Court rejects Elon Musk’s request to move Tesla shareholder trial out of San Francisco

A federal judge has denied Elon Musk’s request to move his upcoming trial against a group of Tesla shareholders to Texas, according to Bloomberg (via The Verge). On January 7th, less than two weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin on the 17th, M…

FAA’s NOTAM computer outage affected military flights

On January 11th, the Federal Aviation Administration paused all domestic departures in the US after its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system failed. The agency later revealed that the outage was caused by a database file that was damaged by “personnel who failed to follow procedures.” Now, according to a new report from The Washington Post, the database failure also created issues for tools used by US military pilots. 

One of the affected systems was the Defense Internet NOTAM Service (DINS), which typically comes with FAA alerts regarding flight hazards. During the outage, military pilots were either getting NOTAMs in duplicates or not getting any at all. The Post said an FAA bulletin notified military users that the system had become “impaired and unreliable.” Unlike civilian flights, which had to be grounded, military flights can proceed in situations like this. An Air Force spokesperson told the outlet that the military branch’s pilots had to call around to ask for potential flight hazards themselves. 

The outage had also erased all NOTAMs submitted to the system starting on Tuesday afternoon, so airports and air traffic controllers were asked to re-submit them. Further, the FAA had to deal with delays and other challenges after the system went back up due to a “high system load.”

The FAA is still verifying what caused the outage, but The Post said it’s looking like the contractors truly made mistake and that there was no malicious intent behind their actions. Lawmakers are using this opportunity to put a spotlight on the FAA’s outdated technology and to seek funding for upgrades. The computer system that failed and led to the outage is already three decades old, and according to CNN, it’s also at least six years away from getting an upgrade. It remains to be seen if the incident will change that timeline.

iRobot’s Roomba Combo j7+ vacuum and mop is $200 off right now

If you need a little help keeping your home clean in the new year, a robot vacuum can help. It may not be an essential piece of tech, especially if you already have a decent vacuum, but it can make consistent cleaning much easier by letting you automat…

Twitter opens early access signups for organization verification

Twitter is now accepting signups for those who to be among the first to access the verification for organizations program. It was previously known as Blue for Business, the company said in its announcement, along with a link to the sign-up form. Organizations will have to submit their names, Twitter usernames and websites to be considered for the waitlist. They also have to indicate their size and the expected number of affiliated accounts. If you’ll recall, Musk previously announced that the website will roll out a feature that will give organizations the capability to identify accounts that are actually associated with them.

His announcement came after a rather disastrous launch of Twitter’s paid verification system, which gave rise to a bunch of verified trolls impersonating companies, celebrities and other high-profile personalities. This upcoming feature is meant to help address the issue and ensure that users claiming to be part of a specific organization are who they say they are. 

Musk also announced back then that the website will offer checkmarks in different colors: gold for companies, grey for government and blue for individuals. That will make posing as a company or a government agency difficult for random users. The company ultimately had to pause Blue’s initial rollout due to the influx of impersonators before relaunching it in December with an $11-per-month price tag. 

Twitter will publish its “tweet recommendation code” and will make tweet and account status visible “no later than next month,” Musk has revealed, as well. Presumably, that means users will know if they’ve been shadowbanned and their tweets aren’t showing up for other people. “Transparency builds trust,” he added. In addition, he announced that the website is moving the bookmark button to the tweet details page and is fixing its image auto-cropping feature next week.

Your Google Stadia controller won’t be a paperweight after the service shuts down

Google is giving Stadia users some consolation prizes before the game streaming service shuts down on January 18th. To start, it’s planning to release a tool that will enable Bluetooth support on the Stadia controller. You’ll have to wait until next week to download it, but this should make the device useful for just about any title that has gamepad support, so long as the platform recognizes the hardware in the first place.

The company has also released a Snake clone, Worm Game, as a final “thanks” to users. It’s a simple project the Stadia team has been using for testing since before launch, but it might be worth a try if you want to give the service a proper sendoff.

You’re out of luck if you played Destiny 2 on Stadia, however. Bungie has already shut downDestiny 2‘s Stadia servers, and is giving gamers until January 18th to activate Cross Save and migrate their characters elsewhere. The developer also warns that you shouldn’t disable Cross Save after the 18th “for any reason” as long as Stadia is your primary account.

These last-minute announcements likely won’t come as a shock. Google announced its shutdown plans in September, and started issuing refunds in November. Other game studios have also been helping with the transition for weeks. IO Interactive recently released a promised Progression Carryover tool for Hitman players, while Ubisoft is offering free PC copies of games purchased through Stadia. If you hadn’t already made the leap, you were probably getting ready for it.

The technology behind Stadia will live on after it and Worm Game are just memories. On top of the controller update, Google’s Immersive Stream for Games makes the cloud functionality available to other companies. Still, it’s a bittersweet moment — the news is a reminder that Google’s most ambitious gaming initiative is nearly at an end.