Apple's financial services, including Apple Pay, Apple Cash, Apple Card and Wallet, have been experiencing service disruptions for some users since 6:15AM this morning, the company reports. As of 10:04AM Eastern, those services still have outage notices on Apple's System Status page. As AppleInsider notes, it's unclear how widespread the issues are. On a personal note, I was able to use Apple Pay without issue around 9AM to make a pick-up order at Starbucks.

The PlayStation 5 has officially hit the 50 million sales milestone, Sony confirmed in a blog post. That's an impressive figure, considering the litany of supply chain issues that kept PS5s in limited supply after its November 2020 launch. And notably, the PS5 manage to reach 50 million sales just a week longer than it took the PlayStation 4, which wasn't bogged down by as many supply chain issues or a worldwide pandemic. 

Sony has also outsold the Xbox Series X and S by almost three to one this year, the Financial Times reports, based on data from Ampere Analysis. While Microsoft doesn't release official Xbox sales numbers (you can take a wild guess as to why), Ampere estimated that Microsoft sold 7.6 million next-gen systems this year (a 15 percent drop from 2022), while Sony's sales exploded by 65 percent to reach 22.5 million units sold. 

It's not hard to see why the PS5 is in more demand: Sony has pumped out far more must-have games this generation (including the recent Spider-Man 2, as well as anticipated sequels like God of War Ragnarok), while Microsoft has stumbled with its more high profile releases, like Halo Infinite and Redfall. But it could just be that Microsoft has a different goal. It's far more focused on pushing subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass, which also allows players to stream titles over the cloud and play on PC with its ultimate tier.   

When Elon Musk first took over Twitter, those of us in the tech media had all kinds of theories about how the acquisition might bring about the death of the 17-year-old platform.

Some posited that his inept attempts at cost-cutting would cause irreparable damage to Twitter’s infrastructure or that mass resignations would lead to catastrophic instability. But as is so often the case with Musk, predictions were in vain. Twitter did die this year, but the way it played out was both more boring and more stupid than anyone could have possibly imagined.

Musk killed Twitter by slowly making it useless for those who relied on it for real-time information, by choking off conversations from those not willing to pay, by flooding users’ timelines with spammy blue-check sycophants and renaming the company X. He killed it by re-platforming actual Nazis and far-right trolls and Alex Jones and boosting anti-semitism so loudly the site's largest remaining advertisers and most prominent users abandoned the platform in droves. Though you can still go to www.twitter.com and see a website that vaguely resembles the thing we used to call Twitter, it’s only a dull echo of what it once was.

- via Getty Images

The beginning of the end

While you could argue the death spiral began the second Musk walked into Twitter HQ carrying a sink 14 months ago, the platform we all knew began to die three months later, when Musk abruptly decided to ban third-party client apps from its platform and put the rest of its API behind an outrageously expensive paywall.

Twitter had long been an outlier among its social media peers for having a relatively open platform. It gave researchers tools to access the full history of all public conversations on Twitter. It allowed developers to build their own apps on top of its platform, which fostered a small but robust ecosystem of third-party Twitter clients.

Third-party apps like Tweetbot and Twitterific had a relatively small (but devoted) following, but they also played a significant role in defining the culture of Twitter. In the early days of Twitter, the company didn’t have its own mobile app, so it was third-party developers that set the standard of how the service should look and feel. Third-party apps were often the first to adopt now-expected features like in-line photos and video, and the pull-to-refresh gesture. The apps are also responsible for popularizing the word “tweet” and Twitter’s bird logo.

And while many of these apps had become less prominent in recent years, they were emblematic of the way that Twitter, at its best, empowered its users to shape the platform.

Likewise, having an open and readily-available API meant that Twitter, while not the largest social platform, could play an outsize role in shaping online culture. Because its firehose of data was easily accessible to researchers, the public conversations that happened there fueled studies into everything from global elections to public health.

By closing its API to developers and the research community, Musk made it clear he was not interested in using Twitter for anything that couldn’t make him a buck in the process. Twitter’s data was simply another part of the platform to commodify. Nearly a year later, making Twitter’s API inaccessible to all but those with the deepest pockets may not seem like even the tenth-most consequential change to happen under Musk, but it showed just how willing he was to alienate influential communities on Twitter. It was also a major warning sign of what was to come.

