198 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Slingboxes only have six days left to live, but you might be able to save yours.

    Dave Zatz points out that the Slingbox servers are scheduled to shut down as of November 9th, turning the little placeshifting devices into useless hunks of plastic.

    This occurs while the Sling TV service that now wears the name is raising its prices again, but the good news, again via Zatz, is that some guy in Nova Scotia may have a workaround.

    The bad news is that to make it work, you’ll need access to a Slingbox webpage that’s likely going away next week, so move fast.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Watch AMD’s RDNA 3 launch event live at 4PM ET.

    The next generation of AMD’s gaming hardware is almost here. Mitchell Clark will be reporting from the scene, but you can see everything as it’s revealed on this live video stream.

    Leaks have already shown at least one of the Radeon 7000 GPUs we’re expecting to see today, showing what’s likely the RX 7900 (successor to the current RX 6900). AMD has already said it won’t be using the new 12VHPWR connectors that are found on Nvidia’s RTX 40-series cards

    Victoria Song
    Victoria Song
    2022 is the year of smartwatches.

    The physical rotating bezel on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is gone, Apple released a whole new watch called the Apple Watch Ultra, and even Google finally entered the market with its Pixel Watch.

    In today’s episode of Versus, Victoria and Victoria help you decide which WearOS 3 watch is the right one for Android users — the Pixel Watch or the Galaxy Watch 5.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Amazon confirms a “pause” on corporate hiring.

    The hits keep coming, and this time it’s Amazon, confirming a New York Times report from last month with a public announcement of a “pause on new incremental hires in our corporate workforce.”

    The notes about the economy echo other decisions about layoffs or hiring freezes, but as Chris Welch points out, it also oddly refers to Prime Video and Alexa a “newer initiatives” for some reason.

    We still intend to hire a meaningful number of people in 2023, and remain excited about our significant investments in our larger businesses, as well as newer initiatives like Prime Video, Alexa, Grocery, Kuiper, Zoox, and Healthcare.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Stripe is laying off 14 percent of its employees.

    The payment processor cited “stubborn inflation, energy shocks, higher interest rates, reduced investment budgets, and sparser startup funding” as obstacles it’s facing.

    In the letter announcing the move, CEO Patrick Collison said the 1,000 or so employees he’s letting go will receive 14 weeks severance, their 2022 bonus, payment for unused PTO, and immigration support for visa holders, among other assists.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Green light.

    Get ready for more updates on earnings today, as we have Peloton, Coinbase, Warner Bros. Discovery, GoPro, Stellantis, and several others on the schedule. We’re also in place at the launch event for the Matter smart home standard, so stay tuned.

    We’ll also keep an eye out for any updates around the Twitter situation, but first — non-Elon news:

    Netflix is making season two of The Sandman.

    A Mercedes exec explains why the company gave up on robotaxis to build Level 3 driving assists that keep a human behind the wheel.

    And now Patreon can self-host videos for creators.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Aubrey Plaza is joining a Wandavision spinoff on Disney Plus.

    According to Variety, the former Parks & Rec star has been cast in Agatha: Coven of Chaos.

    Kathryn Hahn is obviously headlining the show as Agatha Harkness, and the report indicates that TiMER star Emma Caulfield Ford will reprise her Wandavision role as Dottie.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    The Sandman will return for season two on Netflix.

    Reported first by Deadline and then confirmed in a tweet by Neil Gaiman, the adaptation has been confirmed for a second season.

    If you’re thinking about diving in now that you know it’s coming back for another run, check out our review.

    But “adaptation” is almost an insult to what the creators achieved. The series is perhaps the best-screen adaptation of big concept fantasy literature since Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Beat for beat, iconic frames, lines of dialogue, performers’ makeup and wardrobe — all of it followed the books, except for a few changes.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Alien cornrows.

    Take a minute and watch the trailer for the new Avatar sequel.

    Visually stunning as Avatar: The Way of Water looks like it’s going to be, it’s feeling like it’ll be an even thornier narrative about how Indigenous people are forced to fight for their livelihoods in the face of violent colonial powers when it hits theaters on December 16th.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Elon Musk is The Running Man.

    Mike Masnick of Techdirt plays ghost-of-Christmas-future for Twitter’s new owner, breaking down the obstacle course of legal, political, moral, and economic issues that other social media execs have been carefully traversing over the last 15 years.

    Level Twelve: “We’re the trustworthy social media site that supports open dialogue, while doing our best to stop CSAM, hate speech, infringement, spam, and genocide, and we’re working to hire more trust and safety professionals, along with setting up an outside counsel.”

    Hmm. Our slogan is getting a bit long.