Thursday, January 06, 2022

Technology News Thursdays.. and More!

Technology News and More




Nikola $2B Lawsuit Tesla•
45Engadget / 1h
Nikola Tesla may have been pleased that both of his names were employed by electric car companies, but perhaps less so that Nikola sued Tesla , and vice-versa. Now, Nikola Corp. is reportedly dropping its $2 billion patent infringement lawsuit against Tesla Inc. as Nikola company founder Trevor Milton faces a criminal indictment on fraud charges, Bloomberg has reported. According to a filing in a



27Mashable / 2h
Oh, the shade of it all. On Wednesday the official NASA Twitter account for the James Webb Space Telescope appeared to be starting some serious space beef with a few of its bigger siblings. The account tweeted screenshots of the official NASA accounts for the sun, the moon, and even Earth, all of which were shown as blocked. Sorry, space beef fans, but it was all in service of teaching you a litt



Microsoft Xbox Dev•
A Microsoft representative has said that the company has no intention of disabling developer mode for Xbox console owners. Jason Ronald , the director of program management, explained in a series of tweets that the company believes in supporting a "healthy independent app and game development community on Xbox." His comments come after reports emerged of Xbox Series X /S users finding their devel




TechCrunch / 6min
Reliance Retail has led a $240 million funding round in Google-backed hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo as the largest Indian retail chain aggressively expands its offerings. Reliance Retail is investing $200 million in the round for a 25.8% stake in the five-year-old startup, which operates an eponymous hyper-local delivery service in nearly a dozen cities in India. The new round, a name for whi



Gizmodo / 18min
Walmart, the largest private employer in the U.S., is cutting paid sick leave for workers who get covid-19 from two weeks of leave to one week, according to a new report from Reuters that cites an internal memo sent out on Tuesday. The change was inspired by the CDC’s updated guidelines that suggest Americans isolate… Read more...



TechCrunch / 20min
Chalk another one up for decentralized enforcement: France’s data protection watchdog has slapped headline-grabbing fines on Facebook and Google for failing to respect local (and pan-EU) cookie consent rules. Today, the CNIL said it’s fined Google €150M (~$170M) and Facebook €60M (~$68M) for breaching French law, following investigations of how they present tracking choices to users of google.fr,



A few days ago, my colleague Benji Stawski wrote about how MGM is significantly devaluing its M Life Rewards program . In that piece, he noted that MGM was using the name “MGM Rewards” interchangeably with “M Life.” Well, this morning, MGM Resorts announced plans to launch what it calls a “reimagined loyalty program” on Feb. 1, 2022. under the new name MGM Rewards. The details are slim so far, bu



Less than a year after commencing operations, Avelo Airlines announced a new funding round on Thursday and is looking to the future. The Houston-headquartered ultra-low-cost carrier raised $42 million in Series B funding, led by Morgan Stanley’s North Haven Tactical Value Fund. With its $30 million investment in the Series B round, which follows its participation in Avelo’s January 2020 Series A



Mashable / 22min
My only actual new year's resolution for 2022 is to finish a Sunday crossword. But there are plenty of positive 2021 experiences I want to lean into more in the new year: petting my cat, eating takeout, going for runs, rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer . There are also plenty of 2021 feelings I want to avoid, the ones that give me a pang of anxiety or a rush of dopamine — like when I tweet a st



Mashable / 22min
Welcome to Thanks, I Love It , our series highlighting something onscreen we're obsessed with this week. Hulu's excellent Pen15 gets a lot of praise for its rare and singularly authentic portrayal of '90s girlhood . But in the final seven episodes, the show extended its radical sincerity and candid intimacy to another lived experience that TV often ignores or dehumanizes: The inner world of an im



L. Martin Amazon Alexa•
Mashable / 22min
Alexa, can you go to space? Apparently, Alexa can. Amazon Alexa, the digital technology assistant, will be breaking new ground in 2022. A version of the voice assistant will be included on NASA's Artemis I mission , a highly-anticipated flight beyond Earth. Amazon engineers designed an advanced version of Alexa for the journey, intended to test whether this sort of technology would be useful for



