The following contains minor spoilers for season two, episode nine of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks.’

Throughout the history of Star Trek, it’s generally accepted that a member of Starfleet will spend about three years as an ensign, the lowest officer rank in the fleet. It’s the position given to new Starfleet Academy graduates, and the status of the four protagonists on Lower Decks. However, as the show wraps up its second season and prepares for a third, it does bring the character’s status as “lowly ensigns” into doubt. This week’s episode touches on, though doesn’t solve, the problem by exploring the universal concept of a “lower decker.”

In “wej Duj” (the first full Klingon language episode title in the entire franchise), the USS Cerritos is in transit between missions, giving the crew some much-needed downtime. Mariner, Rutherford and Tendi use their day off to spend some personal time with senior officers, which sends the bridge-crew-friendless Boimler into a panic since he notes that this will give them an edge when it comes to getting promoted. He spends most of the episode trying and failing to get buddy-buddy with various officers. If this all feels like C-plot level shenanigans, well, it is. But as a result the show takes its biggest leap yet to fill out its narrative in this episode.

CBS

“wej Duj” is Klingon for “three ships,” and we get to see the crew of the Klingon vessel Che’Ta, where a very ambitious Boimler-esque Klingon is trying to get in good with the current captain of his ship. Old school fans will remember that authority on Klingon ships is assigned by force, with an officer assuming command by killing the previous captain. This young Klingon isn’t quite that ambitious, but he’s perfectly happy to walk the captain’s pet targ if it helps him become first officer.

The episode also shows us the happenings on a nearby Vulcan craft called Sh’Vhal, where a lower decker named T’Lin there has been messing with the sensors and as a result, notices some strange readings in the area that she takes to the captain to investigate. The captain agrees to the search, but he also reprimands her for undertaking such unnecessary adjustments to the ship.

CBS

The entire episode could have been played as a “slice of life,” with the three plot lines never intersecting and it still would have been a fairly successful installment of the series. This isn’t our first look at the internal life of a Klingon ship, but it is our first look at a Vulcan crew, and playing those distinct societies against Starfleet culture is a great bit of world building. Star Trek has never been good about showing life outside Starfleet, only lightly touching on the grander world in more recent shows like Picard and Prodigy. And even those still have tenuous Starfleet connections. Lower Decks has relished showing us the larger universe that the characters exist in, and here we now get that same sense of expansion without the Starfleet worldview intruding.

That doesn’t mean the storylines stand apart, far from it. All three ships and their plot lines come together in the end, not only pulling the episode into one cohesive narrative, but also continuing — and starting to resolve — a plot line that has lingered since the end of season one, namely the Pakleds. We finally find out why they suddenly became a huge threat in the Alpha Quadrant, thanks to a series of machinations reminiscent of storylines on The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Not everything is revolved by the end, presumably leading into a big finale next week. It’s fair to say that seasons one and two basically comprise one full story arc, with season three possibly presenting a fresh slate.

CBS

And it’s just in time, too. Each season has represented a year on the Cerritos. Next season will mark three years on the Cerritos for Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford, placing them in line for a promotion. And unlike Mariner’s purposeful self-sabotage, her friends have all shown themselves to be competent, trustworthy officers. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be promoted — and technically Brad Boimler already was at the end of last season, having only been demoted and sent back to the Cerritos because of a transporter accident on the USS Titan.

While it’s unlikely (though not impossible) that the characters will get promoted in the season finale, it will have to happen some time next year for the show to maintain its verisimilitude in Star Trek canon. The Cerritos doesn’t have the luxury of being trapped in the Delta Quadrant as an excuse to keep its ensign an ensign (poor Harry Kim). But there’s hope, given what happens to our Klingon and Vulcan lower deckers by the end of “wej Duj.” Those outcomes, alongside the episode wrapping on Brad giving sage advice to a young crewman, seem to hint that the show is comfortable with letting our protagonists move on when it’s time.

The Adobe Max 2021 conference is happening this month and, as usual, that means updates across its product lineup. Adobe Elements is first on the list, with plenty of Adobe's Sensei AI-based changes that make it easier to fix photos or videos, extend backgrounds, add animations and more. 

