Tumblr has restricted what its users can see on its iOS app in an effort to make sure it doesn't get kicked out of Apple's App Store again. One of the steps it has taken to comply with Apple's guidelines is to limit the results for certain tags or search terms that Tumblr says "may fall under the expanded definition of sensitive content." The website will even completely block some of them — make that more than some, based on this pretty lengthy list of banned and limited terms collected by Tumblr users that TechCrunch posted. 

While the inclusion of specific words in the list is self explanatory, it also has some curious entries, such as "Eugene Levy" and "Tony the Tiger." The restriction will also make it harder to search for content related to mental health, such as PTSD, depression and anxiety, as well as issues like racism and transphobia. Those searching for a blocked tag will get a screen that says "This content has been hidden" instead of a page with results. They'll see the same notification if they try to access a blog that's been flagged as "explicit" on the app. Users may also see fewer suggestions under the "stuff for you" and "following" sections due to the new restrictions. 

Tumblr has implemented these changes three years after it started completely blocking adult content on its platform. If you'll recall, Tumblr prohibited adult content in 2018 after Apple pulled its app from iTunes in response to finding child exploitation photos on the website. The social network said these changes only apply to its iOS app and that they won't affect anyone browsing Tumblr on the web or on Android. A spokesperson also told TechCrunch that the company is "working on more thoughtful solutions which will be rolled out in the near future."

The latest foldable Galaxy devices are a hit. Samsung shipped four times more foldables in 2021 than what it did in 2020, the tech giant has revealed. Further, it took only one month after they were released for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 to exceed the total accumulative sales of their predecessors last year. The company also said that it saw a "massive increase" in consumers who jumped brands specifically for its foldable phones — in fact, more people switched to Samsung for the Flip 3 than for its flagship devices. 

While Samsung didn't rattle off specific numbers, it said it saw a 150 percent increase in consumers who switched brands for the Flip 3 compared to the Galaxy Note 20. It saw a 140 percent increase in people switching brands for the foldable compared to the Galaxy S21, as well. The Flip's form factor is of course its main draw, along with its front screen that gives users a way to use their phone without having to open it. As for the Fold 3, people who responded to Samsung's survey said they got it for its large screen, multitasking capabilities and S Pen support.

In its post, Samsung said foldables are expected to grow tenfold by 2023, and it's heavily investing in research and development to be able to keep up with rival devices that will surely pop up. One of those competitors is Huawei's P50 Pocket phone, which is the company's first model that folds vertically like the Galaxy Z Flip. 

When it comes to blending in, nearly all true wireless earbuds fail miserably. That's mostly due to predominantly black and white color options, with a few brightly-hued variants tossed in along the way. Even if the buds are tiny, they're still highly visible due to their color. JLab is on a quest to remedy this and the audio company teamed up with nail care brand ORLY to develop a solution. With the Go Air Tones, the duo selected a collection of seven Pantone colors that are "flattering for people across a spectrum of skin tones." 

JLab says it worked with ORLY to select the final hues from an original collection of over 60 options. Given the beauty brand's experience with creating nude nail polishes, the seven colors "encompassed a variety of skin tones with a mix of warm, neutral and cool undertones. While the colors reflect actual skin tones, most users will find the colors "flattering" without an exact match, according to JLab. If you're having trouble selecting the best option, JLab offers an AR fitting room for a virtual try-on that might help you decide.

JLab

The Go Air Tones are the same earbuds as the $20 Go Air Pop that JLab debuted back in August. This means you'll get on-board touch controls, the ability to use either bud on its own, a collection of EQ presets and IPX4 protection from moisture. There's also an enclosed case with built-in USB cable for charging. JLab says you can expect up to eight hours on the earbuds themselves with an additional three charges from the included case. The only difference between the Pop and the Tones are the available color options for each. 

The Go Air Tones are available for pre-order today for $20. They're scheduled to begin shipping in mid-January. 

JLab

T-Mobile is still suffering from data breaches, although its latest headache may be more reflective of the phone business at large. The carrier has confirmed to Bleeping Computer that a recent data breach stemmed from SIM swapping attacks. Intruders compromised a "very small number" of customers by reassigning SIM cards or viewing "limited" account info, T-Mobile said.

It's not clear what methods the attackers used, but SIM swaps are frequently used to take control of internet accounts and circumvent SMS-based two-factor authentication. The attacks sometimes rely on tricking or paying carrier staff to make the swaps.