Microsoft Endpoint•
Zero-touch onboarding for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) is now available for iOS in public preview, the company has announced. In a blog post , Microsoft said this new functionality “eases the deployment frictions” and “significantly reduces the time needed to deploy the app across all devices.” MDE is a cybersecurity solution that can now protect iOS phones for work (12.0 and above) from



Samsung Galaxy S22•
Now that the Galaxy S21 FE is out the way, the Galaxy S22 range will likely be the next big Samsung phones , and we're expecting them very soon. Leading the series, the S22 Ultra is expected to pack some top specs, but it might disappoint in one key area. This area is charging speeds. Popular leaker Roland Quandt posted on Twitter to share that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra will apparently get 45W



Hideo Kojima Radical 2022•
Auteur games developer Hideo Kojima has talked a bit more about his upcoming projects, describing one of them as a AAA game that everyone can enjoy. The game director of Death Stranding made an appearance on NHK Radio in Japan, with the details translated and reported by Twitter user Genki . Kojima also mentioned that he'd like to make a smaller project, one that isn't open-world or a shooter, an



Amazon has slashed 17% off the price of the Ninja Foodi Max 15-in-1 SmartLid multicooker OL750UK , reducing it from £299.99 to just £249.00 . That’s the same price we saw on Black Friday and Cyber Monday for this Instant Port alternative, making it great value. (Not in the UK? Scroll down for the best Instant Pot and multicooker deals in your region.) The best Instant Pots and multicookers are an



Asus Zenbook Fold OLED•
Asus is a company that’s known for experimenting with laptop designs, and at CES 2022 it’s shown off another bold attempt: the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, which comes with a folding screen. The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED can be used as a huge 17.3-inch tablet, or folded into an 'L' shape for a more traditional laptop experience, with the lower half of the screen turning into a virtual keyboard. It



Fossil Alexa Gen 6•
Everyone has their own favorite voice assistant, and if you own a Fossil Gen 6 or buy any of the brand’s upcoming Gen 6 smartwatches such as the Skagen Falster Gen 6 or Razer x Fossil Gen 6, then you’ll soon have some say in which voice assistant gets activated on your wrist. That’s because Fossil has confirmed that Amazon Alexa will be coming to all of its Gen 6 devices, saying in a statement to



TL;DR: As of Jan. 6, shave 9% off the FLÎKR® Fire2 Raw Aluminum Base: Personal Fireplace and get it for $89.99 instead of $99. When the cold weather hits, relaxing becomes all about getting cozy . You probably already have your favorite fuzzy socks on and your favorite winter movie on repeat, but what about the ambiance in your space? If you live in the city or in a small space, you can still get



TL;DR: The Rollux 2-in-1 Expandable Suitcase is just $199.97 at the Mashable Shop as of Jan. 6. Traveling smarter is all about upgrading your accessories. It's also the easiest thing you can do to actually enjoy spending a day at the airport. Nothing will boost your mood as you're dealing with long lines and flight delays like toting around chic luggage that you absolutely love, and with this two



TL;DR: The Nut Mini Tracker: Three-Pack is just $27.99 at the Mashable Shop as of Jan. 6. If you’re a forgetful person, then you’ve probably had your fair share of panic-inducing moments where your keys , phone, wallet, etc. are nowhere to be found. That moment of not knowing when you last saw your ID, credit card, etc. is worth taking a step to prevent it from happening again. Make those moments




Nike Lululemon Mirror•
Back in June 2020, Lululemon got into the flourishing home gym market in the midst of the pandemic by purchasing home fitness startup Mirror for $500 million. Now, Nike has filed a lawsuit against the company over Mirror, accusing it of patent infringement. According to CNBC and The Wall Street Journal , Nike's lawsuit allege that Mirror — a full-size interactive mirror that brings a live fitness



