Technology News for Wednesday 1st June 2022

1. Facebook and Instagram's parent company will change its stock ticker to META on June 9th

When the company formerly known as Facebook announced its plan to rebrand last October, it also announced a new stock ticker. At the time, execs said that after ten years as FB, its NASDAQ listing would transition to MVRS for the metaverse.

2. Massive podcast outage after Spotify fails to renew security certificate

Due to an outage on podcast hosting platform owned by Spotify, Megaphone, podcast listeners could not access many of their shows for more than eight hours this week. According to The Verge, the outage stemmed from the company's failure to renew ...

3. Garmin launches two Forerunner watches with new racing features

Just in time for Global Running Day, Garmin is introducing two new running watches to its Forerunner lineup: the $349.99 Forerunner 255 and the $499.99 Forerunner 955. Both GPS watches sport multi-band GPS and new racing features, including a race ...

4. 18 European countries call for better regulation of loot boxes following new report

Consumer protection agencies in 18 European countries have backed the report and called for better regulation of video games. The report uses both FIFA 22 and Raid: Shadow Legends as case studies to demonstrate the "wide ...

5. The Morning After: The French government bans English gaming terms, including 'eSports'

Not satisfied with trying to replace “WiFi” with “l'access sans fil à internet” (which didn't work), l'Académie française set its sights on gaming terms in 2017. It's now gained traction with the government, and France's Ministry of Culture has ...

6. Diablo Immortal skips Dutch and Belgian launches and loot boxes might be to blame

Activision Blizzard has confirmed Diablo Immortal won't be launching in Belgium and the Netherlands alongside other countries on June 2nd, and has blamed the territories' “current operating environments” for preventing the release of its new ...

7. Elon Musk brings a start-up's fervor to an ailing Twitter

Investors signing up to partake in the $44 billion takeover bid for Twitter are betting on one big thing: Elon Musk. Twitter has spent years as an underperforming Silicon Valley punching bag, but investors big and small are now scrambling for a piece ...

8. iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro: Here's how Apple will differentiate the 'pro' line from 'non-pro' models

If rumours of what's coming next prove true, you may not need to put the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro under a microscope to find out the differences between the two phones. For this year, Apple is said to test out a new strategy to clearly differentiate ...

9. Croatian EV supercar maker Rimac raised 500 million euros to make parts for Big Auto rivals

Rimac raised 500 million euros from investors including SoftBank and Goldman Sachs. Rimac has a growing list of big automaker clients who want help with high-end EVs, drawn by its super-quick $2.4 million Nevera electric hypercar.

10. TweetDeck for Mac is shutting down as Twitter pushes users to web app

Twitter's long-ignored social media dashboard app, TweetDeck for Mac, will be shutting down on July 1. The company informed users of the Mac app of its impending closure via a banner that appears at the top of the screen upon launch.

11. Diablo Immortal is out early on mobile

Diablo Immortal, the latest entry in Blizzard Entertainment's long-running dungeon-crawling franchise, is available to download now. Originally set to launch Thursday, June 2, the game is available to download and play a day earlier via the Apple App ...

12. Sonos Ray review: a starter soundbar sort of stuck in the past

To hit a price point of under $300, Sonos removed many of the advanced features offered by its more expensive Beam and Arc soundbars. The Ray doesn't support Dolby Atmos, and it lacks HDMI connectivity altogether. Instead, you hook it up to your TV using ...

13. Pokémon Violet and Scarlet are launching in November

The games were previously pegged to launch in the second half of 2022 for the Nintendo Switch. In addition to the release date, the trailer also shows off the new professors and some new pokémon, including a pair of legendaries, along with multiplayer ...

14. Microsoft's compact Surface Laptop Go updated with 11th Gen Intel processor

The Surface Laptop Go 2 is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor (up from 10th Gen in the previous model), with prices starting at $599.99 for a model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

15. Nintendo Once Again Sent 500 Copyright Blocks To Remove Soundtrack Music On YouTube

At the time, Nintendo targeted and blocked soundtracks from iconic video games and franchises, including The Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Bros., and Kirby, among others, from being available on the Google-owned video platform.

16. Diablo Immortal feels uncomfortably mercenary

Diablo Immortal's announcement upset a lot of fans of the franchise who felt a mobile version of their beloved game would come at the expense of a more traditional Diablo gaming experience. After a short time with the game ahead of its release on June ...

17. Elon Musk tells Tesla staff: return to office or leave

Two sources confirmed the authenticity of the email reviewed by Reuters. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. Major tech firms in Silicon Valley do not require workers to return to the office full- ...

18. Xbox releasing brand new controller design for Pride Month

Microsoft will be donating $170,000 to LGBTQIA+ nonprofits OutRight Action International, African Rainbow Family, National Center for Transgender Equality, Mermaids, Lavender Rights Project and Fulcrum UA "to help in the fight for LGBTQIA+ equity and ...

19. 'Pokémon: Scarlet' and 'Pokémon: Violet': Release date, trailer and Lechonk unveiled

The newest game in the Pokémon series will feature the ninth generation of Pokémon in the franchise, but it will be Pokémon's first RPG (role-playing game), coming off the heels of "Pokémon Legends: Arceus.".

