Thursday, January 13, 2022

Thursday Technology News and more...

Technology News and More..




46TechCrunch / 2h
Fintech Farm , a newly launched fintech startup based in the U.K. that creates digital banks in emerging markets, confirmed to TechCrunch today that it has raised $7.4 million in seed funding. The company said it plans to use the investment to launch neobanks in eight countries over the next 24 months. Flyer One Ventures and Solid led the seed round. TA Ventures, Jiji, u.ventures and AVentures Ca



Nintendo’s Switch Online NES controllers are currently on sale, with almost 50% off the usual asking price. If you’re currently a Nintendo Switch Online member , you can pick up two of Nintendo’s replica wireless pads for just $34.99 , which is a whopping saving of $25. (Not in the US? Check out the best deals in your area below.) The NES controllers are the perfect way to enjoy the classic NES g



Gizmodo / 33min
Nigeria will lift a ban on Twitter on Thursday after seven months, according to a statement published online from the country’s technology development agency. The government banned Twitter for enabling “subversive” and “criminal” activities, though in reality it was likely because the social media company deleted a… Read more...




Radisson Rewards has just launched a sale on award redemptions. While it’s not the biggest or most useful award sale we’ve ever seen, I imagine some people will still be able to take advantage of this. 15% off free night award redemptions Radisson Rewards has just launched a promotion offering 15% off when you redeem for free nights: Reservations must be made between January 12 and 18, 2022 Valid



The next Moto foldable phone , presumably called the Motorola Razr 2022, is shaping up to be a big reinvention for the family - it's the third-gen version of the phone, following on from the Motorola Razr 2019 and Razr 2020 , but it might be the first really worth paying attention to. Motorola skipped a year in its pattern, with no Razr 2021, which has given the company even more time to create t



Engadget / 8min
Google Meet has started rolling out live translated captions widely after testing the feature last year. It works on web or mobile but is still fairly limited, translating only English meetings to four languages: French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. "Translated captions help make Google Meet video calls more inclusive and collaborative by removing language proficiency barriers," Google wrote i



The best streaming box out there just got better. Nvidia Shield TV owners will be treated to a significant upgrade for their Android-based media streamers today, as a new Android 11 update rolls out for the devices. Known as Nvidia Shield Experience 9.0, the update’s biggest new feature is bringing the system software up in line with Google’s Android 11 Google TV standards. As well as security an



Mashable / 31min
If you've never heard the term "decolonize" but stumble across it on social media, where it pops up via hashtag or meme, the word can raise more questions than answers. At first glance, the call to decolonize sounds like a challenge to change your way of thinking, but how isn't necessarily made clear. The word's origins come from a period in the 20th century when former colonies gained independen



Delta Extends Travel•
During the pandemic, we saw most major airlines in the United States eliminate change fees on a majority of fares , giving travelers lots more flexibility. The catch is that the ticket credits issued from canceled tickets do have expiration dates, and for some airlines, those expiration dates are coming up for travel from the start of the pandemic. Fortunately Delta Air Lines has just announced a



Batman Rated 13 Rating•
Matt Reeves’ The Batman has been officially rated PG-13 – and some fans aren’t happy. “The Batman deserves an R rating!” one Twitter user said, while another suggested that “nobody wants a Batman that isn't in his full glory: dark, gritty, mature, serious.” Others made reference to Warner Bros. Studios’ obvious desire to open up screenings of The Batman to as many punters as possible, including c



Sony PlayStation 5•
To make up for the lack of PS5 consoles in the wild, Sony is reportedly continuing to manufacture the PlayStation 4 as a backup option to keep players in the PlayStation ecosystem. Unfortunately, though, the PS4 appears to be almost as scarce as the PS5. Multiple UK retailers like Argos and Currys are completely out of stock, with the likes of GAME and Amazon only offering used or refurbished con



