SoftBank and Nvidia announced Tuesday they had terminated their deal to sell chipmaker Arm to Nvidia, citing "regulatory challenges" as a factor in the decision. The acquisition was expected to be worth $40 billion, a deal described as the largest ever in the chip industry.

SoftBank said it now plans to pursue an initial public offering for Arm by March 31, 2023, in developments reported by the Financial Times on Monday. The IPO is estimated to be worth as much as $80 billion.

"Arm has a bright future, and we'll continue to support them as a proud licensee for decades to come," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. "Though we won't be one company, we will partner closely with Arm."

Japanese tech giant SoftBank agreed to sell Arm to Nvidia in September 2020 but struggled to win regulatory approval. The US Federal Trade Commission sued to block Nvidia's takeover, arguing that it would harm competition, and the UK government opened an investigation into the deal.

Arm isn't as well known as chipmakers Qualcomm and Intel, but its work lies behind the processors inside virtually all the world's mobile phones because it licenses chip designs and related technology to companies like Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm. Arm technology also is used in Apple M1 Mac chips and Amazon Graviton chips.

SoftBank purchased the UK-based Arm in 2016 for $32 billion with the intent of bolstering its internet of things division. Nvidia had said it expected the tie-up to boost its artificial intelligence ambitions.

Arm also announced that Simon Segars would step down as chief executive and a member of the board, with President Rene Haas assuming his duties.

Advertisers looking to use unscientific language about climate change in their postings on Twitter are about to be out of luck. The social media giant is now banning all climate change denial ads from its platform. 

In an Earth Day blog posting published on Friday, the company states that any advertisement featuring claims about climate change that contradict the scientific consensus will be deemed inappropriate and will be prohibited. 

"We believe that climate denialism shouldn't be monetized on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn't detract from important conversations about the climate crisis," the company wrote. 

Prior to Friday, Twitter said ads denying climate change would have been rejected or halted under its inappropriate content policy, but has now formalized the process.

Twitter said that it is using authoritative sources -- such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations' body for assessing the science of human-caused climate change -- to inform their decisions. The latest IPCC report released earlier this month said the world needs to act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors in order to limit global warming to the critical temperature change of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Last year, in an attempt to help users find credible information on climate change, the company rolled out a dedicated climate change Topic, along with hubs of credible information in the Explore tab, Search, and Trends sections of the site. The release of the hubs coincided with the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. 

The news come at a time when the company is trying to avoid a taker-over by the billionaire Elon Musk. Musk has been critical of Twitter's moderation practices in the past, tweeting that platform is a "de facto town square" where "failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy." 

Such protection for free speech, under the First Amendment, applies only to the government censoring speech.

It remains unclear if his feelings pertain to paid advertisements, as well as tweets from individuals.

The annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is one of the most intense and exciting motorsport events in the world, with dozens of cars and motorcycles of all types tackling the now-tarmac course in Colorado. The route consists of 12.42 miles of road, a 4,725-foot elevation change and 156 corners, and it's as thrilling as it is dangerous. Famed rally driver and internet star Ken Block will be competing in this year's hill climb in the Hoonipigasus, one of the most gonzo cars to ever hit Pikes Peak -- fitting for the event's 100th anniversary.

Built by BBi Autosport and Hoonigan, the Hoonipigasus is based on a vintage Porsche 911, though exactly what year or model is unclear. It uses a twin-turbo 4.0-liter flat-6 engine putting out 1,400 horsepower, and instead of a rear-engine layout the Hoonipigasus is mid-engined. The engine is mated to a six-speed sequential transmission and an all-wheel-drive system, and the car has a height-adjustable suspension setup that uses GPS data and telemetry from last year's course to automatically adjust while driving. The transmission tunnel goes from shoulder height to the axle for a lower center of gravity, and overall the car weighs just 2,200 pounds.

While clearly based on a 911, the Hoonipigasus looks absurd. The fenders are incredibly wide, it has a gigantic front splitter and a complex rear diffuser, and the rear wing is the size of a building. Its carbon-fiber body wears a livery designed by street artist Trouble Andrew that pays homage to the "Pink Pig" Porsche 917/20, which is where the middle part of the Hoonipigasus name comes from. The end of the name is for the red Mobil 1 pegasus logo, which is prominently featured on the rear quarter panels as part of a partnership with the brand.

