Discord has started testing a feature called Premium Memberships with a small group of users. The tool allows community owners to gate access to part or all of their server behind a monthly subscription fee. It’s something the company’s growing number of users, particularly admins and mods, have been asking it to implement for a while. Before today, those individuals had to turn to third-party services like Patreon to monetize access to their servers.

By contrast, the Premium Memberships tool creates a streamlined interface for that same purpose. A new tab under the “Community” heading in the app’s setting’s menu allows server owners to do things like set price tiers and view related analytics. The feature similarly streamlines the process of signing up for paid channels for users. If you want to support a community, you don’t need to leave Discord to do so. When you tap on a premium channel, indicated by the new “sparkle” icon in the sidebar, the client will tell how much you need to pay for access, as well as what perks you’ll gain for doing so.

Discord

As for pricing, Discord says it will encourage server owners to experiment. As a baseline, the company will recommend a monthly fee of $2.99 as a minimum and $99.99 as a maximum. When it comes to most of the channels you visit, you probably won’t pay more than $5 or $10 a month for access. The top end of the price range is a reflection of how much Discord has changed since the start of the pandemic to accommodate a more diverse group of communities. Discord isn’t exclusively a place for gaming anymore.

“Access to a channel can seem simplistic, but it’s a foundational piece that someone can build a lot of flexibility on top of,” said Jesse Wofford, group product marketing manager at Discord, in an interview with Engadget. One of the server owners the company is working with on this week’s soft launch is someone who runs gaming bootcamps. According to Wofford, they’ve built an entire business around private lessons. The company wants to give those people the opportunity to create a sustainable business on its platform. 

Whatever someone decides to charge for access to their channels, the company plans to take a 10 percent cut of the subscription. “It's an important stake in the ground for us that this product, like a lot of other ones, is built around creator success,” Wofford said. Additionally, for people who want to continue to use services like Patreon to monetize their channels, Discord won’t stop them from doing so. “One of the important things here is that we’re still investing in those relationships,” said Wofford. “We want to create an ecosystem that gives creators as many options to succeed as possible.”

Discord

Premium Memberships is something Discord has been working on for a while. “There’s probably a world where we could have released this a while ago,” Wofford told me. “We wanted to make sure we took in the right feedback from a diverse set of creators and built it in a way that we felt confident would deliver value.” To that end, the company plans to take its time testing the feature before it rolls it out more widely.

NASA's Hubble telescope has been in a "coma" since going into system failure in late October — but today, the agency announced that it is waking Hubble up. After multiple instrument sync failures that required putting Hubble into safe mode, NASA says the telescope is now functioning as normal, with all four active instruments collecting data. 

On October 23rd, NASA first noticed that Hubble's instruments weren't receiving sync messages from the telescope's control unit. Communications issues continued for several days, which led NASA to put the telescope into a sort of safe mode — something that takes a long time to come out of because of the sensitivity of Hubble's hardware. Rapid power or temperature changes aren't good for its lifespan, so NASA took its time here.

This shutdown was the second that was required in 2021, with another month-long "coma" taking place in July to deal with an unrelated issue. Given the 31-year-old telescope's age, it's entirely possible that Hubble is nearing the end of its useful life in space, but for now NASA expects Hubble to work in tandem with the Webb telescope "well into this decade." After numerous delays, the Webb telescope is expected to finally launch on December 22nd.

You may not have heard of messaging service Quill, but it was positioned as a Discord- or Slack-style app for team communications that tried to be less noisy and more structured. The platform only launched this past February, but today Twitter has announce it is purchasing Quill and shutting it down this weekend. Twitter's tech GM Nick Caldwell announced the move this morning, and Quill confirmed the news in a blog post on its own site.

The fact that it's shutting down this weekend is a stunningly fast turn-around; Quill is offering details on how to export data, which any team using it will probably want to do ASAP. (They'll also want to go and find a new messaging service to use post-haste.) 