First up, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 introduces a bunch of new art filters that let you make a photo look like a painting by Da Vinci, Van Gogh and other artists. Another fun (but also easy to overdo) feature is moving overlays that let you add animated snowflakes, sparkles and the like to photos, then export as an MP4 to share on social networks. 

Adobe

More practically, Photoshop Elements 2022's "Guided Edits" feature has new options that let you easily make adjustments. Some of those include a pet photo adjustment that lets you remove leashes and collars, adjust lighting and colors, refine fur and more. You can also extend or replace photo backgrounds, create arty double-exposures (above), remove distracting elements from a photo and adjust shadows and highlights. 

Premiere Elements, meanwhile, uses Sensei AI to automatically re-frame videos to fit in social-friendly aspect ratios for TikTok, Instagram and other apps — while still retaining important content. It also comes with two new Guided Edits options: the ability to add animated overlays and adjust shadows and highlights. Other new features include new slideshow styles, and GIF playback in the Organizer.

Adobe

Both apps now support automatic updates, so novice users have "no need to deal with dialog boxes," according to Adobe (this would be a non-starter for most professional users). They also feature a refreshed look and feel with a somewhat cleaner, less cluttered interface. Both apps are now available as a one-time purchase for $100 each, or $150 in a bundle — students and teachers can get both for $80. 

The United States Department of Justice has formed a team of investigators to look into the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes. To be specific, the group, called National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), will tackle cases committed by virtual currency exchanges and groups and individuals involved in money laundering. Members will also investigate mixing and tumbling services, which charge customers a fee to send cryptocurrency to an address while also concealing the source of the funds. In addition, they'll work on tracing and recovering assets lost to fraud or ransomware extortion demands. 

According to the DOJ's announcement, the team will combine the expertise of its money laundering and asset recovery section with its computer crime and intellectual property section. It will also include experts from US Attorneys' Offices. The group will be under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr., though the Justice Department is still looking for an individual to lead it. DOJ is looking for someone "with experience with complex criminal investigations and prosecutions, as well as the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies and the blockchain," in particular. 

The hope is that NCET can provide the whole department and other government agencies with the expertise in cryptocurrency and blockchain needed to investigate and prosecute the growing number of cases related to the technology today. There's been a rise in cybercrime cases these past years, including ransomware attacks wherein bad actors target companies across industries to hold their networks hostage in exchange for payment via cryptocurrency. 

Some of them have had real-world consequences. The attack on Colonial Pipeline caused fuel shortage in the East Coast, for instance, while the various attacks on hospitals around the world put people's lives in danger. The Biden administration is even hosting a meeting with 30 countries later this month to discuss the threat of ransomware attacks to global economy and national security.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a statement:

"Today we are launching the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to draw on the Department’s cyber and money laundering expertise to strengthen our capacity to dismantle the financial entities that enable criminal actors to flourish — and quite frankly to profit — from abusing cryptocurrency platforms. As the technology advances, so too must the Department evolve with it so that we’re poised to root out abuse on these platforms and ensure user confidence in these systems."

This post contains spoilers for the season finale of Marvel's 'What If…?'

All season there were hints that What If…? was going to be more than just an anthology show. The fact that it debuted week to week, instead of dropping all at once like Star Wars Visions. The Watcher’s repeated insistence that he must not interfere, an assertion begging to be tested. Stephen Strange noticed the Watcher’s presence. And then Ultron becomes aware of not just the Watcher, but of the entire multiverse, setting the stage for this week’s finale. It’s like a “greatest hits” of the series so far, with room for future adventures.

After last episode’s altercation, the Watcher knows he cannot handle Infinity Ultron by himself, instead enlisting the help of the heroes we’ve met over the entire season, including Captain Carter, T’Challa Starlord and Party Thor. The one exception is a Gamora who appears to have been working with Tony Stark, pulled into the group with little explanation, making me wonder if I had missed an episode. (Though the Watcher’s dismissal of Tony was pretty funny.)

