Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Technology News Tuesdays... and More

Technology News and More




100+How-To Geek / 3h
Looking for another holiday activity for the family? There’s a great option happening tonight! Read This Article on LifeSavvy ›



Open Acquires Finin•
100+TechCrunch / 4h
Open has acquired consumer neo-banking startup Finin for $10 million as the Bangalore-based, Google-backed business-focused neobanking platform looks to broaden its offerings and deepen relationships with banks. The deal involves both cash and stock, the two said. Launched in 2019, Finin is among the first consumer-focused neobanking startups in India. The startup, which had raised about $1 milli



British Airways Gatwick•
Over the summer we first learned that British Airways planned to launch a low cost carrier subsidiary based at London Gatwick Airport (LGW). This concept is now about to become a reality, as British Airways has announced initial routes and has put tickets on sale. Basics of British Airways’ Gatwick short haul subsidiary British Airways will be launching its new Gatwick service as of March 2022. H




TechCrunch / 4min
Pinterest is the latest social media platform to roll out the option to allow users to reply to comments with videos. Users can now do so via the company’s Idea Pins feature. Pinterest launched Idea Pins earlier this year to allow creators to record and edit videos with up to 20 pages of content, using tools like voiceover recording, background music, transitions and other interactive elements. N



SlashGear / 10min
Photo by SlashGear Like it or not, there will come a time when almost every phone brand will have a foldable phone in its catalog. That will eventually include Apple, too, if market analysts and anonymous sources are to be believed. If you’re excitedly waiting for a foldable iPhone or iPad next year, however, you might want to get less excited for the … Continue reading



Engadget / 12min
LastPass has been sitting under LogMeIn's wing for six years, but it won't be for much longer. LogMeIn has revealed plans to once again make LastPass a standalone company. The move is meant to "accelerate" growth in password management and secure sign-ins by providing more dedicated resources to LastPass. That includes a faster rollout of 2022 features, LogMeIn said. The full extent of those feat



In another stellar example of why “not your keys, not your money” should be the mantra of virtually every cryptocurrency enthusiast - more than $140 million worth has been stolen in another serious security incident. The funds were stolen from a company called Vulcan Forged - a mishmash of an NFT marketplace, blockchain games host, and a decentralized exchange (DeX). Unlike centralized exchanges,



UK regulators have suggested Apple and Google hold a “vice-like” grip over how consumers use their smartphones and what content they are able to access, limiting competition and potentially increasing prices. The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into the market earlier this year to see if the two companies, which have an effective duopoly, had too much control ov



A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips. Continue reading ...



Gizmodo / 18min
Sometimes you watch a trailer and just know you are seeing something special. Like this might be the first glimpse of a film you’re likely to cherish for the rest of your life . Those instincts are not always right, but the trailer for Everything Everywhere All at Once gives off those vibes. You are not ready for its… Read more...



TechCrunch / 19min
Christmas has come early this year in the form of a new SPAC deal. InfiniteWorld announced yesterday it will merge with Aries I Acquisition Corporation in a deal that will value the startup at around $700 million, per company calculations. Another day, another SPAC deal. We know. But this time we’re talking metaverse, so we have no choice but to take a look. The Exchange explores startups, market



LinkedIn has announced the launch of InCareer, a new app for Chinese users, exactly two months after sunsetting the local Chinese version of LinkedIn. The new service aims to help users in mainland China find jobs and is available on the web and through iOS and Android apps. In many ways, the offering is much the same as what you’d expect from LinkedIn: plentiful jobs and ways to search for them,



Lifehacker / 21min
One of the big shifts between our parents’ generation and ours is the increasing number of families who are choosing to raise their children without religious beliefs. In a 2019 survey that was conducted by the American Enterprise Institute , only 42% of families with children under the age of 18 report attending… Read more...



Chase Ink Business Premier credit card overview Chase’s latest Ink card is geared toward business owners who want cash-back savings on their day-to-day purchases. The earning rates are solid, but the $195 annual fee is high for what you get out of this card since you can’t transfer points to travel partners or pair it with other Chase cards for maximum value. Card rating*: ⭐⭐⭐ * Card rating is ba



SlashGear / 24min
Gogoro has revealed a new use for it swappable batteries, but this time the portable power packs aren’t on the move – or, for that matter, slotting into anything with wheels. Instead, the company has co-developed a new smart parking meter which can be powered by the battery packs, allowing them to be installed in off-grid locations but still stay … Continue reading



How-To Geek / 24min
The best portable chargers and battery packs keep extra juice handy for your electronic devices when you do not have nearby access to a wall or power outlet. They can power all kinds of devices, including phones, tablets, and laptops. Here are our top picks. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



ZF Software Apex AI•
TechCrunch / 26min
The four years that Apex.ai spent rewriting — and then safety certifying — the robot operating system to give automakers and other mobility companies a toolkit to integrate software applications into vehicles has paid off. The startup founded by Bosch veterans and automated systems engineers Jan Becker and Dejan Pangercic has attracted a number of new strategic and private investors, including su



Mashable / 29min
Last time you bought something online, there's a good chance you read an online review first — but it wasn't always this way. Take a dive into the history of online reviews to understand why they still matter so much today.



Mashable / 29min
In a primitive world before George W. Bush's presidency, iPhones , Olivia Rodrigo 's birth, and the release of the seminal Romy and Michele's High School Reunion , Eric Goldman just wanted to find a good vegan restaurant. We all know what we'd do in our post- Romy and Michele world: Within seconds, you'd practically be on autopilot, scrolling through troves of online reviews, scanning for vital s



Gizmodo / 30min
An elaborate burial from the Mesolithic Period is surprising archaeologists, not because of decoration of the tomb but its occupant: an infant girl who lived just 40 to 50 days. The 10,000-year-old burial is providing a unique look at the baby’s brief life and changing ideas about how some prehistoric humans treated… Read more...



