Facebook said Tuesday that it disabled accounts tied to a project from New York University that analyzed political ads on the social network. The company said researchers collected data from Facebook users without their consent.

Researchers launched the project, known as the NYU Ad Observatory, ahead of the 2020 US presidential election to make it easier for journalists, policy makers and the public to spot trends about Facebook political ad targeting. As part of the project, NYU created a plug-in Facebook users could add to their web browser that copied the ads they saw on the social network and stored that data in a public database. The browser extension also collected usernames, links to user profiles and information about why users see a particular ad, information that isn't publicly available. 

But Facebook said researchers violated the social network's rules by scraping data from users through "unauthorized means." The company said the browser extension collected information "about Facebook users who did not install it or consent to the collection."

The clash between NYU and Facebook underscores how the social network is trying to balance both privacy and transparency concerns. Facebook's political ad targeting has been under more scrutiny after Russian trolls used political ads to sow discord among Americans during the 2016 US presidential election. The social network created its own public database to search for political ads, but NYU said the tool it built had more functionality. At the same time, Facebook has also been under fire for not doing enough to protect user privacy after a data scandal in 2018. The scandal involved a UK political consulting firm called Cambridge Analytica, which harvested data from up to 87 million Facebook users without their consent.

Read more: Facebook, NYU researchers tussle over political ads on the social network

Facebook said it also cut off apps, Pages and platform access tied to NYU's research project because data scraping jeopardizes the privacy of its users.

"While the Ad Observatory project may be well-intentioned, the ongoing and continued violations of protections against scraping cannot be ignored and should be remediated," Facebook Product Management Director Mike Clark said in a blog post. 

NYU called Facebook's actions "regrettable." "Our researchers are undertaking important, legitimate research, and the impediments that Facebook has put in their way are disappointing and, from our perspective, unjustified," NYU said in a statement.

Laura Edelson, an NYU researcher involved in the project, tweeted that her personal Facebook account was suspended and that the social network's actions also hinder the team's research into vaccine misinformation.

"The work our team does to make data about disinformation on Facebook transparent is vital to a healthy internet and a healthy democracy," Edelson tweeted on Tuesday night.

Facebook's actions have also prompted calls for more regulation to make online advertising more transparent. "It's clear that Congress must now act to bring more clarity to the world of online advertising," Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, tweeted on Wednesday. 

If you're shopping for a premium ultraportable two-in-one, you've got several great options to choose from, including the updated Dell XPS 13 two-in-one now available. The two best at the moment though are HP's Spectre x360 13 and Lenovo's Yoga C930. 

Both of these convertible laptops (they have 360-degree hinges so they can be used as a laptop or tablet and in other positions) start at more than $1,000, which puts them into premium PC territory. The higher prices get you a better caliber of components, higher-quality materials for the chassis, and specialty features you won't find on the companies' more mainstream models. With these, the focus is on delivering top-notch performance and battery life in the thinnest and lightest body, making them good choices for students and frequent travelers or commuters. 

Honestly, in the Lenovo vs HP battle, both of these are excellent machines that won't disappoint if they meet your performance needs. But, if you're not sure which way to go, here are the key differences that'll help you pick the right one between Lenovo vs HP. 

Read more:  Best MacBook Air alternatives

Lenovo vs. HP: Sophisticated and stately

HP and Lenovo both used design for better usability. With the Yoga, for example, Lenovo redesigned the 360-degree hinge to house speakers so that no matter how the screen is positioned you have clear audio. 

On the Spectre, HP notched out the two rear corners of the body and put the power button on the left and a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port on the right. The button placement makes it easy to find when you need it and avoid pressing it when you don't, while the USB type-C port position, which is also used for charging, lets you keep cables out of the way. 

Both models look clean and professional, though the HP's gem-cut edges and copper or brass accents give it more visual pop than the Lenovo's buttoned-up chassis design. Each has two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a single USB-A 3.1 port, though HP includes a microSD card slot as well.  

