Inside Apple’s eight-year struggle to build a self-driving car

Wayne Ma, The Information

By now, you've likely heard at least some of the rumors about Apple's secretive automotive ambitions. The Information spoke to nearly two dozen people about the self-driving car project to chronicle all of the development, demos, prototypes and staff departures along the way. 

How Elon Musk damaged Twitter and left it worse off

Kate Conger and Mike Isaac, The New York Times

Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter not only hasn't resulted in an acquisition, but it put a spotlight on some of the social platform's biggest issues. 

Burning down the House: How 'Game of Thrones' enters a new age with 'House of the Dragon'

Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly

If you're eagerly awaiting the debut of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series next month, EW has a preview of what to expect with commentary from the show's cast and creators. 

People in Russia will soon no longer be allowed to use digital assets as a form of payment. Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a bill into law prohibiting the use of digital assets, such as cryptocurrency and NFTs, to pay for goods and services. In addition, as Protocol notes, the new law also requires crypto exchanges and providers to refuse transactions in which digital transfers can be interpreted as a form of payment. The new law states:

"It is prohibited to transfer or accept digital financial assets as a consideration for transferred goods, performed works, rendered services, as well as in any other way that allows one to assume payment for goods (works, services) by a digital financial asset, except as otherwise provided by federal laws."

As a New York Times report said earlier this year, US authorities believe that some Russian companies affected by sanctions imposed against their country after its invasion of Ukraine could be using cryptocurrency to circumvent those limitations. The value of Bitcoin even surged for a few days after the invasion started in February.

That said, Russian authorities aren't quite keen on digital assets: The Central Bank of Russia called for an outright ban on cryptocurrency. That most likely didn't happen, because Russia's Finance Ministry was opposed to the idea and believed it was necessary to allow crypto technology to develop. In 10 days' time, the law will take effect and will make paying with crypto illegal in the country. According to Decrypt, though, Russians can still invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and presumably continue mining them as well. 

Amazon — the second-largest employer in the United States — has made plain its desire to keep its workforce from unionizing. In one of its warehouses, ALB1 in upstate New York, that message has become crystal clear: "Don't sign a card." 

Photos of the new digital signage were sent to Engadget by an employee at the facility; their presence was confirmed by a second employee, David, who claims to have been at the fulfillment center approximately since its opening in 2020. According to David (whose full name is being withheld for fear of retribution by his employer) the carousel of anti-union posters went up today and cycles between approximately seven different slides, each actively discouraging workers from signing a union card. "It's on a constant loop while people punch in and punch out of their shifts," he said, "[when] they go on their breaks, or they go on their lunch. Any time that we're going to be up towards the front." 

Amazon has been known to post signage meant to discourage unionization at other facilities. As Vice reported in March, workers at JFK8 in Staten Island, New York were treated to an array of posters with circumspect slogans like "Is union life for me?" and "Will the [Amazon Labor Union]'s voice replace mine?" The signage at ALB1 appears to be the most forceful the company has been with expressing its disdain for an organized workforce. The company also has a track record of breaking labor laws and frustrating organizing efforts: firing or otherwise retaliating against workers, preventing workers from handing out pamphlets and interfering with a union election. Behind closed doors, the company also planned a smear campaign against a prominent organizer. 

We've reached out to both Amazon and the National Labor Relations Board for comment on the legality of this signage and will update if we hear back. 

Workers at ALB1 have been pushing to form a union since at least May. It's not yet clear if the organizing efforts are pointed towards joining Amazon Labor Union — the grassroots group that successfully voted to unionize one of the Staten Island facilities in April — though based on the new signage, management at this fulfillment center appears to consider the group its primary threat. Nearly all of the signs specifically reference ALU, which the company calls "untested and unproven"; another even suggests joining ALU would involve giving up some measure of personal privacy, though it's not clear in what way. We've reached out to ALU as well and will update if we hear back from the group. 

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is joining the ranks of games with more inclusive character generators. Both Wowhead and Polygon note the expansion's new alpha release has dropped gendered language from its character creator. Instead of the male and female options you frequently see in these tools, they're now divided into respective "Body 1" and "Body 2" sections. While they effectively offer the same characteristics as before, you can now build a gender non-conforming adventurer without any awkward wording.

Wowhead also found code suggesting that you may get to choose he/him, she/her and they/them pronouns in a future release, which could help other players address your character accordingly. Game director Ion Hazzikostas also suggested in an interview that there might be a way to choose your character's voice at some point, although the most recent alpha version pulled references to that potential feature.

