Large tech companies may soon have to pay significant taxes no matter what tax loopholes they had before. BBC Newsreports G20 leaders have reached an agreement that would set a global minimum tax rate of 15 percent for large companies. The long-in-the-making deal should be official as of today (October 31st) and would be enforced starting in 2023.

The US originally pitched the concept to prevent companies from using creative accounting (such as the "Double Irish arrangement") to avoid paying most of their taxes in the country. Other countries embraced the idea, though, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) toldCBC News the move could rake in about $150 billion from corporations around the world.

The deal could discourage tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Netflix from relying on loopholes to maximize their profits. If the deal collects the promised money, governments could better fund public services and help tackle problems like climate change. 

There are numerous criticisms, however, and not just from those who generally oppose higher taxes. Oxfam, for instance, blasted "generous carve outs" that protected sone income and take 10 years to phase out. The pro-equality group also claimed the deal was "extremely limited" and would affect fewer than 100 companies while generating little money for poorer countries. The arrangement might beat the status quo for G20 nations, but it won't necessarily address some outstanding concerns.

Apple's rumored mixed reality headset may be a boon for VR gaming. In his most recent newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claimed Apple is aiming for a headset that can handle "high-quality" VR games with both fast chips and high-res displays. While it's not certain just what chips would be involved, a previous leak mentioned a possible 8K resolution per eye — Apple might not expect games to run at that resolution, but it would hint at serious processing power.

The headset is still poised to arrive "as early as" 2022, Gurman said. He also suggested Apple would eventually follow up the mixed headset with an augmented-reality-only model, but that was "years down the road."

However accurate the claim might be, it's doubtful the mixed reality headset would be meant primarily for gaming The price (rumored to be as high as $3,000) might relegate it to developers and other pros. It wouldn't be a rival to the $299 Quest 2, then. Instead, the report suggests Apple might use this initial headset to pave the way for more affordable wearables where gaming is more realistic.

It's safe to presume Apple is committed to a headset, no matter the end result. Apple has acquired companies and reportedly shuffled executives with mixed reality in mind. This wouldn't just be a side project for the company, even if the mixed reality tech could take years to reach the mainstream. Gaming might play a pivotal role if Apple intends to reach a wider audience.

This may be one of your best chances of scoring a smart speaker or e-reader before the holiday rush. Amazon is selling multiple recent Echo devices (plus a Kindle reader) at very low prices. To start, the fourth-generation Echo speaker is on sale for just $60 (usually $100), or the same as its Prime Day pricing. You can also buy the new Echo Show 5 for an all-time low of $55 (normally $85), while its larger Echo Show 8 counterpart has dropped to $100 (typically $130).

You might also appreciate the Kindle deal if you're a book lover. Amazon is selling the standard Kindle (with ads) for just $50 — that's $40 below its official sticker, and even better than the Prime Day price. You'll get a similar discount on the ad-free version, which sells for $70. Either price drop makes the Kindle an easy choice if you prefer to wind down with a digital book at the end of the day.

The Echo devices are safe choices. The fourth-gen Echo sounds great for the money and boasts a memorable design along with Alexa's healthy ecosystems for smart home devices and skills. The newer Echo Show 5 and 8, meanwhile, build on that Alexa know-how with visuals. The Show 5 fits best as a bedside clock, while the 8 works well for video calls or as a family hub in the kitchen or living room. The main hiccups are simply the interface and streaming app selections — Google has a slight edge in both departments, but that might not matter much if you're mainly using voice commands or checking the news and weather.

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iRobot's latest Roomba that can detect obstacles — including pet poop — along its cleaning journey is cheaper than ever right now. Both Amazon and Wellbots have the Roomba j7 and j7+ for $150 less, so you can grab them for $499 and $699, respectively. Both robots are the same, but you'll get the clean base with the j7+ model, allowing you to set and forget the robot and only empty the clean base about once every 60 days.

The j7 series builds upon the Roomba i7 robots with more powerful cameras, better sensors and more power. The AI-driven computer vision technology allows the device to detect obstacles and move around them as it cleans, and you can label those obstacles as permanent (in the case of a chair or another piece of furniture) or temporary. Not only does this mean the j7 robots should better navigate around things like piles of clothes and charging cords, but they can also detect a robot vacuum's arch nemesis: pet poop. iRobot even has a Pet Owner Official Promise (yes, P.O.O.P.) which states that you'll get a new robot vacuum if your j7+ runs into poop in the first year of you owning it.

Aside from that, the j7 series takes advantage of iRobot's improved mobile app, which lets you schedule cleanings and set routine triggers. You can also label rooms in your home after the robot has created a map, so you can better direct it to a specific room when you only need a quick clean.

While the clean base included in the j7+ package isn't necessary, it takes the convenience level up a notch. Instead of emptying your robot's bin after every job, the j7+ will automatically empty its contents into the clean base when it's done. You then only have to worry about emptying the base once every two months.

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Now that Luigi is part of Lego Super Mario, the toymaker is ready to show the other heroic plumber a little more respect. Lego has introduced a trio of Luigi's Mansion expansion sets that give its namesake star more to do in a game designed with him in mind.

The $30 Lab and Poltergust set helps you get started with Luigi's ghost vacuum, while a $40 Entryway set introduces you to the mansion proper as well as Polterpup and the game series' Boo ghosts. Splurge on the $80 Haunt-and-Seek kit and you can create a full-fledged level, complete with hidden gems and rotating hallways. As you'd expect, you can combine the sets or mix them with other Lego Super Mario packs.