Nigeria Twitter Months•
Engadget / 56min
Nigerians can now access Twitter again without having to use VPNs or having to fear repercussions for doing so. The Nigerian government has lifted the ban on Twitter on January 13th, 2022, over seven months after it ordered telecom providers in the country to block the social network. According to CNN , Reuters and The Financial Times , Nigeria has decided to lift the ban after Twitter agreed to



BMW Ventures HeyCharge•
TechCrunch / 58min
EV charging continues to be a high-growth business, for obvious reasons. Since 2007, one of the largest players has been ChargePoint, the floated US company which with a widespread EV charging network. But plenty of startups are snapping at its heels. One of them is Germany-based HeyCharge , which realised there was a problem with how EVs could be charged in underground carparks, where roughly 80



Zero Trust Security•
Many businesses understand the concept and the benefits, of zero-trust network access ( ZTNA ), and also say they have implemented, or believe to be in the process of implementing, a zero-trust security model. This is the conclusion of a new report from enterprise security provider Fortinet, which added many of these organizations are probably failing to implement ZTNA properly. Fortinet’s report



Amazon has slashed 17% off the price of the LIFX A60 colour smart light bulb with a bayonet fitting, reducing it from £39.99 to just £33.24 . While it's not as low as the prices we saw on Black Friday and Cyber Monday , it's still good value. (Not in the UK? Scroll down for the best smart light deals in your region.) The best smart lights are one of the easiest and most affordable ways to automat



Sony PlayStation PN•
PlayStation Now gift cards are being pulled from retailers across the UK and will be unavailable by next week. "Stores have until the close of day January 19 to remove all POS and ESD cards from all customer-facing areas and update their digital bays in line with this week’s upcoming commercial update," reads a message from leadership at GAME. According to GamesBeat , retailers in the US and Cana



If you're in the market for a new pair of true wireless earbuds but don't want to break the bank, the Sennheiser CX True Wireless are a great choice – and they've just returned to their lowest price in the US. Usually $129.95, Amazon has slashed the price of the budget wireless earbuds to just $79.95 , saving you $50. You can also save on the Sennheiser CX True Wireless in the UK, with Amazon dro



The Umbrella Academy season 3 is set to launch on Netflix later this year – and it seems that we won't be prepared for the amount of heartbreak that it'll contain. Posting a new storyboard image on his Instagram account on January 12, showrunner Steve Blackman whipped fans into a frenzy about what's actually going to go down in The Umbrella Academy season 3 . And, given that the image shows Allis



Xbox Series Walmart•
TL;DR: Walmart will reportedly have a limited stock of PlayStation 5 consoles available for paying Walmart+ members on Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. EST . QUICK LINKS: PlayStation 5 — $499 PlayStation 5 Digital Edition — $399 Manifesting a PlayStation 5 for 2022? Here's your first opportunity to snag the ever-elusive console at Walmart in the new year: The big box store is releasing a limited restock for pay



TL;DR: As of Jan. 13, you can take 11% off a CLIQ Portable Camping Chair 2-Pack and get it for $159.99 instead of $179. Foldable chairs aren’t exactly high on everyone’s list of everyday carry essentials. But there are definitely instances when you wish you had one, right? That’s basically why the CLIQ Portable Camping Chair was created — and fully funded on Indiegogo. Featured on Mashable before



TL;DR: As of Jan. 13, the Stamina Cardio Climber is on sale for $599 — that's 20% off its retail price of $749. Real life can quickly get in the way of even the best intentions. So, if one of your resolutions was to move more and stay off your couch as much as possible, you might as well cut out the middle man (the gym) so there are no excuses when it comes to moving your body. With the Stamina C




TL;DR: The Sam's Club membership is just $19.99 with a $10 gift card at the Mashable Shop as of Jan. 13. Sam’s Club may not have the cool factor of Trader Joe's or Whole Foods , but you know what it does have? Unbeatable prices, the ability to buy in bulk, members-only exclusivity, and a whole bunch of free stuff . If you’ve ever contemplated becoming a member, this deal will surely help you make