For those worried about webcam privacy, these laptops have ways to instantly block them from possible prying eyes. The Yoga has a physical shutter that slides in front of the cam with the flick of a fingernail. HP put a kill switch on the right side of the device that completely cuts power to the cam. For those more concerned about someone peeping what's on your screen than hacking your webcam, the Spectre x360's display can be upgraded to one with the company's Sure View technology that blocks off-angle viewing at the push of a button. 

One last thing worth mentioning is Lenovo and HP include an active pen for drawing and writing on the screen with these laptops. HP's is a full-size pen that stows in a loop on its leather laptop sleeve, which is also included, and is powered by a AAAA-size battery. Lenovo offers a pen that's skinny and slightly longer than a crayon, similar to Samsung's S Pen. However, it fits into a garage on the rear of the laptop body that keeps it charged and solves the "I never have that pen when I need it" problem. 

Lenovo vs. HP: You've got options

Unlike competing premium two-in-ones from Samsung and LG, the Spectre x360 and Yoga C930 can be customized to your needs through HP and Lenovo or picked up preconfigured from major retailers like Best Buy and Amazon. Both are available with the eighth-gen Intel Core i7 quad-core processor with integrated graphics, up to 16GB of onboard memory and up to a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 drive in the Yoga or a 2TB PCIe NVMe M.2 drive in the HP. You can get either with a full HD or 4K ultra HD displays.

There are two things HP offers that Lenovo doesn't, however. The first is the aforementioned Sure View privacy screen. The other is Gigabit 4G LTE mobile broadband. Need a laptop that's connected to the web the second you open it up and turn it on? The HP Spectre x360 is your only choice here. 

In the Yoga's favor, though, is screen size. The Spectre has a 13.3-inch display, while the Yoga has a 13.9-inch display. The additional screen space increases the body size to 12.7x8.9 inches (322x227 mm) compared to the HP's 12.2x8.6 inches (309x218 mm). Each weighs about 3 pounds (1.4 kg), by the way, and are approximately 0.6-inch thick (14.5 mm). 

SPECS COMPARISON

	HP Spectre x360 13-ap0013dx	Lenovo Yoga C930
Price as reviewed	$1,350	$1,200
Display size/resolution	13.3-inch 1,920x1,080 touch display	13.9-inch 1,920x1,080 touch display
CPU	1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8565U	1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8550U
PC Memory	8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,666MHz	12GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz
Graphics	128MB Intel UHD Graphics 620	128MB Intel UHD Graphics 620
Storage	256GB SSD	256GB SSD
Networking	802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless; Bluetooth 5.0	802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless; Bluetooth 4.1
Operating system	Windows 10 Home (64-bit)	Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
See it on	Best Buy	Best Buy

Lenovo vs. HP: Solid performance, even better battery life

The configurations we reviewed for these models were evenly matched and as such performed about the same on our benchmarks and anecdotal tests. As noted in their reviews, their components are geared for average home and office uses such as word processing, web browsing and email. But they have enough muscle to push through more demanding work, assuming it's not too graphics intensive. 

They won't get bogged down with a dozen tabs open in Google Chrome while other applications run in the background. Streaming video and music are no problem either. And they'll handle casual photo and video editing without choking as well as some casual gaming. 

Read: The best gaming laptop performers of 2019

Battery life is where these two just kill it, though. When we reviewed the C930 it reached 12 hours, 26 minutes on CNET's streaming video test -- one of the best times we'd ever recorded for a laptop. Then we reviewed the Spectre x360 (in some ways, a sister product of the HP EliteBook x360), which blew right past it reaching 13 hours, 18 minutes. That's the second longest battery time we've recorded: LG's larger 15.6-inch Gram 15 beat it by 40 minutes.

Lenovo vs. HP: Coin flip?

Both the Spectre x360 and Yoga are excellent premium ultraportable two-in-ones. HP laptops and Lenovo laptops offer similar configuration options that result in unsurprisingly similar performance. They even cost about the same, though the slightly older C930 might be a better deal in some instances at this point. Much of what separates them comes down to design, features and what you need from laptops. 