Where other episodes have had to rush through their premises, showing us how those particular realities differed from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, the finale has eight prior episodes to lean on for background so it got straight to the action. What we got was a tight, zippy episode that’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser, with lots of fun banter between the characters. And it certainly helped that a few were played by their original live-action actors, most notably Benedict Cumberbatch and Hayley Atwell.

However, even this episode left some loose ends and a lot of doors open, with Arnim Zola and Killmonger locked in eternal battle, Black Widow finding a new team and Captain Carter discovering her lost-long love still alive. These all feel ripe for sequels that this show appears more than willing to deliver.

Marvel Studios

It raises the question of what What If…? actually is. The show was originally presented as an anthology — which is still one of the tags it’s given on Disney+. Traditionally an anthology is a collection of stories or essays by different authors, but as early as The Twilight Zone television has defined an anthology as a program with new characters and scenarios every episode, regardless of whether the writers are the same. Even now, while every episode of Black Mirror is written by Charlie Brooker, you’ll still see it described as a science fiction anthology.

The episodes of What If…? are written by a variety of people including showrunner A.C. Bradley, but that’s par for the course with any television program, even the serialized ones. But its anthology nature was due to the fact that even if they were similar to characters we already knew and loved from the live-action productions, the characters were still different people. This is actually alluded to in the finale, when Gamora’s machine fails to destroy the Infinity Stones because it was only built to crush the gems in her universe, not in all realities.

Marvel Studios

But ultimately, even if it’s different universes, it’s one multiverse and thus, one continuity. To watch this finale you would have needed to see every episode of the series this season, instead of cherry-picking only the episodes you were interested in. I know a few people who were only watching the concepts that intrigued them, but in the end they’ll have to watch every episode in order to make sense of certain plot points. While the show has been careful not to intrude into the main MCU and becoming “required” viewing in that expanding behemoth, it’s still building an essential canon of its own.

It’s still rather up in the air over what part What If…? is meant to play. Having many of the actors reprise their roles from the films was a way to tie it into the larger universe, while the change in medium from live-action to animation set it apart from not just the films, but series like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Being billed as an anthology gave it license to do a lot less long-term character building than those two programs as well. 

Marvel Studios

However, in practice it feels a lot like Loki, which completely changed how we saw the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe — it even downplayed the Infinity Stones at several points! Taking major threats of the MCU and greeting them with a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ says that even What If….? isn’t all that interested in retreading old stories and is ready to move on with the rest of the Marvel properties. It may be inessential canon, but it still wants to keep up with the main event. And that’s not how an anthology is supposed to work.

Audio-Technica has released a new true wireless earbuds model that you can add to your holiday shopping list if you're looking for a pair that costs below $100. The ATH-SQ1TW, which has been available since late last year in Japan and other Asian regions, will set you back $79 in the US. It has built-in touch sensor controls that let you control music playback or receive calls without having to use your phone. The model's voice guidance feature will also tell you its remaining battery level, pairing status and other information without you having to check the device it's paired with.

Speaking of pairing, the model also supports Google Fast Pair for easy connection to Android phones via Bluetooth. The ATH-SQ1TW has 5.8 mm drivers and is capable of up to six-and-a-half hours of continuous use on a full charge. It doesn't have noise cancelation, but if you want to let more ambient noise in for safety purposes, say while outside walking or jogging, it offers a couple of options. You can activate single-ear mode to only use one earbud or take advantage of the earphone's hear-through function.

Audio-Technica gave the model's base a square design and has released it in six different colorways: licorice/black, popcorn white, blueberry, caramel, popsicle and cupcake pink/brown. It's now available via retailers in the country.

If you wanted to own a Nintendo Switch, you probably have one by now, unless you were waiting for the long-rumored Pro model. Sadly, the OLED Switch, which we put through its paces here, is not the 4K-upscaling, next-gen Nintendo console we dreamed of.

Engadget

It does, however, pack a bigger gorgeous OLED screen, better battery life (despite what appears to be the same internal parts) and a slightly more modern design. That means fewer bezels, a kickstand you might actually use and a redesigned dock.