TL;DR: The Amore Natural Hybrid Mattresses in full , queen , king , or California king are 24% off for a limited time at the Mashable Shop as of Jan. 13. When you wake up well rested from having optimal spine support all night long — that’s Amore. The Amore Natural Hybrid mattress offers the ideal balance between soft and firm, with cushioning comfort and excellent pressure response to boot. And



Sony doesn't sell many smartphones in the US, so it's always big news when a new one arrives — particularly a high-end model. After launching in other regions last year, the Xperia 5 III is now available stateside for $1,000, Ars Technica has reported. The Xperia 5 III is slightly smaller than the company's consumer flagship Xperia 1 III but has pretty similar specs. It comes with a Snapdragon 88



With 2022 now well underway, many of us may have set (and possibly already broken) new year's resolutions - but this year, why not extend this spirit of change to your business? Running a small business can often be hectic, juggling priorities and aiming to attract customers while looking to continue growth. Having the right computing hardware can be vital to success in such a competitive marketp



Oppo Find X5 Pro•
We recently saw the surprisingly early launch of the OnePlus 10 Pro , the latest top-end phone from OnePlus that was expected in March or April - and if you didn't like the look of it, you're certainly not going to be impressed by Oppo's next phone if this new leak is correct. Popular leaker Digital Chat Station posted on Chinese social media site Weibo with some specs of the Oppo Find X5 Pro, th



GPS Services API Payments•
Embedded finance continues to be the engine driving the growth of fintech, with one group of companies building core banking, payments and other financial technology, and a much bigger group tapping that technology through APIs to build customer-facing businesses. Today, one of the bigger players on the core technology side — Global Processing Services — is announcing $100 million in funding, a s



Apple Ios 15.2.1 15.3•
Your iPhone or iPad is about to recieve a new update to its software (or may already have it) in the form of iOS 15.2.1 or iPadOS 15.2.1. It comes exactly a month after iOS 15.2 update landed, and it's here to fix a couple of bugs you may be experiencing on your iPhone or iPad. However, don't expect any major new features with this update. In fact, Apple's changelog only mentions two bug fixes wh



Priyamani has been a front-ranking actress in South Indian film industry for long. She in fact won the National award for the best actress for the 2007 Tamil film Paruthiveeran . But it is the web series The Family Man (Season 1 and 2) kind of catapulted her into national recognition. She played Suchi (Suchitra Tiwari), the Tamil wife of Manoj Bajpayee (Srikant Tiwari), who juggles between a stre



Lipa Later , a Kenyan tech-led consumer credit platform, is planning to expand to new markets in Africa after raising $12 million in pre-Series A funding. The equity and debt funding round saw the participation of Cauris Finance, Lateral Frontiers VC, GreenHouse Capital, SOSV IV LLC, Sayani Investments and Axian Financial Services. The startup, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company founded in 2018,



Gizmodo / 3h
Watching a professional DJ turning random scratches, loops, and samples into a catchy tune is mesmerizing . If it’s a skill you’ve aspired to, or just one you’d like to experiment with in your free time, Pioneer’s new DDJ-REV1 is an affordable all-in-one alternative to dropping a few thousand dollars on a pair of… Read more...



MycoWorks , a company making a fungal-based biomaterial that can replace leather, brought in a fresh round of funding — $125 million in Series C financing — to fund a production plant for scaling the manufacture of its flagship product Reishi. CEO Matt Scullin says what his company is doing in terms of fabrics is different from its competitors, touting the company’s Fine Mycelium process as “a bi



Pioneer DJ DDJ Serato•
Battle DJs, the turntablists that perfect the art of cutting and scratching music to build new creations on-the-fly are getting some new gear for the mobile digital world. Until now, most devices for this style of mixing have either been the classic turntables and mixer combo, or pricey modular units. Today, Pioneer DJ announces its new DDJ-REV controller series focused on the battle DJ’s style o
YESTERDAY



