Tech Roundup: Google Stadia Shutdown, Twitch Elevated Chat & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Former eBay executives Jim Baugh and David Harville get sentenced to 57 and 24 months in prison for their roles in a 2019 cyberstalking and harassment campaign against critics.
• Twitter plans to add a TikTok-like full-screen video scrolling UI for English-speaking users on iOS, and a video carousel to the Explore tab on iOS and Android. (It's interesting Twitter acquired both Vine and Periscope, only to discontinue them and resurrect the video features years later in the face of competition from TikTok.)
• Google to shut down its cloud gaming service Stadia on January 18, 2023, as part of continued cost-cutting efforts, making it the latest Google product to get the axe and reaffirming the company's reputation for ruthlessly killing off its own products; says the platform "hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected" and that it refund "all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store." (That said, Stadia's technology is expected to live on as a Google Cloud product called "Immersive Stream for Games," which will be offered to other companies.)
• Meta opens NFT sharing to Facebook users in the US and to all Instagram users in 100 countries; details its text-to-video AI generator, Make-A-Video, which can turn text prompts into brief, five-second high-quality video clips without audio.
• Brave browser to automatically detect and block cookie consent banners in websites on Android and desktop; says it's approach is "distinct and more privacy-preserving than similar systems used in other browsers."
• Microsoft previews an updated preview of its redesigned Outlook client for all Office Insiders in the Beta and Current channels.
• Google's YouTube to highlight personal stories of patients in search results for health-related queries.
• Amazon launches QVC-style livestream shopping feature called Amazon Live in India, allowing over 150 influential creators to host livestreams and plug products in the videos to drive users into buying them.
• Tesla reveals a prototype of Optimus, a mechanical humanoid robot that uses AI and advanced driver assist features, which is expected to cost under US$ 20,000.
• The European Commission sets a provisional November 8 deadline to complete its review of Microsoft's proposed US$ 69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition.
• Twitch tests Elevated Chat, which lets users make a one-time payment of US$ 5 to US$ 100 to highlight a message in select chats for 30 seconds to 2.5 minutes.