BBi and Hoonigan designed the Hoonipigasus with the explicit goal of being the fastest car at Pikes Peak this year, where it will compete in the Pikes Peak Open class. BBi has eight podiums and five class wins under its belt, so they've got the experience. Block, meanwhile, raced Pikes Peak in 2005 in a Group N rally car, returning to the mountain in 2017 outside of the race to create the awesome Climbkhana film. The race will kick off on Sunday, June 26.

Intel unveiled on Thursday its Horse Ridge 2 processor for controlling quantum computers, an important milestone in making the potentially revolutionary machines practical.

The Horse Ridge 2 isn't a quantum processor itself but is designed to solve the challenges of communicating with future quantum processors with thousands or more qubits. The processor is the second generation of a family that debuted in 2019.

The processor comes as Intel endeavors to catch up with quantum computer rivals like IBM and Google. The chipmaker hopes it eventually will leapfrog the competition with processors housing vastly more qubits, the data processing element fundamental to quantum computers, than its competitors have. Horse Ridge 2 moves Intel closer to that goal by making Intel's large-qubit-count designs more workable.

Making quantum computers practical is key to transforming the expensive machines into technology that can tackle problems out of reach of conventional computers. Proponents expect the machines to help spur breakthroughs in materials science, finance and logistics when they become more readily available and affordable. 

Qubits can store data in multiple states at once, in contrast to the zeroes or 1s of classical computers, and can perform new types of computing through a quantum physics phenomenon called entanglement that links multiple qubits.

Many of today's quantum computers, house their quantum processors in an extraordinarily cold chamber just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. The cold is necessary to shield finicky qubits from outside influences. Relatively hot conventional computers communicate with qubits via cables that traverse colder and colder stages of refrigeration.

Intel's Horse Ridge chips, named after the coldest place in Oregon, are designed to move the control process nearer to the quantum chips without perturbing their operations. Doing so will cut back on the number of gleaming communication cables that link the coddled qubits with the rougher outside world. Those cables are acceptable for today's quantum computers with dozens of qubits. They grow impractical, however, with qubit counts that are expected to reach the thousands, then likely millions.

"If you have the world's best quantum processor but not a way to control it, you can't do anything with it," said Jim Clarke, leader of Intel's quantum computing hardware program. Clarke led an online tour of Intel's quantum work at the Oregon lab where it developed and announced Horse Ridge 2.

The quantum computing spotlight shines most brightly on quantum processors and the qubits they house. Among those working on various forms of quantum processors are Google, IBM, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, Honeywell, Microsoft, Intel and PsiQuantum. If quantum processors are the brains of the operation, Horse Ridge 2 is more like the spinal cord that provides an essential link to the outside world.

Key to Horse Ridge is the ability to run at very cold temperatures so it can be housed as close as possible to the quantum processor, Clarke said. Horse Ridge 2 adds an ability to retrieve data from qubits after they're done processing, not just tell them what to do.

Clarke also touted automated testing technology Intel expects will speed quantum computing progress. It cuts the assessment time of silicon wafers of quantum processors from weeks to 4 or 5 hours.

Intel hopes its spin qubit chips, which can be made on the same processes as it uses for conventional computer chips, will give it a come-from-behind victory over today's quantum computing leaders. Spin qubits use individual electrons as qubits, manipulating them with magnetic fields and storing data through a quantum mechanical state of the electron called spin.

"A spin qubit is a million times smaller than a superconducting qubit," Clarke said. "We recognize we don't have the same qubit count as others, but we feel this is a technology that's going to scale better."

Sleek and simple with consistently impressive performance, Apple devices regularly score top marks in our reviews and frequently claim the top spots in our best device lists. The only downside to buying Apple gear is usually the cost. However, if you don't mind a preowned device, you can save a ton of cash with sales like the one at Woot today. You can choose from a massive selection of refurbished Apple Watches and iPhones and save hundreds compared to buying from Apple directly.

