Friday, January 21, 2022

Technology News and More-Friday Edition

Technology News and More




Meat Loaf Bat Out 74•
100+Mashable / 37min
Meat Loaf, the best-selling singer and actor whose 1977 album "Bat Out of Hell" has been certified 14x Platinum, has passed away at the age of 74. The death of the singer, whose real name is Michael Lee Aday, was confirmed to Deadline by his agent Michael Greene on Friday. The official Meat Loaf Facebook page also shared the following post : "Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparabl



4KWired / 21h
Sam Zeloof combines 1970s-era machines with homemade designs. His creations show what’s possible for small-scale silicon tinkerers.



There are widespread reports that Amazon's smart voice assistant, Alexa, is currently down. According to Down detector , Amazon, Alexa and Amazon Web Services started to see a spike in issues from just before 2am ET / 7am GMT on January 21, 2022. The service is down in the UK, but we're also getting reports from our teams in Germany and Italy that Alexa is also not working in other European count




Mashable / 2min
By now, there’s a smart version of just about every type of workout equipment: treadmills , stationary bikes , kettlebells , boxing gloves , goggles , and even entire home gym setups . Whether you want to monitor heart rate, track calories burned, follow individualized workouts, receive form cues, or compete with other exercisers, there’s probably a product out there that’s compatible with your a



Dublin-based Exergyn replaces refrigerants with solid materials, thus reducing the output of greenhouse gases. The technology could be applicable in data centers. The industrial-grade cleantech company has now raised a $35 million (€30 million) Series A round led by Mercuria, an energy and commodities company, and Lacerta Partners, a family office-backed fund. Also participating was Prague-based



Personal drones that can transport one or two passengers will soon be available for anyone to buy.
YESTERDAY



Intel $20B Chip Ohio•
35Engadget / 1h
Intel has revealed its plans to build a massive semiconductor facility in Ohio to Time — one that company CEO Pat Gelsinger is expecting to become "the largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet." The company is earmarking $20 billion to build the site on a 1,000-acre land in New Albany, located on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. Intel's initial plans include building two semiconductor



India will soon start issuing ePassports which will use Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and biometrics chip and be in line with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Tech major Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) , which is handling the government's Passport Seva Program, has said it is developing innovative new solutions to enable the issuance of ePassports. The



The firm's membership growth slowed significantly last year after surging at the beginning of the pandemic.



Parag Agrawal Twitter•
Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s new chief executive, terminated the company’s head of security this week. Twitter’s chief information security officer is also leaving.



Intel New Chip Ohio•
Building up U.S. chip production has been a focus of lawmakers and companies alike amid a global shortage of the crucial components.



Samsung Singapore Muslim•
The ad, which showed a Muslim mother expressing support for her drag queen son, was criticised online.



SAVE UP TO £250: Oral-B is arguably the biggest name in the electric toothbrush game. There are a wide range of Oral-B electric toothbrush deals available on Amazon, saving you up to £250 on list price. We try and highlight the biggest and the best deals from across the web, and that often means heavy discounts on massively popular items from top brands like Apple and Sony. But it's not always ab



AI Content Marketing•
TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to Instoried AI Content Checker is on sale for £28.62, saving you 98% on list price. Anyone can write content for their business. But not everyone can write good content that actually converts. Injecting a little soul and feeling into your writing can go a long way in persuading folks to click through and learn more about your products and services. And that’s where



Instagram Stories Hate•
Instagram has announced it will now show potential hate speech lower down in your feed, lulling you with a gentle string of thirst traps and puppies before hitting you with the racism . Revealed in a blog post on Thursday, Instagram says it is taking "stronger action" against posts which might contain bullying, hate speech, or may incite violence — by making you scroll for a bit longer before see



TL;DR: The 2022 Business Intelligence and Data Science Super Bundle is on sale for £29.33, saving you 96% on list price. If you're looking for a sign that studying up on data science is worth your time, you don't have to look far. Data science is booming — that's a fact. LinkedIn's 2020 Emerging Jobs Report listed the Data Scientist as the third-highest emerging job with 37% annual growth. And we



SAVE OVER £100: The Bose 700 headphones offer 11 levels of active noise cancellation so you can enjoy music, podcasts, videos, and calls without distractions. These popular headphones are on sale for £230.24 at Amazon, saving you 34% on list price. The Bose 700 noise cancelling headphones are right at the top of a lot of roundups of the best headphones , and it's clear to see why. They offer 11 l