Also read: 

Best gaming laptops under $1,000 to get in 2019

The perfect laptop for a cluster of creatives

Asus Chromebook Flip review

HP's newest Envy laptops are designed to run cooler, longer

Which Microsoft Surface should I buy?

Lenovo IdeaPad S940 (14-inch, 2019) review

Newest HP Envy laptops are designed to run cooler, longer

It's been 25 years since Lenovo introduced us to its first ThinkPad: the 700C business laptop. By today's standards, it was comically large and underpowered, but back then, it was a very popular piece of hardware that helped usher in the age of the laptop.

Now, after a few years' worth of rumors, Lenovo confirmed Wednesday that it will release a retro ThinkPad in the 700C's honor (though hopefully one that isn't quite so thick).

"At this point, it seems like the cat's out of the bag," writes David Hill, Lenovo chief design officer, in a company blog post. "Yes, Lenovo will be making a special edition ThinkPad as part of the 25th anniversary celebration. It's aimed at enthusiasts and superfans that were kind enough to share their thoughts about what the laptop might be."

In fairness, I was six years old back in 1992, and while I vaguely remember my dad using one (or at least drooling over one at a PC expo), I can't say that I'm the likely target superfan Hill is describing. But ZDNet's Steven J. Vaugh-Nichols summed up the nostalgia well, writing:

That first ThinkPad was powered by a 25MHz 486 SLC and it came with your choice of four or 8MBs of memory. This "performance" laptop came with a 640x480 resolution 10.4-inch VGA display and had a 120MB hard-drive. It weighed just over seven and a half pounds and cost $4,350 (in 1992 dollars). That would be about $7,400 in today's money.

And we loved it.

No word on the new special edition ThinkPad's specs, but Hill writes, "It has a wonderful black rubberized coating, three TrackPoint caps, and a keyboard to die for." Availability is also yet to be announced, though it should almost certainly arrive by the end of this year. 

No final price is set yet, either, but Hill assures readers "it will not cost $5,000!"

Do your kids already seem to be out-growing their back-to-school shoes? Or maybe you forgot to snag a pair for yourself? Either way, you can save big at Reebok from now until Labor Day. Use the code LABORDAY at checkout to save up to 50% off select items in your order. Discounts start at 20% off $50 or more, and go up to 50% off $250 or more. You can easily get shoes for the whole family with discounts like these. 

Snag these fun army green OnLux Slip-On Women's Walking Shoes for mom -- a stylish option for someone who is on-the-go. Or take a look at these comfortable Trail Cruiser Men's Shoes for dad, great for those weekend hikes. Don't forget the kids. Whether you're looking for new PE shoes or some stylish kicks to impress the playdate, Reebok has some great options for every occasion. Go for a classic look, with the Preschool Freestyle Hi Shoes that come in white, red or black. Or try something more colorful like the Weebok Clasp Low Shoes for toddlers. These Weeboks feature velcro instead of laces, which can give your toddler a little more independence when dressing themselves.

More Labor Day sales

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas.

The big shopping holidays may be history but there are still lingering Cyber Monday deals for the home and kitchen. All you Johnny-come-latelies aren't out of luck just yet. Still today, we're seeing major price drops and sitewide sales on blenders, Dutch ovens, air fryers and more. 

These top remaining Cyber Monday kitchen and home sales make good holiday gifts, with unique kitchen accessories at a discount, including Coravin's ingenious wine preserver, Henckels steak knives or a tasty tea or coffee subscription for a fraction of the normal price.

To find the best Cyber Monday kitchen deals, we've scoured the top retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Macy's to show you the deals that are worth pouncing on. We've noted any that are at or near an all-time low price. And because new deals are dropping all the time, check back often as we update this post regularly.