All the devices you'll find at this sale are "scratch and dent" refurbs. According to Woot, that means that you can expect these items to show moderate signs of wear and tear, but they have all been thoroughly inspected to ensure they're in full working condition. Though none of the latest iPhone 13 or Apple Watch Series 7 models are on sale -- and another Apple September event is just around the corner -- many of these previous-generation devices are still great buys. 

With 5G capabilities, an OLED display and equipped with Apple's A14 Bionic chip, the iPhone 12 is still an excellent phone that's more than sufficient for most users. It's a great value starting at just $470, which is $229 less than buying new from Apple directly. And if you want an even more affordable option, there are older models like the iPhone 8, with prices starting as low as $130, or you can nab the 2020 version of the iPhone SE for just $180.

If you're in the market for a smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 6, which you can pick up for as low as $240, offers many of the same features as the upgraded Series 7 but will save you $159. Or, you can save on Apple's budget-friendly alternative, the Apple Watch SE. This Apple Watch "lite" isn't equipped with the same advanced health sensors as the Apple Watch Series 6, but it's still packed with plenty of impressive features, and you can pick one up for as low as $170 today, which is $89 less than it costs from Apple directly.

These are some of the best value Apple deals you'll find right now -- but the sale expires tonight at 9:59 p.m. PT (12:59 a.m. ET), or when these refurbished models sell out, so we recommend acting sooner rather than later.

A God of War live-action TV series is reportedly in the works with Amazon Prime Video leading negotiations, according to a Deadline exclusive posted on Monday.

The TV series will be a collaboration between Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions, according to the Deadline report, with the adaptation headed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, the creators and executive producers of The Expanse, and Rafe Judkins, executive producer of The Wheel of Time.

While little is currently known about the game's potential adaptation, Fergus and Ostby are both familiar with producing action-adventure and sci-fi franchises, co-writing the Oscar-nominated Children of Men and the original Iron Man film.

The popular PlayStation video game franchise consists of seven total games across four PlayStation consoles, and has sold 19.5 million copies on PS4 as of August 2021 since its release in April 2018, according to Sony. An eighth installment titled God of War: Ragnarok coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 is set to debut later this year.

This is just the latest announcement of a successful video game being adapted to a movie or TV show: Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg recently starred in the film adaptation of Uncharted that was released in mid-February, an HBO adaptation of The Last of Us video game is currently in production, Netflix is producing a Resident Evil TV series and Paramount Plus is set to debut its Halo TV series in late March 2022.  

Amazon and Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While LGBTQ folks often turn to social media as a lifeline, the biggest platforms have failed the queer community, according to a new report from media watchdog GLAAD.

GLAAD's 2022 Social Media Safety Index, released Wednesday, rated Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok on criteria like gender pronoun options, explicit protections from hate and harassment, and prohibitions on potentially discriminatory advertising.

All five received less than 50 out of a possible 100, with Instagram topping the list at 48% and TikTok at the bottom at 43%.

"Today's political and cultural landscapes demonstrate the real-life harmful effects of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and misinformation online," GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a release. "Social media platforms are active participants in the rise of anti-LGBTQ cultural climate, and their only response should be to urgently create safer products and policies and then enforce those policies."

In an email, a spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of both Facebook and Instagram, said it prohibits "violent or dehumanizing content directed against people who identify as LGBTQ+" and will remove claims about someone's gender identity "upon their request."

The rep said Meta also works with advocacy groups "to identify additional measures we can implement through our products and policies." 

Twitter, YouTube and TikTok didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ellis blamed misinformation about LGBTQ people on social media for fueling "real-world dangers" like anti-trans legislation and threats of violence at recent Pride gatherings. In June, police in Idaho stopped members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front from disrupting a Pride in the Park event in Coeur d'Alene.

According to GLAAD's report, the leading platforms have the tools to curb hate-fueled rhetoric "but instead are prioritizing profit over LGBTQ safety and lives."

Read more: LGBTQ YouTubers Sue Google for Demonetizing and Restricting Videos

Jenni Olson, GLAAD's senior director of social media safety, did praise Twitter and TikTok for incorporating policies against intentionally misgendering and deadnaming transgender and nonbinary people.

