Month: November 2022

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Samuel Corum)

Twitter is rolling out the $7.99-per-month version of its Twitter Blue subscription, which adds a blue checkmark to your profile. But with Twitter CEO Elon Musk's move to paid checkmarks raising concerns about impersonation, Twitter also deployed a new "Official" label for notable accounts.

However, in news that probably won't surprise you, the Official label rollout is already chaotic. Some accounts—including Ars Technica's—had the Official tag briefly today then it disappeared. It's not clear whether the tags are gone for good.

"I just killed it," Musk wrote today when YouTuber Marques Brownlee asked why his Official tag disappeared.

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  The new Gmail. It's blue and has a big sidebar, but there are options to tweak both of these big changes. [credit: Google ]

Starting this month, users who have been holding out on the new Gmail design introduced earlier this year will be forced to switch.

The latest design was first introduced as an opt-in update in February and then became opt-out this summer. Now it's just Gmail, full stop.

The design didn't change too much about how Gmail works; it mostly just changed the color scheme—gone is the Gmail-brand red styling in favor of a more neutral and blue-ish-by-default look in line with the company's "Material You" design principles. You can tweak the coloring yourself anyway.

Enlarge / If the earliest of Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro rumors are to be believed, there could be more RAM and a notably different chip inside even the lower-spec Pixel 8. (credit: Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica)

Google's Pixel line changes from year to year, but one area of consistency is frequent supply chain leaks at every stage of a Pixel's life. Just a few weeks after the Pixel 7 arrived in most people's hands, a German website claims to have details of two Pixel-like devices being tested at Google.

WinFuture cites devices codenamed "Shiba" and "Husky," both running Android 14 "Upside Down Cake" and sporting a new Tensor G3 system-on-a-chip developed with Samsung's Exynos division. WinFuture's source suggests the package, codenamed Zuma, would have the same 5G modem as the Tensor G2, but the processor would be based on Samsung's 3 nm Exynos 2300, with the typical Google AI/ML improvements baked in. The Exynos 2300 was seemingly on the verge of cancellation but has recently shown up again in Bluetooth certification documents.

A 3 nm, Exynos-2300-based Tensor matches up with what noted Pixel hardware-watcher Kuba Wojciechowski has seen in export databases and heard from sources.

Enlarge / Taking a close look... (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica)

The European Commission today said its preliminary investigation of Microsoft's proposed $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard "may significantly reduce competition on the markets for the distribution of console and PC video games." As such, the government group is now opening what it calls an "in-depth investigation" of the proposed merger, which it says will be completed by March 23, 2023.

"We must ensure that opportunities remain for future and existing distributors of PC and console video games, as well as for rival suppliers of PC operating systems," European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. "The point is to ensure that the gaming ecosystem remains vibrant to the benefit of users in a sector that is evolving at a fast pace. Our in-depth investigation will assess how the deal affects the gaming supply chain."

Specific concerns

In announcing the new investigation, the Commission says that it is worried "in particular" that the merger will "foreclose access" to "high-profile and highly successful games... such as Call of Duty" on non-Microsoft platforms. In response to such concerns, Microsoft recently promised that it would ensure Call of Duty remained on PlayStation platforms "as long as there is a PlayStation."