A Google Cloud network issue has taken down a handful of prominent websites today, including Spotify, Snapchat, Etsy and Discord. Google says the issue is partially resolved as of 1:17PM ET, but a full fix is still incoming. Affected websites will display 404 error messages and there is no workaround on the customer side.

Users began reporting issues with some sites Tuesday just before 1PM ET, and Google Cloud confirmed the networking problem at 1:10PM ET. 

"We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption," the company wrote.

The 2021 Game Awards nominees have been revealed, and it's safe to say there are a few clear frontrunners alongside the usual eclectic mix. Arkane's time-warping Deathloop and Sony's multi-dimensional Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart were two of the most frequently nominated titles, picking up five nods each that included Game of the Year, art, sound and acting categories.

Other multi-nominated titles included the co-op action platformer It Takes Two, the long-expected Psychonauts 2 and the just-released Forza Horizon 5. Metroid Dread and Resident Evil Village also reached the GOTY and action shortlists.

This was also a good year for games with accessibility and, in some cases, an important message. The empathy-driven Life is Strange: True Colors made both the "Games for Impact" and "Innovation in Accessibility" nominees, while blockbusters like Forza, Ratchet & Clank and Far Cry 6 are also in the running for the accessibility award. Creative games like the blink-based Before Your Eyes and the introspective No Longer Home are candidates for the Games for Impact award. Simply speaking, you don't need to look very far to find innovative titles in 2021.

The awards ceremony takes place December 9th. There are bound to be some upsets and "really?" picks (even the buggy Cyberpunk 2077 is up for some awards), but the picks so far appear to reflect the gaming zeitgeist in a year where originals and sequels vied for your attention.

If you’ve been patiently waiting to install Windows 11 on your PC, Microsoft has good news. The company announced today it’s increasing the pace of the operating system’s rollout, and making it more broadly available. Provided your system is running version 2004 or later of Windows 10 and you recently installed the September 14th, 2021 servicing update Microsoft released, you can now upgrade directly to Windows 11.

If you plan to continue using Windows 10 for the time being. The company also announced today that it’s started rolling out the November 2021 update for the operating system. Looking forward, Microsoft plans to move Windows 10 to a yearly feature update cadence, aligning it with Windows 11.

As before, Microsoft doesn’t recommend installing Windows 11 on a device that doesn’t meet the system requirements — though you can still do so. One thing to keep in mind is you might not get updates on a PC with an unsupported processor. When Microsoft first released Windows 11 on October 4th, the company said it expected it would offer the upgrade to all eligible devices by mid-2022.

Instagram is expanding the availability of Badges to all eligible creators in the US. Starting today, users over the age of 18 with more than 10,000 followers can apply to use the feature. The company introduced Badges in May of last year. Then, in October, it expanded their availability to approximately 50,000 creators. Badges represent a way for Instagram creators to earn money from their fans. Users can purchase them to make themselves during livestreams. Instagram sells them in increments of $1, $2 and $5.

The company recently said it wouldn’t collect any fees on Badges until at least 2023. Down the line, the feature could help Instagram diversify its revenue beyond the advertising sales it depends on almost exclusively at the moment. More broadly, Badges could be the prelude to more perk-like monetization features making their way to the app in the future.

NVIDIA has released a major update for its Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology. With version 2.3 of the software, the company says the AI algorithm makes smarter use of motion vectors to improve how objects look when they’re moving. The update also helps to reduce ghosting, make particle effects look clearer and improve temporal stability. The latter has traditionally been one of the weakest aspects of the technology, so DLSS 2.3 represents a major improvement. As of today, 16 games feature support for DLSS 2.3. Highlights include Cyberpunk 2077, Deathloop and Doom Eternal.

If you don’t own an RTX GPU but still want to take advantage of the performance boost you can get from upscaling a game, NVIDIA has updated its Image Scaling technology to improve both fidelity and performance. Accessible through the NVIDIA Control Panel, the tool uses spatial upscaling to do the job. That means the result isn’t as clean as the temporal method DLSS uses, but the advantage is you don’t need special hardware. To that end, NVIDIA is releasing an SDK that will allow any GPU, regardless of make, to take advantage of the technology. In that way, NVIDIA says game developers can offer the best of both worlds: DLSS for the best possible image quality and NVIDIA Image Scaling for cross-platform support.

When Riot Forge said it would soon provide more long-awaited details about League of Legends spin-off Ruined King, few fans would have expected Riot Games' publishing arm to suddenly thrust the game into the world. But hey, guess what? That's exactly what happened. 

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is out today on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store. It costs $30 and it's backward compatible on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. A version of the game is in the works for those consoles and there'll be a free upgrade available from the previous-gen systems.

This is a single-player, turn-based RPG developed by Airship Syndicate, the studio behind Darksiders: Genesis. It features some familiar faces for League of Legends fans, including the Champions Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Braum, Pyke, Ahri and Yasuo. You'll assemble a party, explore Bilgewater and venture to the Shadow Isles to learn about the secrets behind the deadly Black Mist.

Ruined King was initially supposed to arrive earlier this year. Riot announced the RPG back at the 2019 edition of The Game Awards.

As it turns out, this isn't the only LoL spin-off you can play starting today. Side-scrolling rhythm runner Hextech Mayhem, which costs $10, also hit Switch and PC. It's also coming to Netflix's library of games in the near future at no extra cost to subscribers.