Olson encouraged other platforms to take a similar stance, especially "in our current landscape, where anti-trans rhetoric and attacks are so prevalent, vicious and harmful."

Other recommendations included incorporating more tools for user expression, increased transparency on how policies protecting LGBTQ users are enforced and barring third-party advertisers from targeting users based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In a May survey, GLAAD found that 84% of LGBTQ adults felt there were not enough protections against discrimination on social media, and 40% said they didn't feel welcome and safe on the platforms.

Right now, if you want a Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric hatchback, the car is built in Asia before it's shipped across the ocean and trucked to your local dealership. But in the coming years, Hyundai will take the overseas travel out of the equation.

Hyundai last week announced that it will build facilities in Georgia dedicated to the manufacture of both electric vehicles and EV batteries. The plans represent a roughly $5.5 billion investment in Georgia's Bryan County. The automaker will establish itself on 2,923 acres, with quick access to interstates and the Port of Savannah. Hyundai estimates this manufacturing foothold will create approximately 8,100 jobs.

Hyundai hopes to have the plant online in the first half of 2025, with groundbreaking scheduled for early 2023. At full clip, the facility is estimated to produce some 300,000 units per year, which is just 40,000 units shy of what sister company Kia is producing at its own factory in Georgia. The automaker did not say what models will be built in Georgia, just that it hopes to produce a "wide range of fully electric vehicles" there.

"As one of the world's most successful and advanced mobility leaders, we are incredibly proud to share our plan to open our first dedicated full EV and battery manufacturing facilities in the US," said Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung in a statement. "The U.S. has always held an important place in the Group's global strategy, and we are excited to partner with the State of Georgia to achieve our shared goal of electrified mobility and sustainability in the U.S."

The Korean conglomerate is not the first automaker to have its eye on the American Southeast for EV manufacturing. Earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz hosted a grand opening of its battery plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on the same grounds where it builds the electric EQS SUV. Following its debut, the smaller EQE SUV will be built in the same location.

If you're not yet prepped to watch the world's biggest celebrities get dressed to the nines for the annual Met Gala (while sitting at home in your sweats or PJs -- no judgment here), we've got your cheatsheet to getting ready. 

Given that last year's event was a more intimate affair than usual due to pandemic restrictions, we're expecting a triumphant return to big looks, bigger moments and plenty of huge stars on the red carpet.

What is the Met Gala?

On the first Monday of May each year, big names in fashion, music and the arts come together in an effort to raise money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. 

Organized by iconic Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, the Met Gala is an annual event that aligns with the opening of the museum's latest fashion exhibit. This particular Met Gala is celebrating the second instalment of the current fashion exhibit on display, titled, "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," which will open on May 5th, 2022. 

Oh, and did we mention that it's easily the most exclusive fashion event of the year? Unless you're a big name, it's incredibly hard to get a look-in -- so it's lucky we can be a part of the experience by watching it from our own homes.

How do you watch the Met Gala?

We all know the most eye-catching part of the Met Gala is the red carpet, as all the celebrities brush shoulders in their most daring and avant-garde looks. The red carpet is livestreamed each year by Vogue, with celebrity hosts interviewing attendees as they walk up the steps to the Met. 

Broadcast on Vogue.com, the livestream will kick off at 6 p.m. E.T. on May 2, and will also be available across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter via the Vogue channels. 

This year the red carpet will be hosted by Vogue editor-at-large Hamish Bowles, Vanessa Hudgens and La La Anthony. 

What's the theme of the 2022 Met Gala?

To coincide with the exhibit's launch, the Met Gala has a dress theme each year. The last few Met Galas have been themed around concepts like "American Independence," "Camp," and "Heavenly Bodies," so there's historically been a lot of scope and opportunity for celebrities and guests to set the fashion world aflutter with a particularly daring look.

Despite some fashion critics suggesting that many of the looks showcased over the past few years haven't really exemplified the theme, this year's theme of Gilded Glamour may well turn the tide. 