Y Combinator Backed JABU•
27TechCrunch / 3h
Namibian business-to-business e-commerce startup JABU confirmed to TechCrunch that it has raised a $3.2 million financing round. The seed round, which was closed last year, welcomed investors such as Afore Capital, Y Combinator, FJ Labs, Quiet Capital, Kli Capital, Pareto Capital and unnamed angels. As a last-mile distribution e-commerce company, JABU joins a list of startups across the continent
YESTERDAY



France Payfit Raises HR•
French startup PayFit just announced that it closed a new $289 million Series E round (€254 million) before the holidays. Following this round, the startup has reached a post-money valuation of $2.1 billion (€1.82 billion). The company has been building a payroll and HR software-as-a-service platform for small and medium companies. It is operating in a handful of European countries — around 150,0



Data Surfshark Incogni•
Surfshark has announced the launch of its new privacy tool that can help prevent users' personal information from being stored and sold by data brokers . Data brokerage firms currently own data on hundreds of millions of consumers with some of the top names in the industry boasting up to 1,500 data points per consumer. In addition to contact credentials such as a user's phone number and home addr



TL;DR: The Complete 2022 IT Career Kickstarter Bundle is on sale for £43.56, saving you 96% on list price. IT workers do a whole lot more than just troubleshooting your computer issues. Their jobs require endless learning, as the newest software updates and latest cybersecurity threats take shape. And before they can even enter that cycle, they have to get full training and certify their skills b



TL;DR: The 2022 Ultimate Microsoft Excel and Power BI Certification Bundle is on sale for £25.83, saving you 98% on list price. We’re dealing with more data than ever before in 2021 — and 2022 will likely push it even further. Tools like Excel and Power BI make it possible to navigate and effectively work with all of that data, but only a select few actually know how to use it. That’s why employe



If you were planning on buying a MacBook before heading back to uni this year, Apple has just launched a sweet offer that can get you a pair of AirPods for free when buying select products. The deal gets you AU$219 off Apple’s AirPods when you buy an eligible Mac or iPad from the Apple Education Store , and because the second-gen AirPods now retail for AU$219, you can get them for nothing. The Ai



28TechCrunch / 6h
When young (or youngish) people think of age-tech, they may picture mostly clinical solutions—telemedicine platforms, for instance. Growing older, however, doesn’t just have a physical component. Isolation, for example, is a serious issue for elderly people, especially during the pandemic. And older people still have to manage their day-to-day routines and finances, not just plan estates and will



Instagram Three Feed•
69Mashable / 6h
Last month we found out that Instagram is finally planning to bring back the chronological feed . Now we have our first look at how it will work — and the good news for any fans of the algorithmic curation is that that's not going anywhere. Instagram boss Adam Mosseri shared a video on Twitter and (naturally) Instagram briefly explaining the feature and showing how it looks. "In the future we'll



Amazon Alexa NASA Artemis•
Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco have announced a new collaboration that will see Cisco Webex and Amazon's Alexa integrated into NASA's Orion spacecraft. This innovative payload, dubbed Callisto, will fly on board the Orion spacecraft which was built by Lockheed Martin for the US space agency's Artemis 1 uncrewed mission around the Moon. Callisto will use Alexa and Webex to test and demonstrate



Enlarge / The remains of an individual buried in an Augustinian friary, excavated in 2016 on the University of Cambridge's New Museums site. There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that fell through the cracks in 2020, each day from De



GAF Energy Tesla Solar•
Timberline Roofing company GAF Energy has announced Timberline Solar, a new solar roof option for consumers who want to decrease their dependence on the electrical grid and their home’s carbon footprint. Timberline Solar is a new product poised to take on Tesla’s Solar Roof in a big way, not the least of which is due to GAF Energy’s massive presence in … Continue reading



Korean Car SOCAR IPO•
28TechCrunch / 8h
SOCAR , a south Korean car-sharing startup, has filed for an initial public offering, announced on Wednesday by Korea Exchange . The details – the number of shares to be offered in the IPO and the price range – have not yet been determined, said a spokesperson at SOCAR. SOCAR has reached approximately $834 billion (1 trillion won) valuation after raising $50.7 million (60 billion won) in October