SAVE 49%: ExpressVPN can reliably unblock top streaming sites like Netflix and Disney+. A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for £5.06 per month, and includes an extra three months for free. A subscription to a streaming service does not automatically grant you access to everything that the site hosts. You will be locked out of a lot of content due to your location. Do not despair, be



TL;DR: Burns Night takes place on Jan. 25 this year. Looking to celebrate? We've lined up all the best whiskies to help you mark the occasion. Burns Night is a celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns, and that means eating haggis, reciting some of Burns' most famous lines, and yes, maybe enjoying a wee dram of the brown stuff. To help you mark the occasion, we have lined up all the bes



With so many shows and movies to choose from on Australia's major streaming services, it can often be difficult to find the best new stuff to entertain yourself with each end of week. In an effort to make things easier, we've hand-picked the best new shows and movies to watch on Aussie streaming platforms this weekend, covering the likes of Netflix, Disney Plus, Binge, Foxtel Now, Stan, Apple TV



In the past 48 hours, TikTok posts from women claiming to have been charmed, ghosted, and, in one case, sexually harassed by a 25-year-old designer they call "West Elm Caleb" have gained more than 15 million views on the platform. The internet has turned the story into a circus, with brands and commentary channels salivating over it like vultures relishing a fresh carcass. Even TikTok weighed in




Peloton Production•
Its shares fell more than 20% after a report that it planned to temporarily stop production of its machines.



The shell of a water/glycerol gas marble (bubble) remains liquid and spherical even after 101 days, and it reacts as a liquid film when punctured. These human-made bubbles could be used to create stable foams. (credit: A. Roux et al., 2022) Blowing soap bubbles never fails to delight one's inner child, perhaps because they are intrinsically ephemeral, bursting after just a few minutes. Now, Frenc



Google is reportedly testing out a new feature for its browser that will make searching through your browsing history and bookmarks even easier in Chrome . First spotted by Chrome Story , the search giant has added a new experimental flag to Chrome's omnibox that enables support for search keywords. For those unfamiliar, Chrome's omnibox suggests potential queries when the “Autocomplete searches



Fraggle Rock Apple•
Enlarge / The Fraggles are back, clap, clap. And they're a blast to watch again, clap, clap. (credit: Jim Henson Company / Apple TV+) The video-streaming world has long suffered from content fragmentation, and modern-day Muppet access is no exception. If you want to revel in all things Jim Henson, you'll need subscriptions to no less than three streamers: Disney+ (which has the most Henson films



100+Gizmodo / 7h
A pilot and professional YouTuber has run into some trouble after he crashed his plane in the California mountains last month, only to be accused of doing the whole thing on purpose to grab some page views. Now he’s being investigated by the feds. Read more...



Image: Samsung Samsung has finally revealed the details for its upcoming Unpacked event, and it’s teasing major changes that’ll hit the Galaxy S line starting next month. Though the company hasn’t outright announced the big revelation — we’ll have to wait for the Unpacked event — it has all but confirmed plans to ditch the Galaxy Note series in favor of its … Continue reading



Peloton John Foley•
21TechCrunch / 8h
Ahead of the company’s upcoming earnings, Peloton CEO John Foley took a break from a “quiet period” to address a number of reports related to poor device sales. The executive issued a denial that the company is halting production across its entire bicycle and treadmill line as demand for the devices has begun to crater amid gym re-openings. Under the heading, “Rumors that we are halting all produ



Jail time starts looking appealing real fast after 20-something alcoholic Sam is forced to sober up under her mom's roof, as a result of a minor indiscretion involving a co-worker's eye and a telephone receiver. Tormented by triggers that would drive anyone to the bottle, it's an extended hangover from hell, and you can follow our guide as we explain how to watch Single Drunk Female online and st



Viruses Superbug Belgium•
27Gizmodo / 8h
The enemy of our bacterial enemy can indeed be our friend. In a new case report, doctors say they were able to treat their patient’s long-festering, drug-resistant infection with the help of specially grown bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria. Large-scale clinical trials will likely be needed for these… Read more...



