Developers will soon have to pay Twitter to be able to use its API. The website has announced through its Twitter Dev account that it will no longer support free access to its API, both versions 1.1 and 2, starting on February 9th. It will launch a "paid basic tier" instead, but the company has yet to reveal how much it would cost. Twitter has been experimenting with new ways to make more money ever since Elon Musk took the helm. The biggest change so far has been Twitter Blue, which evolved into a $8-to-$11-a-month subscription service that allows users to purchase the website's previously elusive blue checkmark. 

A New York Times report from last year said Musk and his advisers also discussed the possibility of adding paid direct messages and videos behind a paywall. They even reportedly considered reviving Vine, its short-form video app that it shut down back in 2016. Musk has been exploring all possible sources of income to be able to pay the loans he took when he purchased Twitter for $44 billion. As The Information notes, he borrowed $13 billion from a group of banks to close the deal, and they weren't able to sell the debt to investors as planned. The company now has to pay $1.5 billion every year in interests alone.

Twitter showed signs that it had plans to change the way developers accessed its APIs when third-party clients like Tweetbot suddenly stopped working in January. Later, the company confirmed that it deliberately cut off their access due to "long-standing API rules," even though it previously removed the section in its developer policies that discouraged app-makers from creating something similar to its core service. A few days after third-party Twitter clients went down, the website updated its developer agreement to ban access to its "Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications."

"Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets," the company wrote in a follow-up tweet. "We're committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us." While it's pretty clear that Twitter intends to charge developers to use its API, it didn't say if it would make exceptions for researchers. Twitter provides specialized access to its API for academic research, and people in academia have been using data from the website for their studies across various fields, including health and politics. 

The website promises to share more details about the new "paid basic tier" for its API next week.

Kindle's Paperwhite 5 launched in 2021, but Amazon has just spruced up the models a bit with a couple of new colors and put them on sale for good measure. You can now grab them in Agave Green and Denim, with the regular 16GB variant priced at $110 (27 percent/$40 off) and the Signature version on sale at $140 ($50 or 26 percent off). Oddly, the black version doesn't carry any discount and is still priced at $190, so the new color versions are currently the way to go.

Amazon also did this for the Paperwhite 4, introducing new colors well after the original launch date, as The eBook Reader pointed out. Amazon used the same Denim Blue color on the 11th generation 2022 Kindle as well. Even if you're not crazy about the new colors, you'll see the same black bezels when viewing it from the front. 

We gave the Paperwhite 5 Signature Edition one of our highest Engadget scores ever (97) calling it "the best e-reader, period." It has a bigger and more responsive screen than ever, tiny bezels, both USB-C and wireless charging, a waterproof body, 32GB of storage, automatic brightness and warm light options. The standard model drops storage to 16GB and lacks wireless charging, but is otherwise the same. 

As mentioned, the Signature Paperwhite is $50 off in Agave and Denim, while the standard version offers a $40 savings in the green and blue shades — near the lowest prices we've seen. 

Sony's gaming business had a blockbuster holiday quarter as it sold 7.1 million PS5s from October to December compared to 3.9 million in the same quarter last year. That's a whopping 82 percent increase, so the company's supply issues appear to be largely solved — much as the company has said as of late. In other words, you should be able to buy a PS5 now with little to no delay. 

All of that resulted in a giant boost in revenue, as its Game & Network Services segment took in 1.25 trillion yen ($9.7 billion), up 53 percent year on year. That includes over double the revenue for hardware and healthy boosts in software (30 percent), network services (20 percent) and others including PSVR and first-party software sales on other platforms (73 percent). 

To grasp the significance of all this, Sony has now sold 32.1 million PS5s compared to 25 million in November 2022, so total unit sales increased 28 percent in just a single quarter. It also means that Sony may hit its fiscal year 2022 PS5 sales forecast (18 million units from March 2022 to March 2023) if it can ship 5.2 million consoles, something that seemed wildly optimistic last quarter. If it does reach that goal, it will hit PS5 sales of over 37 million units.

Sony has fought Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, though Microsoft itself recently pointed out that Sony has five times more exclusive games than Xbox. In terms of first-party titles, God of War Ragnarök and Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut were standouts on PS5 this quarter. 

Sony's gaming business dwarfed its other segments, though its imaging sensor business continues to rise as well, with sales up 63 percent year on year to 417 billion yen ($3.24 billion). Sony supplies the lion's share of camera sensors to both smartphone and mirrorless camera manufacturers.  