In addition, Riot Forge provided an update on another project it announced a while back, Conv/rgence: A League of Legends Story. Double Stallion is developing that game, which is now set to arrive on consoles and PC next year. Song of Nunu, from Tequila Works, is also scheduled to arrive next year. And that's not all. Riot Forge also revealed during its showcase that a game set in the Demacia region is in development.

You won't need an extension to add a cryptocurrency wallet to your browser. Brave has updated its desktop browser with a built-in crypto wallet (appropriately, Brave Wallet) that lets you buy, sell and swap with "almost any" asset. While this won't always be more convenient, Brave claims the included wallet should carry fewer security risks and performance penalties than the usual browser add-ons.

This is a self-custody wallet that still allows use of other wallets (such as Brave's legacy Crypto Wallets) and ties into hardware wallets from the likes of Trezor and Ledger. You can track crypto market data, find the best price matches and control portfolios that include NFTs. It supports EVM-compatible blockchains and is both open sourced and open licensed.

The wallet is available through the settings page in Brave 1.32. It's coming to Brave's mobile browsers "soon," the company said, and the Solana blockchain will become the default for decentralized app support in 2022. You probably won't download a browser just for native crypto support, but this and Brave's usual privacy-minded features might tip the balance if you're looking for an alternative to mainstream web clients.

Sonos is rolling out an update for its S2 app today that will, among other things, add a welcome feature for home theater enthusiasts. Some of the company's devices will be able to decode the DTS Digital Surround format for surround sound, which should help folks get more out of movies, games and other content that supports the standard. 

Sonos Arc, both generations of the Beam soundbar, Playbar, Playbase and Amp will all get DTS support. When your speakers are playing DTS Digital Surround audio, you'll see a badge on the Sonos app's Now Playing screen. both support Dolby Atmos as well.

DTS isn't as immersive as DTS:X or Dolby Atmos — the latter of which works on Sonos Arc and Beam (Gen 2). DTS supports 5.1-channel audio, but not a 7.1-channel setup or overhead speakers. Were Sonos to eventually roll out DTS:X support on Arc (it seems unlikely to arrive on the current Beam models), that would be a boon for Blu-ray fans. Still, broader support for surround sound standards isn't anything to sniff at.

In addition, the S2 update adds a battery saver setting for the Roam and Move devices. When you turn on the setting, the speakers will switch off entirely after being inactive for 30 minutes. You'll need to use physical power buttons to turn them back on. Sonos claims that, when the speakers are completely off, Move can retain battery life for up to 30 days and Roam can do so for as long as 70 days.

Elsewhere, the Now Playing screen on the iOS app will have EQ settings. You can tap the volume slider and access the settings on the right of the screen. Android users will gain access to the feature in the next few months.

Meanwhile, Sonos has revealed some intriguing news for fans of spatial audio. Support for Amazon Music Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos Music (which Apple Music supports) is coming to Sonos speakers "soon."

If you're looking for a useful tech stocking stuffer for a loved one, Samsung's T7 series of portable SSDs is a good option. We've been fans of these palm-sized drives for a while thanks to their compact designs and fast speeds, but they do come at a premium price. But now you can get the 1TB Samsung T7 drive for $130, which is $40 off and the best price we've seen. And for those that need as much extra storage as possible, the 2TB version is also on sale for $250, or $80 off its normal price.

The T7 and its fingerprint reader-toting counterpart, the T7 Touch, are essentially the same drive aside from the latter's added security feature. Both have compact, shock-resistant bodies that are small enough to fit into nearly any bag or backpack, and they're strong enough to withstand drops from up to six feet. The T7 also uses ePCM technology and Dynamic Thermal Guard to control heat levels, so even when you're pushing it to its limits, it should not overheat. As far as performance goes, the T7 supports reads speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and write speeds up to 1,000 MB/s.

And just because the T7 doesn't have a fingerprint reader doesn't mean you can't protect your files from prying eyes. It has optional password protection, so only those who know the password can even check out the files saved on the device. And since it comes with both USB-C to C and USB-C to A cables, you can use it with most devices you'll have around your home, including tablets and some game consoles.

Samsung's T7 only goes up to 2TB, but you're in luck if you want even more storage in a similar package. SanDisk's Extreme portable SSD in 4TB is on sale right now, too, for $500 — that's $200 off and the best price we've seen. This drive has similar read and write speeds as the Samsung T7, and it has a water and dust-resistant design, optional password protection and 256‐bit AES hardware encryption.

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This holiday might be a prime opportunity to build your music software library. Arturia has launched an early Black Friday sale that offers at least 50 percent off software from now through December 8th. The FX Collection 2 vintage plugin set has dropped to $199, while the V Collection 8 synth keyboard pack has been discounted to $299. The Pigments soft synth is available with the Spectrum sound pack for $99.

Steeper discounts are available to existing registered customers, Arturia said. The company didn't outline those extra savings, but you'll learn about your particular discounts if you sign in to the company's website.

We've used these software kits ourselves, and found them highly usable, versatile and surprisingly close to the real synths and other devices they're meant to emulate. You might not always appreciate the attempts to replicate the look and feel of those classic instruments, but that's easy to live with if you're determined to add an iconic sound to your music. The Black Friday sale prices just make this an easier decision — you'll pay far less than you would to buy the real machines, if you can even track them down.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.