The biggest question is: Who is this for? Both the original Switch and the Lite are cheaper and offer largely the same gaming experience — if you play through a TV, it’s exactly the same.

For the early adopters — or handheld gamers — the OLED model appears more attractive. A bigger screen and better battery life are both boons for mobile gamers. But is it enough for you to stump up $350, especially when we’re all waiting for Nintendo to announce a more notable console upgrade. Despite Nintendo's upfront denial, a new console can’t be too far away. The question for would-be OLED Switch buyers is: How long till the next Nintendo console arrives? Read Kris Naudus' full review right here.

— Mat Smith

Twitch responds to massive data breach

It says it was “due to an error in a Twitch server configuration.”

Reuters

Twitch has released an update on a massive hack that appears to have exposed source code, streamer payment figures and other information. It said data was exposed to the internet "due to an error in a Twitch server configuration change that was subsequently accessed by a malicious third party." It added its teams are working with "urgency" to investigate the attack. The streaming site believes no login credentials, including passwords, were exposed.

Yesterday, attackers said they stole the "entirety of Twitch.tv," including the site's mobile, desktop and console Twitch clients. It also accessed proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services. All of this could make Twitch vulnerable to future attacks by letting potential hackers probe for weaknesses.

Continue reading.

Apple says apps must offer a way to delete your account starting in early 2022

Users in some countries have another way to report issues with apps, too.

Developers who let users create an account in their iOS, iPadOS and macOS apps will have to offer a method of deleting accounts in apps from January 31st. Apple announced this requirement, alongside other App Store guideline changes, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference back in June as part of a push to give users more control over their data.

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One person’s quest for the perfect wireless mouse

Click here.

Engadget

Mice are not sexy computer peripherals. But for those of us tethered to computer screens, they’re often crucial. James Trew, while negotiating some pretty bad RSI, decided it was time to upgrade his setup and tested out mice from some of the biggest companies, including Microsoft and Logitech. His demands were humble enough: a focus on ergonomics. But which mouse won out?

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European Parliament calls for a ban on facial recognition in public spaces

It wants to prohibit private facial recognition databases like Clearview AI.

The European Parliament has called on lawmakers in the European Union to ban automated facial recognition in public spaces and to enforce strict safeguards for police use of artificial intelligence.

MEPs (members of European Parliament) said citizens should only be monitored when they're suspected of a crime. They cited concerns over algorithmic bias in AI and argued both human supervision and legal protections are required to avoid discrimination.

The MEPs also called on EU officials to ban private facial recognition databases (some law enforcement agencies in Europe are using Clearview AI's one), as well as "predictive policing based on behavioral data."

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Google Maps adds a dedicated 'lite' navigation mode for cyclists

You won't need to enter the full turn-by-turn interface to use the feature.

Google Maps is adding a dedicated navigation mode for those who like to travel from place to place on two wheels. Taking the turn-by-turn functionality that Maps is known for, the tool allows you to see important details about your current trip without keeping your phone’s screen turned on. You don’t need to enter the full turn-by-turn interface to use the feature. At a glance, you’ll also see your current ETA.

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HMD's first Nokia tablet features a huge battery and costs $250

The T20 can go nearly 15 hours between charges and offers optional LTE.

Nokia has dabbled in tablets before, like the iPad knockoff N1, but has only released smartphones since the brand was purchased by HMD Global. Now, HMD/Nokia have launched their first tablet together, the 10.4-inch T20, with the key features being a large battery, cheap price and US availability.

While you don’t get bombshell looks for that $250 price tag, the specs, at least, seem respectable for a cheap Android tablet and HMD’s track record with Nokia phones has been pretty strong, offering solid smartphones at pretty reasonable prices. The Nokia T20 is available from today.

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GM unveils a hands-free driving system that works in nearly all of the US and Canada

That includes highways, city streets and virtually any paved rural road.