The Gilded Age era of US history was roughly between 1870 and 1900, and featured a time of rapid economic growth -- with the fashion to match. We're talking opulence, big ruffles, lots of ornamentation and attention-grabbing looks. 

All in all,exactly what the Met Gala is all about. 

Who is chairing the Met Gala this year?

One of the biggest honors in fashion, the co-chairs of the Met Gala are tasked with setting the tone for the entire evening. This year the event is being co-chaired by Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Regina King, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. 

In previous years, this honor has gone to everyone from socialites and magazine editors to designers, actors and musicians. In 2021, the event was co-chaired by Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, Naomi Osaka and Timothée Chalamet.

The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is the latest fitness band to bring a wealth of impressive features to your wrist on the cheap. How impressive and how cheap? Let's start with the latter: Walmart has the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 for just $36. That's a couple bucks below the last time I shared this deal and the lowest price I've seen yet. Note that it's being offered via a third-party seller, not Walmart proper.

The Mi Band 5's predecessor, the Mi Band 4, was already a pretty solid product, selling for around the same price and standing toe-to-toe with the pricier Fitbit Inspire HR. 

The water-resistant Mi Band 5 features a 1.1-inch color AMOLED display (just slightly larger than the Mi Band 4's), heart rate and oxygen sensors, dozens of animated watch faces, a magnetic charge cord and a 14-day battery.

That battery represents a bit of a downgrade, as the Mi Band 4 was rated for up to 20 days -- though two weeks is still pretty fantastic. The Mi Band 5 adds several new sport modes, however, bringing the total to 11. It also adds menstrual tracking.

Although CNET's US team has yet to do a full-on review of the product, CNET en Español covered the Mi Band 5 back in August. You can use Google Translate to read an English version of that review. Verdict: "Interesting new features that together with its low price make it a great choice for those who want to start taking care of themselves."

Worth noting: The very similar Amazfit Band 5 is available for $35, and it adds onboard Amazon Alexa and an SpO2 sensor to the mix. I took a detailed look at that model back in November, when it was on sale for $30. (It usually sells for $40-$50, though, so $35 is still a good buy.)

Between the two, I'd probably choose the Amazfit. But you really can't go wrong with either one, especially if you're looking for an inexpensive wrist companion.

If you already own either of these, hit the comments and let me know what you think of it!

First published last year. Updated to reflect new sale price and availability.

CNET's Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on tech products and much more. For the latest deals and updates, follow him on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up for deal texts delivered right to your phone. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and check out our CNET Coupons page for the latest Walmart discount codes, eBay coupons, Samsung promo codes and even more from hundreds of other online stores. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Answers live on our FAQ page.  

There's a new entry in the book for spacecraft selfies, and it may be one of the prettiest ever taken. NanoAvionic's MP42 microsatellite captured a photo and video of itself in orbit using an off-the-shelf GoPro Hero 7 camera mounted to a selfie stick.

The selfie shows the small satellite against a gorgeous backdrop of the blackness of space with the curve of cloudy blue Earth below. The satellite launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in April. 

The company released a video on Tuesday showing the satellite cruising over the Great Barrier Reef and Australia. The video, set to a soundtrack of contemplative music, highlights the appearance of the moon and the locations of Earth landmarks.

"The reason for taking the photo and video clip with the Great Barrier Reef in the background was partly symbolic," said NanoAvionics co-founder and CEO Vytenis Buzas in a statement. "We wanted to highlight the vulnerability of our planet and the importance of Earth observation by satellites, especially for monitoring environment and climate changes."

The footage is enjoyable just for its sheer loveliness, but selfies can also be a useful part of satellite operations. "The company anticipates more future usages of real satellite footage, live and recorded, such as deployment confirmation, fault detection, micro-meteorite impacts and educational purposes," NanoAvionics said.

The company chose to use a GoPro because of the camera's image quality, affordability and wide view. NanoAvionics engineers built a custom housing for the camera, made a selfie stick and put it through tough testing on Earth to make sure it could handle the rigors of space. 

We've seen selfies from other spacecraft, including the BepiColombo Mercury explorer, China's Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and NASA's Maven orbiter. MP42's work stands out for its clarity and for how it highlights the satellite's connection to its home world. It's a beaut.