Witcher Season Netflix•
The Witcher season 3 won't be getting filmed any time soon, according to showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. Speaking exclusively to TechRadar at The Witcher season 2 press junket, Hissrich revealed that the Netflix fantasy show's third entry is still in the early phase of its development. Hissrich admitted that the writing team had only just completed work on the scripts, and that the "creative



Gizmodo / 42min
Deadly tornadoes swept through six states and killed at least 80 people this weekend. Among the dead are at least 14 workers in two states who died after the storm ripped apart a candle factory and Amazon warehouse . Read more...



TechCrunch / 48min
Yesterday, e-commerce company Big Cartel’s co-founders Matt Wigham and Eric Turner voluntarily recognized the Big Cartel Workers Union. After the new year, the union — which represents all thirty non-management employees at the Salt Lake City-based tech company — will begin negotiating their contracts. This news comes just nine months after workers at the software company Glitch signed the tech i




Lifehacker / 49min
Got an Android device? If so, Google’s got a great selection of apps and games for you to check out. At the end of each year, both Apple and Google award the best apps and games on their respective app stores. (If you have an iPhone, you should check out our best-of Apple list .) And if you haven’t had the time to try… Read more...



A city with as much depth as New York is best viewed from above. At least, that’s my advice. Whether you’re visiting the Big Apple for the first time or are a local looking for a fresh perspective, the city’s skyscrapers are the perfect place to get your bearings. Of course, there are incredible views all over the city that don’t require a ticket (though you might need to buy a beverage or food f



Huawei Watch December 23•
SlashGear / 53min
Image Credit: Weibo Although it took a while, smartwatches are finally becoming more advanced and are finding their true calling. While the basic hardware specs remain mostly the same, these wearables have started sporting more and more sensors related to health. Going beyond the usual activity tracking and heart rate monitoring, some smartwatches have incorporated features like SpO2 and ECG meas



Ford Pilot Food Detroit•
Engadget / 54min
Ford's autonomous delivery experiments now include potentially vital services. The automaker is launching a six-month pilot project that will have self-driving shuttles bring fresh food to residents of a Detroit senior living center, the Rio Vista Detroit Co-Op Apartments, that might otherwise have challenges fetching groceries. The free-of-charge offering will have the "low-speed" vehicle drive



I think most of us saw this coming… Hilton extends elite food & beverage credit program In July 2021, a major change was made to the Hilton Honors program for stays in the United States. Specifically, free breakfast was eliminated for Hilton Honors Gold and Hilton Honors Diamond members, and a daily food & beverage credit was introduced in its place. With this change, Hilton Honors members receiv



Ars Technica / 57min
Enlarge / In early December 2019, the Starliner spacecraft is mated to its Atlas V rocket. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) Nearly two years have now come and gone since Boeing's Starliner spacecraft made its unsuccessful debut test flight, launching on December 20, 2019. Now, finally, there is some clarity on when the vehicle may launch again and attempt to dock with the International Space Station. NA



Mashable / 57min
Researchers at the University of Cambridge developed a super jelly that can withstand a car driving over it, or an elephant sitting on it, and return back to its original shape.



Gizmodo / 1h
Matthew Vaughn has an update on Kingsman 3 . A new Book of Boba Fett TV spot teases a war coming to Tatooine. Plus, new looks at the return of Servant and the CW’s next DC Comics series, Naomi . Spoilers away! Read more...



Google-owned YouTube TV and Disney are disagreeing about money, and YouTube TV subscribers could end up losing many channels, including ESPN, ABC, and others, on December 17, 2021. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Chinese Oppo Chip MSX•
Chinese smartphone giant Oppo revealed its first in-house chipset at its annual innovation event hosted in Shenzhen on Tuesday. The MariSilicon X chip announced — named after the Mariana Trench — is a neural processing unit that aims to boost photo and video performance through machine learning. The move adds Oppo to a list of smartphone makers that are designing their own chips, such as Apple. T



An AMD processor has been spotted in a leak, and it looks like this chip supports DDR5 RAM, so those after Team Red silicon which runs with cutting-edge system memory can start to get (just a little) excited. This one was flagged up by Benchleaks on Twitter (a bot that posts benchmarks for unknown hardware), and it’s identified as an engineering sample of an AMD CPU. AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000560



IBM Samsung One Battery•
IBM and Samsung have announced a breakthrough in semiconductor design that could pave the way for powerful new processors with a greater transistor density than ever before. At the annual IEDM semiconductor conference, the pair published research into a new architecture that positions transistors perpendicular to the surface of the chip, with a vertical current flow in both directions. The chip a



100+Futurism / 1h
A bold proposal: that by 2050, a 70-year-old will look and feel like they’re 50. That’s the gamble that 35-year-old James Peyer is taking with this Cambrian Biopharma “longevity startup,” the Times of London reports . “Of our 100,000-year-plus history as a species, it’s been for only about 75 years that these diseases of ageing have been the primary predators of humankind,” he told the newspaper.



Honda Road Monitoring•
Staying in your lane is a lot easier when you know how much of the road is yours to use. Unfortunately, America’s decades-long love affair with performing the absolute bare minimum of basic infrastructure maintenance has left many stretches of the nation’s highway lane markers faded, damaged and obscured. A new pilot program from Honda Research Institute USA could one day help local highway and t



Guardio Tiger Global•
Some say that antivirus software that you install on your PC may have run its course when it comes to the next generation of computing in the cloud. Today a startup that has built what it believes comes next is making some news with a large funding round, its first outside money. Guardio — which has built a browser extension that monitors for suspicious and malicious activity when you are on the



California Pony.ai•
Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous driving startup with an office in the U.S., has paused its driverless pilot fleet in California six months after it was approved by local regulators to test autonomous vehicles without a human safety driver. On November 19, the California Department of Motor Vehicles notified Pony.ai that it was suspending its driverless testing permit following a reported collision