The app had billed itself as "messaging for people that focus," and it's not clear how that mission will continue as part of Twitter. Caldwell said that the goal was to have the Quill team help "make messaging tools like DMs a more useful & expressive way people can have conversations." Chances are good this is more of an acqui-hire situation, in which Twitter wanted to have the Quill team working on Twitter's existing products. Given how fast Quill is shutting down, it's pretty clear Twitter doesn't have any interest in spending resources on that existing product.

It's the second major acquisition Twitter has made in the last month or so — in mid-November, Twitter purchased Threader, a popular tool that pulled threads of tweets together into an easier to read format. Just like the Quill purchase, Twitter didn't waste much time shutting down Threader — the app is set to disappear on December 15th. (At least it got a longer lease on life than Quill.) Threader is expected to be rolled into the Twitter Blue subscription service; we'll have to see if some of Quill's legacy ends up there, as well.

A Canadian hacker named Gary Bowser (yes, like Mario's nemesis) has agreed to pay the company $10 million to settle a civil piracy lawsuit. Bowser, who was part of Switch hacking group Team Xecuter, was accused of being part of a "cybercriminal enterprise that hacked leading gaming consoles," as Eurogamer notes. Nintendo argued Bowser violated the company's copyright and it seems the hacks were not in another castle.

News of the settlement emerged several weeks after Bowser pleaded guilty to multiple federal hacking charges. He was fined $4.5 million in that case and faces up to 10 years in prison. Bowser, who was arrested in the Dominican Republic in October 2020 and deported to the US, admitted to having "developed, manufactured, marketed, and sold a variety of circumvention devices" that let people play ROMs on consoles. 

Facebook has been repeatedly accused of enabling Myanmar's genocide against the country's Rohingya minority, and now it will deal with those accusations in court. A Rohingya woman has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of refugees against Facebook parent company Meta, alleging the company both amplified anti-Rohingya hate speech through its algorithms and failed to remove content fostering violence. The refugees ask for over $150 billion in damages.

The plaintiffs argued that Facebook only took meaningful action against pro-genocide factions after it was pushed. The Myanmar military launched its purge of Rohingya in 2017, with officials and nationalist monks spreading slurs and misinformation on Facebook to either justify or cover up atrocities. Facebook only started cracking down in August 2018 following a UN report linking unchecked behavior on the social network to real-world violence. The company requested an independent audit at the same time that reached a similar conclusion. This was too little too late, according to the refugees — the company admitted it "should and could have done more" only after mass displacements and deaths.

Meta has already declined to comment on the lawsuit. A similar complaint is expected in the UK in 2022.

The firm was quick to clamp down on the Myanmar military following its February 2021 coup, and went so far as to pull the military's main page. However, that swifter response won't help much with a lawsuit over past actions. While it's too soon to say whether or not the lawsuit will succeed, let alone obtain the hoped-for damages, the company may have a difficult time defending itself.

You can now use Alexa Together to help take care of aging family members. Amazon has launched the $20 per month ($199 per year) service, with a six-month free trial available for a "limited time." Care Hub users get a full free year from now until December 7th, 2022. Your loved one will need an Alexa-capable device, but after that it's relatively hands-off — they ideally get more independence while you get some peace of mind.

The elderly relative can reach an emergency helpline if they ask Alexa to "call for help," but Together is mainly useful for notifications. You'll get alerts if your family member calls that line, or simply for their first Alexa interaction of the day. Use a fall detection sensor from ATS or Vayyar (more device support is coming) and you'll also get word if there's an incident.

Amazon stressed that seniors would still have their privacy. They have to grant permission for you to remotely assist them by adding contacts, reminders and services. Any Alexa interaction alerts are also generic. You'll know your loved one made an entertainment request, for instance, but you won't know what was playing.

The service is still relatively limited. Amazon doesn't expect to support multiple caregivers until early 2022, for instance, so this won't help if your siblings also want to pitch in. It might still be useful if you want that safety net, though. If nothing else, it's clear between this and Halo services that Amazon wants to be a part of your daily wellness checks — whether they're your own or someone else's.

