Vivaldi integrates Mastodon into its desktop browser

Mastodon has been gaining popularity ever since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Shortly after the deal became official, Vivaldi became the first browser to create its own Mastodon “instance” called Vivaldi Social. Now, the browser has announced that it’s integrating the platform into the sidebar of its desktop browser, giving users an easy way to view posts from the accounts they follow. 

The Twitter alternative bears similarities to Musk’s social network and gives users a way to make short posts. Unlike Twitter, which a single entity runs, Mastodon is a decentralized service that runs on an open-source protocol. Users can create and run their own servers or “instances” that other people can join, and Vivaldi Social is just one of them. Instances can communicate with one another, and people from different servers can still follow each other and see the other’s posts. 

With the browser’s latest update, its users can now find Vivaldi Social in the sidebar, though they can also add any Mastodon instance they want. When they access an instance from the panel, it pops up and is displayed on the side to create a split-screen view. 

Vivaldi
Vivaldi

Juul will pay $1.2 billion to settle multiple youth-vaping lawsuits

Juul has faced numerous lawsuits over the past few years, accusing the company of targeting underage users with its marketing and sales tactics. Now, according to Bloomberg, Juul has agreed to pay $1.2 billion in settlement, which will resolve around 10,000 lawsuits — including 8,500 personal injury cases, over 1,400 cases by government entities and school districts, as well as 32 tribal cases. California, for instance, sued Juul in 2019, accusing the company of targeting minors in the state, failing to verify the age of its customers and failing to warn users of their exposure to chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects. 

The San Francisco Unified School District, which also filed a lawsuit against Juul over its marketing practices, reportedly said it was “very pleased” with the settlement. Who can actually participate in the settlement and how much each plaintiff will get are still under discussion. The plaintiffs’ lawyers said people eligible to sign onto the deal will receive a minimum gross amount of $1,000 before attorney fees and other deductions. They also said that most people are expected to receive “substantially higher settlements.” Plaintiffs who sued the company over personal injury will learn how much they’ll get in February, according to the lawyers. US District Judge William Orrick will still have to approve this proposed settlement before it can be finalized.

Juul has been under scrutiny since 2018 after the US Food And Drug Administration ordered e-cigarette brands to stop selling flavored pods if they can’t prove that they can keep them out of minors’ hands. It’s been facing one lawsuit after another since then. In addition to this particular deal, the company also agreed to pay $439 million to settle a two-year investigation by multiple states and Puerto Rico that accuse Juul of marketing products to teens. 

Uber files lawsuit to block NYC driver pay increase

Back in November, New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) voted to increase the pay rates of Uber and Lyft drivers to make up for the rise in inflation and and operational costs. The new rates were supposed to be implemented on December 19th, but now Uber has sued the commission to block the new rates from taking effect. According to Bloomberg, Uber said in its lawsuit that it would have to spend an additional $21 million to $23 million a month if the new rates are implemented and that it wouldn’t be able to recover those costs without raising fares.

To note, drivers’ per-minute rates are going up by 7.18 percent and per-mile rates by 16.11 percent under the new rules. That means for a 7.5-mile trip that takes 30 minutes, a driver would earn at least $27.15, which is $2.50 more than current rates. The drivers are also getting another pay bump in March 2023, based on inflation rates comparing December’s to September’s this year. A company spokesperson told Engadget that by increasing drivers’ pay this December, TLC is locking in “this summer’s high gas prices in perpetuity.” 

Freddi Goldstein, Uber spokesperson told us:

“With this latest rulemaking, on top of the annual inflation adjustment, the TLC is choosing to invent a new methodology that locks in this summer’s high gas prices in perpetuity with a ‘mid-year’ adjustment that takes place 12 days before the end of the year. The TLC should have followed its usual annual adjustment and instituted a temporary gas surcharge when gas prices were actually elevated.”

The company’s lawsuit seems to indicate that it intends to pass the costs associated with drivers’ pay increase to riders. “Such a significant fare hike, right before the holidays, would irreparably damage Uber’s reputation, impair goodwill, and risk permanent loss of business and customers,” its lawsuit said. In a strongly worded response to the lawsuit, TLC said acknowledged that Uber already charges 37 percent more today compared to 2019, but it said that the company is keeping money earned from fare hikes over the past few years to itself. 

The commission’s statement reads: “Just in time to steal Christmas from New York families, Uber is suing to stop the raise the TLC enacted for app drivers after months of public hearings, years of stalled wages, and the pandemic decimating incomes. Uber’s Grinch move is on top of denying a fuel surcharge to only NYC drivers when costs skyrocketed due to record high inflation, forcing drivers in one of their most profitable markets to choose between groceries and fueling up. 