The blue check fiasco

If killing Twitter’s API was a quiet warning sign, the complete destruction of Twitter “verification” was a five-alarm fire. Twitter’s verification system was always flawed, but it hinged on the basic premise that the company had some evidence the accounts it verified belonged to the actual people claiming them and that those were people or organizations of some importance. When Musk rolled out his poorly thought out paid verification scheme last year, it went horribly and predictably wrong almost immediately because he failed to uphold any kind of identity check.

Despite the chaotic initial rollout, verification's now-meaningless status did not become fully apparent until this year. After a wave of thousands of spammers, scammers and Musk sycophants signed up for verification, Twitter began removing “legacy” verification from thousands of accounts.

The algorithmic boost provided to the new paid-for wave of blue checks, combined with the promise of a potential share of ad revenue, has drastically altered the dynamics of conversation on Twitter. Verified accounts are given priority ranking in replies and search results, regardless of the size of their following or their engagement — which has made Twitter even less relevant and useful. And the promise of potential ad revenue has incentivized the worst kind of engagement bait.

The result is that even the most carefully curated timelines have become filled with useless spam. And fraudsters are increasingly using pay-to-play verification to carry out scams targeting people trying to reach legitimate customer service channels.

X marks… the death of Twitter

If you were to look for a singular moment when Twitter died, however, it happened in July, when Musk announced that the company would now be known as X. The company changed its name, logo and everything formerly associated with the bird app.

This was more than an ill-considered rebrand. X, a letter with which Musk has long been fascinated, represented, literally, the end of Twitter. For as much as Musk has said it’s about creating an “everything app,” it’s also about fully severing any ties to the expectations and norms associated with Twitter. Want to break verification? Want to charge new users for the privilege of posting? Want to make news stories unreadable? Want to maliciously slow down links to competitors’ websites? Want to re-platform the most heinous peddlers of hate and conspiracy theories? Those actions may have been at odds with Twitter’s mission, but at X, it’s all just another Tuesday. As CEO Linda Yaccarino told CNBC “the rebrand represented really a liberation from Twitter.”

Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

It’s unclear if Musk will ever succeed at creating anything resembling an “everything app” where users will be able to use X to run their “entire financial world.” So far, users seem to have little interest in the somewhat random assortment of new features that have been introduced, like live shopping and aggregating job listings. What Musk has succeeded at, however, is reshaping the platform in his own image.

But if there was any doubt remaining about whether the platform had a chance, Musk has almost single handedly wiped out what remained of Twitter’s ad business. After boosting an antisemitic conspiracy theory and repeatedly failing to prevent ads from appearing near pro-Nazi content, many of the company’s largest remaining advertisers have halted their spending on the platform.

Musk, naturally, responded by telling advertisers “go fuck yourself,” while speculating that the loss of ad dollars could “kill the company.”

But it’s not just advertisers who have fled an increasingly toxic platform. Many of the biggest and most-followed accounts have stopped posting in recent weeks. X’s infrastructure continues to slowly crumble, with random features constantly breaking. Meanwhile, all this has only strengthened the growing number of X competitors, and especially the Meta-owned Threads app. Threads is surging, landing at number four on Apple’s list of most-downloaded apps of the year, despite a late summer launch. X, which has seen steady declines in traffic and engagement, did not make the list.

Creating stickers from photos is an easily overlooked iPhone feature tucked into iOS 17. Using Apple’s machine learning algorithms that quickly separate a subject from its background, it extracts pictures of you, your friends or pets (or anything else it detects as the picture’s subject), transforming them into digital decals. It even makes animated stickers from Live Photos to slap onto iMessage chats or Markup tools. Here’s how to create your own.

What are iPhone stickers?

In Apple’s ecosystem, stickers are digital versions of their real-world counterparts. They debuted in iOS 10, Apple’s 2016 iPhone operating system, allowing users to place cut-outs of fun images onto iMessage bubbles for more personalized reactions.

Apple

Creating iPhone stickers from photos is new to iOS 17, and so is their location. In older versions of iOS, you had to navigate the iMessage App Store (in the Messages app) and app drawer to find them. In the new software’s more streamlined approach, you only have to tap the plus icon next to a message, choose Stickers and pick the one you want. (More on that below.)

How to create stickers from photos in iOS 17

Here’s how to make custom stickers from your photos on Apple’s latest iPhone software:

1. In the Photos app on your iPhone, choose a picture you want to transform into an iPhone sticker. Tap on the photo to open it in a full-screen view.