Another week, another new credit card from one of the major issuers. This time, it’s Chase’s turn, and it just unveiled a new business card product, the Chase Ink Business Premier Credit Card — with a big sign-up bonus to boot. While Chase’s existing business card lineup is already fairly diverse, this card is more of a niche product. For more credit card news and advice, sign up for our daily TP



One of my favorite things about Air Canada Aeroplan is the emphasis that the program has on adding partners. Aeroplan has more airline partners than any other airline frequent flyer program. We’ve seen several partners added in recent months, including Etihad , Azul , Vistara , Air Serbia , Virgin Australia , Air Dolomiti , Eurowings Discover , and Gulf Air . A couple of weeks ago Aeroplan announ



On Christmas morning breakfast should be fairly hands-off and immensely forgivable, which is why I usually favor a combination of out-of-a-tube cinnamon rolls and bacon or a bag of sausage biscuits from McDonald’s. I realize, however, that some red-blooded Americans need eggs to get their day going, even if that day… Read more...



John F. Kennedy International (JKF). George Bush Intercontinental (IAH). Reagan National (DCA). Baltimore–Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL). Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta (ATL). It’s typically known that these airports were renamed after three presidents, an iconic Supreme Court justice, an influential senator who was a hero in World War I




There’s lots to love about Air Canada’s Aeroplan program . It has pretty reasonable award charts , doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges and offers some unique features like family points sharing . Moreover, it offers an impressive roster of more than 45 partner airlines. Outside of the Star Alliance network, Aeroplan partners with a handful of non-alliance carriers like Etihad , Azul and Gulf Air . An



The far-right nationalist group has become increasingly active at school board meetings and town council gatherings across the country.



Wired / 1h
The robotic companion was once a dream of techno-utopianism, but has instead become a terrifying weapon. What happened?



Windows 11 10 Microsoft•
sdx15/Shutterstock Microsoft has released Windows 11, and while its public reception is much better than that of, for example, Windows Vista, certain design changes have proven controversial. The design changes aside, the latest version of Windows may not run well on every machine, as well, leaving some users to regret the upgrade. The good news is that Windows 11 isn’t permanent … Continue readi



An iPad is a wonderful investment, whether you go all out and spring for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro or save some money with the compact iPad mini. And you know what can make your tablet even better? An awesome keyboard to go alongside it. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



Tired of getting robocalls all day long on your iPhone? Your iPhone lets you silence the harassment by turning on a feature called “Silence Unknown Callers” in Settings. Here’s how to do it. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Buoyed by a new cash infusion of $5.5 million in Series A funding, GlobalWonks emerged Tuesday as Enquire AI . The Washington, D.C.-based company leverages artificial intelligence in a tool for businesses to find global subject-matter expertise in real time, from both internal and external resources. Uzabase led the oversubscribed funding round and was joined by Teneo Ventures, Blu Ventures and a



OxeFit kicked off 2021 with a healthy $12.5 million Series A and vague plans to “bring advanced robotics and artificial intelligence to the world of strength training.” In April, that manifested itsef with the arrival of the XP1, a commercial gym/rehab/sports system with a 43-inch touchscreen and up to 500 pounds of strength training. This week, the company joins the booming world of home fitness



Gizmodo / 1h
In recent months, you may have come across a phrase growing in popularity: Web3. You might be wondering what it is, what it will mean for the future, and how exactly the third-generation internet differs from the first two. Let’s cut to the chase: For Web3 evangelists, it’s a revolution; for skeptics, it’s an… Read more...



If you're still struggling to come up with gift ideas for the holidays, you can't go wrong with mobile accessories. With so much of our lives driven by our devices, gadgets that help keep smartphones and tablets going will be useful to almost anyone. Anker makes some of our favorite mobile accessories and Amazon has a one-day-only sale going on that knocks up to 36 percent off some of the company



Apple Tv+ Sky Glass•
Sky has finally added the Apple TV Plus app to Sky Glass and Sky Q . Sky customers will now be able to access Apple TV Plus shows , including smash hits Ted Lasso and The Morning Show (via Sky’s Homepage or Apps rail), on demand for £4.99 per month after a free seven-day trial. The move means Apple’s burgeoning streaming service joins the likes of Netflix , Disney Plus , Prime Video and Spotify i



St. Lufthansa Louis•
Lufthansa has just announced its newest destination in the United States, and it’s probably not what most would have expected. Lufthansa’s new Frankfurt to St. Louis route It has been formally revealed that Lufthansa will launch a new flight between Frankfurt (FRA) and St. Louis (STL) as of June 2022. The route will be operated directly by Lufthansa, rather than by the low cost Eurowings Discover



The 2020 holiday season was no picnic, but it looks like 2021 will have its own challenges. Although vaccines are available for the vast majority of Americans who want them, we are still very much in the middle of a global pandemic, battling the latest new, concerning variant . Although things don’t quite look like we… Read more...



Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has warned the recently-revealed Log4j vulnerability was “one of the most serious” she’s seen in her entire career, “if not the most serious”. “We expect the vulnerability to be widely exploited by sophisticated actors and we have limited time to take necessary steps in order to reduce the likelihood of



The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered the landscape of airline frequent flyer programs . For travelers, we’ve seen changes aplenty, from how you earn status on American Airlines to more restrictions on elite upgrade certificates on Delta . And for some opportunistic airlines, this year has been a prime moment to welcome new passengers to the world of status and give them a taste of th



For years, Apple has dominated the wireless earbuds space with its instantly recognizable AirPods . After the last 12 months, however, they no longer even rank in the top five purely in terms of quality. Put simply, 2021 was the best year yet for wireless earbuds. Anyone who wanted to ditch a wired set (or was forced to by phones killing off headphone jacks ) could finally pick something that wor



