The Morning After: Visa and Mastercard leave Facebook's Libra Association

Cryptocurrency can be complicated.

Richard Lawler
·Senior News Editor
·3 min read

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to your weekend! We've got a new Engadget Podcast episode for you to enjoy, as well as some bad news about Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency. News highlights from earlier in the week include the PS5's name (spoiler alert: it's called the PlayStation 5) and a price drop on the Pixel 3a.

A weekly news show chronicling our crippling collective addiction to technology.The Engadget Podcast: Is macOS Catalina Apple's Vista?

In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn are joined by Engadget Editor-in-Chief Dana Wollman to discuss Apple's latest desktop OS. We also ponder what Google will show off at next week's Pixel event; chat about PG&E's widespread power outages in California; and dive into the weirdness of Andy's Rubin's latest Essential phone, Project Gem. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments!

That seems like a bad sign.eBay, Visa and Mastercard pull out of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency

The Libra Association is set to hold its first board meeting on Monday. Unfortunately, big-name "founding members" who won't make it include PayPal -- it backed away a week ago -- as well as Visa, Mastercard, eBay and Stripe. Facebook's cryptocurrency scheme still appears to have support from some others including, Uber and Lyft, but we'll see who makes it through the weekend. Libra exec David Marcus suggested these moves are temporary until there's "regulatory clarity," and encouraged everyone to "stay tuned for more very soon."

How do you keep creating spectacle more than 200 years after the first circus?Inside Cirque du Soleil's technology lab

Cirque du Soleil is iconic: both a smooth corporate machine and pop culture staple. The company's approach has been to launch its latest innovation lab called Nextasy. At the global headquarters in Montreal, the lab is playing with motion sensing to make a soundtrack respond to dancers' actions, AI to spark new makeup ideas and augmented reality to overlay animations onto live performance.

Alexa's streaming box grows up.Amazon Fire TV Cube review (2019)

The new Amazon Fire TV Cube is much improved over last year's model. It now has YouTube and YouTube TV, support for Dolby Vision and HDR+, and a lot more video viewing commands than before. You can use it as an Echo too, with the ability to make voice calls and control your smart home.

An upgraded DualShock is incoming.The PlayStation 5 officially launches 'holiday 2020'

It's official: Sony isn't going off-book on the naming convention. The PlayStation 5 will land near the end of 2020, and the company is detailing how it'll upgrade the next-gen console's controllers. A lot of it is to do with haptics, with more refined vibrations and rumbles meant to better represent your in-game world. New adaptive triggers on the L2 and R2 buttons will offer something close to force feedback, representing, say, the tension of a bow-string or the pushback from the accelerator pedal.

Gaming rival Nintendo also tried out advanced haptics in the Switch, but it never quite took off. The company dropped the feature from the cheaper Switch Lite. It's a little too early to draw conclusions on Sony's application, though. It's over a year away.

At least not in the US.You can see 'Gemini Man' in 120 fps or 4K, but not both

Almost all HFR (high frame rate) 3D screenings stateside will be projected at 60 fps, despite distributor Paramount urging theater chains earlier this year to get ready for the flick. 14 locations will have the 120 fps showing, but only in 2K resolution. If you want both, try theaters in the UK or "select" locations in Asia.

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