Despite the addition of the third-generation AirPods to Apple's earbud lineup, the second-gen versions remain a decent option for those that liked the fit of the company's old-school EarPods. They've also become a budget-friendly option this holiday shopping season as we've seen the second-gen AirPods go on sale a few times. Now you can pick them up for only $100, which is roughly $60 off their normal price. While they were on sale for $89 last month for a brief period of time, this remains one of the best prices we've seen.

You probably know the drill about AirPods by now, but we'll provide a refresher. These are the "classic" style AirPods that made Apple's earbuds some of the most popular in the wireless audio space. Their kicker is the H1 chipset inside that allows them to quickly pair and switch between Apple devices. Not only do they connect to your iPhone in seconds, but they can also switch to, say, your MacBook while you watch a YouTube video pretty seamlessly.

The EarPods-like design of these buds will be great for some, but a bit cumbersome for others. That's one of the improvements Apple made with its third-gen earbuds, but those come in at $179. The second-gen models have decent sound quality and a good battery life, too — you'll get around five hours of use before they need more power, and you can get more than 24 hours of total listening time after a few recharges with the included case. Overall, they may not have some of the newer bells and whistles you'll find on the latest AirPods, but these make a good pair of wireless earbuds for Apple users on a budget.

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Sony only just launched its ZV-E10 mirrorless vlogging camera in July, but as of December 3rd, it has suspended orders and ceased production due to the ongoing chip shortage, Sony Japan announced. The company added that a resumption of production and sales will depend upon "the status of parts supply," and that interested buyers should keep an eye on the camera's product page. 

The ZV-E10 was released as a more capable follow-up to the popular, compact ZV-1 vlogging camera, thanks to the option to change lenses. It's essentially a reworked A6100 model with a flip-out display, no electronic viewfinder (EVF), a high-quality built-in three-capsule microphone and a button that makes it easy to switch from video to still photography. 

Sony has also paused production of the A7 II, A6400 and A6100 cameras. The latter two are fairly recent models, but the A7 II originally launched in 2014 — so it's hard to see a particular pattern. 

Cameras aren't the only Sony products affected by semiconductor shortages. Sony also reportedly reduced PS5 production, something that might put its delivery target of 14.8 million consoles by March 2022 in jeopardy. Sony and TSMC recently announced that they'd team up on a chip factory in Japan for specialized chips used in cars, cameras and other gadgets. However, the plant won't come online until 2024 at the earliest, so it'll do nothing to help Sony or anyone else, anytime soon. 

Back in November, Amazon started selling its own smart thermostat for a price that's less than half what a Google Nest thermostat costs. Now, Amazon's smart thermostat has gotten its first price drop and is currently on sale for $48, or 20 percent off its original retail price. It's not as feature-rich as its much expensive rivals — it doesn't have motion activation, for instance — but it's a solid option for a fraction of the price. 

The device is Energy Star-certified, which means it was designed to save you an average of $50 on electric bills per year. It works with Alexa voice control, as you would expect from an Amazon product, but it doesn't have speakers or a microphone. You'll have to issue voice commands through a compatible Alexa-enabled device, such as an Echo or the Alexa app.

Once set up, Alexa can take over for you. It can set the temperature if you want it to and update it throughout the day for maximum savings potential. Through the thermostat's learning feature called Hunches, Alexa will be able to automatically adjust the temperature based on its observations. For example, it can turn down the heat if it believes that nobody's home. 

Amazon's smart thermostat also has a simple, modern design that doesn't make it look cheap despite being a budget option. The $48 device doesn't come with a C-wire power adapter. If you need the adapter, you can also get the bundle with one for $63 or 25 percent lower than its usual price, though it's currently not in stock. 