Musk Tesla Dogecoin•
60Mashable / 2h
Elon Musk likes the cryptocurrency Doge . Every now and then, he tweets about it, and the price skyrockets. This is one of those times. On Tuesday, Musk tweeted Tesla will start accepting Doge for merch purchases "and see how it goes." Tweet may have been deleted In February, Tesla said it would start accepting Bitcoin for car purchases, but the company later backpedaled on the decision, with Mus



Airbus Qatar Airways•
Tensions between Qatar Airways and Airbus are continuing to escalate… Qatar Airways’ Airbus A350 issues In August 2021, Qatar Airways grounded over a dozen Airbus A350 jets, as the carrier had reported a “significant condition” across the Airbus A350 fleet, whereby “the fuselage surface below the paint is degrading at an accelerated rate.” Qatar’s aviation regulators called for these jets to be g



If you're chasing the freedoms of wireless audio but aren't as keen on the audio compression and latency that Bluetooth connectivity brings with it, the upcoming AIAIAI TMA-2 Studio Wireless+ headphones may be the solution. The brand is known for its modular TMA-2 headphone design – each of its components (headband, earcups, drivers, etc.) are able to be swapped out and upgraded without the need



YouTube TV Disney ESPN•
Google's YouTube TV service could potentially lose out on Disney channels this week, as the current agreement between the two companies expires on December 17, 2021. This means that YouTube TV subscribers could very well lose access to the range of Disney channels currently available on the streaming service. There is a silver lining for subscribers, though. As reported by Android Authority , Goo




I've always known that the key to award travel is flexibility. The best deals are on seats that are going to go unsold. An airline doesn't always know what seats those are, and may play it conservative not releasing award space until very close to departure. And even then they may be reluctant, worried that someone might redeem miles instead of spending big money on a ticket. Right now uncertaint



Gizmodo / 2h
iOS updates are often incremental, with a handful of tweaks and bug fixes rather than major new features. But iOS 15.2 is a little different: The upgrade packs in a slew of big changes that will make a meaningful difference for most iPhone users. Read more...



It’s been an exceedingly difficult couple of years for live performers. And with live events drawing to a close comes a good deal of collateral damage for all of the many facets of the industry such performances directly and indirectly support. Back in June, as things were tentatively reopening, Mixhalo CEO John Vars told TechCrunch that the low-latency, in-person audio streaming service used the



Jack & Annie’s $23M•
Jack & annie’s , a sustainable, animal meat alternative brand made from jackfruit, announced Tuesday $23 million in Series B funding. The round was co-led by Creadev and Desert Bloom and included participation from Wheatsheaf and existing investors Beta Angels and InvestEco. Company founder and CEO Annie Ryu told TechCrunch the company had not done announcements of previous funding rounds and dec



Carto Raises $61M Data•
26TechCrunch / 2h
Spatial analysis platform Carto has raised a $61 million Series C round. Many companies collect a ton of data with some location element tied to it. Carto lets you display that data on interactive maps so that you can more easily compare, optimize, balance and take decisions. Insight Partners is leading today’s round. The European Investment Found is also participating as well as some of the comp



View of a postcard depicting two snowmen driving a car. Printed on front: “Christmas greetings.” Printed on back: “Printed in Germany.” Handwritten on back: “Hellow is this your boys. Rabbits are plenty you had better come. From John Dana.” Courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library



26Lifehacker / 2h
If a straight-up snitch like the Elf on the Shelf can become a holiday mainstay, literally anything can—and many stranger things have. I’m here to argue that the following activities, ideas, and traditions that were once annual winter traditions somewhere, can be again if we all believe hard enough. And believe, I do. Read more...



More than any other streaming service, Netflix has gone all-in on original Christmas content, including some hidden gems. Combine those with a few classic Christmas titles, and Netflix has plenty of holiday movies worth watching. Here are the 10 best. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Kubernetes v1.23 is the last major release of 2021. The latest update to the leading container orchestration platform promotes 11 features to the stable channel, marking them as suitable for general use. Here’s what you need to know before you upgrade. Read This Article on CloudSavvy IT ›



The Kubernetes terms “controller” and “operator” refer to two different patterns that transition a cluster into a desired state. Controllers are an established concept whereas Operators have emerged more recently to describe application-specific controllers. Read This Article on CloudSavvy IT ›



"You're going to sue Greenpeace? I like your style, Greg." Succession has taken its final bow for a ruthless third season , leaving us in dire need of "that first glass of very cold white wine before dinner" after weeks of bathing in poisonous banter from the Roy family. Jesse Armstrong's riveting series is synonymous with sharp writing and even sharper backstabbing, with the show's knockout cast



Analogue Pocket Game Boy•
Time to unwrap this slew of Analogue Pocket add-on boxes and judge what's inside. (credit: Sam Machkovech) As a dedicated, Game Boy-like handheld, Analogue Pocket offers plenty of self-contained fun for $219. So much fun, in fact, that I was able to write 8,000 words about it earlier this week. Shortly after I finished that review, a box of Analogue-produced Pocket add-ons arrived at my doorstep.



UK Online Safety Bill•
A UK parliamentary committee that’s spent almost half a year scrutinizing the government’s populist yet controversial plan to regulate Internet services by applying a child safety-focused framing to content moderation has today published its report on the draft legislation — offering a series of recommendations to further tighten legal requirements on platforms. Ministers will have two months to



MacStories Years 2021•
With iOS 15.2 and macOS 12.1 Monterey available to all, users can download the updates to their devices, alongside updating any existing apps to take advantage of what these updates bring. Apple’s App Store Awards are the company’s way of highlighting developers who created apps that stood out in their category compared to other apps, in a theme of what Apple calls, connections. Whether that’s in



LifeMiles has just rolled out its latest promotion to generate miles — rather than offering an outright bonus on purchased miles, LifeMiles is offering a bonus when you transfer LifeMiles to another member. Transfer LifeMiles and get a 120% bonus Through Friday, January 7, 2022, LifeMiles is offering a 120% bonus when you transfer LifeMiles to another member . To be clear, this bonus is only vali