 The provider said it "quickly corrected" the problem using existing measures and took further steps to protect targets. The company also contended that swaps are a "common industry-wide occurrence." While that's sadly true, that won't be much help for victims — it could be a long while before SIM swap attacks are impractical.

If you had planned to play Fortnite today, you may want to make other plans. At the moment, many players are finding it impossible to log in to their accounts and play games. At 1:13PM ET, Epic Games said it was investigating "an issue," and promised to share more information once it had a solution to the problem.

Epic hasn't said what's causing the problem. However, over on its status website, the company describes the incident as a "major outage." That same webpage notes the Epic Games Store is suffering from "degraded performance," According to Downdetector, there are also reports of people being unable to play GTA Online and access Discord, but it's not clear if those incidents are related. 

Developing...

We're somehow just about to roll into 2022, which means Sony will soon refresh the lineup of games PlayStation Plus members can claim at no extra cost. Starting on January 4th, you'll be able to snag Persona 5 Strikers, Dirt 5 and Deep Rock Galactic.

Persona 5 Strikers follows the events of Persona 5 (which PS5 owners can snag through the PS Plus Collection). The action RPG, which was released in the West earlier this year, pulls in elements from the Dynasty Warriors series too. It's the only one of January's PS Plus games that doesn't have a native PS5 version.

Dirt 5 is the latest game in the long-running Dirt series. The off-road racing title, which emerged in November 2020, includes features like four-player splitscreen and the Playground creative mode. You can race across more than 70 routes in 10 global locations.

Deep Rock Galactic, meanwhile, is debuting on PlayStation as a PS Plus game. The co-op first-person shooter arrived on PC and Xbox in May 2020. You'll play as a space dwarf and there are four classes you can choose from: engineer, gunner, driller and scout. Players explore procedurally-generated destructible cave systems and take on waves of aliens as they search for resources.

PS Plus subscribers will until February 1st to claim those titles. Meanwhile, you have until January 3rd to snag the six games in the current lineup. You can snag Godfall: Challenger Edition, Lego DC Super Villains and Mortal Shell, as well as PS VR titles The Persistence (which you can also play without a headset), The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and Until You Fall.

Every year I try to have a little “holiday gaming café” gathering at my apartment, where I invite friends over to play board and card games. While last year’s party was understandably cancelled, this year I invited a small group over and we indulged in tabletop titles like We’re Doomed and Parks. Inevitably we reached the point in the evening where people’s attention started to stray so it seemed like a good idea to switch to party video games. But instead of the old standby Jackbox, I remembered that Oink Games had just released a board game collection and decided to give that a spin.

We discovered that Let’s Play! Oink Games was not like Jackbox Party Packs at all, as it did not work with phones and required separate copies of the game on separate consoles. Pass. So we turned off the Switch, hooked up my laptop and started up Jackbox Party Pack 8 instead.

If you live in a friendless cave and aren’t familiar with Jackbox, it’s a pretty great series: Each “Party Pack” has five party games that anyone can join in with their phone (or any web browser) by going to Jackbox.tv and inputting the special room code. The narrator explains how to play and walks the group through each round — which makes it pretty great for those guests who aren’t paying attention or are super, super drunk. Most of the games involve drawing, trivia or writing silly words. (My particular favorite is ‘Mad Verse City’ from Jackbox Party Pack 5, a rap game.)

After everyone left, I decided to give Let’s Play! Oink Games another try. And, while it isn’t an alternative to Jackbox (it’s more like Clubhouse Games, if anything), it is still a somewhat fun experience, though not worth the $22 I spent.

There are only four games included with the set: Startups, Deep Sea Adventure, A Fake Artist Goes to New York, and‘Moon Adventure. They’re all computerized versions of Oink’s tabletop games, which come in little card-deck-sized boxes and usually cost $20 each. In that respect, the video game version does seem like a good deal. You have a choice to play online with either people you know or strangers, offline with people you know, or offline with CPU opponents.

Oink Games

Offline with friends wasn’t happening since, as I pointed out earlier, you all need your own copy of the game and a console. I tried to find an online match, only to discover there weren’t any going on. So my only choice was offline with CPU opponents.