Instagram Stories Hate•
Instagram is taking new steps to make “potentially harmful” content less visible in its app. The company says that the algorithm powering the way posts are ordered in users’ feeds and in Stories will now de-prioritize content that “may contain bullying, hate speech or may incite violence.” While Instagram’s rules already prohibit much of this type of content, the change could affect borderline po



500+Gizmodo / 9h
It turns out the Tuskens are a complicated people . The native Tatooinians typified as evil savages in the early Star Wars films have been revealed to be so much more, thanks to TV series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett . While it’s both fantastic and necessary to see cultural depth given to an indigenous… Read more...



Tran TikTok Marketing Post•
Gizmodo / 9h
The marketing lead behind some of TikTok’s wackiest ideas—from NFTs to ghost kitchens and more—was abruptly ushered out of the company, according to multiple reports. The Information was first to report that marketing chief Nick Tran had abruptly departed from the company yesterday, followed by a confirmation from the… Read more...



Netflix Subscriber Q4 2021•
98TechCrunch / 9h
Despite producing global hits like “Squid Game” in 2021, Netflix’s fourth quarter returns show the streaming giant struggling to maintain a lead over its competitors. The company fell short of its projections for new subscribers this quarter, adding 8.3 million as opposed to its projected 8.5 million — it also projects to add just 2.5 million subscribers in Q1 2022, down from 4 million last year



A new safety app has been developed by a team of volunteers with experience of abuse and violence.



Bask Bank is known for its Bask Savings Account which awards American AAdvantage miles rather than interest – the math on this works out especially well in a low-interest rate environment. They’ve now launched a new Bask Interest Savings Account, currently restricted to Bask Mileage Savings Account holders. Continue reading ...



26TechCrunch / 9h
Jamil Wyne Contributor Jamil Wyne is an advisor, investor and author focusing on entrepreneurship, technology and economic development in emerging markets. He has worked with the World Bank, IFC, UN, Clean Energy Venture Group, Schmidt Futures, Ashoka, and other organizations. More posts by this contributor A close look at Singapore’s thriving startup ecosystem Abrar Chaudhury Contributor Dr. Abr



Modem Router Settings•
ANDRANIK HAKOBYAN/Shutterstock Your wireless router is basically the gateway to your internet connection and sometimes you might want to clear your router’s history. If you’re looking to clean out the history log on your router, then you’re going to need to follow a few steps. Luckily, the process isn’t that difficult, but you’ll need a couple of key bits of information to … Continue reading



TikTok Instagram Testing•
TikTok is testing paid subscriptions, because the cogs of capitalism must continue to turn. As first reported by The Information , the popular video sharing platform is experimenting with allowing creators to charge a subscription fee for their videos. Not many details are available about TikTok's limited test, how it works, or whether TikTok will take a commission. However, it's reasonable to gu



Biden NSA National•
The National Security Agency ( NSA ) will now have even more power when it comes to protecting the US government's computer networks following a new memorandum from President Biden. As reported by The Wall Street Journal , the memorandum mandates that cybersecurity practices and standards like two-factor authentication ( 2FA ) and encryption will be required to protect the country's national secu



Thailand Test & Go•
Good news for travelers looking to visit Thailand in 2022: The country has announced plans to restart its Test & Go program from Feb. 1, following a month of mandatory quarantine rules for travelers. Under the reinstated guidelines, from Feb. 1, visitors will have to take a PCR test on arrival and then test again five days later. Travelers will have to isolate in an approved hotel for at least on




Samsung Galaxy February•
39Mashable / 10h
We’re barely a few weeks into 2022 and it’s already time for some new flagship Samsung phones. Better strap in. This isn’t a rumor, either. Samsung itself announced in a blog post on Thursday afternoon that its next Galaxy Unpacked livestream will take place in February, but without a firm time or date yet. It can most likely be streamed on Samsung’s YouTube channel . In the words of Samsung mobi



Mashable / 10h
John Cena, James Gunn, Danielle Brooks and the cast of Peacemaker cook up an alternative plot for their new HBO Max series.



25TechCrunch / 10h
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here . Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for January 20, 2022! Today’s theme is more . Sure, the creator economy grew last year, but this year more major platforms are working to help power individual artists. And sure, last year was one of the best for crypto startups, b



200+Gizmodo / 10h
The complaint that blockbuster movies nowadays are too long has been a standard gripe for awhile now, and so common that it’s become stale and annoying on its own. I want to acknowledge that I know this, and agree with this sentiment, and yet I am utterly powerless not to say Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson ’s… Read more...