Best kitchen deals

Best sitewide sales

We're more than halfway through May, but there's still a lot happening in Pokemon Go this month. The mobile game is closing out its Season of Alola with a variety of events and activities over the next few weeks, including the debut of Tapu Fini, the arrival of the first Mega legendary Pokemon, and a new Community Day. Here are all the biggest events happening in Pokemon Go in May 2022.

May Research Breakthrough: Alolan Grimer

Pokemon Go is offering a new Research Breakthrough reward in May. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough this month, you'll earn a chance to catch Alolan Grimer.

Research Breakthroughs are tied to the stamps you receive from Field Research tasks. You'll earn one stamp for the first Field Research task you complete each day, and once you've collected seven stamps, you'll achieve a Research Breakthrough.

May Spotlight Hours

Every Tuesday evening each month, Pokemon Go holds a Spotlight Hour event. From 6 to 7 p.m. local time, the game will spotlight a particular Pokemon and bonus. Here's the full Spotlight Hour schedule for May:

Date	Spotlight Pokemon	Spotlight bonus
May 3	Wingull	2x catch candy
May 10	Numel	2x transfer candy
May 17	Magikarp	2x evolution XP
May 24	Seel	2x catch Stardust
May 31	Pikipek	2x catch XP

May Raid Schedule

After Therian Forme Landorus leaves five-star raids on May 3, the island guardian Tapu Fini will make its Pokemon Go debut. The legendary Pokemon will appear from May 10 to May 25, after which point all four island guardians will return for one final hurrah until June 1. 

Mega Kangaskhan, meanwhile, will be the featured Mega Raid boss until May 3. After it leaves the rotation, Mega Latios and Mega Latias will make their first appearance in raids, with Mega Blastoise and Mega Altaria following later in the month. You can see the full raid schedule below:

Five-star raids

Until May 3

May 10 - May 25

May 25 - June 1

Mega Raids

Until May 3

May 3 - May 10

May 10 - May 25

May 25 - June 1

Pokemon Air Adventures

Pokemon Go is kicking off May with an Air Adventures event, which will mark players' first chance to get the Mega Legendary Pokemon Mega Latias and Mega Latios. Flying Pikachu and other special Pokemon will also be appearing more frequently during the event, and eggs will hatch at half the distance they typically require.

Water Festival

Pokemon Go's Water Festival returns from May 12 to May 20. During this year's event, players will have their first chance to get two more new Pokemon from the Alola region: Dewpider and its evolved form, Araquanid. Shiny Binacle will also be appearing for the first time, as will a special scarf-wearing Lapras.

May Community Day

Pokemon Go's May Community Day takes place Saturday, May 21. This month's featured Pokemon is Alolan Geodude, and if you can earn enough candy to evolve it into Alolan Golem by the end of the event, it will learn the new rock-type Fast Attack Rollout.

Pokemon Go has a few other events lined up for May, including a farewell "Alola to Alola" celebration to close out the season. More details about these events will be announced at a later date.

Netflix's upcoming ad-supported tier might not include a popular feature. The streaming giant doesn't plan to let subscribers download content for offline viewing on its ad-supported tier, according to a report Wednesday from Bloomberg. 

The new ad-supported tier, which is expected to arrive in early 2023, apparently won't allow customers to download TV shows and movies to their devices unless they pay for a more expensive subscription. 

The removal of the download feature from what will likely become Netflix's cheapest plan was discovered by a developer, Steve Moser, looking into the company's iPhone code, according to Bloomberg. Moser also found that you will not be able to skip over ads or use playback controls while ads are running, the report said.

Read also: Best Streaming Service of 2022: Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus and More

Netflix is also reportedly not allowing ads to be shown during children's programs, according to Bloomberg Friday.

Rival streaming services Hulu and Disney Plus have also recently announced new ad-supported tiers as part of their lineup. Meanwhile, the ad-free version of Hulu will increase from $13 per month to $15 a month on Oct. 10, and the ad-free version of Disney Plus will increase from $8 per month to $11 a month on Dec. 8. 