California Pony.ai•
Pony.ai , a Chinese autonomous driving company backed by Toyota , can no longer test fully self driving vehicles in California, for now at least. According to Reuters , the DMV suspended its driverless testing permit on November 19th, a few weeks after a reported collision in Fremont. Based on the report filed with the state's DMV, a Pony.ai vehicle operating autonomously hit a road center divide



Kronos Ransomware UKG•
Top American payroll service provider Kronos has suffered a major ransomware attack possibly caused by the increasingly notorious Log4Shell flaw. The company revealed an attack had taken down services using the Kronos Private Cloud - namely Kronos' UKG Workforce Central, UKG TeleStaff, and Banking Scheduling Solutions services. “As we previously communicated, late on Saturday, December 11, 2021,



Adobe Cloud Express•
If you're keen to use Adobe's powerful creative tools, but are less excited about their high prices, the company's new Creative Cloud Express app could be for you. Effectively a lite version of its software suite, the app is free to use on mobile devices or via web browser, with extra features costing $9.99 / £10.10 / AU$14.29 a month. Creative Cloud Express is designed for students, small busine



Enlarge / Just some of the prizes available in this year's Ars Technica Charity Drive Sweepstakes It's once again that special time of year when we give you a chance to do well by doing good. That's right—it's time for the 2021 edition of our annual Charity Drive! Every year since 2007 , we've encouraged readers to give to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity , which provides toys and games to kid



After teasing, delaying and just generally riling up retro gamers, Analogue’s Pocket is almost here. Engadget’s James Trew — one of those aforementioned riled-up types — is currently testing one out. So while he racks up enough hours of play for a full review, we get a few first impressions. Tetris , the Game Boy OG, is pretty much exactly how you remember it, with the original pixel grid, motion




This is useful if you have points spread across different transferable currencies since you can pool them in the same account. And LifeMiles has access to Star Alliance awards. Here's a primer on getting the most out of LifeMiles and a warning why it's much better to deal with them by email than over the phone . Continue reading ...



When the American Express Centurion Lounge network first debuted about a decade ago, it raised the bar of what to expect from a domestic airport lounge and what it took to gain entry. No longer were flyers confronted with a sad selection of cheese, crackers and pretzels and a mediocre lineup of drinks served under fluorescent lights. Nor did you have to be loyal to or flying a specific airline to



35Wired / 3h
From Dune to Little Fish, they’re all love stories—though some are more touching than others.



27Wired / 3h
The bizarre robots look like cobbled-together Tetris pieces. A new system "evolves" them to run, climb, and throw stuff better.



21Wired / 3h
Many employees and companies want to find new ways of working—but government legislation is stuck in the past.



Protecting your Microsoft Teams calls and messages will soon be easier than ever thanks to a new update coming to the service. After months of planning, Microsoft has revealed that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is finally set to launch for its video conferencing software soon. This should make it harder for outside forces such as hackers or fraudsters to gain access to Microsoft Teams and the chat



10 Cursor Windows 11•
A bunch of new features are coming to Windows 11 , with one in particular potentially being a superb accessibility addition. The bad news? We won't see them added to Windows 11 until at least October 2022, outside of the preview builds. As reported by Windows Latest , Windows 11 version 22H2 will feature a slew of changes and additions including UI tweaks, new personalization settings and perhaps



Most people take photographs at human scale or larger. Pets, people, landscapes, and food are all common subjects. With “macro mode,” you can take clear pictures of small details and objects, with certain iPhone or Android handsets that support it. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Best Buy has just launched an awesome promotion on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 today, offering activation rebates of up to $800 and a free pair of Galaxy Buds 2 for those who pick up a device on an eligible carrier. Yep, that's correct - no trade-ins are needed here with these Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 deals at Best Buy - just an activation on an eligible carrier. This is easily the biggest saving



Mesh Payments $50M•
29TechCrunch / 3h
Now that the world appears to have settled longer-term into working in a significantly more distributed way in the wake of Covid-19, companies are getting more serious about using tools to manage how their teams operate within those new parameters. Today, a startup that’s addressing that challenge and how it relates specifically to expenses is announcing some funding. Mesh Payments , which provid



73Mashable / 3h
As well as starring in the new Matrix movie , did you know Keanu Reeves also has a comic out called BRZRKR ? In an interview clip above from The Late Show , Stephen Colbert asks the man himself about an image in which the main character sits slumped on a bench in the rain — a moment oddly reminiscent of the famous "Sad Keanu" meme that went viral over a decade ago. "I'm just eating a sandwich, ma



Spider-Man SNWH Fans•
50Mashable / 3h
Spider-Man: No Way Home , one of the anticipated films of the year, is finally set for release on Friday. For fans waiting with bated breath for the next instalment in the franchise, it has all the ingredients: a Marvel multiverse, the return of Tom Holland and Zendaya as Peter Parker and MJ, and quashed rumours of reprisals by original Spider-Man actors. But buzz always comes with the potential



Apple iMac Pro 2022•
The latest model of iMac Pro , Apple's popular all-in-one (AIO) desktop, is rumored to be launching in the first half of 2022, according to display analyst Ross Young . The predictions suggest the AIO will arrive in Spring in the northern hemisphere (which starts on March 20 and ends on June 21), and will feature a 120Hz variable refresh with ProMotion and oxide backplanes. The previous iMac Pro



Musk Tesla Dogecoin•
Gizmodo / 3h
Tesla will soon accept dogecoin as payment for merchandise, according to a tweet from Elon Musk early Tuesday. The announcement caused dogecoin’s price to surge over 18% at a time when most cryptocurrencies have been plunging. Read more...