Some of my favorite childhood memories include being read to, and learning to read myself to get lost in a book. If you’ll forgive me the oldmanyellsatcloud.gif moment: It’s a grievous loss that many children are so comprehensively surrounded by screens that it’s hard to experience this. I was delighted, then, to see Oranoff launch its StoryPhones product at CES this year. The headphones can, ind



Imagine a world... where people ride their own individual robo-pods without ever needing to set foot on the ground. Hyundai presented such a world this week at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas. Of course in this future the cellphone screens are see-through . The Korean carmaker announced its acquisition of the robotics company Boston Dynamics just before last year's CES, and is clearly



CES 2022 has been an odd year for the international technology convention – it’s in-person, but from the photos, few people are there. Similarly, TVs have been announced, but you won’t find them anywhere on the show floor or in any of the keynotes. Still, neither of those issues have stopped the major manufacturers from going all-in on TV technology at CES 2022 – they just did it in an unconventi



SlashGear / 10h
Image Credit: Nex Computer Smartphones today, at least the high-end ones, are powerful enough to be our desktops. Some manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei have even taken that literally with their own systems for turning their smartphones into desktops. Strangely enough, these companies didn’t try building a hardware and software ecosystem around these features, which could have made



28TechCrunch / 10h
CES hasn’t traditionally been the healthiest week for me. Aside from some unintentional intermittent fasting, TechCrunch really has the habit of doing it up with our team dinners at the show, to say nothing of Matt’s near religious devotion to a Mexican place named Tacos & Beer. In my defense, I will say that there’s never been a year that I haven’t blown through my step count several times over



One of the questions I'm asked most frequently is 'how can I donate miles to charity?' And the problem is that you really can't unless you want to give to one of a handful of pre-selected groups your frequent flyer program endorses, or you want to directly book an award for someone out of your account. Just before the pandemic United Airlines launched a platform to let charities fundraise for mil



CES 2022 MSI Stealth GS77•
MSI premiered the latest refresh of gaming laptops and devices for creators during its MSIology: Gameverse virtual event as a part of CES 2022 . These new laptops feature up to the new RTX 3080 Ti for laptops , as well as an Intel Core i7 processor. The Stealth and Raider lines also use a Phase-Change Liquid Metal Pad, which increases performance by up to 10%. (Image credit: MSI) The GS77/66 Stea




Gizmodo / 10h
I admit it: I use Razer’s mechanical gaming keyboards and its smart lights to create a bit of an ~aesthetic~ in my office. And people like me are the reason why Razer launched a smart home app for its Chroma RGB lighting ecosystem. Read more...



BrightDrop Walmart•
SlashGear / 10h
BrightDrop/GM GM brand BrightDrop has announced a new partnership with Walmart that’ll involve thousands of its electric vehicles for use in the retailer’s last-mile delivery network. In addition, BrightDrop and FedEx have expanded their existing partnership, increasing the delivery company’s initial EV reservation from 500 to 2,000 vehicles. All signs point toward an all-electric future and vehi



One of the questions I'm asked most frequently is 'how can I donate miles to charity?' And the problem is that you really can't unless you want to give to one of a handful of pre-selected groups your frequent flyer program endorses, or you want to directly book an award for someone out of your account. Just before the pandemic United Airlines launched a platform to let charities fundraise for mil



CDC Five COVID Guidance•
28Ars Technica / 11h
Enlarge / CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testifies during a Senate committee hearing in July 2021. (credit: Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images ) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday offered mixed messages on the use of at-home rapid tests as the agency continued to defend its controversial recommendation that people with COVID-19 can leave isolation early without testing



Razer Zephyr Pro Mask•
100+Mashable / 11h
This mask is quite literally lit. On Wednesday, Razer debuted the Pro version of its Zephyr mask. The Razer Zephyr is a transparent mask with fans and two-way air filters that’s also equipped with customizable party-ready lighting. The Pro version adds voice amplification to the mask so everyone will be able to hear you when you say how much you love this song. The Zephyr is based on a concept Ra



