Overwatch 2 will celebrate the holiday in not one but two ways. First, it’s adding a limited-time game mode that will see everyone in the match play as Hanzo. Second, Blizzard is finally giving fans something they’ve been waiting to get for a while. On February 13th, the studio will release Loverwatch, a dating sim you can play until the 28th through your browser. This “non-canon” text-based experience will allow you to woo either Mercy or Genji. Unlock the secret ending to earn a special Player of the Game highlight reel for use in Overwatch 2.

It’s hard to believe, but Apex Legends is four years old this month. And with the game’s 16th season set to debut on February 14th, developer Respawn Entertainment is promising to shake things up. “Nothing is safe and there are going to be some pretty significant changes that we’ve been working on for a while,” the studio said in a blog post it published on Monday.

One of those changes is a game mode players have been asking Respawn to add since launch. The studio will allow you to queue for team deathmatch games for a limited time. The mode will see two teams of six vie for supremacy. The first team to secure 30 kills wins the round. You’ll need to win two rounds to take the match. At the start of a deathmatch game, you’ll pick your character and one of five weapon loadouts. You can change both between respawns.

At the same time, Respawn is removing Arenas, the game’s current spin on deathmatch. The studio says the 3v3 game mode wasn’t meeting its goal of being a good place to master Apex’s combat mechanics. On March 7th, Respawn will introduce Mixtape, a permanent rotating playlist of limited-time game modes. The playlist will allow you to play favorites like Control, Gun Run and, yes, Team Deathmatch. The season will also add a new energy weapon called the Nemesis for players to master. It’s an assault rifle that fires a four-round burst, and you can hold down the trigger to continue firing.

Season 16 won’t see the introduction of a new playable character. That’s because Respawn wants to tweak the existing ones first. In addition to balance changes targeting Lifeline, Seer and Wraith to start, the developer is adding a reworked class system. Respawn will assign each Legend to one of five classes: Assault, Recon, Skirmisher, Controller or Support. Each class will have access to a unique perk. For instance, it sounds like Support characters will have new ways to revive their teammates. Respawn has promised to share more information about all the Legends changes closer to the release of the new season.

Respawn is adding a new orientation match system that will pit new players against bots to make the game more approachable to newbies. “Our goal with Orientation Matches is to create a lower-pressure environment where new players can get their bearings, learn the core mechanics, and have a little more space to breathe while they learn how to play Apex Legends,” the studio said.

It wouldn’t be much of an anniversary season if the game didn’t have something for players to collect. In the first two weeks of the season, you can unlock Crypto and Ash by logging into the game. You’ll also unlock thematic packs for both of them.

Fans of HBO's The Last of Us who are also into football were facing a bit of a quandary this weekend: catch the latest episode live and avoid the risk of spoilers, or tune into the Super Bowl? Thankfully, HBO Max is making that decision much easier. The fifth episode of the excellent adaptation of Naughty Dog's game will hit the streaming service and HBO On Demand two days early.

You'll be able to stream the episode starting at 9PM ET this Friday. It will still air in its usual 9PM ET timeslot on HBO's cable channel on Sunday, but many fans may opt to watch the titanic tussle between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles instead.

This is a smart, one-off move from HBO as The Last of Us is already a massive hit, with viewership figures that have grown from week to week. The linear airing of the next episode is likely to get hammered in the ratings by the Super Bowl, but this could help HBO maintain the show's momentum and distance the TLOU discourse from football this weekend.