Nov 30
Virginia’s Black families say their views have been sidelined in the uproar over teaching about race and racism in schools.
Nov 30
“I realized I had gotten way, way too comfortable in the city. My guard was down,” the actor told Dax Shepherd on his “Armchair Expert” podcast.
Nov 30
The preliminary injunction applies to a coalition of suing states which all have either a Republican attorney general or governor.
Nov 30
Father Held After 4 Children, Grandmother Found Shot To Death In California Home
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe children’s mother discovered the bodies and called 911.
Nov 30
BMW M, the famous automaker’s subsidiary in charge of high-performance vehicles, has introduced its second standalone model over 40 years after the M1 was first sold to the public. The new vehicle is a plug-in hybrid model called the Concept XM, and it’s apparently the most powerful BMW M car to ever go into series production. It will use the company’s newly developed M Hybrid drive system that combines a V8 engine with a high-performance electric motor. That will give the vehicle an all-electric range of 80km (50 miles), the capability to make 750 horsepower and to reach peak torque of 1,000 Nm (737 lb-ft).
In addition to being the second-ever pure M model, Concept XM is also the subsidiary’s first electrified vehicle in the high-performance segment. That “points the way for the future of the M brand,” the company’s announcement says, which hints at more electric-powered cars in the future.
It will be the first car to sport BMW’s new front-end design, as well. Based on Concept XM’s images, BMW’s front ends will have split headlights and near-octagonal kidney grills between them bearing the vehicle’s logo. The company calls the vehicle’s overall design “a highly progressive and distinctive take on BMW X,” but not everyone would use those adjectives to describe it — BBC’s Top Gear sounds downright disappointed with how it looks. Inside, there’s a driver-focused cockpit, brown leather and BMW’s curved screen for its infotainment system.
The series production version of the vehicle — the BMW XM — will start production by the end of 2022. It will be manufactured at the BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in the USA and will be available as a plug-in hybrid model only.
BMW
Nov 30
Big tech news normally slows as the year winds down, but Jack Dorsey isn’t letting that happen. The Twitter CEO has resigned from the company, with CTO Parag Agrawal replacing him as chief executive.
“I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey said in a statement.
Over the last six years, Dorsey has run two major tech companies: Twitter and Square. His first stint as CEO of Twitter, which he co-founded, ended in 2008 when he was pushed out. He returned as CEO in 2015 when Dick Costolo departed.
With Agrava at the helm, will Twitter go in a different direction? Will it chase more money-making ventures? (Advertising remains its best way of making money, but there are newsletter projects and premium membership options happening in the background — and there’s also that newly created crypto division.
But for many Twitter users, the hope is the company will get a better handle on the trolls, disinformation spreaders and bullies. That might be harder to achieve than interest in a Twitter Blue subscription.
— Mat Smith
The latest 14-inch MacBook Pro is $200 off right now
It’s an all-time low price.
Engadget
So there were some bargains waiting for Cyber Monday to strike. Adorama and B&H have discounted the base 14-inch model by $200. That’s a 10 percent discount off its usual $1,999 starting price. Amazon discounted both the 14- and 16-inch variants by $50 the week they came out. But $200 off is an all-time low — already — for a computer that only went on sale at the end of October. Alas, only the Space Grey option of this highly rated laptop is on sale, however.
The rest of the best Cyber Monday deals
The best tech deals you can get
The best deals on laptops and tablets you can get
The Roomba j7+ vacuum hits all-time low in iRobot’s Cyber Monday sale
Sony’s impressive WF-1000XM4 earbuds fall to a new low of $218
Amazon cuts up to 30 percent off Star Wars Instant Pots in Cyber Monday deal
The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller drops to $50 for Cyber Monday
Apple’s second-gen AirPods are on sale for $100 right now
Nissan will invest $18 billion in EV development over the next five years
It plans to develop 23 new electrified cars by 2030.
Nissan will invest trillions of yen over the next five years developing new EVs and battery technology as part of a grand plan it calls Ambition 2030.
This will include 23 electrified vehicles over the next eight years, with 20 of those in the next five years alone. It’s aiming for a market mix of 75 percent electrified (EV and e-Power PHEV/hybrids) in Europe, 55 percent in Japan and 40 percent in the US and China by 2030.