Hotels are constantly evolving, but their core purpose mostly stays the same: to give travelers a place to make a temporary home. While timeless in theory, the walls around a hotel bed are constantly being refreshed with new paint, new technology and new schools of thought about how to best serve travelers. Hey, even the bed changes over time. As we look forward to 2022, there are a lot of things



Kotlin 1.6 is out with new features, an improved experimental memory manager, and an enhanced standard library. The additions help mature JetBrains’ increasingly popular cross-platform and cross-discipline language. Read This Article on CloudSavvy IT ›



100+How-To Geek / 3h
Arcade1Up’s Infinity Game Table keeps improving all the time, thanks to recent additions like Pandemic and Clue. And as promised during the table’s Kickstarter, Arcade1Up is ready to release another big board game addition. Ticket to Ride will arrive on December 15th at $9.99 for a limited time. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



Gaming on a PC is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but you’ll need a good gaming monitor that can keep up with all of your adventures. Monoprice’s 27-inch Dark Matter Gaming Monitor is an impressive and decently well-rounded choice, given its affordable price point. Read This Article on Review Geek ›




Fans of Netflix original series are about to have a very good week. From a fan favorite reality show to the second season of a fantasy epic, this week is a good one for subscribers. Read This Article on LifeSavvy ›



Nikon F/2.8 28-75Mm•
Nikon has given fans of its Z series mirrorless cameras an end-of-year treat with the announcement of two new lenses – an affordable, versatile 28-75mm f/2.8 zoom, and the development of a new 800mm f/6.3 VR S super-telephoto. Photographers who've been waiting for a cheaper alternative to Nikon's current Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S lens will be particularly happy to see the arrival of the 28-75mm f/2.8, wh



Nothing beats a full slate of festive midweek Premier League football, and that's exactly what BT Sport is serving up this week, with 10 fixtures squeezed into three jam-packed evenings. The great news is that even non-BT customers can enjoy them with a no-contract BT Sport Monthly Pass . There are some belting clashes on the cards too, including a couple of awkward reunions, a relegation six-poi



Toyota Start Key Fob•
To the consternation of some owners, Toyota's remote start key fob functionality requires a paid $8 per month subscription service, The Drive has discovered. The issue only applies to 2018 and later models, but recently came to light as the free trials of Toyota's Remote Connect subscription started to expire. Toyota lets you start vehicles like the RAV 4 PHEV remotely in two ways. One is over Wi



Nvidia 3070 RTX 3080•
Nvidia’s plans for launching new GPUs at the end of this year and the beginning of next could be disrupted, according to the latest from the grapevine. As you may be aware, Nvidia is rumored to have an RTX 3090 Ti graphics card on the near horizon, along with an RTX 3050 plus RTX 3070 Ti revamp with more VRAM (16GB). The latest gossip from well-known leaker Igor (of Igor’s Lab fame) is the latter



BMW SUV India 2022•
BMW launched its all-electric SUV – BMW iX in India yesterday. The new futuristic zero-emission vehicle comes with a bold avatar to stand apart from the run of the mill ICE vehicles plying on the road. The car comes with a dual-electric motor setup offering all-wheel-drive function and has been priced at Rs. 1.16 crore. The BMW iX is the first one of the three electric vehicles that the company w



Gizmodo / 4h
The first covid-19 case of the new omicron variant has been detected in mainland China, according to state media outlet CGTN . The omicron case was detected in someone who was reportedly asymptomatic and arriving from outside China, according to the broadcaster. Read more...



Microsoft Xbox RRD•
Microsoft is commemorating the Xbox 360 ’s infamous ‘Red Ring of Death’ hardware error with a new poster that costs $25. The glossy, fingerprint-resistant 18 x 24-inch poster, which is available from the Xbox Gear store and ships internationally, shows the all-too-familiar Red Ring of Death that plagued thousands of Xbox 360 owners 15 years ago – a hardware failure that cost Microsoft more than $



CVE-2021-4102•
Users of Google Chrome have been told to download and update their software with an emergency patch that fixes a potentially dangerous security flaw. The company has issued Chrome 96.0.4664.110 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability for its web browser that has apparently already been exploited. "Google is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2021-4102



Samsung Galaxy S22•
The Samsung Galaxy S22 range is almost leaking faster than we can cover it at this point, with two big new leaks emerging today, including possibly our first video look at the phones. Ok, technically what you’ll see below is a video showing dummy units, but this close to the likely early 2022 launch of the range, they’re probably more or less accurate, especially as they come from a reputable sou



PS5 GAME PlayStation 5•
It's a very busy morning if you're looking for a PS5 restock in the UK as a total of five retailers have consoles available to buy. Although some of these stores are already running low on stock, you can check the latest PS5 availability from Very, Currys, PlayStation Direct and EE just below Browse all the PS5 bundles at Very View all the PS5 bundles at Currys Join the PS5 queue at PlayStation D



Superside Prosus Ventures•
32TechCrunch / 4h
As advertising and marketing become increasingly automated and thus commoditized, design has emerged as a savior to help brands stand out. And today, a startup that’s helping companies connect with a wider range of designers and other creatives to meet that demand is announcing a round of funding to fuel its business growth. Superside , which operates a network of freelance creatives that are tap



Google Calendar Unwanted•
Google is rolling out improvements for its calendar app that should help people better manage their busy schedules. As described in a blog post , Google Calendar users will soon benefit from the ability to prevent unwanted invitations from being added to their calendar. Under the updated system, users can choose for meetings and other events to be added to their calendar only after they have resp



Google Chrome 11 10•
Google has tweaked its popular Chrome browser, making it perform faster in both Windows 11 and Windows 10 . While Google Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world by quite a margin, it’s also notorious for hogging system resources , especially memory, which can result in it running poorly. Google is understandably keen to address these issues, and as Windows Latest reports , Google has



Netflix Live Mega Man•
There's a live-action Mega Man movie in the works at Netflix , thus adding to the streamer's ever-expanding repertoire of video game adaptations, following the success of Castlevania , Dragon's Dogma and more on the hit streaming platform. As reported by The Verge , the Mega Man movie has actually been in development since 2015 at Chernin Entertainment. It was officially announced by Capcom, the



If you're struggling to find the perfect gift for the music lover in your life, this excellent noise-cancelling headphones deal from Amazon might just save the day. The retailer has slashed the price of the Sennheiser HD 450BT from £159 to £99 , saving you £60 and bringing the wireless headphones within £10 of their lowest price. (Not in the UK? Scroll down for the best deals in your region.) The



As TechRadar's fitness and wellbeing editor, I'm lucky enough to be able to test a huge amount of top-notch workout tech (plus some that's not so great). It all gets returned after testing, but it makes writing a Christmas list so much easier when you've actually had your hands and/or feet on the year's best gear – which is why I'm sharing my personal wish list with you here. If you're struggling



Bank of England UK•
Deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe says assets such as Bitcoin could affect the whole financial system.



