Technology News for Tuesday 16th November 2021

1. EPA reaches settlement with Windham truck sales company for Clean Air Act violations

The EPA said in a news release Monday said that it had reached a settlement with APlus Truck Sales, Inc. of Windham that resolved allegations that APlus tampered with emission controls on diesel vehicles by selling and installing aftermarket parts known as ...

2. JPMorgan says Tesla owes the bank $162 million

JPMorgan has sued Tesla, claiming that the electric car company owes the bank $162 million related to a 2014 stock warrant agreement. The dispute centers around adjustments the companies made to the agreement following Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 2018 ...

3. With Halo Infinite, Microsoft Hopes to Rekindle Its Flagship Game

When Microsoft released its first Xbox console 20 years ago, executives did not think that Halo, a new game set in a 26th-century galactic war pitting humans against alien invaders, would become the face of the tech giant's gaming aspirations.

4. Call Of Duty Cheaters 'May' Be Banned From Every Call Of Duty Game Ever Made

In a blog post published last week innocuously titled Ricochet Anti-Cheat Progress Report, the Call of Duty team slipped in some drastic news about how their anti-cheat system is going to work going forwards. Advertisement.

5. Samsung knows the pandemic changed tech, so Galaxy phones are changing too

Samsung's Galaxy S21 (left) and Galaxy S21 Ultra. Sarah Tew/CNET. The COVID-19 pandemic required us to to work, attend school and socialize from home -- meaning our tech reached a new level of importance in our lives. Although the lockdowns are over, ...

6. Facebook and Instagram gathering browsing data from under-18s, study says

The platforms' parent company had announced in July that it would allow advertisers to target young users based on three categories only – age, gender and location – rather than a range of options including their personal interests.

7. Apple Must Be Stopped and Google's 'Crazy,' Epic CEO Says

Epic Games Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney renewed his attack on the duopoly power of Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google as the world's dominant mobile platforms at a conference in Seoul Tuesday. “Apple locks a billion users into one store ...

8. Google reportedly cancels orders with suppliers for Pixel Fold

Anonymous, 1 hour agoIm still hoping for chinese competition to Samsung. Though Im not a big fan of chinese smartph... moreThis is flaw logic. Did you just assume the price of foldable screen is the same or (illogically) lower than price of screen on ...

9. Microsoft promises Forza Horizon 5 word filter fix, after it censors some ethnic names

Forza Horizon 5 has been lauded for its technical excellence and Playground Games' commitment to inclusivity, but fans have found some non-Anglo-Saxon or European names are being blocked by the game's world filter. Today, Microsoft told Eurogamer it ...

10. The Balmuda Phone is a compact Android phone from a high-end toaster company

Japanese design company Balmuda today announced its first smartphone at a press event in Tokyo. The straightforwardly titled Balmuda Phone is the debut product from Balmuda Technologies, a new division of the company previously known for stylish, ...

11. What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Want to take the bus or train in Germany? You may soon have to provide a negative COVID-19 test or proof of vaccination or recent recovery, as the country becomes the latest in Europe to consider drastic steps to tackle a new surge in cases in the region.

12. Facebook accused of 'misleading' public about ads targeting teenagers

The changes, made in response to concerns raised by youth advocates, meant that advertisers were only allowed to target teens based on their age, gender and location. Get the CNET Daily News ...

13. Amazon settles California claims it concealed COVID cases from workers

Amazon has agreed to a settlement with California to resolve claims that the internet retailer concealed the number of COVID-19 cases from its workers and local health agencies, the state's attorney general said on Monday. Amazon was accused of ...

14. Halo Infinite's Battle Pass Sucks, Fans Say

Did you just eek out a nail biting victory in a Big Team Battle Slayer match? Bash a bunch of your fellow Spartans' heads in with a flaming skull in Oddball? Capture a ton of objectives in Total Control, putting big numbers on the board for all your ...

15. Russia calls US 'hypocritical' for condemning anti-satellite weapons test

The Russian military destroyed a defunct satellite on Monday, causing astronauts to shelter on the International Space Station as the debris cloud passed by. U.S. officials from the Pentagon, State Department and NASA condemned Russia's anti-satellite ...