Back in 2021, Nissan revealed a few concept vehicles as part of its announcement that it was going to invest $17.6 billion in the development of electric vehicles over the next few years. One of the concepts it presented is a convertible two-seater sports car called the Max-Out, but the automaker only released a render that showed what it was supposed to look like. Now, the company has shown off a real-life physical version of the Max-Out at the launch of the Nissan Futures event in Yokohama, and it looks like the automaker stayed true to its original design. 

It's still a two-seater convertible with headlights and edges that light up in different neon colors. The EV's design has the mixed aesthetics of several different sci-fi franchises, including Tron and Avatar. But other than showing what it looks like, Nissan hasn't shared details about the EV concept, probably because it doesn't have plans to create a production version of it anytime soon, if at all. 

TORU HANAI/Engadget

When the company first unveiled the Max-Out, it vowed to develop 23 electrified vehicles and to launch 15 new EVs by 2030. It didn't make a pledge to go fully electric by the end of the decade, but it did say that it was aiming for a mix of EVs and gas vehicles. In particular, it's targeting a market mix of 75 percent electrified vehicles in Europe and 40 percent electrified in the US and China. One of the EVs it has released since its 2021 announcement is the Ariya, Nissan's first electric crossover, which has an estimated range of 216 to 304 miles depending on the variant. 

Nissan says the Futures event will showcase how it's "shaping the future of sustainable mobility and innovative design" and how it's preparing for "the various challenges and opportunities the coming large-scale transition to electric mobility will bring." While the event will be held at the company's global headquarters in Japan, Nissan will upload some panel recordings on its YouTube channel. 

The Federal Trade Commission has slapped prescription drug discount app GoodRx with a $1.5 million fine for the unauthorized disclosure of customers' identifiable health information with third parties, such as Facebook and Google. This is the first time the agency has taken enforcement action under its Health Breach Notification Rule, which requires vendors of personal health records to notify customers if their data has been breached. While the rule has applied to companies handling health records since 2009, FTC commissioners voted in favor of expanding it to cover health apps in 2021. 

According to the FTC, the California-based telehealth service repeatedly violated the rule by sharing customers' personal health information, including their health conditions and the medicine they're taking. Further, it shared their information with companies that have third-party advertising platforms like Facebook, Google and Criteo despite making a promise to customers that it will never do so. The FTC says GoodRx also monetized its customers' information. In 2019, for instance, it uploaded the email addresses, phone numbers and mobile advertising IDs of users who purchased certain medications to Facebook, so it can target them with health-related ads. 

In addition to imposing a $1.5 million fine on GoodRx, the FTC is also seeking to change how the company handles user information. In its proposed court order (PDF) against the company, it listed several provisions, including banning the service from disclosing user data for advertising purposes. For other purposes, it wants to require GoodRx to secure customers' consent first before sharing their health information to third parties. The FTC also wants GoodRx to get the third parties it shared data with to delete its customers' information, and it wants the company to establish a comprehensive privacy program that will protect user data. 

Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in statement:

"Digital health companies and mobile apps should not cash in on consumers' extremely sensitive and personally identifiable health information. The FTC is serving notice that it will use all of its legal authority to protect American consumers’ sensitive data from misuse and illegal exploitation."

Almost 20 years in, Facebook is still growing. The social network now has 2 billion daily active users, Meta reported alongside its fourth-quarter earnings. The report marks the first time Facebook, which added 16 million users last quarter, has reached 2 billion daily users.

While Facebook isn’t the first Meta-owned platform to reach 2 billion daily users — WhatsApp recently crossed 2 billion DAUs — it does show that the company’s biggest source of ad revenue is still growing, even while Meta has made significant cuts to its business in recent months. CEO Mark Zuckerberg alluded to the company’s recent restructuring, which resulted in the elimination of more than 11,000 jobs, saying in a statement that “our management theme for 2023 is the 'Year of Efficiency.'”

Meta

But while Meta’s revenue has shrunk over the last year, the company’s $32.2 billion in revenue for the last quarter of 2022 was still slightly better than expected even as it was down 4 percent from last year.

During a call with analysts, Zuckerberg suggested that Meta will continue to make cuts as it prioritizes efficiency. “We're going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren't performing or may no longer be as crucial,” he said. The CEO also said that generative AI would be a priority for Meta in the year ahead.

“Generative AI is an extremely exciting new area with so many different applications,” Zuckerberg said. “And one of my goals for Meta is to build on our research to become a leader in generative AI.”

Meta also continues to lose vast amounts of money on its metaverse investments. Reality Labs, the division overseeing its VR, AR and metaverse projects, lost $4.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, and nearly $14 billion for the whole year, Meta reported.