Senate Tech Apple Google•
A major Senate bill that would prevent tech companies from giving preference to their own products and services just passed a significant hurdle in Congress, bringing it one step closer to becoming law. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted today on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, moving the prominent antitrust bill toward a vote before the full Senate. The bill passed its committee



Samsung Galaxy February•
Gizmodo / 10h
We’re still waiting for the full details of Samsung’s next Unpacked event, which will take place next month. But there’s good news for anyone who’s been missing the company’s Galaxy Note: Samsung just teased its return, though it will be a different device than what you might expect. Read more...



CIA Havana Syndrome US•
34Futurism / 10h
The CIA has announced that a foreign nation is likely not to blame for most cases of “Havana syndrome”— a confusing move that came to the delight of countless internet pundits. First, some backstory . In late 2016, reports emerged about a mysterious condition experienced by American ( and some Canadian ) diplomats and intelligence agents in Havana, Cuba. Official explanations have often suggested



500+Futurism / 10h
Apocalypse Squad Mass extinction events have ravaged life on Earth at least five times over the last 450 million years or so — and according to scientists, humankind has already kicked off the sixth . In a new article published in the journal Biological Reviews and spotted by Vice , an international team of researchers are warning that “the Sixth Mass Extinction has begun on land and in freshwate



Samsung Galaxy February•
21TechCrunch / 10h
Last summer, Samsung announced that – for the first time in a decade – it wouldn’t be releasing a new Note. The future of the well-loved phablet was a big, open question, as the hardware giant acknowledged a shift in focus to foldables, a form factor it felt was finally ready for a truly mainstream push. Further muddying the waters is the Galaxy S line – Samsung’s primary flagship, which has stea



Samsung Galaxy February•
The next big Samsung Unpacked event, where we expect to see the Samsung Galaxy S22 for the very first time, is now set for February 2022. We've yet to find out the exact launch date, but a new blog post from TM Roh, President and Head of Samsung MX, confirms the launch will happen during February. Leaks have pointed to February 9 as the launch date, and one recent source was even confident to pre



Samsung Galaxy February•
Engadget / 10h
After introducing S Pen support to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and not launching a new version of the Note series last year, Samsung's next Unpacked event would be a timely opportunity to address concerned fans. Though the company has yet to confirm an exact date beyond the month of February (rumors suggest it might take place Feb. 8th ), president TM Roh has written a blog post on what we can expect at



23Lifehacker / 10h
Some governments in other parts of the world have been providing free tests and masks for a while. The U. S. just got on board with the trend last week, promising to send four rapid tests to each household (you just need to request them at covidtests.gov ). Now, we’re getting free N95 masks—but only three per adult. Read more...



American United Omicron•
American Airlines and United Airlines both posted steep losses for the fourth quarter of 2021, and, like Delta, expect the impact to persist into this year. But also like Delta , both airlines expect to see the demand recovery pick back up where it left off before a surge of new COVID-19 cases, driven by the new omicron variant, spread across the U.S. and the world. Executives from both airlines,



SlashGear / 10h
Hubblesite/NASA When you think of black holes, you probably think of destruction. Consuming everything in their path, they are the monsters of the astronomical world, gobbling up gas and dust and planets and stars alike. But recently, the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered something intriguing: a black hole that seems not to be eating stars, but rather helping new stars form. … Continue readin



22Mashable / 10h
Reese Witherspoon loves a good book. I mean, she runs her very own book club, Reese's Book Club . Not to mention her production work in turning many well-loved books into popular TV shows and movies: Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere , Where the Crawdads Sing , to name a few. Witherspoon is about to turn her hand to another type of storytelling. The Oscar-winning actor is set to take the B



91Mashable / 10h
Stu Macher should've come back as the new Ghostface. That's the hill I'm willing to die on following Scream (2022) , the disappointingly Stu-less but still fun "re-quel" from Ready or Not co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. I know what you're thinking: "But Stu Macher is dead! Sidney Prescott dropped a TV on his head at the end of Scream (1996), and he died ." To that I say: If



Airbus Qatar Airways•
We’ve heard of airlines canceling orders with aircraft manufacturers. However, it’s not often you see an aircraft manufacturer terminate a contract with an airline. Airbus won’t sell A321neos to Qatar Airways Years ago Qatar Airways placed an order for 50 Airbus A321 family aircraft, including 40 A321neos and 10 A321LRs. It has today been revealed that Airbus has terminated its contract to sell t