Mashable / 11h
Major sex toy companies have made numerous highly visible and vocal attempts to go green over the last decade-plus : As the industry woke up to the toxic effects of common toy materials, most makers overhauled their manufacturing, using body safe and often more environmentally sound practices and substances. To cut down on ancillary waste , most replaced battery-gobbling electric toys with rechar



Lenovo Yoga 2022 Intel•
Enlarge / Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 in "vegan leather" with a bronze colored "Communications Bar" up top. (credit: Lenovo ) It's a new year, which means it's time for laptop refreshes. If 2022 is anything like 2021, many premium and business users will find themselves juggling work and home life, potentially both in an office and at home. Lenovo's next pile of laptops aimed at these power users comes w



Meta AR VR Operating Apple•
Enlarge / The Oculus Quest 2, Meta's most popular VR headset today. (credit: Sam Machkovech ) Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has pulled the plug on its current efforts to develop an operating system for AR and VR devices, The Information reported today. Citing "two people familiar with the decision," the article claims that Meta will return to the status quo of running Oculus devic



Google 2022 Fast Pair•
SlashGear / 11h
rafapress/Shutterstock Google has announced a slew of upcoming Android improvements that are slated for release in 2022. The company made the announcement as part of CES 2022, and the improvements look to significantly improve the overall experience of using Android, especially across multiple devices. Google released Android 12 in October 2021, but the company is continuing to add improvements a



100+Gizmodo / 11h
I’ll never forget the first time I saw a Hayao Miyazaki movie . I was in college and this new animated film called Princess Mononoke was coming to theaters. The trailers looked cool and I’d tangentially heard of the filmmaker’s other films like My Neighbor Totoro —but growing up in a small town, films like that weren’t… Read more...



67Ars Technica / 11h
Enlarge (credit: Eric Lagace / Flickr ) Android's January security patch is out, and it's addressing one of the nastiest Android bugs to come up in some time: certain apps can stop you from contacting 911 or other worldwide emergency services numbers. In early December, a harrowing tale popped up in the GooglePixel subreddit from a user whose Pixel 3 crashed when they needed it most: while dialin



Gizmodo / 12h
Some gamers still use wired headsets instead of the countless wireless options on the market because they don’t want to deal with charging, but now they don’t have to. HyperX at CES 2022 unveiled a new Cloud Alpha Wireless that supposedly boasts 300 hours of battery life. Read more...



Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Will the H-1B lottery be based on the highest wages? Dear Sop



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 5, 2021! Today we have a great mix of news for you. Mega-rounds? Heck yes. Electric trucks from U.S. companies? Yep! Android cozying up to Windows? But of course. And some great essays on lock-up periods, LP transparenc



41Gizmodo / 12h
On Wednesday, a Twitter user going by the name Homo Digitalis published a two-and-a-half-minute clip with the caption, “This is how Walmart envisions Shopping in the #Metaverse .” And that vision, I gotta say, is looking pretty bleak. Read more...



21TechCrunch / 12h
Doosan Robotics this week announced $33.7 million in funding, led Praxis Capital Partners and Korea Investment Partners. The fundraising news arrives as the Seoul-based company shows off its wares at CES in Las Vegas. The company says the funding will be used to increase research and development and attract new partners as it looks to expand its global footprint. Doosan also notes in a release th



Hawaii Safe Travels•
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information. Hawaii’s Safe Travels, the digital COVID-19 health system required for use by all visitors of the Aloha State, has officially been in use for more than a year. As the omicron variant spreads, it’s likely to stay around a bit longer. Under the system, travelers must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 tes



Fisker Ocean CES ADAS•
Mashable / 12h
The electric Fisker Ocean SUV has made it from the coast to the desert, soaking up that Las Vegas sunshine for extra solar energy. In a video released Wednesday at the CES technology show Fisker showed its upcoming electric SUV on the move. Its CEO Henrik Fisker is at the wheel during the high-speed ride and we see the Pac-Man-like solar panels from above. The EV was first revealed at CES 2020 an



NASA Webb Telescope•
48Mashable / 12h
The James Webb telescope has a two-story concave mirror that looks like a golden honeycomb dish. On Wednesday, that’s not what NASA opened. What it did deploy was a much smaller mirror — a round convex piece only 2.4 feet in diameter, about that of a car tire. But the Webb team cautions against underestimating its significance. As program manager Bill Oakes said during the live broadcast of the d



Online chatter about holding rallies has grown, but sizable real-world gatherings on Thursday are unlikely to materialize.