Since General Motors introduced its Super Cruise driver-assist system back in 2017, GM and Cadillac drivers have apparently traveled more than 10 million miles with their hands off the wheel.

With its next-generation hands-free system, Ultra Cruise, GM claims will "ultimately enable hands-free driving in 95 percent of all driving scenarios." Ultra is designed to work virtually everywhere in the US and Canada. At launch, the system should work on 2 million miles of North American roads — that includes highways, city and subdivision streets and paved rural roads — and will eventually expand to encompass some 3.4 million miles of asphalt.

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The biggest news stories you might have missed

Facebook is slowing down product development for 'reputational reviews,' report says

WHO approves the world's first malaria vaccine

T-Mobile wireless home internet service now costs $10 less

Canon created a dual fisheye lens for a new VR video system

Amazon secures giant tax breaks despite record profits and questionable labor practices

JLab's $79 wireless office headset has a removable earcup and a 60-hour battery

AT&T is reportedly One America News' primary financial backer

Universal Audio is an iconic name in music gear thanks to devices like the UA 610 preamp and 1176 compressor. However, the gear can be a tad expensive for home studio producers, with the previous base Apollo Solo interface priced at $699. Now, you can get that vintage analog preamp sound starting at $139 with the new Volt line of audio interfaces. 

All the Volts offers a vintage Mic Preamp mode with mic/line preamp circuitry emulating the UA 610 console, used over the years by numerous artists (The Doors, MC5, Van Halen, Arcade Fire) to make sounds warmer or add some grit. The two more expensive models, the Volt 276 and Volt 476, also have built-in analog 1176-type compressor circuits and presets for vocals, guitar. etc. The only thing missing is the digital signal processing (DSP) found in higher-end products like the Apollo lineup, though that's to be expected at these price points. 

UA isn't the first high-end gear maker to target bedroom producers, as Solid State Logic recently unveiled an affordable line of interfaces. All the Volts come with bundled with a lot of software including Ableton Live Lite, Marshall Plexi and Time & Tone (Softube), Virtual Drummer DEEP and more. They'll be available in late November from "select Universal Audio retailers," starting at $139 for the Volt 1 (1in/2out) and going up to $369 for the Volt 476 (4in/4out). 

Anker's Soundcore line is a great place to look if you're hoping to save some money on your next pair of earbuds. The company offers a range of designs at affordable prices that undercut much of the competition. What's more, Anker doesn't make many sacrifices when it comes to sound, performance and features to keep those prices low. Today, the company debuts the Liberty 3 Pro: a $170 follow-up to 2019's Liberty 2 Pro that adds active noise cancellation (ANC), improved audio and a refined design. 

The Liberty 3 Pro has a similar look to the Liberty 2 Pro with silicone fit wings and a shape that's built to relieve pressure and discomfort. Anker says the new earbuds are 30 percent smaller than the previous model and they're IPX4 rated for moisture protection. On-board controls return to give you easy access to music and calls. Inside, the company explains that "an upgraded dual driver configuration" developed alongside nearly two dozen Grammy winning producers powers its "best sounding model to date." Anker's Astria Coaxial Acoustic Architecture (ACAA) has been updated to version 2.0, enabling more detail without distortion. The Liberty 3 Pro also supports Sony's LDAC codec for wireless audio, a standard that transmits more data over Bluetooth for high-res listening. 

Anker/Soundcore

The biggest addition here is ANC. The noise-cancelling setup employs Anker's HearID tech that can tailor the sound profile of the earbuds to your hearing. After a quick hearing test, HearID can increase certain frequencies that may be more difficult for you to hear in each ear. HearID also powers the active noise cancelling tech here, automatically customizing the level of noise reduction based on the clamor around you. Anker says the system creates an individual sound profile that accounts for in-ear pressure as well. The Liberty 3 Pro is also outfitted with AI-powered background noise reduction for calls and three ambient sound modes for a variety of scenarios.

Anker says the Liberty 3 Pro will last up to six hours on a charge with ANC on or up to eight hours with noise cancellation disabled. The included case supports wireless charging and holds up to three additional charges. A quick-charge feature will give you three hours of use in just 15 minutes. 