The changes might not be as substantial as you'd like. You can't have facial hair and breasts on the same character in the alpha, for instance. Still, this could make World of Warcraft more appealing if you're non-binary, transgender or otherwise don't fit neatly into conventional gender representations.

EA will release the 12th expansion pack for The Sims 4 on July 28th. Starting on the same day, all players (including those who don't buy the High School Years DLC) will be able to change their Sims' sexual orientation, as part of the developers' efforts to bolster LGBTQIA+ representation in the game.

"Between this update and the recent pronouns update, we’re taking several strides forward into being a game that respects and celebrates the nuance and color of everyday life," a Sims 4 lead designer known as SimGuruJessica wrote in the announcement. Developer Maxis worked with GLAAD and the It Gets Better Project "to ensure that we’ve captured the widest possible range of viewpoints on how to approach this feature in a manner that respects and elevates the community."

There are several attraction settings for each Sim, which you can adjust via the ellipsis menu under the gender selection option on the Create A Sim screen. You can determine whether your Sim is attracted to men or women (or neither), if your Sim's orientation can change during gameplay and which genders they can "WooHoo" (i.e. have sex) with. Players can alter these settings at any time.

You can have an asexual Sim who's romantically interested in other Sims and an aromantic Sim who is happy to WooHoo other characters but won't enter into a relationship with them. Casual sex is a new feature in The Sims 4, since WooHoo has always been locked behind the romance mechanic. Young adult and older Sims will be able to ask close friends to hop in the sack as WooHoo partners. A rejected invitation could lead to an awkward interaction, though.

"I want to again acknowledge that these topics are complex and full of nuance," SimGuruJessica wrote. "We consider this a version 1.0, and are absolutely looking forward to seeing what further tools we might add to allow players to tell a broader range of stories."

While players can change their Sims' pronouns, the romance and WooHoo options are gender binary for now due to how the game was created. "Mechanically, non-binary Sims don’t yet exist in [The Sims 4]," SimGuruJessica noted. "While we made great progress in representing non-binary Sims with the pronouns update, we acknowledge that pronouns are not the same thing as gender identities. We recognize that we still have a ways to go in this regard." Adding the systems needed to properly support non-binary Sims will take a little more time, but Maxis is working on it.

Same-sex relationships have been present in the series since the very first game (an E3 demo in 1999 famously depicted two women kissing). Still, these new settings will enable players to have more control over the stories they want to tell. Maxis has been working to improve representation in The Sims 4 on other fronts. In 2020, the team added more than 100 skin tones and sliders to customize them.

TikTok's global chief security officer (CSO) will step down from that position and shift into a strategic advisory role. Roland Cloutier's change in duties follows concerns about how the company is handling US user data. TikTok recently admitted that employees outside of the country were able to access that information, although "robust cybersecurity controls and authorization" from its US security team were required.

Cloutier will be an adviser on the business impact of TikTok's security and trust programs. TikTok’s head of security risk, vendor and client assurance, Kim Albarella, will take over as the chief of the company's worldwide security teams on an interim basis.

"Part of our evolving approach has been to minimize concerns about the security of user data in the US, including the creation of a new department to manage US user data for TikTok," CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote in a memo to TikTok staff. "This is an important investment in our data protection practices, and it also changes the scope of the global chief security officer role. With this in mind, Roland has decided to step back from his day-to-day operations as global CSO, effective September 2nd."

A TikTok spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal Cloutier wasn't overseeing the new team that manages US user data. That department reports to Chew directly. Cloutier's departure wasn't related to lawmakers' concerns over US data security, the spokesperson said, and the shift had been in the works for a couple of months.

Last month, BuzzFeed News reported that China-based engineers at TikTok's parent company ByteDance accessed non-public data on US TikTok users on multiple occasions between at least last September and January. TikTok said it's now storing all US users' data on Oracle cloud servers located in the country and that it was working to remove such private data from its own servers. In a letter to a group of Republican senators this month, Chew wrote that the company is focused on removing "any doubt about the security of US user data."

The developer behind Destiny is now a part of the Sony universe. Sony Interactive Entertainment officially closed on a $3.6 billion deal today to buy the independent game studio and publisher Bungie, according to tweets from both Bungie and PlayStation Studios. Under the terms of the acquisition, Bungie will still maintain creative control over its operations and independently develop its games. As leaders from bothcompanies have noted since the deal was announced in January, Bungie will be considered an independent subsidiary of Sony and won’t be required to make either current or future games exclusive to PlayStation consoles.

As TechCrunch noted, Sony is hoping Bungie’s expertise with games like Destiny will help it expand its own live service game offerings. The company plans to spend 55 percent of PlayStation’s budget on live service games by 2025, revealed Sony CEO Jim Ryan at a May investor presentation. PlayStation plans on releasing 10 live service games before March 2026, and Sony believes Bungie’s assistance will be crucial in this effort.