Developing…

With the third season of Overwatch 2 slated to start on February 7th, Blizzard is stepping up its efforts to combat cheating. In a blog post published Wednesday, the studio said it would begin identifying players who regularly play with known cheaters. Blizzard says the owners of those accounts will face repercussions, even if they’re not cheating themselves. It warns of “severe suspensions” and, in some cases, outright bans.

Next season, Blizzard will also introduce a system for moderating custom game modes. The company says the new technology will automatically remove games with inappropriate titles or content and sanction the accounts that create and post those modes. The system comes after the original Overwatch’s “sexual harassment simulator” custom mode made a brief reappearance last month. The mode tasked players with impregnating the game’s female heroes while playing as Cole Cassidy, the hero Blizzard renamed after allegations about its “frat boy” workplace culture came to light in 2021. After the mode appeared in Overwatch 2’s most popular list, Blizzard took action but didn’t say how it would prevent a similar incident from happening again.

Lastly, Blizzard says it’s taking action against a practice known as stream sniping. If you’ve ever watched a popular streamer play a multiplayer game like Overwatch 2 or Valorant, you know how frustrating it is for content creators when someone tries to queue into the same match and uses a stream to give themselves a competitive edge. Starting with season three, players will have the option to prevent their BattleTag, and the tags of anyone else in their match, from appearing in their game client. Blizzard will also allow players to hide or delay their queue time. The studio says those measures should prevent someone watching a stream from figuring out if they’re in the same lobby as a streamer. You’ll find the toggles to enable those features within Overwatch 2’s social settings.

EA didn't just kill Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile, apparently. Bloombergsources claim the publisher canceled an unannounced single-player game set in the Titanfall and Apex Legends universe. While details of the project aren't available, veteran developer Mohammad Alavi (who also worked on the Call of Duty series) was reportedly helming the project until he left Respawn in early 2022. EA is said to be finding places for the affected 50 team members when possible.

EA declines to comment. Respawn says it's shutting down Apex Legends Mobile as its content roadmap is starting to "fall short" of expectations. The studio also delayed Star Wars Jedi: Survivor by six weeks over quality concerns.

The reported cancelation doesn't come as a shock. The global economy is slowing, and game publishers are among those scaling back to help endure financial turmoil. Ubisoft recently canceled three games amid a gloomy outlook, and Halo developer 343 Industries is dealing with the consequences of Microsoft's layoffs. Decisions like this theoretically help EA and Respawn concentrate on known money-makers like Apex Legends, which has earned over $2 billion so far.

The rumor is likely to be disappointing to fans if true. The Titanfall games are well-reviewed, but Titanfall 2 arrived seven years ago. A third title in the series eventually transformed into Apex Legends as the battle royale trend took hold. Now, players may have to wait even longer for a new story-driven game in the franchise — if it happens at all.

Paramount+ has reportedly joined the trend of streaming platforms removing original shows to cut costs. The Real World: Homecoming, which reunites casts of the original 1990s MTV reality series, got the boot along with six other shows.

Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone reboot, which ran from 2019 to 2020, was also a casualty. In addition, the streamer axed true-crime drama Interrogation, the animated series The Harper House, the comedy No Activity, the crime drama Coyote and the dark comedy Guilty Party. Parent company Paramount Global hasn’t announced whether they will land somewhere else after their removal.

The cuts follow similar removals from sister company Showtime, which Paramount will fold into Paramount+ later this year. (It will then take on the unfortunate rebranding, “Paramount+ With Showtime.”) Rival streamer HBO Max recently pulledWestworld, Raised by Wolves, The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Nevers. They will begin appearing this month with ads on a Roku and Tubi channel creatively titled “WB TV Series.”

Don't worry if you missed out on Nintendo's bargain game vouchers from 2019 — they're back. The company is once again offering a pair of vouchers for $100 to Switch Online subscribers. If you buy two eligible $60 games, this could save you $10 on each. Needless to say, this could help you score a deal for a a blockbuster like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom even when it's brand new.

There are conditions beyond the limited catalog. You have to use the vouchers within a year, so you can't save them for perpetuity. You also can't hold more than eight at a time. You do get My Nintendo Gold Points equivalent to five percent of what you pay, though. Nintendo doesn't say if or when the vouchers will

There's no secret behind the strategy for the vouchers. Nintendo clearly hopes you'll not only join Switch Online, but commit to buying multiple games where you might have otherwise bought just one. Still, it's difficult to ignore the value. Even one set of vouchers can recoup the cost of Switch Online if you were already planning to buy games. In theory, you could quickly build a collection of major titles while saving a significant amount of money.