Apple $30M Bag Lawsuit•
The long-running lawsuit Apple faced over off-the-clock bag searches of its employees in California is almost over. While its final approval hearing won't take place until July, the tech giant has detailed the terms of the $29.9 million settlement it agreed to and provided claimants (and everyone else) access to documents related to the case on its legal website . The list of documents includes e



On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he expects the COVID-19 Omicron variant will infect "just about everybody," but that people who have been vaccinated will "very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well." Unfortunately, as Late Show host Stephen Colbert points out, that's a small, cold comfort considering how dangerous the disease has proven to be. "Okay, there are certain things I don't



A decision by Austria’s data protection watchdog upholding a complaint against a website related to its use of Google Analytics does not bode well for use of US cloud services in Europe. The decision raises a big red flag over routine use of tools that require transferring Europeans’ personal data to the US for processing — with the watchdog finding that IP address and identifiers in cookie data



Sparks fly and metal crumples when doleful strangers Mary and Gary literally collide. But as their fledgling relationship deepens, so does the mood. More meat cute than meet cute, follow our guide as we explain how to watch Wolf Like Me online and stream the new romantic dramedy from anywhere in the world. Watch Wolf Like Me online When: Thursdays from January 13 Stream: Peacock (US) | Stan (AU)



We're already into the second week of 2022 and there are some good shows and movies to watch this week- starting with the return of Scream on the big screen. There's also Heavenly Bites: Mexico on Netflix and The tragedy of Macbeth on Apple TV Plus. We have you covered as look into all the new TV shows as well in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. We’ve handpicked shows from



Turnip Raises Gaming•
Turnip, an Indian startup that is building a mobile-first gaming community platform, has raised $12.5 million in a new financing round to deepen its footprints in India and dozens of other countries and dabble with web3 as it looks to broaden its product offerings. Greenoaks and Elevation Capital co-led the one-and-a-half-year-old startup’s Series A round. SEA Capital, Vibe Capital and scores of



SAVE 83%: Private Internet Access is one of the best VPNs for security and streaming, with a slick interface making it a suitable option for beginners. A three-year subscription to Private Internet Access is on sale for £1.67 per month, and includes an extra three months for free. You know how we said some of the best VPN deals were available over Christmas? We weren't lying, but some of the very




TL;DR: The Ultimate 2022 Backend Developer Bundle is on sale for £29.39, saving you 98% on list price. Back-end development, also known as server-side development, is everything you don’t see when you look at a website or app. It’s what makes the wheels turn behind the scenes — including the databases, APIs, and servers. Without it, the aesthetically-pleasing website you see in front of you would



TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to a Degoo Premium Mega Backup Plan is on sale for £110, saving you 96% on list price. From work to taxes to streaming to writing personal emails, your computer goes through a lot — and sometimes things go wrong. But with the Degoo Premium mega backup plan , you'll have a backup of your most important files and videos. Degoo is an artificial intelligence-based cloud



SAVE 36%: The Kindle holds thousands of titles so you can take your library with you. The Kindle is on sale for £44.99 on Amazon as of Jan 13, and includes three months of Kindle Unlimited for free. Were you hoping to find a Kindle in your stocking? If you were let down by Father Christmas last year, you can sort yourself out with this popular e-reader on sale for 36% off on Amazon. The Kindle is



12L Google Pixel Fold•
Although it was previously believed that the rumored Google Pixel Fold device was canceled before it was even announced , new evidence continues to point to the foldable still being in development. Last week, we reported on a Geekbench listing for a handset believed to be the Google Pixel Fold, suggesting that the device is indeed still in the works, and now the latest piece of attestation comes



Apple iPhone 14 Pro•
Rumors about Apple's iPhone 14 range have been bubbling away of late, with a recent leak suggesting a price jump for the Pro and Pro Max handsets , and another hinting at a large camera cutout replacing the notch . According to Ross Young – an expert on supply-chain information regarding displays – Apple will incorporate both a circular and pill-shaped camera cutout on the front display of the iP