Currently, Netflix's premium option, which lets you have four streams at once, is $20 a month.

Netflix said it is still deciding how to launch its lower priced ad-supported tier and has nothing further to share at this time. 

Read also: Netflix: The 44 Absolute Best Movies to Watch

Correction, Aug. 18: An earlier version of this story had incorrect prices for Hulu's ad-free tier. Hulu without ads will see its price increase from $13 a month to $15 per month on Oct. 10. 

NVIDIA's GTX 1080 is no longer the king of the GPU mountain. That honour is now the company's newest graphics card, the GTX 1080 Ti.

Announced at a GDC press conference on Wednesday in San Francisco, the $700 1080 Ti is 35 percent more powerful than the GTX 1080, says NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

It comes with 11GB of GDDR5X memory, and with 11GB of frame buffering it is designed for 4K gaming. In fact, Huang reassured his audience that they could play Watch Dogs 2 in 5K -- that's 5,120×2,880 -- using the GPU.

Most impressively, the company claims the 1080 Ti is more powerful than the Titan X, a $1,200 GPU developed for AI and deep learning. Like the Titan X, the 1080 Ti use 3,584 of NVIDIA's CUDA cores. The GTX 1080, by comparison, has 8GB of memory and 2,560 CUDA cores.

Huang also announced at the conference that the 1080 was getting a price drop down to $500.

The GTX 1080 Ti will be available from March 10 for $700. No international pricing has been announced, but that converts to AU$915 and £565.

In the following guide, I'm going to show you how to make and use a simple microphone that will allow you to hear everyday objects in new and interesting ways. If you love having fun with sound, this project is for you.

Contact microphones, or piezo mics, come in all shapes and sizes. They're commonly used to record acoustic instruments, such as violins, or acoustic guitars. But they're also uniquely able to pick up unusual sounds that we can't easily hear with our own ears. "Star Wars" sound designer Ben Burtt famously created the movie's iconic laser blaster sound by hitting a radio station guy wire with a wrench and recording the results using a contact mic.

You'll hear some more sound examples later, but first let's go through the materials you'll need to make your own contact mic.

You'll want a handful of 27mm piezo discs. Technically, you'll only need one, but having some throwaways will make the project less stressful. These discs are commonly used as buzzers or doorbell buttons. I picked a pack of 10 up on eBay for around $7 shipped. You can also get some that are pre-wired, but I prefer a challenge.

For the cable, I'm using a ¼-inch guitar cable. This 3-ft long one was just $6 on Amazon.

For the tools, I have a soldering iron, some solder, some wire strippers, and a pair of safety glasses can't hurt. I'll also be using some helping hands but they're aren't necessary. Just realize that if you're soldering this flat on a table, the disc is so thin that you may roast the table a little.

The first thing you'll want to do is trim one end off the cable, then strip it down to expose the wires inside. You should see two wires. The inner, coated wire is the signal, and the outer, bare wire is ground.

Pull the bare wire to the side and give it a twist to prevent it from fraying. Then, strip about a ¼ inch of coating from the inner, signal wire.

Next, solder the signal wire to the center ring. If you have an adjustable soldering iron, try to use as little heat as possible or else the metal on the disc starts to pool up. It won't affect the sound but it looks sorta ugly.

Then, using a high heat, take the ground wire and solder it to the outer ring. That's all there is to making a contact mic.

You can use your mic with a an audio mixing board or a nice handheld audio recorder like the popular Zoom H4n ($200). Because the mic spits out a very weak signal, I recommend an impedance transformer like the $12 HOSA MIT-129. This will open up some extra low end on the microphone and increase its volume.

With this setup and a little double sided sticky tape, we can record things like an aluminum heat sink pulled from an old computer, or the sound of scissors opening and closing, or the sound of an industrial water jet cutting through steel. The following sounds were collected using my contact mic (full playlist).

There's a whole world of sounds that open up with a contact mic. And now you know how to make one, so go out and explore. And if you record something amazing, upload it to Soundcloud and share it with me (@donald) on Twitter. Now go have fun.