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That’s a digital Keanu and, yes, Epic Games’ interactive demo ties into The Matrix Resurrections feature film landing later this month. On December 9th, The Matrix Awakens will be available on your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S console ahead of its debut at The Game Awards.

Epic Games

It appears to be a slick technical demo of Unreal Engine 5, showing what the next-generation engine is capable of, with some help from Neo et al. For most, this will be the first chance to see UE5 in action. Epic previewed the engine partway through last year with a stunning PS5 demo, but has been largely quiet since. The Game Awards, this Thursday, sounds like a good time to show off.

— Mat Smith

Samsung’s major shake-up

It’s replaced all its CEOs.

Samsung has merged its mobile business, the company's biggest moneymaker, with its consumer electronics division in a major restructuring meant to "strengthen its business competitiveness." The tech giant has also replaced all of its CEOs and shuffled many around.

Jong-Hee Han, head of its TV business, has been named as Vice Chairman and co-CEO of the newly merged mobile and consumer electronics divisions. Han won't be leaving his duties as Head of Visual Display, though, and will instead lead both businesses. Han reportedly has no experience in mobile, but Samsung credits him with playing a key role in the company dominating global TV sales over the past 15 years.

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The SEC is investigating Tesla over defective solar panels

The probe stems from a 2019 whistleblower complaint.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Tesla after a whistleblower complaint alleging the company failed to disclose a variety of safety risks associated with its rooftop solar panels. According to a Reuters report, the agency acknowledged the probe in a Freedom of Information Act request made by Steven Henkes (pictured above), a former Tesla employee.

The investigation follows several years of reports of safety concerns with Tesla’s solar panels. In 2019, Walmart sued the company after its solar panels led to seven store fires. While the two companies eventually settled, the retailer claimed at the time that Tesla regularly sent inspectors who “lacked basic solar training and knowledge." That same year, Tesla solar panels at an Amazon warehouse in California reportedly caught fire as well.

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Concept hydrogen-powered plane could fly halfway around the world without refueling

But the main word is concept, for now.

Aerospace Technology Institute

Electric planes won't be feasible until batteries become more powerful and lightweight, but hydrogen-powered flight is another possible way to reduce the flight industry’s carbon emissions.

The FlyZero project, led by the Aerospace Technology Institute and funded by the UK government, came up with a concept for a liquid hydrogen-powered midsize aircraft. It said the plane would be able to fly 279 passengers non-stop from London to San Francisco or from London to Auckland, New Zealand, with one stop for refueling.

We're years away from commercial hydrogen aircrafts, with refueling infrastructure non-existent and hydrogen more expensive and difficult to store than standard kerosene fuel. The FlyZero project plans to publish more detailed findings early next year.

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Instagram launches Take a Break and other safety features for teens

Just in time for Adam Mosseri's Senate testimony.

Instagram has launched a number of new and experimental features meant to make its app a safer place for teens ahead of Instagram head Adam Mosseri's Senate testimony. The previously announced Take a Break feature has now launched in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Now, when a user — teens, in particular — scolls through Instagram for a long while, the app will ask them to take a break and to set reminders for the future.

In March, Instagram will be launching tools for parents and guardians to give them a way to view how much time their kids are spending on the app and to set time limits.

Adam Mosseri is set to testify this week as part of a series of hearings about protecting kids online. Instagram and Facebook have come under fire in recent months after whistleblower Frances Haugen told Congress about the social networks' effect on teens based on Meta's own research. Haugen revealed that "engagement-based ranking on Instagram can lead children from very innocuous topics like healthy recipes… to anorexia-promoting content over a very short period of time."

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The biggest news stories you might have missed

William Shatner's space voyage is becoming an Amazon documentary

Toshiba's flagship Fire TV set has hands-free Alexa

Firefox 95 enhances the browser's protection against malicious code

DoorDash tests 15-minute grocery deliveries in New York City

Google Pixel update delivers time-saving improvements on new and older models

YouTube says most disputed copyright claims are resolved in the uploader's favor