Uber is already charging passengers 37% more today compared to 2019 AND KEEPING IT FOR THEMSELVES but says this modest raise for drivers is what will break the company. Shame on you, Dara Khosrowshahi. We call on the City to stand firm and defend the rights of drivers to labor with dignity. Uber seeks chaos. We seek dignity. We are confident we will prevail.”

The ride-hailing giant is now asking the court to declare the new pay rates as invalid and to prevent the first increase’s implementation this month while the lawsuit is ongoing. 

UPDATE 12/10/22 10:53AM: Uber clarified that it’s had rate hikes over the past years and that the per-minute increase is 7.18 percent, while the per-mile is 16.11 percent. We also added the company’s official statement. 

SpaceX’s first civilian lunar mission will take BIGBANG’S T.O.P and DJ Steve Aoki to the Moon

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has picked his companions for SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission to the Moon over a year after he put out a call for potential private astronauts. He chose eight crew members and two backups from various backgrounds to be part of the mission called “dearMoon,” and while application was open to everyone, some of the names will likely stand out when you review the list. One of the people flying with Maezawa on SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is Choi Seung Hyun, better known as T.O.P. from the Korean boy band BIGBANG. 

DJ Steve Aoki is also part of the crew, as well as Tim Dodd, who’s known for creating space-themed content as a photographer and host of YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut. The other crew members include Rhiannon Adam, a photographic artist from Ireland who now works in London and the US, and Yemi A.D., a designer, director, choreographer and non-profit org founder from the Czech Republic. Brendan Hall, a filmmaker who directed projects for National Geographic, Karim Iliya, a filmmaker who documents whales, birds and other threatened species, and Dev D. Joshi, an actor from India, round up the main crew list. Meanwhile, snowboarding Olympic gold medalist Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as backup crew. 

Maezawa said the project received about a million applications from interested individuals around the world who went through a strict selection process. The inclusion of musicians and other creatives doesn’t come as a surprise, since the billionaire originally intended to bring artists with him on the trip in hopes that it would inspire them to create something that promotes world peace. He didn’t say why he chose T.O.P. specifically, but the star did rap at an astronaut for one of BIGBANG’s music videos.

The dearMoon project was launched in 2018 after Maezawa purchased all the seats for a six-day trip to the Moon from SpaceX. It will fly a single circumlunar trajectory around Earth’s faithful companion and is expected to take place sometime next year, though the actual date depends on Starship’s development. To prepare for the dearMoon mission, Maezawa flew to the ISS last year and spent 12 days on the flying lab shooting videos about life in space. 

Elon Musk says Twitter is developing a feature that shows if you’ve been ‘shadowbanned’

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter is currently working on a software update that will give you access to a tool that can clearly show whether you’ve been shadowbanned. The term means different things for different platforms, but being shadowbanned typically makes your posts invisible to other users or makes your profile hard to find without your knowledge. Musk says the upcoming tool will also explain the reason why you’ve been shadowbanned and will give you instructions on how to submit an appeal. 

Instagram has just launched a similar feature with its latest update, letting you know whether you’re currently blocked from recommendations. At the moment, it can only show if you’ve been blocked from recommendations in Explore, Feed and Reels, but Instagram is working on expanding the tool so that you can see if you’re also blocked from showing up in “suggested accounts.” 

Musk didn’t talk about how Twitter will be implementing the feature, but he made the announcement shortly after Bari Weiss released part two of The Twitter Files. In the thread, Weiss said that Twitter used “Visibility Filtering,” which is apparently just another term for shadowbanning, on some conservative personalities. Musk once called himself a “free speech absolutist.” After taking control of Twitter, he started lifting the bans on several controversial users, including former President Donald Trump, The Daily Stormer’sinfamous neo-Nazi creator Andrew Anglin and other white nationalists. 

Advertisers have been fleeing the platform since Musk took over due to concerns about policy changes and the reinstatement of banned accounts. In a blog post late last month, Twitter assured advertisers that “none of [its] policies have changed.” And according to a new report by Reuters, Twitter is gearing up to release a set of ad controls in an effort to lure advertisers back to the website. The controls, which could launch as soon as next week, will reportedly allow advertisers to prevent their ads from appearing above or below tweets with the specific keywords they choose.