2. Touch and hold your finger on the photo’s subject. For example, if it’s a picture of your dog making a derpy face, hold your finger down on the pup until you see an animated effect highlighting the subject. (If it doesn’t work on the first try, do it again.)

3. In the popup menu that appears above the subject, choose “Add Sticker.” If you don’t see that text, tap on the arrow (>) at the right end of the options box until you find it. After tapping “Add Sticker,” the decal will appear below in the same drawer you’ll see in the Messages app.

4. Optionally, hold your finger down on it in the stickers drawer and choose “Add Effect” from the menu. You can give it a standard outline, add a comic style, transform it into a puffy sticker or make it shiny.

5. Tap the X button or swipe down to close the Stickers menu at the bottom of the screen.

How to create stickers from Live Photos in iOS 17

Apple’s Live Photo adds (roughly) three-second video clips captured before and after pressing the shutter button. If you took your source picture as a Live Photo, you can turn it into an animated iPhone sticker through the following steps:

1. Open the iOS Photos app, and tap on the Live Photo you want to turn into an animated sticker. It should now take up your phone’s entire screen.

2. Hold your finger down on the photo’s subject. Wait until you see an animated ripple effect protruding and highlighting the subject. (Try again if it doesn’t catch the first time.)

3. In the menu above the subject, choose “Add Sticker.” If you don’t see that option, tap the right arrow at the end of the menu. After tapping “Add Sticker,” you’ll see the subject appear in a drawer below with your custom stickers.

4. You should see a pop-up menu above the sticker. If you don’t, hold your finger down on the sticker in the list. Choose “Add Effect.” A new screen with effects options will appear.

5. In addition to sticker effect options, you’ll see “Off” on the upper left. Tap that until it changes to “Live.” You now have an animated sticker.

6. Press the X button or swipe down to close the sticker drawer.

How to use custom stickers in iMessage

Apple

Here’s how to use your new photo sticker in the Messages app:

1. In Messages, open a chat thread.

2. Press the + button to the left of the text box.

3. Choose “Stickers.”

4. If you don’t see your custom sticker in the “recently used” menu below, tap the sticker icon (between the 9:00 clock and smiley face icons, above the stickers but below the text box) to find it.

5. If you want to place the sticker in a reply, tap the one you want. Or, if you’re going to include it as a reaction on top of a chat bubble, hold your finger down on the sticker and drag it onto the message to which you want to react.

How to use custom stickers in Markup

You can also add stickers to photos, screenshots, PDFs, email attachments and other documents:

1. Open an image or file you want to add a sticker to. It could be through the Photos app, Files, Mail, Notes or any other app that supports Markup edits.

2. If you’re in Photos, tap “Edit,” then choose the Markup icon (upward-facing pen on the upper right). If you’re in Files or another app where you already see the icon, skip the “Edit” step and only tap the pen symbol.

3. Once you’ve opened the Markup menu, tap the + sign at the far right of the bottom toolbar (next to the color palette and pencil).

4. Tap “Add Sticker.”

5. Choose the custom sticker you just made.

6. It should appear with a blue bounding box atop the original photo or document. Drag the corners to resize, or slide your finger across the screen to move it.

7. Tap outside the bounding box to place the sticker.

8. Tap “Done” to save the changes.

For more on iOS 17, you can catch up on Engadget’s review of Apple’s 2023 iPhone operating system.

If they feel brave and technically capable, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 owners can now fix their phones through the company’s self-repair service. The do-it-yourself program is also expanding to the Galaxy S23 series, Tab S9 series and the Galaxy Book2 Pro, all in collaboration with iFixit.

Neither the Flip 5 nor the Fold 5 show on iFixit yet, so we don’t know how much repairs might cost. For the sake of estimates, a repair kit for the Google Pixel Fold’s inner screen costs around $900.  

— Mat Smith

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Teenage Engineering’s stylish new sampler doesn’t cost the earth

It could be the first in a series of more affordable music gear.

Engadget

Teenage Engineering’s latest reveal (with timer and everything) turned out to be the K.O. II EP-133 sampler. Another lump of music technology, yes, but the real surprise was its (relatively) reasonable price. The K.O. II is an opportunity for Teenage Engineering to create a series of more capable instruments that don’t cost Field-series levels of money. Even if it’s still $299. As a sampler, it’s great for beginners or those who love a more performative style. It’s not nearly as detailed as rival samplers, but it was never going to be. Fadergate aside (many devices have issues with the sliders not working), this is a promising product.