Calling all students, teachers and people weary of Windows hassles: Is it time to consider a Chromebook? Let's see if this deal can convince you: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Best Buy has the second-gen Lenovo 100E 11.6-inch Chromebook for $99 -- a price that includes three free months of Disney Plus. It normally runs $159, and it was $20 higher just last week. That's one of the cheapest options I've seen for a modern, nonrefurbished Chromebook.

The 100E offers a little more horsepower than you'd expect from a $99 laptop. Yes, the screen is on the smaller side, though its 1,366x768-pixel resolution is fine for that size -- and it has an antiglare coating, which is always welcome.

The system comes with 4GB of RAM, not just 2GB like in older budget Chromebooks. There's 32GB of onboard storage, expandable via microSD and a pair of ports: one USB-C, one USB 3.1. There's even a full-size HDMI port for connecting to an external monitor or TV.

Read more: Best Chromebook for 2020  

Lenovo promises up to 10 hours of operation before the battery needs charging, meaning it should have no trouble surviving a full school day.

CNET hasn't reviewed this model, but it has a 4.6-star average from over 300 Best Buy customers. For $99, you're not likely to find a better deal on a laptop -- Chrome OS-powered or otherwise.

Your thoughts?

Note: Originally published last month. Updated to reflect new sale prices or availability. Removed expired bonus deal.

Read More: All the latest Best Buy coupons

CNET's Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on tech products and much more. For the latest deals and updates, follow the Cheapskate on Facebook and Twitter. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and check out our CNET Coupons page for the latest promo codes from Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, and more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page.

This story is part of So Money (subscribe here), an online community dedicated to financial empowerment and advice, led by CNET Editor at Large and So Money podcast host Farnoosh Torabi.

To loan or not to loan? Lending money to a loved one can be fraught with difficulties, and often you run the risk of hurting both your wallet and your relationship. 

In order to avoid misunderstandings or resentment, it's important to ask the hard questions, prepare a plan of action and establish a mutual understanding, no matter what you ultimately decide. 

The odds are good that if you've recently stuck your head outside your front door, you've heard someone complaining loudly about how high gas prices have gotten. In some places where gas prices are usually higher already, like Los Angeles, we've seen figures topping $6 per gallon, which can be a tough pill to swallow, especially if your life forces you to drive a lot.

According to a report published on Monday by Business Insider, though, the feds are trying to put together a stimulus rebate program to help. If passed, it would see $100 stimulus payments (plus an additional $100 per dependent) made monthly as long as the average gas price is above $4 per gallon. 

The program would have an income cap, which isn't surprising. Folks filing as single on their taxes would be eligible as long as they make less than $80,000 per year, while joint filers could make up to $160,000 before the rebate was phased out for them.

The proposal, known as the Gas Rebate Act of 2022, was introduced by congressional Reps. Mike Thompson (D-California), John Larson (D-Connecticut) and Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois). Unfortunately, their proposal seems to be a little light on detail, particularly when it comes to how Congress would fund this stimulus. This, combined with Congress' lack of interest in funding further rounds of stimulus payments in general, mean that the proposal is unlikely to find much support in government.

The national average gas price at the time of publication, according to AAA, sits at $4.24, and we suspect that it's not going to be heading down anytime soon.

Netflix laid off workers at its Tudum fan website Thursday, a culling that comes less than five months after the streaming service launched the site and a week after Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in a decade. The drop in viewers has buffeted Hollywood's confidence in streaming as the engine for future growth, casting new scrutiny on Netflix for any signs of weakness.

Netflix declined to comment on the scale of the layoffs. "Fan website Tudum is an important priority for the company," it said in a statement.

Five workers, whose Twitter handles match the names of authors on Tudum's site, tweeted about losing their jobs Thursday, among posts by other laid-off writers and editors that CNET couldn't independently confirm. The cuts appear to be minor compared with the size of Netflix's entire workforce and limited to the Tudum operation. Overall, Netflix had 11,300 employees at the end of last year. 

Netflix launched Tudum in December as "the official companion site" to its streaming service. Stylized as a resource for news about Netflix shows and movies and fan-focused articles diving deeper into Netflix programming, it was unveiled by Netflix's former marketing chief Bozoma Saint John, who left the company in March. 