Sony this week also closed on a deal to acquire Montreal-based Haven Studios, which is working on a multiplayer title for PlayStation. And Sony is far from finished. The company plans to acquire even more studios over the next few years in a bid to grow its live service and PC offerings, as Ryan has noted in several interviews. And on the Xbox side, Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is expected to close next summer.

The FCC's 25Mbps broadband standard seemed fast in 2015, but that was seven years ago — and the agency's current leadership believes it's time to raise that baseline. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed raising the minimum definition of broadband to 100Mbps for downloads and 20Mbps for uploads. The previous 25/3 benchmark is both outdated and hides just how many low-income and rural internet users are being "left behind and left offline," Rosenworcel said.

The chair said multiple pieces of evidence supported the hike, including requirements for new network construction stemming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The FCC had already proposed upgrades to rural speeds through a special program, but this would affect the definition of broadband regardless of where users live in the country.

Rosenworcel also wanted the minimum speed to evolve over time. She proposed setting a much higher standard of 1Gbps down and 500Mbps up for some point in the future. The leader further suggested more criteria for determining the "reasonable and timely" rollout of broadband, including adoption rates, affordability, availability and equitable access.

It's unclear if the standards change will move forward. Ars Technicanotes any proposed upgrade would require a vote, and the current commission is deadlocked with two Democrats and two Republics. As the Senate has done little to advance commissioner nominee Gigi Sohn, there's no guarantee Rosenworcel (a Democrat) will get her way. Telecoms might not be thrilled, either. Comcast only last year raised the speed of its $10 Essentials tier to 50Mbps downstream — it and other carriers might have to invest in better networks to reach the 100Mbps minimum in some areas, let alone a possible 1Gbps threshold.

Disney is set to increase the price of ESPN+ plans once again. As of August 23rd, a monthly subscription will go up by $3 to $10 (a jump of 43 percent), while the annual option will be $100, up from $70, as first reported by Variety.

That's a significant price increase at a time when the prices of many goods and services are rising sharply. It's a far bigger jump than the previous ESPN+ monthly plan increases of $1 in August 2020 and again last year. ESPN+ cost just $5 per month when it debuted in 2019 and, at least at the time, it was a killer deal.

“While it is a significant change to the price, it’s reflective of the increased scope, scale and value of ESPN+ as we continue to add significantly to both live sports and original programs and series, and it is part of an established plan to ensure ESPN+ is a profitable and strong long-term business," an ESPN spokesperson told The Wrap. "I think you’ll also find, if you look across the sports streaming landscape, ESPN+ clearly remains the best value — in virtually all other sports streaming, you pay this price or more, and get less.” 

For what it's worth, rival sports streaming services DAZN and Bally Sports+ each cost $20 per month. ESPN+ includes PGA Tour Live, which cost $10 per month when it was a standalone service, and NHL's Center Ice, which previously cost $25 per month. The platform also offers games from several major soccerleagues (though it's losing MLS to Apple next year), the NFL, college football and other sports. It's also home to ESPN original shows and docuseries, as well as various specials. As Bloomberg notes, in the first quarter of 2022, ESPN programming and production costs increased by 48 percent to $454 million.

At least for now, Disney does not plan to increase the price of the Disney Bundle. Along with ESPN+, that provides access to Disney+ and the ad-supported version of Hulu. The bundle costs $14 per month. Subscribing to all three services individually would add up to a monthly bill of $25 after the ESPN+ increase. In addition, there aren't plans to increase the price of UFC pay-per-view events on ESPN+ at the minute either.

Twitter won't have to wait long to take Elon Musk to court, in a limited fashion. Reutersreports that Delaware Court of Chancery chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has scheduled the first hearing for Twitter's lawsuits on July 19th at 11AM Eastern. The 90-minute session will have a judge hear arguments relating to Twitter's request for a September trial.

The social network sued Musk earlier this week, days after the Tesla chief filed to kill the $44 billion deal. The executive claimed that Twitter falsely represented the volume of bots and other fake accounts on its platform, withholding details to make sure the acquisition goes through. Twitter has denied the allegations. It maintained that it shared the full data pipeline, and that Musk broke the terms of the agreement by backing out with "unreasonable requests" and insults to the company.

There's still no word of a countersuit from Musk as of this writing. Even if it doesn't materialize, though, the outcome of Twitter's lawsuit will have far-reaching implications. If the court sides with Twitter, it could force Musk to either complete the purchase or pay the breakup costs associated with the agreement.