It's been nearly six months since the company formerly known as Facebook changed its name to Meta, a nod to its ambitions in the metaverse. On Monday the company released details on how it plans to monetize its Horizon Worlds metaverse app, currently accessible only through VR, initiating a testing phase that will allow some creators to sell in-world items to users.

One aspect in particular has been seized upon by NFT Twitter: the fact that Meta is taking a 47.5% cut on each transaction. 

For every item sold in Horizon Worlds, a 30% cut goes to Meta via the Oculus platform, and 25% of the remaining amount goes to the Meta App Store. That's more than Apple's oft-criticized 30% App Store fee, and much larger than what NFT traders are accustomed to. In the NFT space, marketplace OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut of each transaction, and creators typically take between 2.5% and 7.5%.

To clarify, the items Meta is selling aren't nonfungible tokens. They're more similar to the skins and animations that you could currently buy in games like Fortnite. But the metaverse Meta is building is competing with crypto-native metaverses like Sandbox and Decentraland, where in-world items are owned as NFTs. 

The future of work is giving Meta 47.5% of your salary, apparently.

— 6529 (@punk6529) April 12, 2022

Facebook charging 47.5% for every NFT sale is the best thing to ever happen to us.

— Degentraland (@Degentraland) April 12, 2022

no one:

zuckerberg: i'm more of a glass 47.5% full kind of guy

— 𝖕 𝖚 𝖋 𝖋 ❤️ nft (@PuffYatty) April 12, 2022

At the heart of the issue is a philosophical point about how metaverses should be constructed. A metaverse is any digital world that's frequented by large groups of people -- think Second Life or even games like World of Warcraft. The question is whether the next wave of metaverses, shepherded by the world's biggest social media company, should be closed or open.  A closed metaverse is one run by a central authority, where lands and items are owned by the company that built the world. An open metaverse allows people to buy and own metaverse land and items as NFTs, and exchange them for cryptocurrency.   

Take, for instance, Sandbox. It's a blockchain-integrated world now in beta testing, made up of a fixed 166,464 blocks of land, which can be bought and used like real-world property. Creators make in-world items, which they sell for $SAND, the native cryptocurrency that can then be exchanged for ether.   

The argument is that open metaverses will be more organic, virtual societies when compared to centrally designed metaverses like Horizon Worlds. "Facebook charging 47.5% for every NFT sale is the best thing to ever happen to us," one tweet reads, with the implication being that Meta's excessive fee will drive creators toward open metaverses like Sandbox and Decentraland. 

Crypto boosters say that buying an in-world item as an NFT allows you to truly own it -- you can sell it, trade it or hold it as an investment, just like real-life items. It appears that Meta is aiming to replicate some of this benefit, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday said, "Clearly the ability to sell virtual goods and be able to take them with you from one world to another is going to be an important part [of the metaverse]." 

That Meta would charge 47.5% is offensive to NFT traders, who may point out that Decentraland and Sandbox items carry 2.5% and 5% creators fees, respectively. Yet metaverses like Sandbox double as speculation opportunities, where the value of items can be bought and sold for profit (or loss). Under this model, creators make money by skimming money off big-ticket items that may never be part of the world Meta builds. Sandbox's 5% fee amounts to a lot when the item being sold is a $4.3 million plot of land, as compared to Meta's 47.5% cut of a $10 costume.

Many believe the metaverse is the next big thing: Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect that belief, and Nvidia's CEO thinks the metaverse economy will be bigger than real world's. What metaverses look like, though, is still up in the air. Much is still unknown about how Horizon Worlds will turn out. Meta has in the past said that NFTs will be integrated in at least a limited way into its metaverse, and the company is reportedly also working on an in-world currency.

Meta has been contacted for comment but didn't respond immediately. 