‘Earthblade’ is the next game from the team behind ‘Celeste’

Extremely OK Games, the developer behind the award-winning platformer Celeste, has revealed its new project at this year’s Game Awards. It’s called Earthblade, and just like Celeste, it’s a 2D exploration-action game set in a pixel world. In Earthblade, you’ll play Névoa, which the developer describes as an “enigmatic child of Fate” (with horns) who’s returning to Earth. The trailer shows you some of the obstacles you’ll have to face and the foes you’ll have to defeat while exploring the remnants of a ruined world. Extremely OK also says you’ll be piecing together Earth’s fractured history as you play. 

We wouldn’t be surprised if you have high expectations for Earthblade, seeing as Celeste had won several awards after it was launched. At The Game Awards in 2018, it won best independent release of the year. (Extremely OK didn’t get its winged statue after the show ended, but a fan unknowingly purchased it from eBay and sent it to the developer just earlier this year.) It will take some time before you can play Earthblade and go on an adventure with Névoa, though: The game won’t be available until 2024.

‘Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon’ drops March 2023

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon has premiered at The Game Awards, where a trailer also debuted for the franchise’s upcoming spinoff. Like its name implies, Bayonetta Origins tells the story of Bayonetta when she was Cereza and has only just summoned her first demon Cheshire. The trailer gives us a glimpse at the story and about how Cereza explores a forest despite her mother’s warnings. It also shows the game’s storybook elements, as well as some bits of gameplay with and without Cheshire. 

Bayonetta Origins will be available on March 17th, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch only. You can pre-order a digital copy of the game from the eShop right after The Game Awards wraps up, but you can also purchase a physical copy when the title launches.

Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle will share the Pentagon’s $9 billion cloud contract

Over a year after shutting down its previous attempt at modernizing its IT infrastructure, the Department of Defense (DOD) has picked Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle as its new cloud service providers. The Pentagon has awarded the companies separate contracts for the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) project, and according to Reuters, they will have a shared budget ceiling of $9 billion. This initiative is a successor to DOD’s cancelled Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program that was supposed to connect its different divisions using a single cloud service provider. 

If you’ll recall, the department awarded Microsoft with the $10 billion JEDI contract in 2019. Shortly after that, though, Amazon challenged Microsoft’s victory in court, claiming that the evaluation process had “clear deficiencies, errors and unmistakable bias.” Amazon argued back then that the Pentagon’s decision was based on “egregious errors” and “the result of improper pressure from President Donald J. Trump.” The company accused the former President of launching “repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks” against it in an effort to steer the Pentagon away from giving the JEDI contract to Jeff Bezos, “his perceived political enemy.” 

While the Pentagon’s inspector general office had found no evidence that Trump interfered with the selection process, it also noted that several White House officials did not cooperate with its investigation. In the end, the department chose to cancel the JEDI project because it “no longer meets its needs.” Now, under the JWCC, the Pentagon will work with several vendors for the cloud capabilities and services it needs instead of with just a single one.

The companies’ contracts will run until 2028 and will provide the DOD access to centralized management and distributed control, global accessibility, advanced data analytics and fortified security, among other capabilities. 

Biden signs bill that lets domestic violence survivors remove abusers from phone plans

President Joe Biden has signed H.R. 7132 or Safe Connections Act of 2022 into law, and it could help domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking survivors ultimately cut ties with abusers. Under the new law, users can ask mobile service providers to separate their line — as well as their dependents’ — from their abusers’ if they have a shared contract. That would ensure that abusers no longer have access to their phone records and can’t get their service cut. Carriers aren’t allowed to charge fees to grant these requests, which they must do within two days. 

In addition, Safe Connections Act of 2022 will require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create rules that would make it easier for survivors seeking separate mobile plans to enroll in its Lifeline Program for up to six months. This FCC initiative gives qualifying low-income consumers a discount on phone services, so they can remain connected to job opportunities, friends, family and emergency services while they’re working to get back on their feet. The commission also has to establish rules that would prevent calls or texts to hotlines from appearing on call logs, presumably to keep survivors safe. 

In a blog post, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) celebrated the new law but also said that it would have “preferred a bill that did not require survivors to provide paperwork to ‘prove’ their abuse.” For a request to be valid, a user must submit “appropriate documentation” to verify that the person they’re sharing a contract with “committed or allegedly committed an act of domestic violence, trafficking, or a related criminal act against the survivor.”

Having to provide paperwork may not be easy, depending on a person’s circumstances, and it could retraumatize survivors trying to break free from abusive situations. “However, this new law is a critical step in the right direction,” the EFF continued, “and it is encouraging that Congress and the President agreed.”