20. iOS 16: What will Apple announce at WWDC? What you need to know

On Monday, Apple will host a virtual keynote for WWDC from its headquarters in California, where it will likely share details on the latest software updates for iPhones, iPads and MacBook computers. Tentatively called iOS ...

21. Report shows that Safari reaches one billion worldwide users, still behind Google Chrome

According to Atlas VPN, 1,006,232,879 internet users (19.16% of all internet users) currently use the Safari browser. Meanwhile, Google Chrome has three times more, with a whopping 3,378,967,819 users. Microsoft Edge sits in third place with about ...

22. Slack's Audio Pronunciation Feature Will Help You Get Your Co-Worker's Name Right

Your Slack user profile comes with a new, customizable enhancement. Sarah Tew/CNET. In efforts to strengthen online team communication, Slack is rolling ...

23. YouTube Smartphone App Adds New Features for Connected TV Viewers

YouTube wants to make your mobile phone the ultimate couch companion for streaming videos on internet-connected TVs. Starting Wednesday, YouTube is rolling out a feature that lets viewers connect their viewing experience on TVs with their iOS or ...

24. Elon Musk to Workers: Spend 40 Hours in the Office, or Else

Elon Musk is demanding that his workers return to the office. Mr. Musk, the world's richest man, sent a pair of similar memos on Tuesday to push his employees at SpaceX, the rocket company he runs, and Tesla, the electric carmaker he leads, to spend ...

25. Google TV app launches on iOS as another hub for your streaming services

Not every major streaming service allows its content to be included in Google TV's rows of aggregated recs: Netflix is the big holdout. The company bowed out of Google TV integration very shortly after the release of the 2020 Chromecast, and Google has ...

26. Google is combining Meet and Duo into a single app for voice and video calls

Google announced today that it's combining two of its video-calling apps, Duo and Meet, into a single platform. Pretty soon, there will be only Google Meet, and Google's hoping it can be the one calling app users need for just about everything in their ...

27. How YouTube built a better way to connect your TV and phone

An easy way to think about the Connect feature is like Google Cast in reverse. Instead of using your phone as your TV remote, you can start the viewing process on your big screen and use your phone as a companion.

28. WhatsApp might add the ability to edit messages

It's unclear whether messages will be editable forever or within a certain time window. WABetaInfo claims the feature is not even available for beta testers yet, but will probably show up fairly soon. It should also ...

29. Discord adds text chat directly inside your voice channels

Users of the platform can take advantage of the new feature, aptly named Text Chat in Voice Channels, by clicking on a new chat bubble icon for the voice channel they are participating in. The feature is a welcome quality of life change, similar to the ...

30. Ultima Genomics raises $600 million to lower genome sequencing costs

Ultima Genomics, a Newark Calif.-based gene sequencing startup, exited stealth with around $600 million in venture capital funding. Why it matters: Ultima claims it can sequence an entire genome for just $100, which is an affordability advancement that ...

31. California Science Center breaks ground for new Endeavour space shuttle exhibit

A groundbreaking ceremony for a brand new exhibit dedicated to Endeavour, the well-known space shuttle that operated over the greater part of 20 years, took place at the California Science Center Wednesday. e0gzz-ra.jpg Concept art for The Samuel ...

32. Garmin pops solar power onto its fancy Forerunner running watch

Garmin just brought solar power to its Forerunner line, a cult-favorite among runners. Along with some other devices, the company took the wraps off its new Forerunner 995 Solar today. The $600 running watch packs a new touchscreen display (as well as ...

33. In surprise move, Sheryl Sandberg leaves Facebook after 14 years

Sheryl Sandberg, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent executives who helped build Facebook into a global tech juggernaut, is stepping down as chief operating officer of Meta, Facebook's parent company. Sandberg, 52, made the surprise announcement in ...

34. Elon Musk's Return-to-Office Mandate Flies in the Face of New Reality

Elon Musk's demand that Tesla Inc. staff stop “phoning it in” and get back to the office has thrust the world's richest person into the noisy debate over the future of work, and shows again that some CEOs remain tone-deaf to employees' growing demands ...

35. Netflix has warned about a crackdown on password sharing. It's looking like an empty threat

Sign up for the Fortune Features email list so you don't miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations. After a catastrophic financial start to the year, Netflix is scrambling to fix its problems, starting with a crackdown on ...

36. Slack now supports pronunciation guides in profiles

Slack now supports pronunciation guides for profiles, allowing users to add name pronunciations in the form of phonetic spellings or audio recordings. They'll begin appearing today for some users under the Display Name and Pronounce sections across Slack ...

37. China-linked hackers are exploiting a new vulnerability in Microsoft Office

Details shared by Proofpoint on Twitter suggest that a hacking group labeled TA413 was using the vulnerability (named “Follina” by researchers) in malicious Word documents purported to be sent from the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government ...

38. Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader, a Classic-Style RPG, Announced by Pathfinder Developer Owlcat Games

Revealed at the Warhammer Skulls showcase, Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader is an isometric, party-based RPG with turn-based combat. Developed for PC and console, no release date has yet been announced, the debut trailer features a reasonable amount of gameplay ...

39. Warhammer 40K gets a delightfully retro Doom clone called Boltgun

Warhammer 40,000 is going retro in a new, Doom-esque, '90s-inspired first-person shooter, called Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, which is coming to consoles and PC in 2023. Games Workshop and Auroch Digital announced their new Space Marine “boomer shooter” ...