16. Black Friday deals 2021: Shop offers from Dyson, Oral-B and Apple

Why we chose it: This is the first genuine Dyson deal we've seen this Black Friday. The cordless vacuum cleaner has a run time of up to 60 minutes, comes with six accessories and a LCD screen that gives you information such as filter maintenance reminders ...

17. Dying Light 2 Is More Focused On The Living Than The Undead

Dying Light 2 was announced all the way back at E3 2018. A lot has happened in the three years since, including multiple delays and the departure of RPG writer/designer Chris Avellone from the project following sexual harassment allegations.

18. Target's Pixel 6 Black Friday deal is the one you won't want to miss

Until now: Target's 2021 Black Friday ad reveals that the retailer is trimming the price on the unlocked Pixel 6 by $50, bringing the total for the 128GB phone to just $549. It's unlocked, meaning there are no special requirements or a set carrier, making ...

19. Russia shoots down satellite in weapons test, forcing astronauts to shelter from debris

A debris field caused by Russia destroying one of its own satellites with a missile Monday is threatening seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station, U.S. officials say. Four U.S. astronauts, along with a German astronaut and two Russian ...

20. A Beginner's Guide to Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program

Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program is a subscription service that allows you to get a great deal on a new iPhone by trading in your old iPhone. By Tucker Bowe.

21. Fortnite Gives Up on China, Following LinkedIn and Yahoo

Elon Musk is still tweeting about Bernie Sanders. Fortnite is the latest to leave China. When I attended China's biggest gaming expo in Shanghai back in 2018, Epic Games Inc.'s Fortnite was ...

22. Forza Horizon 5: tips for getting started

Horizon Festival is back on, this time in glorious Mexico. Forza Horizon 5 is here. Before you hop in the driver's seat, here's what you need to know. What is Forza Horizon 5? Forza Horizon 5 is the latest driving adventure game from Playground Games.

23. Windows 11 is getting a new Media Player app you can test today

Microsoft has created a new Media Player app for Windows 11, and it's beginning to test the app with Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel today. The redesigned Media Player app will support both audio and video, and it includes a design that better ...

24. Massive Google Cloud outage takes down Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, and more

If some of your favorite sites and services are acting buggy, or are completely inaccessible, you're not alone. It seems like a massive outage has taken down some of the internet's biggest services like Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, and even Etsy.

25. Meta's sci-fi haptic glove prototype lets you feel VR objects using air pockets

You cannot pet a dog in Meta's new, high-tech virtual reality gloves. But researchers are getting closer. Meta (formerly Facebook) is known for its high-profile moves into virtual and augmented reality. For seven years, though, it's been quietly ...

26. The Case Against Open-World Games

Last week saw the release of a newly remastered version of the classic Grand Theft Auto trilogy: Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas. Fans' eager anticipation soon turned to a combination of anger and hilarity, as players discovered the ...

27. Halo Infinite's battle pass is upsetting fans

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF. Good game, bad progression. so I've played Halo Infinite for 6 hours now and the gameplay is fun ...

28. 'Song Of Nunu: A League Of Legends Story' Is A New Single-Player Adventure From Riot Forge Coming 2022

This one is being developed by Tequila Works, which is perhaps best known for Rime, which launched a few years ago. As far as details on the game itself go we don't have all ...

29. Save $19 on Oculus Quest 2 now, or get a $50 store credit next week

By using that coupon code at checkout, the 128GB model is drops to $280, or the 256GB model drops to $380. Both are $19 discounts compared to the standard $299 and $399 Oculus Quest 2 prices. (You'll see that Daily Steals has base prices of $338 and $439, ...

30. The first League of Legends indie spinoffs are out now

In late 2019, Riot revealed a new publishing label designed to give indie studios the chance to play around in the vast League of Legends universe — and today, the first two Forge games are finally releasing. That includes Hextech Mayhem, ...

31. Twitter Blue: How to Change Your App Icon

Twitter's Twitter Blue subscription plan provides access to a number of exclusive features, such as the ability to view threads in Reader. Twitter Blue subscribers can also change the appearance of the Twitter application icon on their device.

32. Don't Let Halo Infinite Make You Forget About The Great New Game Pass Additions

It's hard to believe, I know, but there are other games coming to Xbox that don't start with Halo and end with Infinite. Over the next two weeks, Microsoft will add 10 more games to Xbox Game Pass. Here's what's struck me: I've been watching these ...