Continue reading.

Apple reportedly scrambles to update Watch software to avoid retail ban

You’ll still be able to buy it from other retailers — just not Apple.

Following yesterday’s news, Apple is scrambling to make software updates to its Apple Watch algorithms to avoid a ban on smartwatch sales in the US. Changing how the Watch measures oxygen saturation, Apple believes, could help keep the Watch on shelves during the crucial holiday season. The blood oxygen sensor, first introduced with the Apple Watch 6 in 2020, is at the heart of a patent dispute between Apple and Masimo, another California-based company that sued Apple in 2021. The tech company previously called the ITC’s ruling “erroneous” and plans to appeal the decision to the Federal Circuit.

Continue reading.

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut for iPhone delayed to early 2024

Hideo Kojima fans will have to wait a bit longer.

505 Games, the publisher behind the iPhone (and Mac) port of Death Stranding, announced on X it needs “a little more time,” and it will have “a new release date in early 2024.” The Mac App Store now lists January 31, 2024, as the expected date. If you’re hoping to play it on iOS, you’re limited to the iPhone 15 Pro line with its A17 Pro chip. Resident Evil 4, however, is available to play, now.

Continue reading.

Now's your chance to avoid paying full price for a Mac desktop that has plenty of processing power. Apple's Mac Mini M2 256GB model is down to $479 from $600 at Amazon and B&H. The 20 percent discount brings the Mac Mini M2 back down to its all-time low price — compared to the $500 it's frequently at. The 512GB Mac Mini M2 is also on sale, with a 17 percent price cut, bringing it to $700 from $800.

The Mac Mini 2 is an impressive add-on to any Apple computer and a serious upgrade from the first Mini's release in the early 2000s. The device builds on 2021's M1, and merited an 86 in our review thanks to features like 8GB of RAM, eight CPU cores and ten graphic cores. It's also wild with ports, offering two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, two USB-A, HDMI 2.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack and gigabit Ethernet. Plus, it supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E.

Apple's Mac Mini 2 also offers better airflow than its predecessor, thanks to an elevated base. The device itself is sleek, and with a width and height of 7.75 inches, it won't take up too much room on your desk. All in all, besides the fact that none of the ports face forward, there's not much to dislike about the Mac Mini M2. 

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If you were hoping to play Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding: Director's Cut on a Mac, iPhone or iPad before the year ends, I'm afraid you'll now have to wait a bit longer. 505 Games, the publisher behind this port, announced on X that it needs "a little more time," and that it will have "a new release date in early 2024." Specifically, the Mac App Store now lists January 31, 2024 as the expected date for this post-apocalypse package delivery simulator, which is available for pre-ordering for $40. 

While the game itself is from 2019 (with the director's cut released in 2021), Apple appears to be keen on leveraging such heavyweight titles to show off its own processors — M1 or later — and 3D graphics capabilities. If you prefer mobile, though, you're limited to the iPhone 15 Pro line with their A17 Pro chip. Much like the PlayStation versions, this Apple flavor will also feature cross-over content from Cyberpunk 2077 and Half-Life.

Back in June, Kojima said his future games will also be available on the Apple platform, though it's not clear if that includes Death Stranding 2. More recently, the gaming legend announced that the title will be adapted into a movie, with help from studio A24. "There are a lot of 'game adaptation films' out there but what we are creating is not just a direct translation of the game," Kojima promised.

Beeper Mini has a new “fix” coming for its broken iMessage on Android integration. However, the new method requires Mac access to send (and intermittently resend) “registration data” from an Apple-made desktop or laptop, calling into question how far users will stick with the app. The company says you’ll see the new functionality in an update to the Beeper Cloud Mac app on Wednesday, December 19.

Beeper’s current method requires identification info (“registration data”) sent from a physical Mac computer to authenticate iMessage connections on Android. The company’s latest plans now shift the Mac onus to users. “We have, up until now, been using our own fleet of Mac servers to provide this,” a Beeper spokesperson wrote in the app’s Reddit community. “Unfortunately, this has proven to be an easy target for Apple because thousands of Beeper users were using the same registration data.”