Fact Checkers YouTube•
29Mashable / 8h
Over 80 fact-checking organisations have come together to list four simple ways YouTube could combat the rampant spread of misinformation on their platform, if it felt so inclined. In an open letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, The International Fact-Checking Network's called out YouTube as "one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide," and proposed it partne



60TechCrunch / 9h
If you haven’t heard of Animoca Brands over the last year or so, you haven’t been paying close attention. With a long and growing list of digital entertainment, blockchain, and gaming properties, the eight-year-old, 600-person Hong Kong-based outfit has quietly become one of the most active participants in a world that more and more stakeholders believe is the next iteration of the web. Just toda



Pegasus El Salvador•
64Wired / 9h
The newly disclosed campaign shows how little the company has done to curb abuses of its powerful surveillance tools.



63Mashable / 9h
Where oh where is Tesla's Cybertruck? Or, more to the point, when ? The electric carmaker's website dedicated to all things about the cyber-punk electric pickup keeps getting more and more vague about the EV's production schedule. Back in October Tesla wiped the Cybertruck site of all pricing and model information, but kept a crucial detail: a production start time in 2022. Now if you go to the s



Apple has always painted itself as a champion of user privacy, going above and beyond to provide features that protect its customers from prying eyes. It has become both popular and unpopular for its hard stance on encrypting its iPhones, but those protections don’t apply to the data that goes out of the phone and over the Internet. That is … Continue reading



23Gizmodo / 9h
One of the weirder stories from last year involved a gargantuan FBI honeypot operation designed to catch crooks all over the world. According to Motherboard , that operation had a bigger imprint in the U.S. than originally believed. Read more...



SlashGear / 10h
Tractive For better or worse, many cat owners let their feline friends have the lay of the land — after all, it can be very difficult to try to contain them in a backyard, even if that is the owner’s intent. Cats love nothing more than being able to climb trees and scale fences. They are, in just about every way, … Continue reading



India LEAD EdTech Unicorn•
26TechCrunch / 10h
Despite the recent boom of consumer-focused education learning platforms in India, the vast majority of students in the South Asian nation remain unserved. The existing B2C offerings are expensive for most of the students and are heavily skewed towards those in high-school preparing for competitive exams. LEAD School, a nine-year-old startup, is addressing this disconnect by leveraging an infrast



75Gizmodo / 10h
Starz has just dropped a sneak peak at Shining Vale , a new half-hour horror comedy series starring Courteney Cox, a marketing move that is no doubt timed to a certain huge horror movie starring Cox that’s out later this week. But hey, the themes go together, and this clip—which also features Greg Kinnear (as Cox’s… Read more...



Kroger Nuro Autonomous•
SlashGear / 11h
Nuro Nuro, the car company known for creating autonomous delivery vehicles, has established itself as a budding industry leader in autonomous deliveries (via Reuters). The company develops driverless cars for businesses that need to deliver goods to customers and that want to do so in a sustainable and efficient manner. Nuro’s autonomous electric vehicles are currently used by major brands includ



The Software Report•
In addition to its business password manager , Keeper Security now offers a new cloud-based, zero knowledge solution for security infrastructure secrets. With Keeper Secrets Manager, organizations can now easily store their API keys, certificates, database passwords, access keys and other types of confidential data. Keeper Security's new offering is available for £8.33 (around $11.42) per month p



If Valle de Guadalupe is the next big thing in wine, plenty are hearing the call. This up-and-coming wine region in Baja California, Mexico, is catching global attention for its wineries, its culinary explorations, its eye-popping lodging and much more. Known throughout Mexico for making delicious wines, Valle de Guadalupe and its 100-plus wineries are now garnering rave reviews from top wine ent



SlashGear / 11h
daniiD/Shutterstock PCI Express (PCIe) is one of the fundamental technologies in computers from virtually every manufacturer. From laptops to desktops to servers, PCIe is used to connect SSDs, hard drives, graphics cards, and networking interfaces to a computer’s motherboard. Over the years, the PCI interface has evolved as the industry and its needs have changed. The latest iteration, PCIe 6.0 i



Theranos Holmes September•
Ms. Holmes, the Theranos founder, faces up to 20 years in prison for each of four counts that led to a conviction in her federal fraud trial.