UK Online Safety Bill•
The next stage of the landmark Online Safety Bill recommends major changes and tougher regulation.




Amazon Edwardsville•
The firm said events happened quickly at the Illinois site and it was "deeply saddened" by the deaths.



Drahi Altice UK BT•
Altice founder Patrick Drahi has increased his stake in BT from 12% to 18%, increasing speculation that he could look to exert even more influence on the country’s largest telecommunications provider, or even stage a full takeover. Drahi's initial £2.2 billion move back in June took many in the industry by surprise and made him BT’s largest individual shareholder. He then pledged not to launch a



LG Objet CES 2022 LT•
LG is slated to showcase two lifestyle TVs with unusual designs at CES 2022, one of which is the recently announced premium OLED Evo TV with motorized cover . The other? It's a smaller wireless TV with built-in battery called StanbyME that you can roll in and out of any room in your home. The 27-inch display is mounted on a moveable stand with concealed wheels, and you can adjust its height to cu



LG Objet CES 2022 LT•
You have to hand it to LG, the company isn't afraid to try something new. LG's latest TV is called Objet TV (that's right, Objet without a "c"), which, in its essence, is a fairly regular 65-inch TV with LG's OLED evo panel, and an 80W, 4.2-channel sound system. The LG Objet TV comes in beige, red, and green. Credit: LG What makes Objet different is the fact that it is covered with fabric. So, wh



TL;DR: As of Dec. 14, you can get the TROVA GO Discreet Biometric Storage + Sleeve Bundle for just $156.79 with the code GREEN20 — that's 34% off its retail price of $239. There are all sorts of solutions for digital security these days, with cloud storage companies trying to sell you extra gigabytes every other day. But what about your personal stuff that’s not online? Your physical belongings n



TL;DR: As of Dec. 14, slash 37% off the price of the CASA Hub Stand with the code GREEN20 and get it for $87.19 instead of its regular $139. Why spend money on a large, bulky metal laptop stand that only does one thing? Shouldn't the piece of scrap metal you're buying for your desk actually do something besides act as a resting place for your laptop? We think yes, which is why the CASA Hub Stand



TL;DR: The KiTiDOT Amusing Cat Collar Toy is just $19.16 at the Mashable Shop with code GREEN20 as of Dec. 14. Does your cat know it’s Christmas time? Nope. But that shouldn’t stop you from showering your four-legged friend with presents. Here’s one that’s sure to be a hit: the KiTiDOT Amusing Cat Collar Toy. The KiTiDOT is a laser collar toy that’s loads of fun for your kitty and extremely amusi



TL;DR: The HyperGear Stealth headphones are just $35.99 at the Mashable Shop with code GREEN20 as of Dec. 14. Sometimes you just want to block out the noise of the world and enter your own dimension. Since you can't live in a video game , these lightweight, wireless , and noise-canceling HyperGear Stealth headphones are the next best thing. But contrary to most models on the market, you don't hav



On a Saturday morning in December of 2020, the RRS Discovery floated in calm waters just east of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the massive undersea mountain range that runs from the Arctic nearly to the Antarctic. The team onboard the research vessel, mostly from the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, used an acoustic signaling system to trigger the release of a cable more than three miles long from it



In February of 2020, agents arrived at Harvard University looking for Charles Lieber, a renowned nanotechnology researcher who chaired the school’s department of chemistry and chemical biology. They were there to arrest him on charges of hiding his financial ties with a university in China. By arresting Lieber steps from Harvard Yard, authorities were sending a loud message to the academic commun



Oppo Air Glass Two•
There hasn't been much update on Google Glass since the wider availability of its Enterprise Edition 2 back in early 2020, but on the other side of the world, Oppo believes now is the time to launch a direct competitor — albeit in the China market only. Following last year's Oppo AR Glass concept, the new Oppo Air Glass will become available to Chinese consumers in Q1 2022 for a yet-to-be-announc



BHub announced Tuesday that it took in a new round of capital just three months after receiving $4.4 million in pre-seed investment to offer full back-office SaaS for small and medium businesses in Latin America. Monashees and Valor Capital Group are doubling down on their investment in the company by leading an inside round of $20 million in Series A funds that included QED Investors, Picus Capi



Weather Focused IBISA•
39TechCrunch / 5h
Agricultural microinsurance startup IBISA announced that it has raised a seed round of €1.5 million – approximately $1.70 million. The round was led by London-based specialized investor Insurtech Gateway, with participation from Rockstart’s AgriFood fund and others. Microinsurance typically refers to offering coverage to low-income people against a specific class of risks. In IBISA’s case, these



Xiaomi 12 Ultra 11•
Leaks on the upcoming Xiaomi 12 series are trickling in quite frequently to reveal what the family of phones may have in store for us. The new lineup is expected to include many variants but the alleged Ultra model particularly piques our interest. Recently, a bunch of protective cases for the entire Xiaomi 12 range leaked, revealing how the rear panel of the respective phones could look like. Am