Google Iris AR Headset•
24Ars Technica / 10h
Enlarge / Product photography of the Google Glass wearable. Project Iris won't look like this; it is said to more closely resemble ski goggles than casual glasses. (credit: Google ) Google engineers are developing a new augmented reality (AR) headset, according to a report by The Verge citing two people familiar with the project. Google hopes to ship the product—codenamed "Project Iris"—sometime



Senate Tech Apple Google•
Enlarge / The dome of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Phil Roeder ) The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 16-6 today to advance an antitrust bill that would prevent Big Tech firms from giving their own services preferential treatment. The bill attempts to limit the ability of dominant firms to “unfairly preference” their own products or services in a w



Engadget / 11h
In October, roboticist and software engineer Allison Liemhetcharat announced that she had been working on a game that would use a smart vibrator as a controller. Specifically, the Lioness smart vibrator , which gathers bio-data like body temperature and pelvic pressure. Liemhetcharat said she was partly inspired by the Perifit kegel exerciser, which also uses games and a device to help people str




Avelo Airlines 120•
Pilots at four U.S. airlines are now seeing significantly larger paychecks as the industry faces a pilot shortage. Avelo Airlines on Thursday announced a significant raise for its pilots, becoming the fourth U.S. carrier in just two months to take action in an effort to attract more pilots. Pilots at the Houston-headquartered ultra-low-cost carrier startup will now earn more than pilots at the es



Spotify Apple Music•
23TechCrunch / 11h
Music streaming is continuing to grow around the world. According to a new report from MIDiA , an entertainment research firm, 523.9 million people subscribed to a music streaming service globally as of the second quarter of 2021. This marks a 109.5 million (26.4%) increase since the previous year. Though Spotify remains the most-subscribed streaming service, owning 31% of the market, its dominan



Sony Microsoft PlayStation•
SlashGear / 11h
Image: Microsoft In the wake of the news that Microsoft has entered an agreement to purchase Activision Blizzard, a lot of us undoubtedly have questions about what this acquisition means for players on other platforms. Specifically, we’re guessing that PlayStation players are wondering what this means not only for the future of Activision Blizzard games on their platform of choice, but also … Con



Mashable / 11h
Every January we all seem to make (then inevitably break) the same New Year's resolution. So in 2022, maybe it's time to rethink what getting in shape looks like altogether. Fitness isn't the first thing that springs to mind when it comes to virtual reality, either. But a certain magic happens when you combine the unexpected bedfellows of exercise and VR: Suddenly, working out stops being a chore



Google Iris AR Headset•
32Gizmodo / 11h
With every tech giant from Apple to Microsoft to Amazon rumored to be developing a pair of augmented reality glasses or mixed reality headset, we’ve been wondering whether Google was planning to wade back into consumer headsets. After all, the company gave AR a shot a decade ago and still hasn’t quite recovered from… Read more...



Gizmodo / 11h
Legislative efforts to rein in Big Tech’s alleged anti-competitive, self-preferential business practices took a big step forward on Thursday as a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted overwhelmingly (16-6) in favor of advancing new antitrust legislation. Now, the hotly contested… Read more...



1KGizmodo / 11h
First Godzilla defeated Kong , and now he’s going to Apple TV+. The streamer just announced it has ordered a series centered on everyone’s favorite King of the Monsters ; it will be created by Chris Black and Matt Fraction and be set after the events of the 2014 Garth Edwards film . Here’s the logline: Read more...



FAA AT&T Verizon US•
The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it had cleared approximately 78% of the U.S. commercial fleet for operations at airports impacted by 5G C-band, as some regional flights near San Francisco saw 5G-related disruptions. Thursday’s update saw the FAA add some jets popular with regional airlines to its list of cleared aircraft: “some” Embraer 170/190 models, one of the most popular



500+Futurism / 11h
‘Oumuamua Jokes The interstellar object ‘Oumuamua has fascinated and puzzled astronomers ever since it was first detected four years ago — and now some are itching to get a closer look. Getting a closer look could forever change the way we understand the universe around us, they argue, a tantalizing opportunity as rocks like ‘Oumuamua are exceedingly rare. That’s why a team of researchers from th



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 ...



45Gizmodo / 11h
A team of astrophysicists has calculated the number of stellar-mass black holes in the observable universe to be 40 quintillion, accounting for 1% of the total ordinary matter in the universe. Read more...