Netflix is launching its first five mobile games, available to play in its Android app first and then to its app for Apple iOS devices in the coming months, the company said in a blog post and tweet. The games are available immediately for people with an Android phone or tablet: They're listed in the Google Play store by title (see below) as individual downloads starting Tuesday. As of Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT, Netflix will start rolling out games within its Android app proper, so you won't need to leave the Netflix app and can play them all in the same place. 

As they're added to Netflix's main app, games will be accessible in a row on the homepage, in a new games tab or from a drop-down menu for categories. While the initial games require downloads, eventually games will vary in availability -- some will be downloads, some will require an internet connection. But none of Netflix's games have ads, in-app purchases or additional fees. 

The first five games, all casual play fare suited for mobile-only play, are Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3: The Game, both previously released games that were developed by BonusXP; Shooting Hoops and Teeter Up, developed by Frosty Pop; and Card Blast, developed by Amuzo and Rogue Games. The last three games were part of Netflix's test of mobile gaming in Poland, Spain and Italy earlier this year. 

The move is the latest, biggest step in Netflix's effort to make video games part of its standard subscriptions. Netflix confirmed in July it would expand into gaming, starting with ad-free games for mobile devices like phones and tablets available on its existing service at no added cost to subscribers. The expansion represents its most meaningful move into a new kind of entertainment since it started streaming in 2007, and since it released its first original show in 2012.

The advent of gaming widens Netflix from its bedrock business of TV shows and movies as the world's biggest subscription video service. As Netflix has grown, it's long pointed out that its competition extends beyond the traditional TV and movie companies that go head-to-head with it now. The company has repeatedly called out gaming phenoms like Fortnite, as well as user-generated-video powerhouse YouTube, as some of its toughest competition because of the massive amount of entertainment hours they command worldwide. 

And the gaming industry is an economic powerhouse. A surge in interest during the pandemic last year bolstered it into a bigger market than movies and North American sports combined. The global market for video games was estimated to be worth nearly $178 billion last year and is expected to eclipse $200 billion in 2023. 

Netflix isn't alone in this gaming expansion. Amazon, which operates Prime Video, has invested in Luna, its cloud gaming service and also has its own gaming studio. Google, parent of YouTube, has put money into its own Stadia game-streaming service. And Apple, which makes its own films and TV shows for Apple TV Plus, also widened into Apple Arcade. 

But Netflix would be unique by making games part of its one and only subscription. Others offer their gaming services as standalone products, typically also in a bundle with a bunch of other memberships.

Netflix has sketched out broad ambitions for gaming, indicating that it ultimately envisions pursuing console games for Xbox and PlayStation too. 

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is once again AMD's poster child for a new processor launch as part of its AMD Advantage partner program, announced Tuesday at CES 2022. That means it's one of the first systems to ship with the updated AMD Advantage design framework, which includes using AMD's latest technologies, many of which are designed to increase the battery life of gaming laptops, as well as boosting performance by directing more power where it's needed when it's needed. 

We don't have pricing for the G14 or G15 yet, but the laptops are slated to ship by early March.

The new laptops are using AMD's new Ryzen 9 6900HS low-power/high-performance CPU for small gaming laptops and either the AMD Radeon RX 6700S or RX 6800S, new mobile GPUs targeting the same low-power-yet-high-performance tier. As many manufacturers do now, Asus incorporates vapor chambers and liquid metal to cool the processors jammed into the slim design.

Asus also improved the AniMe Matrix LED array on the cover, the cute but gimmicky animation feature. A new option offers a 120Hz 1440p-class 500-nit screen with a full P3 color gamut, though the default is a 1080p 450-nit 144Hz model. There are the other random design tweaks that constitute a slightly-more-than-rote refresh, including better webcams and an updated command center. Asus reorganized the speakers with upward-firing tweeters and downward-firing woofers, which should sound better than before. A bigger touchpad, a lid that's easier to open and a more durable coating on the keycaps round out the notable updates.

The 15-inch G15 uses the same AMD GPUs, but swaps out the GPU for the Nvidia's new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and has a lot of the same updates as well.