This could even include EVs with all-solid-state batteries (ASSB) by 2028, with a pilot plant in Yokohama primed to start manufacturing as early as 2024. ASSBs promise benefits like reduced charging times and improved stability.
The UK’s antitrust regulator is reportedly set to block Meta’s purchase of Giphy
It would be the first Competition and Markets Authority reversal of a major tech acquisition.
According to the Financial Times, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to reverse Facebook parent company Meta’s purchase of Giphy. If so, it would mark the first time that the country’s competition regulator has unwound a major tech acquisition.
Meta (or Facebook, at the time) announced in May 2020 that it bought the GIF platform with the goal of rolling it into Instagram. Reports pegged the price of the deal at $400 million.
The CMA raised concerns about the acquisition, however. It opened an investigation into the deal the following month. The regulator ruled in August that the deal could prevent rivals such as TikTok and Snapchat from accessing Giphy’s library of GIFs. It also said the deal could remove a potential competitor to Meta in the UK advertising sector.
The delayed ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ next-gen upgrade will be free for PS4 and Xbox One owners
The update is now ‘on track’ for early 2022.
CDPR
CD Projekt Red is “on track” to release the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of Cyberpunk 2077 in the first quarter of 2022, the studio’s parent company announced on Monday. CDPR had initially planned to release the update in late 2021.
The company also confirmed anyone who purchased the game on either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One will receive the next-gen update for free. Pro tip: If you don’t already have Cyberpunk 2077, you can buy it while it’s currently 50 percent off on the PlayStation and Microsoft stores. You’ll then have the next-gen version in your back pocket when it eventually launches.
The biggest news stories you might have missed
FIFA will test limb-tracking offside tech at the Arab Cup
Amazon ordered to rerun contentious Alabama union election
Sonos may be working on a mini subwoofer
Miami votes to bring back electric scooters rentals for five weeks
Congress will hold a hearing on potential Section 230 reforms this week
Nov 30
James Carville Tells Dems Exactly How To Deal With ‘Low Quality’ Republicans Like Boebert
Posted in: Today's Chili“Let them swim in their own slop,” the Democratic strategist said of dealing with extremist Republicans Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar.
Nov 30
He is the winningest coach in Notre Dame history and his team still has a chance at the College Football Playoff.
Nov 30
Prosecutors are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case and restore his conviction.
Nov 30
As rumored, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ordered Meta (Facebook) to sell Giphy, saying the deal “could harm social media users and UK advertisers.” It found that the deal would boost Meta’s already prodigious market power by limiting other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs, “driving more traffic to Facebook owned sites — Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.”
The CMA said that Meta’s sites dominated social media user time to the tune of 73 percent and that it could further muscle out rivals like TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat by leveraging Giphy. It added that prior to the merger, Giphy launched “innovative advertising services” used by brands like Dunkin’ Donuts and Pepsi that it could have brought to the UK.
“Facebook terminated Giphy’s advertising services at the time of the merger, removing an important source of potential competition,” the regulator wrote. “The CMA considers this particularly concerning given that Facebook controls nearly half of the £7 billion display advertising market in the UK.”
We disagree with this decision. We are reviewing the decision and considering all options, including appeal.
Facebook purchased Giphy in May of 2020, reportedly for $400 million, with the aim of integrating it into Instagram. A month later, the CMA launched an investigation into the deal and ruled in August that Facebook could stop rivals like TikTok and Snapchat from accessing Giphy’s GIF library. At the same time, it said the deal could remove potential UK display advertising competitors after Meta ended Giphy’s paid ad partnerships.
Meta previously said that the CMA had no jurisdiction because Giphy has no operations in the UK, adding that Giphy’s paid services weren’t display advertising by the CMA’s definition. In October, the authority fined Meta $70 million for breaking rules related to the deal by refusing to report required information and changing its chief compliance officer twice without permission.
The CMA said that after consulting with interested businesses and organizations, it “has concluded that its competition concerns can only be addressed by Facebook selling Giphy in its entirety to an approved buyer.” It’s not clear how this would be done, however.
“We disagree with this decision. We are reviewing the decision and considering all options, including appeal. Both consumers and Giphy are better off with the support of our infrastructure, talent, and resource,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. “Together, Meta and Giphy would enhance Giphy’s product for the millions of people, businesses, developers and API partners in the UK and around the world who use Giphy every day, providing more choices for everyone.”
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