34TechCrunch / 12h
Perhaps PodCase was ahead of its time. It certainly made sense for devoted Apple fans: a one-stop portable charging solution for one’s iPhone and AirPods. The product also had the pedigree to match, including Pebble co-founder (and future YC partner) Eric Migicovsky. Ultimately the project failed to reach its lofty $300,000 Kickstarter goal. For its part, Brooklyn-based Power1 kept its funding go



HTC VIVE VR Wrist Tracker•
SlashGear / 12h
HTC HTC is ready to expand the arsenal of add-ons available for its Vive Focus 3, starting with the new Vive Wrist Tracker. Built specifically to work with the Vive Focus 3’s inside-out tracking, the Vive Wrist Tracker features one-button pairing for easier connectivity. HTC says that the tracker is also 85% smaller than the controller for the Vive Focus 3, … Continue reading



KFC Beyond Fried Chicken•
2KFuturism / 12h
Green Nuggets KFC will bring plant-based chicken to restaurants nationwide starting next week, the latest in meat alternative products changing the face of the fast food industry. The fried chicken chain worked with Beyond Meat to create a chicken breast alternative designed to mimic the consistency of ground chicken. “This is really about where the customer is going; they want to eat more plant-



100+Futurism / 12h
Admit it: you’ve caught yourself checking out your little rectangle in Zoom and Google meetings, haven’t you? If you, like this reporter, have fallen victim to Zoom vanity during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re not alone — a new study conducted by Washington State University’s Carson College of Business has found that some people actually enjoy looking into their webcam “mirrors.” Published in the



Russian Rocket Earth•
300+Futurism / 12h
A Russian rocket booster is making its uncontrolled re-entry through the atmosphere right now — and officials aren’t entirely sure where its remains will make impact. According to state-run news agency TASS , the full-size payload mockup that was meant to test a new rocket stage successfully separated from an Angara-A5 carrier rocket after launching late last month. But the booster’s engines fail



Engadget / 12h
Meta's in-house staff won't have to return to the office for months , but some of its contracted workers are only now getting a similar reprieve. BuzzFeed News has learned subcontractor Accenture has scrapped a requirement that hundreds of Facebook moderators return to in-person work in Mountain View, California on January 24th. The original plan, provided to moderators in late December, would ha



83Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge / The launch-vehicle stage adapter for NASA's Space Launch System rocket is integrated with the core stage in June 2021. (credit: NASA ) NASA said Wednesday that it is now targeting "mid-February" for an initial rollout of the Space Launch System rocket to the launch pad. The space agency set the new date after engineers and technicians successfully removed a faulty engine controller from



300+Gizmodo / 12h
Alien director Ridley Scott may have slammed the idea , but we’re very interested in what Legion and Fargo TV show creator Noah Hawley is going to do with the Alien franchise. (Certainly more than any additional Alien movies Scott makes.) And while we’re not going to see new Xenomorph shenanigans on our TV sets for… Read more...



400+The Points Guy / 12h
Americans hold the “world’s most powerful passport” this year, according to Global Citizen Solution’s Global Passport Index, implying your U.S. passport may be more helpful than what previous rankings from other sources suggest. For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter . The Portugal-based consultancy firm, Global Citizens, ranked the United States



If you find yourself unwillingly hosting scratchy, scurrying vermin in your kitchen—and you’re pretty sure you hear them rattling around in your stove and oven—you’re not alone. Mice are attracted to the warmth of the pilot light and plentiful crumbs and leftover food scraps in a

Backblaze
Posted by at