The Liberty 3 Pro is available today for $169.99 (£139.99/€159.99/$199.99 CAD) in black, white, gray and purple color options. 

Sky’s long journey to move beyond satellite TV is finally over, as the company launches its brand new internet-only TV platform. Sky Glass is the company’s first own-brand Smart TV, one which ditches the home-mounted satellite dish and set-top box in favor of pulling all of its content from the internet. The company’s pitch is to centralize not just its own content inside the one box, but to act as a universal platform for every streaming TV app currently available on the market. Not to mention that putting it all inside a single piece of hardware reduces the clutter that builds up underneath the family TV.

On the hardware front, Sky Glass comes in three sizes, 43-, 55- and 65-inch displays, all of which have 4K Quantum Dot LED screens with 10-bit HDR+ and Dolby Vision. It ships in five colors: Blue, White, Green, Pink or Black, with matching remote controls, speaker fascias and stands. On the audio front, Sky says that you won’t need a soundbar with this kit, since the hardware comes with six-speaker Dolby Atmos sound, as well as a subwoofer, built-in.

(The company added that, consequently, Sky Glass is up to 50 percent more energy efficient than your current set-up since you’ll not be powering a discrete set-top-box and soundbar.)

Sky

But Sky’s value proposition isn’t just that it’s selling a fancy TV with some streaming bits inside, but a whole new way to end the infinite scroll. With Sky Q, the company already positioned itself as a curation layer between you and the content you want, but this takes it a big step forward. It’s designed to aggregate all of the catalogs from all of the streaming apps available and let you pick and choose what you want from one centralized location. That means you can watch episodes of the same TV series, in order, even if they’re hosted on different streaming platforms.

Sky Glass is also voice-activated, with the wake word ‘Hello Sky,” and you should be able to access all of your favorite shoes, live TV and play listed content with it. But if you’d prefer, you can use the new remote, which is a simplified version of the touch remote already available for Sky Q, albeit with backlit buttons for better night-time operation.

At the same time, Sky also announced a 4K webcam which it is planning to release at some point in the future which will sit on top of the TV and offer Portal-esque video calls. This system also offers motion-tracking and skeleton tracking for both motion gaming and customized workouts, and it even looks like a Kinect. When this hardware is available, you’ll also be able to have watching parties for live TV even when you’re not in the same location.

Sky

Of course, given that Sky is owned by Comcast and the company is rumored to be working on its own TV platform, you can assume for yourself that a rebranded version of Sky Glass is coming to the US. Protocol reports that Comcast has been working on a product, dubbed the XClass TV, for the US market. In addition, Sky says that Glass will not just be available in the UK and Europe, but also in Australia and other markets across the next year or so.

Price-wise, Sky Glass will cost £649, £849 or £1,049 depending on if you opt for the 43-, 55- or 65-inch version. But the company says that it expects more people to buy it on a monthly subscription contract, much as it does with phones via Sky Mobile, for a minimum contract term. In that instance, the hardware will set you back £13, £17, or £21 per month, depending on which size you opt for.

Twitch has released an update on a massive hack that appears to have exposed source code, streamer payment figures and other information. It said that data was exposed to the internet "due to an error in a Twitch server configuration change that was subsequently accessed by a malicious third party." It added that its teams are working with "urgency" to investigate the attack. 

The Amazon-owned streaming site added that it has "no indication" that any login credentials, including passwords, were exposed. "Additionally, full credit card numbers are not stored by Twitch, so full credit card numbers were not exposed," the company said.

Yesterday, attackers said they stole the "entirety of Twitch.tv," including the site's mobile, desktop and console Twitch clients. It also accessed proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services, red-teaming tools and more. All of that information could make Twitch vulnerable to future attacks by letting potential hackers probe for weaknesses. 

The leak also shows creator payments in the millions for streamers like xQc, Nickmercs and Shroud. Several have confirmed that the figures are accurate. 

Twitch said that the investigation is ongoing. "We are still in the process of understanding the impact in detail," the company wrote.