Up until last week, Netflix's years of unflagging growth pushed nearly all of Hollywood's major media companies to pour billions of dollars into their own streaming operations. These so-called streaming wars brought about a wave of new services, including Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount Plus, among others. The hard pivot to streaming has profound implications for the future of Hollywood, but for people like you, it complicates how many services they must use -- and pay for -- to watch your favorite shows and movies online. 

Netflix said last week that its subscriber ranks shrank by 200,000 accounts in the first three months of this year. It was the company's first overall decline in membership in 10 years -- stretching back to the age when DVDs-by-mail were still a meaningful part of Netflix's business. While the decline was mostly because Netflix lost 700,000 subscribers as it pulled out of Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, Netflix warned that it expects to lose 2 million more by the end of June. 

There's a new TV tech on the horizon, and it promises incredible picture quality and even more incredible sizes. You can buy one right now if you've got deep pockets. It's called MicroLED, and it combines the best features of the current TV technologies into something new -- and huge. Using millions of tiny individually addressable LEDs, MicroLED promises to rival the picture quality of OLED, the current champion, but with better brightness and lower chance of burn-in. 

LG is the latest company to announce MicroLED displays, with their DVLED wall-size TVs, some of which cost over $1,000,000. Samsung has shown MicroLED prototypes at CES for the last few years, ranging in size between 75 and 292 inches, and this year started selling a $156,000, 110-inch model that could display four 55-inch HD images at the same time. Sony has its own version of MicroLED, called Crystal LED, that's currently only for the commercial market, but allows for massive wall-sized screens. 

Although super-expensive now, MicroLED is on the cusp of being the next great display technology. And it could end up in your home sometime in the future, even if you're not rich. Here's what you need to know.

What's MicroLED?

The first thing to understand is that MicroLED is a different technology from mini-LED. Though they're both new and similar-sounding, mini-LED is an evolution of current LCD TV technology. It uses more and smaller LEDs as part of the backlight, but an LCD panel is still used to create an image. 

Read Mini-LED LCD TV tech: Tiny lights could lead to better picture quality

With MicroLED, on the other hand, the LEDs themselves directly create the image. The picture you watch is composed of individually-addressable LEDs, which makes it more like how OLED works. No more LCDs. 

You can buy mini-LED TVs now for the same price as other technologies. MicroLED TVs are currently huge and expensive, but getting smaller and cheaper.

Here's how it works. As the name suggests, MicroLED is made of millions of micro, well, LEDs. Tinier versions of what's in your current LCD TV, or newer flashlights, light bulbs and what myriad other devices use to create light. This makes MicroLED seem simple. So why did it take so long just to make smaller LEDs and stick them in a TV?

Turns out that process is a lot harder than it sounds. One problem is that when you shrink LEDs, the total amount of light they produce goes down. So you either need to drive them harder, increase their efficiency, or both. Just driving them harder introduces new issues. The TV will need a lot more electricity and have to dissipate a lot more heat. The dozens of LEDs in your current TV don't emit that much heat, certainly not compared to older technologies like plasma and CRT, but put millions of them right next to each other and things can get toasty.

Shrinking the gap between the pixels, or the "pitch size," is another huge challenge. The circuitry and other necessary elements can only get so small. If you can't reduce the pitch size, there's a limit to how small a MicroLED TV can be. Hence how impressive Samsung's "smaller" 88-inch MicroLED is. 

Sure, wall-size TVs are cool, but no one will buy them. If a manufacturer wants to make a profit on its new tech, it needs something easy to make in the 60-inch range, or smaller. If they can do that, the big sizes will get even cheaper. 

And then there's the cost. Instead of a few dozen, yellow-blue "white" LEDs like you get on a normal TV, or even the few thousand in mini-LED TVs, you have 8.3 million LEDs, one for each pixel on a 4K 3,840x2,160-pixel display. Actually, it's way worse than that. Since you need red, green and blue LEDs for each pixel, that means there are nearly 25 million total LEDs. Thousands of these are then grouped in modules, and multiple modules make up a TV, wall or movie screen. 