Beeper Mini launched to much fanfare, promising — and delivering — seamless iMessage chats on Android with only a phone number. However, in what seemed like an inevitable move, Apple squashed the app’s core functionality, forcing the startup to deploy new workarounds as it entered a cat-and-mouse game with the $3 trillion corporation.

Beeper says tomorrow’s update for Beeper Cloud on Mac will generate unique “1:1” registration data for individuals rather than thousands of accounts drawing on the same validation info on Beeper’s servers. The company says the new approach “makes the connection very reliable.” However, the registered Mac will still need to “periodically regenerate” the data after you’ve connected a Mac to Beeper Cloud, so it can’t just be a one-and-done connection to the computer.

If you don’t have a Mac and want to use Beeper Mini, the company says you can ask a friend to use their Apple computer for validation. “In our testing, 10-20 iMessage users can safely use the same registration data,” the company posted. The spokesperson said the update will restore chatting on iMessage with your Apple ID email if you don’t already have a phone number tied to your account.

Steve Jennings via Getty Images

It remains to be seen if Beeper Mini’s users will stick around for the more cumbersome setup. “At this point, I am willing to wait for Apple to come out with RCS support,” Redditor u/OldSalukiBandDude commented, referring to Apple’s promised support for the standard that will bring more iMessage-like features to chats between iPhones and Android handsets. “‘Fix’ is a strong word,” u/PredatorRanger added. “This is more like half-assing a workaround that requires more on the user’s end.”

Others were more open-minded about Beeper’s persistence in the face of Apple’s moves to squash the service. “Ppl are so whiney,” u/Waders411111 wrote. “This is a great bandaid to stop the bleeding and let ppl use beeper as intended.. as a way to integrate all your message apps in one place.” U/bb147 concurred: “Not the most user friendly fix but I am happy to have stable consolidated chats again even if I have to install something on a Mac, at least for now.”

In addition to the new setup method, Beeper says it’s open-sourcing its full iMessage bridge and the Mac code that generates registration data. The company linked to a Github tool that allows users to self-host the bridge, bypassing the company’s servers for those who want extra assurance.

Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 owners can now fix their phones through Samsung's self-repair service. The do-it-yourself program is expanding so that more Galaxy products, including foldables and tablets, are included in the iFixit collaboration. 

Samsung said it will add seven more products this month to its list of devices that are eligible for self-repair – from PCs, smartphones and tablets — including the Galaxy S23 series, Tab S9 series and the Galaxy Book2 Pro series. The program provides users with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) device parts and step-by-step guides that allow for things like screen or battery replacements. The price of fix kits will vary depending on the device. For example, a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Screen and Battery set costs $240.

Samsung’s self-repair program, which first launched in the US last year, will also be offered to customers in an additional 30 countries across Europe. The company says expanding the scope of what’s covered by the program is in line with Samsung’s overall strategy to alleviate e-waste.

On December 12, Rhysida, a ransomware group, announced it had taken 1.67 terabytes of data — over 1.3 million files — from Sony's Insomniac Games and requested $2 million. Now, the one-week deadline for Insomniac Games to pay Rhysida has passed, and the group has made good on its threat to release the stolen information, Cyber Daily reports.

The data includes internal HR documents, screenshots of employees' Slack conversations, and more, but the main focus is the yet-to-be-released Wolverine video game. The released files contain details about level design, characters and actual screenshots from the game. There's also a signed publishing agreement between Sony and Marvel that lays out three upcoming X-Men games, the first being Wolverine, with the other two still unnamed. However, it details that Sony — which plans to spend $120 million per game — must release Wolverine by September 1, 2025, with the others due by the end of 2029 and 2033, respectively. 

Rhysida claims that it took the group only 20 to 25 minutes to get the domain administrator and that money was their sole motivation. "We knew that developers making games like this would be an easy target," a Rhysida spokesperson told Cyber Daily. "Sony has launched an investigation, but it would be better in the backyard."

Notably, Rhysida's initial ransom notice allowed anyone to bid on the data, not just Insomniac Games, and it appears some of it was bought. The ransomware group stated that any unsold data was released — but only 98 percent of stolen information is publicly available. Rhysida stipulated that any data purchased must not be resold, but who knows if the new owners will follow that rule.

Rhysida only targeted Insomniac Games within Sony, but in May, a separate attack gained access to 6,800 current and former employees' personal data. The attack, which ransomware group CLOP took credit for, became public knowledge in October.