ABC News Today

⚡ Welcome to a haunting edition of The Weekly Authoritythe Android Authority newsletter breaking down the week’s top tech and Android news. The 218th edition here, with Google’s secret high-end Pixel phone, Musk’s Twitter takeover, news on USB-C standards and cursed Halloween objects…

👻 Happy Halloween weekend! I’m celebrating early with a gothic fiction night at a local bookstore before I leave for vacation, and I’ll leave you with Hadlee and Jonathan next weekend. See you on the other side!

Apple:

• Rumors indicate that the iPhone 15 series could ditch physical volume/power buttons in favor of solid-state buttons.
• Apple may have an unwieldy giant iPad, which is estimated to be around 16 inches.
• Apple released macOS Ventura, iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16 on Monday.
• And the price of Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple One is increasing, with the latter increasing by about $3 a month.
• Apple will now take 30% of revenue from “push” sales for social media app posts.
• In this regard, Apple is the only phone manufacturer that recorded positive growth this quarter, although Samsung still leads the market with the highest shipment figures.
• Meanwhile, Apple stores are starting to sell an exterior lock that can be unlocked by touching an iPhone or Apple Watch: Level Lock+ costs $329 and, when installed on a door, can be unlocked with the Apple Home Key.
• Also: Apple exec explains why iMessage isn’t on Android; apparently it “looked like a use”.

Social media:

• It’s official: Elon Musk owns Twitter and has already fired former CEO Parag Agarwal, CFO Ned Segal, and general counsel Sean Edgett, among others.
• The new report appears to confirm the worst fears about how TikTok uses data: A team from Chinese parent company ByteDance planned to tap into the app’s data to “monitor the personal location of specific US citizens.”

In another part:

• Redmi Note 12 series launched: 200MP camera, 210W charging for under $400.
• Passkeys (Microsoft, Apple and Google’s password killer) are finally here: PayPal will give US users the option to sign in with FIDO-based passkeys, just like online services Kayak , eBay, Best Buy, CardPointers and WordPress.com , among others.
• The EU is finally moving forward with its USB-C standard, making USB-C mandatory for all electronic devices sold in the EU from autumn 2024.
• And Apple acknowledged the EU law: iPhones will have USB-C ports, making the switch next year.
• Speaking of the EU: No new cars with combustion engines from 2035, says the European Union.
• Meanwhile, Uber announced new safety features for riders and drivers, including reducing the number of left turns.
• Android phones provided an early warning of the earthquake in the United States, knocking iPhones.
• And the Android maker is back with a surveillance startup.
• WhatsApp recovered from a major two-hour outage that affected users around the world, the app’s first major outage since last year.
• Lego introduces the creepy haunted house-themed RTX 3090 gaming PC.
• Plastic recycling is a “failed concept,” the study says, with just 5 percent recycled in the U.S. last year as production ramps up.
• Drone footage shows construction of the start of Saudi Arabia’s megacity The Line.

• Jesse Williams is joining the cast of Only Murders in the Building for Season 3, which will also star Paul Rudd. We are excited.
• Warner Bros.’ Black Adam opened with $67 million last weekend, the biggest opening weekend since Thor: Love and Thunder in July ($143 million).
• We’ve got our first look at the sci-fi thriller TIM, about a humanoid AI gone horribly wrong.
• And an official 1899 trailer landed on Netflix, giving us a look at the upcoming project from Dark co-creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, arriving on November 17th.
• Future seasons of Doctor Who will air on Disney Plus, but remain on BBC TV and iPlayer in the UK and Ireland.
• Amazon oops: An internal server full of Prime Video viewing habits was accidentally exposed, with some 215 million pseudonymous viewing data entries.
• Check out the best new shows streaming this week, including Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (spoiler alert: it’s gory).
• Plus, we’ve got the best new movies streaming this week, including Netflix’s The Good Nurse, based on a disturbing true story.
• Plus: The Simpsons gets animated for a Death Note tribute: It’ll be part of the upcoming Treehouse of Horror Halloween compilation, airing on Sunday, October 30.

• Cult of the Lamb has a limited time event for Halloween: the Blood Moon Festival that started on October 25th with a series of new activities and decorations for the season, ending on November 10th.
• CD Projekt Red announced that it will remake The Witcher in Unreal Engine 5 – the project is in the early stages of development and the game will be “rebuilt from the ground up”, so we shouldn’t expect it anytime soon.
• Modern Warfare 2 launched on Friday and the physical disc contains 70MB of data, with a 150GB download.
• my boxZack Zwiezen on the first four hours of God Of War Ragnarök: “It’s mostly good news, as Ragnarök looks a lot like 2018’s fantastic God of War. But I’m a little worried about the balance between narrative and action in this long-awaited sequel.”
• Fallout 4 will receive a final next-gen update For PS5, Xbox, expect a performance mode for “high frame rates”, 4K resolution support and more.
• And Bayonetta 3 reviews are at: Engadget says it’s “full of classic Bayonetta madness,” while The Virgin called it “A sexy, stylish sequel that just can’t get the ending.”
• Meanwhile, Sony’s apparently removed game expiration dates from PS Plus: Games are still listed under the “Last chance to play” tab, but there’s no longer a specific date for games leaving the service.
• And a warning from Xbox’s Phil Spencer: price hikes are coming next year.
• Good news if you were excited by last week’s Silent Hill 2 news: you won’t have too long to wait as developer Bloober Team confirms that the game is in its “late production stage”, and Konami will provide more information on the release date soon .
• Speaking of kids, those who play video games score higher on tests of brain function, a new study shows.
• Finally: All US PlayStation 2 game manuals are now scanned in 4K – it took 22 years and over $44,000.

Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, October 31st is officially the spookiest night of the year, when goblins and ghouls roam and things that go bump in the night are never to be investigated .

In the vein of all things Halloween, we came across this collection of cursed objects Dark Atlaswhich makes for excellent bedtime reading (please don’t).

• It includes delights such as Robert the Doll, the haunted doll that has resided at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida since 1994. To this day, the museum receives regular reports of ills allegedly caused by the doll, from divorce to car accidents .
• Then there’s the cursed painting of a crying child who was accused of a series of house fires in the UK in the 80s (warned you not to read this after dark) 🙈.
• Or how about the curse of the stolen amethyst? Stolen from India during the rebellion of 1857, it brought nothing but despair and devastation to its owners. Today it resides in the vault of London’s Natural History Museum, but its previous owner locked it away in seven different boxes inside a bank vault, with strict instructions not to remove it until three years after its death. His note read: “Whoever opens it will first read this warning and then do what they want with the jewel. My advice to him or her is to throw it into the sea.”

If that’s not enough for you, Dark Atlas He’s also very kindly put together some haunted house stories that make excellent reading this All Hallow’s Eve.

Technical calendar

• November 8: Skull and Bones release date on Xbox Series S/X, PS5, PC and Luna
• November 9: God of War: Ragnarok launches on PS4 and PS5
• November 9-11: Mediatek Executive Summit 2022
• November 15-17: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit
• November 18: The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me launches on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and PC

This sounds pretty scary:

Something extra: Check out this creepy comic from morning briefMax Knoblauch on how the Halloween Spirit came to dominate America’s malls every fall.

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.