Big, big picture

OK, so those are the challenges. Engineers like challenges. And in the history of consumer electronics, the trend is for smaller and more efficient. 

The potential positives are numerous: Brighter images than OLED, but with the same ability to turn off each pixel, for a similarly perfect black. This would mean an even punchier, more realistic image than OLED and better HDR reproduction.

And remember what I said about smaller and more efficient? Samsung's original 146-inch The Wall microLED prototype has a pixel size under 1mm. The 75-inch has LED chips in the 0.15mm range.

The modularity of MicroLED makes it a bit easier to scale the size of the displays, too. To oversimplify, say a 50-inch TV has 10 modules with around 830,000 pixels on each module. Put more of those same modules together, and a company could sell an 8K, 100-inch TV for essentially no difference in production costs. Same production cost, plus a higher retail price? Companies love that stuff. 

This oversimplifies the whole thing a bit, but that's the general idea. With the right processing, it wouldn't matter if your TV is exactly 4K resolution, or if it's 5,327x2,997 or 8,000x4,500 pixels. If your dream is a wall-size display with 10K resolution, this could be the way to get it. 

To put it another way, current LCD and OLED TVs have different size pixels for different screen sizes. So a 4K 75-inch LCD has larger pixels, but the same number, as a 4K 50-inch LCD. MicroLED could, possibly, just add more pixels of the same size to make a larger, and higher resolution, TV. This could turn out easier than changing the tiny LED pixel sizes, from a manufacturing standpoint. We'll have to wait and see if it happens that way. Right now though, Samsung's three sizes have the same resolution, meaning the 88-inch has the smallest pixels of the lot.

Displays big and small

Samsung was the first to get MicroLED to the consumer market, but it's not the only one in the game. TCL and others are working on the technology. Sony's Crystal LED has been around since at least 2012, and while it now has two different models, it's for the commercial market. Several of LG's DVLED Home Cinema models use MicroLED.

MicroLED isn't all about massive screens, however. Apple currently uses OLED displays for the high-end iPhones and the Apple Watch, but it's reportedly developing its own in-house MicroLED displays for use in mobile devices. That's likely a long way off, however, since Apple has rarely been the first to market with a cutting-edge hardware.

Then there's Vuzix. Their Next Gen Smart Glasses are using microLED projectors embedded in the frames to project images onto the specially etched surface of the lenses. Previous smart glasses used DLP, which was small but not small enough to easily fit within normal glasses frames. MicroLED is small enough that it can fit inside what basically look like normal frames. It will be interesting to see where else Vuzix, and other companies, can fit tiny microLED projectors.

LG's DVLED

LG is the latest company to announce MicroLED displays, though not every model from their DVLED Home Cinema line is MicroLED. Sizes range from 108-inches to 393-inches, with HD, 4K, and even 8K resolutions. You can even get 32:9 models that allow two full-sized 16:9 shows or games running simultaneously side-by-side. 

Like any new technology, there are a few drawbacks. The price, for one, with even the smallest HD version costing $70,000 and the largest 8K version costing a cool $1,700,000. And what's not cool is the heat, with all models putting out enough BTUs to heat a small home.

They're fascinating, though, and a glimpse at what's to come. For more info, check out LG's outrageous direct-view LED TV tops out at 325 inches, $1.7 million.

The micro future

It wasn't long ago that OLED was a far-off future tech that never seemed to leave the prototype stage. Now there are multiple sizes and resolutions that would have seemed impossible in the tech's early days. It's possible we're now in the early days of microLED. It's a technology that holds a lot of promise, in both picture quality, screen size and myriad other uses -- but it's not without its issues. Heat and price are stumbling blocks, but engineers love a challenge. The fact that you can, if you've got $100,000 or so to burn, buy one now says a lot. Could this replace LCD TVs in many homes? Maybe. Could it give OLED a run for its money? Possibly. Will it replace projectors? Could be. As I said, it's an interesting technology.

As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, airplane graveyards and more. 

You can follow his exploits on Instagram and his travel video series on YouTube. He also wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines, along with a sequel.