60Lifehacker / 11h
Most needs are actually deep wants. I don’t need Maldon salt, but my scrambled eggs aren’t the same without the crunchy flakes. I don’t need to remove every germ from every garlic clove, but doing so can reduce bitterness. I don’t need an inflatable hot tub, but I bought one anyway. Do I need to devein every shrimp I… Read more...



UAB Locke Alabama Pig•
100+Ars Technica / 11h
Enlarge / Cloned piglets that are engineered to be useful for organ transplants to humans. (credit: Getty Images / Staff ) Last week, when we reported on the first pig-to-human heart transplant , we complained that the commercial company behind the operation wasn't more forthcoming about the genetic engineering that converted the pig into a viable donor. We now know much more about porcine geneti



39Mashable / 11h
Whether you're looking for your very first vibrator or have lost count of how many sex toys you have in your collection, the internet can be a pretty great place to find your next toy. Of course, the insane amount of options that make finding that just-right sex toy possible can also make the process more overwhelming than you'd wish, especially for a product that's supposed to deliver big on ple



Gizmodo / 11h
After Donald Trump got canned from virtually every major social media site, conservative pundits and personalities urged the MAGA crowd towards a mass exodus to so-called “alt-tech” venues promising freedom from a supposed plague of left-wing censorship. This hasn’t worked out quite as well as planned, according to… Read more...



NASA N. G. S. Observatory•
Engadget / 11h
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has run into difficulties after 17 years of largely smooth service. The orbiting explorer has entered safe mode after detecting a "possible failure" in one of the six reaction wheels used to change attitude. While it's not clear exactly what (if anything) went wrong, NASA has halted direction-based scientific observations until it can either give the all-clea



23Gizmodo / 11h
When Nicola Bryant left Doctor Who in the mid ‘80s, like a lot of things in Doctor Who circa the mid ‘80s, it was kind of weird. One minute she’s the sixth Doctor’s companion, the next her head’s shaved and a weird ugly green slug man’s gone and implanted his brain in her body. Rude! But now, three and a half decades… Read more...



Nvidia 3070 GPU RTX•
New leaks from Geekbench’s OpenCL test showcase the power of Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPU. According to the benchmark, the GPU running in an MSI Vector GP66 12U gaming laptop matches the speed of the mobile RTX 3080 GPU. It scored a 124,220 in the Geekbench test , which is impressive despite the fact that the API tested isn’t well suited for gaming. In general, the mobile RTX 3070 Ti is about



Dream Crystal Cruises•
Good journalists are supposed to be impartial. They stay neutral when reporting the news. And even as someone who has built a career writing about the fluffiest of topics — cruising — I have tried to hold fast to such principles. Alas, every so often a story that I am covering hits me in the gut to such a level that it is hard to stay impartial. The suspension of operations at Crystal Cruises Wed



SlashGear / 12h
Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock Google was just hit by some very bad news coming from Europe, but the news may be even worse for website owners than for Google itself. In an unprecedented case, the court in Austria has just ruled that Google Analytics is in violation with the European data protection laws. As a result, Google Analytics has been made illegal in Austria. … Continue reading




Foundation Capital , an early-stage venture firm with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, has been around for 27 years, in many iterations . It has been sprawling, it has been small, it has thrived, it has teetered. In 2022, it’s in expansion mode once again. Three years after closing its ninth fund with $350 million in capital commitments with three general partners, the firm is announcing t



Texas Power Grid Winter•
37Gizmodo / 12h
Temperatures are dropping in central and south Texas Thursday through Friday morning as the state sees a cold front that may send temperatures plummeting as low as 18 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-8 degrees Celsius) in the Permian Basin on Thursday. These unusually chilly temperatures come just before the one-year… Read more...



PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up•
SlashGear / 12h
Girts Ragelis/Shutterstock PlayStation gamers can now see a complete breakdown of their gaming stats from 2021. Sony launched its PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up on Thursday, giving players access to a complete showcase of the hours they spent playing PlayStation games, as well as the five titles they played the most. Wrap-up also provides a lot of information about the trophies earned throughout the …



63Mashable / 12h
Remember the orange M&M? Apparently, he's a Gen Z icon now. In an effort to make the M&M brand more inclusive, Mars has redesigned its beloved M&M characters for a "more dynamic, progressive world," reports CBS News. The 2022 updates include a significantly less sexy green M&M — her iconic heeled go-go boots have been replaced with simple, stylish sneakers — and the orange M&M is now embracing hi



27TechCrunch / 12h
It’s been pretty astonishing to see what robotics researchers have been able to accomplish with legged robots over the past few years. Oregon State University taking Cassie for a 5K back in July springs to mind . This week researchers at ETH Zurich announced that they were stretching their own ANYmal robot’s physical capabilities in similar fashion by training it climb a nearby mountain . The tea



Mild COVID Memory Months•
SlashGear / 12h
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Mild cases of COVID-19 that don’t result in obvious “long COVID” symptoms may still trigger memory and attention problems, according to a new study from the University of Oxford. Though participants who’d previously had and recovered from mild COVID were found to have similar test results as the study’s control group, there were two areas related to cognitive performance



IRS ID.me Facial Online•
Paying your taxes online in the US is about to get a whole lot more difficult as the IRS has revealed that taxpayers' existing credentials will no longer work beginning this summer. Instead, the government agency is partnering with a third-party identity verification service called ID.me that requires users to submit copies of bills and other identity documents though they will also have to submi



MIT One Diabetes Devices•
Engadget / 12h
People with diabetes have more than a few hassles, particularly at meals. They not only have to measure their blood glucose levels and inject the right amount of insulin, but carry all the relevant equipment with them. MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers might soon eliminate many of the headaches, though. They're developing all-in-one devices (not pictured) that measure glucose, calc



7KFuturism / 12h
Anti-Agers Assemble! Amazon founder and Elon Musk’s favorite punching bag Jeff Bezos is assembling a team of top scientists to assist in his dream of developing immortality technology. The billionaire is funneling his money into an anti-aging startup dubbed Alto Labs, which formerly launched on Wednesday . The project has recently recruited Hal Barron, formerly the chief scientific officer at the



Tom Cruise Axiom Space•
95Futurism / 12h
A film studio is being built in space — but that’s not the only, erm, titillating aspect to this story. While it’s admittedly kinda cool that the company working with Tom Cruise to produce a movie filmed in space is, per CNBC and other outlets , planning to build an orbital film studio, what’s more eye-catching about this story is company’s rendering of what the studio will look like. The “conten



23TechCrunch / 12h
Frederik Mijnhardt Contributor Frederik Mijnhardt is the CEO of Secfi , an equity planning platform for startup executives and employees. Last year set a new record for public exits, with more than 844 U.S. companies going public via an initial public offering (IPO), a direct listing, or through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). That’s 105% higher than 2020, which saw 410 similar comp



Over the past 10 years, getting a ride in a major city has changed from hailing a cab on the side of the street to requesting a ride right from your smartphone. Apps like Uber and Lyft make it easier than ever to get a ride — and more rewarding too. In past editions of Quick Points, we’ve covered earning ride credit with Lyft and Marriott points with Uber , and today we’re back with another tip.



81Lifehacker / 12h
If you were to ask someone at Nintendo about the Wii U, they’d likely say “Wii U? What Wii U? We make the Switch; that’ll be $350.” If it were up to the company, the world would entirely forget about this flop of a console. After all, the Switch prints money, and the Wii U was a dud, right? Commercially, sure. But in… Read more...



Gizmodo / 12h
To be alive in 2022 is to know we could shuffle off this mortal coil at any given moment. To paraphrase the prophet Phoebe Bridgers : All the billboards say the end is near. Read more...



Chase and United have a suite of co-branded credit cards . At the moment several of these cards have elevated welcome bonuses. This is a reminder that three of these bonuses are due to expire on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, so you have less than a week to take advantage of these offers. You can find a full rundown of the current offers below. Chase United MileagePlus credit card offers Chase and



100+Gizmodo / 12h
Action fans know when you hear the names Iko Uwais and Lewis Tan, it’s time to pay attention. Uwais is the jaw-dropping star of The Raid series who has become a Hollywood mainstay with supporting roles in Star Wars: The Force Awakens , Snake Eyes , and Stuber . Tan, best known for Into the Badlands and Deadpool 2 , … Read more...



Google Pay Bill Ready•
Enlarge / Google Pay continues to circle the drain. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica ) Google is bringing on a new executive who it hopes will turn the beleaguered Google Pay division around. Bloomberg reports that Arnold Goldberg, PayPal's chief product architect, will now


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