Welcome to Tech Beat, your daily look at the stories shaping our digital world.
Meta just posted a record-breaking third quarter, pulling in sixty-four billion dollars in revenue and beating Wall Street expectations. But earnings took a notable hit after the company settled a lawsuit brought on behalf of teenage social media users — a reminder that the cost of past decisions has a way of showing up on the balance sheet. The quarter also introduced a stock split creating new Class C shares.
Elsewhere in tech-adjacent culture, Final Fantasy fourteen is preparing to launch a new typing minigame, and somehow it's already generating backlash before a single player has touched it. Hardware requirements are locking out a chunk of the existing player base, and gender-locked rewards are drawing sharp criticism — a design choice that feels increasingly out of step with modern gaming communities.
And on a more human note, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo the fourteenth will not require any further treatment following surgery for lung cancer. Doctors say the procedure was successful, offering some relief to the roughly one point four billion Catholics worldwide watching closely.
That's the beat for today — keep surfing, Tech Beat out.