The timing is off. Lego may be announcing the Luigi's Mansion sets on Halloween, but they won't be available until January 1st, 2022. It's a missed opportunity, then, but you might not mind if you or or your kids enjoy the existing Super Mario collections and want more variety. If nothing else, this will provide fond memories for anyone who remembers collecting ghosts in Luigi's games.

NASA's Juno probe has provided a better, deeper look at Jupiter's atmosphere. Researchers have produced the first 3D view of Jupiter's atmospheric layers, illustrating how its turbulent clouds and storms work in greater detail than before. Most notably, it's clearer how cyclones and anticyclones behave. They're much taller than expected, with the Great Red Spot (an anticyclone) running 200 miles deep. They're either warmer or colder at the top depending on their spin, too.

Juno helped fill out the data using a microwave radiometer that offered a peek below the clouds' surfaces. For the Great Red Spot, the team complemented the radiometer data with the gravity signatures from two close passes. The radiometer info also showed Earth-like circulation cells in northern and souther hemispheres, not to mention ocean-like changes in microwave light.

There are still mysteries left, such as the atmospheric mass of the Great Red Spot. With that said, the 3D imagery is already producing a more cohesive picture of how jovian planets like Jupiter behave. It might not take much more effort to solve more of Jupiter's mysteries.

You'll have to go large if you want an Intel-powered Mac desktop. 9to5Macreports Apple has quietly discontinued the 21.5-inch iMac about half a year after introducing the M1 model. The company had been selling a lone dual-core model for $1,099 through a relatively hard-to-find page, but YouTube Tech God noticed that it disappeared sometime on October 29th.

We've asked Apple for comment on the move. The company has a long history of keeping legacy Macs around for a while before silently dropping them, but it seldom elaborates on those decisions. A notable exception came in March this year, when Apple confirmed it was winding down iMac Pro sales.

This won't thrill educational customers that may still want the 21.5-inch iMac for its relatively low price, small size and legacy ports. You'll have to buy at least a 27-inch iMac or a $1,099 legacy Mac mini if you're not ready to leap to Apple Silicon. This does signal Apple's confidence in its processors, though — it clearly believes its mainstream desktop customers are ready to make the switch.

You'll have to wait a little bit longer to watch SpaceX's third crewed NASA mission. NASA has delayed the launch of Crew-3 from early on Halloween to 1:10AM Eastern on November 3rd. The agency pinned the setback on "unfavorable" weather. There probably won't be another delay, though, as officials are predicting an 80 percent chance of good weather for the new date. Live overage of the launch on NASA's channel will start November 2nd at 8:45PM.

Crew-3 will bring NASA astronauts Raja Chari (the mission commander), Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron to the International Space Station alongside the ESA's Matthias Maurer. They're expected to dock at 11PM Eastern on November 3rd and will stay until late April 2022.

Crewed SpaceX flights are still relatively rare. Crew-1 launched in November 2020, while Crew-2 didn't lift off until April 2021. Crew-3 and the recent all-civilian Inspiration4 mission are steps toward making these occupied flights relatively routine — ideally, they'll soon be as uneventful as SpaceX's other flights.

It hasn't been a good weekend for Roblox players. The Vergenotes that the gaming platform has been down since 7PM Eastern on October 28th (nearly two days as of this writing), with no resolution in sight. It's not clear what prompted the failure beyond an "internal system issue," but Roblox Corporation stressed that it wasn't due to a Chipotle promo that launched just half an hour earlier. This wasn't linked to "any specific experiences or partnerships," Roblox explained.

The promo offers a total $1 million in free Chipotle burritos to players as part of a Halloween event. That could prompt a spike in activity on Roblox, but it's not likely to disrupt a game with over 40 million daily users.

The outage certainly won't help the platform, though. Over half of Roblox players are pre-teens, and its surge during the early pandemic helped fuel high-profile concerts and platform-exclusive games. Failures like this could easily anger kids (and their families) that spend much of their time in Roblox's virtual universe. While the downtime likely won't hurt the platform's long-term reputation, the company clearly can't afford many incidents like this.

Apple may have given us a glimpse of what the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros' insides look like, but it had a surprise waiting for the folks at iFixit nonetheless. The iFixit team said removing batteries from recent MacBook Pros required "infinite patience, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and an optional bottle of human-friendly alcohol." They expected the same from this generation of laptops but were pleasantly surprised by the presence of pull tabs instead when they tore down the new MacBook Pros.

The outer battery cells have noticeable pull tabs that you can, well, pull to detach them from their adhesive underneath. Even the central battery cells have pull tabs — they're just harder to find inside the laptop chassis beneath the trackpad. iFixit was able able to confirm that the laptops will recognize and work with battery replacements just fine.

In addition, most of the laptops' ports, except for the SD card reader and the HDMI port, are modular. That means they can be easily and cheaply replaced if they suddenly break or malfunction. Conversely, the laptops' keyboard will still be hard to replace, but hey, at least the days of Apple's butterfly keyboard are now over. You can watch iFixit's teardown process in the video below, and it also has more photos of the laptops insides on its website if you want to have a better look at their components. iFixit also took apart Apple's $19 polishing cloth, in case you're wondering what makes it more expensive that its typical counterparts.