Unfortunately, A Fake Artist Goes to New York can’t be played with CPU opponents, as it’s a drawing game where all the players but one are given a prompt, and you have to figure out who the “fake” artist is. I also discovered that Moon Adventure can have multiple players, but the user is tasked with playing them all since it’s a cooperative game. So it’s really a battle with resource management as you attempt to gather supplies before your oxygen runs out. I found this one the toughest of all, even after looking at the helpful instructions and videos the game builds in. For all my qualms with the title, the instructions are really well-done.

However, the instructions didn’t get me any closer to winning Startups, one of the two games where CPU players can participate. And man, are they merciless. The idea is to gather as many “shares” in a company as possible, but if you don’t have the most you end up having to pay out to the person who does. It’s like a modern version of Monopoly where you land on Boardwalk all the time. At least this one plays a lot quicker.

The last game, Deep Sea Adventure, is my favorite. It’s sort of competitive and sort of cooperative, as all the players must share the same oxygen supply and diving too deep will deplete it quickly. Once I got into the rhythm of gathering treasure and running back to the sub as soon as possible I mastered the game and was regularly kicking CPU butt.

While it was perhaps unfair of me to expect Let’s Play: Oink Games to be a Jackbox replacement, there’s still a lot of room for growth in what they have. I’d like to see a mode where users who don’t own the game can play on their own systems with a person who does, similar to how Mario Kart used to work on the DS. And I do hope they add more games, if only because this is an easier way to learn how to play instead of trying to puzzle out badly translated print instructions from Japanese, which is what you deal with in the physical versions.

Announcing a vehicle is one thing, actually following through and building that vehicle at a factory and then selling it, that’s an almost impossible feat for a new company. But like Tesla before it, Rivian has pulled it off and in doing so has built one of the best trucks on the road today, EV or otherwise.

The all-electric Rivian R1T starts at wallet-busting $67,500, but for that money, owners will get the latest technology out there in a truck that’s at home on the highway, around town, and crawling over rocks, and navigating muddy trails. We put one to the test in the rain in Northern California.

Jabra only just launched its Elite 3 wireless earbuds, but it already has a follow-up. TechRadarnotes Jabra has introduced the Elite 4 Active, a step-up model that addresses a few of the omissions from the 3. They now have active noise cancellation to drown out the world during your workouts, while improved IP57 water resistance (up from IP55) should help deal with sweat and downpours.

The features will otherwise seem familiar if you've seen the Elite 3, although that's not necessarily a problem. The Elite 4 Active packs 6mm drivers, a "HearThrough" mode to amplify outside sounds and single-bud listening. You'll have to make do with wired charging, but you still get a claimed seven hours og battery life from the buds themselves and 28 hours when you include the charging case.

Availability in some countries is the bigger unknown. The Elite 4 Active is available now in the UK for £120 (about $161), but they haven't been announced for the US as we write this. We've asked Jabra if it can share more. Provided the earbuds do arrive stateside, though, they could easily represent a bargain. We liked the Elite 3 for a combination of a low price with strong sound quality, healthy battery life and comfort —the 4 Active builds on that formula. They may represent better value than the Echo Buds and other rivals that make more noticeable compromises.

Roku TVs will be able to pair quickly with more audio products in the future. The company has expanded its TV Ready Certification Program, adding Element, JVC, Pheanoo and Philips this year, with Polk Audio and Westinghouse joining the list in 2022. Roku also opened the program internationally, and partners like Bose are expected to launch TV Ready devices in the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico soon. 

Bose vice president of Product and Experience, Doug Cunningham, said:

"Roku TV Ready makes it easier than ever to set-up and use a Bose TV speaker for an improved audio experience. We are excited to bring this option to more Roku TV owners across the globe."

The TV Ready initiative makes it easy to connect soundbars and speakers to Roku TVs — so long as the audio device supports the feature, it will automatically be detected as soon as you plug it in. Your TV will then turn off its speakers and switch audio output, and you'll be able to control your speaker's/soundbar's volume using the Roku remote. The program launched in 2020, with Sound United (the parent company of Polk, Denon, Marantz, Class A and Boston Acoustics) and TCL as the first official partners.

Roku says the program provides participants with an "easy-to-implement" SDK for fast integration, as well as a wireless soundbar reference design that it launched at CES 2021. TCL released the first model based on the reference, and it of course pairs automatically with a Roku TV.