WhatsApp Last Seen•
WhatsApp is giving its legions of users greater control over who can see data about them. As part of a move to protect people from unauthorized third-party apps, new privacy controls are rolling out. If you've noticed that you have been unable to see the online status of businesses or contacts you are trying to connect with, these changes help to explain just why this is. If you have never chatte



Oppo MariSilicon NPU•
We're used to premium Oppo phones being fantastic photography tools, and we already know one thing that could set the Oppo Find X4 above its competition as a top-spec camera phone . At the company's Inno Day 2022, an annual event in which it shows off its latest tech innovations, one of the things discussed was the MariSilicon X neural processing unit (NPU). This is a chip that Oppo has designed



Oppo Air Glass OAG•
At Oppo's annual Inno Day, where it shows off its new tech advancements (or 'Inno' vations), we've seen two key announcements - one regards mobile photography, which you can read about here , and the other is about the new Oppo Air Glass. The Oppo Air Glass is the next version of the company's head-mounted smart glasses - the company calls them 'assisted reality' specs, so they help you with ever



YouTube TV Disney ESPN•
YouTube TV has warned viewers that channels including ABC, ESPN, FX and others may disappear by 11:59 PM on December 17th if it can't come to terms with Disney over carriage fees. If that happens, YouTube TV will lower its price by $15 (from $65 to $50) while Disney content remains off the service. "Disney is an important partner for us. We are in active conversations with them and are working ha



Tier Wind Mobility•
28TechCrunch / 6h
Tier, a Berlin-based e-scooter company that’s quickly expanding throughout Europe, has acquired Vento Mobility, the Italian subsidiary of Wind Mobility. The companies are not sharing the terms of the deal, but it will mark Tier’s entry into the Italian market. Just last month, Tier also acquired Nextbike , a German bike-sharing platform, a move to both become multi-modal and further consolidate i



Flipkart Ninjacart•
Back in 2019, US retail giant Walmart, and its Indian e-commerce arm Flipkart made strategic investments in Ninjacart, which is into fresh produce agriculture market supply. Again, in October 2020, both Walmart and Flipkart poured in more funds into the Ninjacart startup. And yesterday, Flipkart and Walmart announced a fresh round of investment in Ninjacart, which itself has been investing signif




Netflix India Rs Amazon•
100+TechCrunch / 6h
Nearly six years after Netflix launched its service in India, the global streaming giant is still struggling to find enough customers willing to pay what is already one of the world’s most affordable prices. The American firm on Tuesday further lowered the subscription price in India, cutting each monthly subscription tier’s cost by at least 18% and up to 60.1%. The Netflix Basic plan, which perm



Developed by a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia, this stretchy little battery hold a lot of potential for the future of electronics. The design complements innovations like wearable technology, adding more flexibility, and making movement more versatile.



Scientists at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee have discovered a way to 3D print exceptionally strong sand structures. Using a specially developed binder, the team at ORNL printed a tiny sand bridge that can hold up to 300 times its own weight.



Yet another ‘quick commerce’ 15-minute groceries startup is hoping to make a name for itself in this space, adding to the myriad of companies currently crowding out this market. But Grovy is avoid the crowded cities of Western Europem, setting its sights on becoming a daily-delivery leader in the East. It’s now finalized a €3 million financing round led by Lighthouse Ventures to expand across Cen
YESTERDAY



23Mashable / 8h
Nobody in the sprawling MCU family of well-paid symmetrical faces is more infamous for dropping spoilers than Tom Holland . It's become a game for talk show hosts (and castmates) to tease him about it — and hours before Holland's third standalone Spider-Man film, No Way Home , premiered, Jimmy Kimmel was still trying to trick him into slipping up. Kimmel listed off the confirmed multiversal villa



Fresha Extends Series•
46TechCrunch / 8h
The beauty and wellness industry, annually worth some $4 trillion , is underpinned by tens of thousands of businesses and millions of professionals carrying out haircuts, treatments and workouts. Today, a company called Fresha , which provides a software stack to help them run those operations, is announcing new funding of $52.5 million to continue building out its own business. Fresha got its st



Topi Creandum Building b2B•
22TechCrunch / 8h
Meet Topi, a Berlin-based startup that raised a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round co-led by Index Ventures and Creandum . The company is working on a payment solution that is both fast and capital efficient for businesses. On the B2C front, consumer payments have evolved at a rapid pace over the last few years. When it’s time to check out, customers expect to be able to choose between several p



Southern Europe has sometimes been seen as a little bit of a backwater in terms of venture capital funding. However, that has gradually started to change in recent years. Earlier this year Marathon Venture Capital in Athens raised a $47M fund. And LAUNCHub Ventures, is closing in on a €70 million final close. But today there’s news that VentureFriends , a European early-stage VC that started from



Nike NFT Fashion RTFKT•
In October, Nike filed trademark applications as part of its preparations to sell virtual sneakers and apparel, according to CNBC . Now, the footwear and sports apparel giant has acquired a startup called RTFKT (pronounced "artifact") that will help the company accelerate its "digital transformation." RTFKT was founded in early 2020 and has since made a name for itself designing and creating what



500+Gizmodo / 8h
Going into Spider-Man: No Way Hom e fans who follow movie news daily probably feel like they’ve got it all figured out . And, to an extent, they’re right. The trailers have made it very clear that after the shocking ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home , Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is going to ask Doctor Strange (Benedict… Read more...



The post appeared first on Popular Mechanics .



Mashable / 10h
TL;DR: The Essential 2022 Dog Training Bundle is on sale for £15.09, saving you 98% on list price. Your furry friend is already a good boy, but he has potential to be a very good boy. He just needs a little bit of training. With eight courses on dog care and training, the Essential 2022 Dog Training Bundle will lead you in the right direction. You’ll be in good hands under Nikki Brown and Sharon



SlashGear / 12h
Apple One of the key advantages Apple has over its rivals in the computing and mobile markets is near-total control over its ecosystem. Since it makes both the software and the hardware it runs on, Apple has the ability to integrate its products far better than


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