33. Qualcomm's next-gen CPU for PCs will take on Apple's M-series chips in 2023

Qualcomm is looking to seriously beef up its PC processors, with the company announcing plans for a next-generation Arm-based SoC “designed to set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs” that would be able to go head to head with Apple's M-series ...

34. Valorant patch 3.10 notes: Chamber released, ranked rework

Not only have we gotten a new Agent, but there are also a few competitive changes and bug fixes to look forward to. Let's take a dive into all that's coming in the latest Valorant update.

35. GTA Trilogy is a mess. Here's what you should know

The crew isn't having much fun in the new San Andreas. Rockstar Games. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition came out on Thursday, just days after the 20th anniversary of the original Grand Theft Auto 3's debut on the PlayStation 2.

36. Halo Infinite's Menus Are Surprisingly Complex

Yesterday, Microsoft surprise-released Halo Infinite's multiplayer mode on Xbox and PC—albeit in a beta state—weeks ahead of its planned December 8 target. Feedback thus far is largely in lockstep: Hot damn, this shooter is fun to play, but, um, ...

37. Amazon's new Prime Video app for Mac enables local downloads on desktop

The app is free to download but requires an Amazon account to access content. That content includes both shows and movies that stream free with Amazon Prime Video, as well as purchases and rentals from Amazon's entire catalog.

38. Logitech reworked its G303 mouse just for Shroud, but you can buy it, too

Logitech has announced the G303 wireless gaming mouse. It's a little more than just a cordless version of the G303 Daedalus mouse that the company released several years ago. Both a prolific streamer and pro gamer, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek seemingly ...

39. Windows 10 November 2021 update available today

Microsoft is also ramping up the pace on its Windows 11 rollout and making the upgrade more widely available for eligible Windows 10 devices, said John Cable, vice president of program management at Microsoft, in a blog post.

40. Google Cloud outage crashes major sites including Snapchat, Spotify

A sweeping Google Cloud outage on Tuesday briefly crashed popular websites, including Snapchat, Spotify, Discord and Etsy, and while the issue has been partially resolved, Google says it's not sure when it will have a full resolution.

41. GTA Trilogy Fans Rediscover A 20-Year-Old Giant Car Glitch

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — Definitive Edition may have shredded some signature tunes from the series' radio stations, and may, in just about every conceivable way, make the descriptor of “Definitive” sound like a joke, but—at the very least—you ...

42. Activision Stock Plunges After Report CEO Bobby Kotick Knew Of Employee Rape Allegations For Years

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick allegedly knew for years about serious allegations of employee misconduct but sometimes kept board members completely in the dark about the alleged incidents, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, adding to a slew of a ...

43. Meta wants you to feel the metaverse with high-tech haptic gloves

A haptic glove research prototype from Reality Labs Research. Meta Reality Labs Research. VR visuals can only look so good, given current display technology, and we may already be approaching their limit. But what about our other senses?

44. Streamlabs partners with Twitch to launch console streaming solution for Xbox, Streamlabs Studio

This new program is called Streamlab Studio and aims to eliminate the need for every creator to use a capture card, PC, or third-party software to create high-quality broadcasts using a console.

45. Dragon Ball: The Breakers is basically Dead By Daylight, but with anime supervillains

Pitting 7 civilians against a powerful extraterrestrial Raider, The Breakers tasks survivors with finding and powering up a time machine to escape the doomed temporal rift they find themselves in. Like Dead By Daylight, that means plenty of skulking around ...

46. Riot Forge launches two League of Legends games with others on the way

Join gaming leaders, alongside GamesBeat and Facebook Gaming, for their 2nd Annual GamesBeat & Facebook Gaming Summit | GamesBeat: Into the Metaverse 2 this upcoming January 25-27, 2022. Learn more about the event.

47. iPhone 13 DIY screen replacements don't break Face ID in iOS 15.2 beta

Apple told The Verge last week that it would be rolling out a software update to iPhone 13 devices to make it easier to replace their screens without breaking Face ID, but it didn't specify when that update might arrive. Fortunately, we may not have to ...