Nintendo Switch Online unlocks a ton of perks for your console, including a wide selection of classic NES, SNES, N64, and Sega games. And now, you can enjoy those retro games with a pair of discounted NES gamepads. Nintendo is offering a $25 discount on its official NES gamepad two-pack until February 2nd, bringing its price down to just $35. Read This Article on Review Geek ›




Projectors deliver the ultimate home cinema experience thanks to their crisp image quality and massive display size. But what if you want to play games on a 120-inch screen? Can you use a projector for gaming, and if so, what do you need to know before buying a gaming projector? Read This Article on Review Geek ›



I have tickets for eight Broadway shows this year. Yes, eight. And it’s only January. Unfortunately, I won’t be seeing them all, thanks to omicron-related cancellations. Broadway reopened in September , but I wasn’t quite ready to get back to it. Finally, in December, after nearly 24 months of musical withdrawal, I took full advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, making plans to see sh



Engadget / 12h
Following a year that saw it struggle to shield its users from abuse and harassment, Twitch has published a retrospective of its 2021 safety efforts that includes a look forward to how the company plans to tackle the issue in 2022. Specifically, Angela Hession, Twitch’s vice president of global trust and safety, says the company will update its user reporting and appeals process. It also plans to



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 12, 2022! Today we have to talk about things both serious and less serious. So we’re going to look at global venture capital results for 2021, and Wordle. A delayed IPO, and the fact that a panda-themed startup is now a



Vox Machina TLVM CR•
The Legend of Vox Machina is based on the hugely popular livestreamed Dungeon & Dragons- based web series Critical Role . Rowdy misfits-turned-mercenaries become unlikely heroes in the red-band trailer for The Legend of Vox Machina , a new adult animated fantasy series coming to Prime Video. The series has an inspiring origin story. A group of professional voice actors used to get together to pla



ASRock AMD Ryzen X370•
AMD Ryzen 5000 desktop processors , which initially didn’t support older X370 motherboards, has finally received its first legacy X370 support from motherboard vendor ASRock. ASRock announced an official BIOS for its X370 PRO 4 motherboard, which has been listed to support Ryzen 5000 processors. Users who want to make the upgrade to the new chips on their old motherboard can do so by going to the



Editor’s note: This guide has been updated with the latest information. Whether you’re traveling or not, credit card companies are looking to entice consumers to keep spending — both at home and on the road. In 2020, Chase was one of the most proactive card issuers in announcing temporary card bonuses and benefits as people shifted into self-isolation and the new rhythms of pandemic life. As we c



500+Futurism / 12h
Smart guns pulled straight from a “James Bond” movie will soon hit the shelves in the US — and it’s raising the hackles of Second Amendment activists. Firearms companies LodeStar Works and SmartGunz LLC have unveiled 9mm handguns that can only be fired by verified users, Reuters reports . The companies plan to launch the futuristic guns commercially this year. Gareth Glaser, cofounder of LodeStar



STALKER 2 December•
SlashGear / 12h
Image: GSC Game World If you’re looking forward to STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl, then we’ve unfortunately got some disappointing news to share. STALKER 2 has been delayed, and it isn’t a minor one either. While Heart of Chernobyl will still be released this year, it’ll only barely make it, as the game has been pushed back to December. On Twitter today, STALKER 2 … Continue reading



N95 Masks CDC Americans•
Enlarge / Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | Shawn Thew ) As cases of the ultra-transmissible omicron coronavirus variant continue to increase in the US, many experts have pushed for Americans to



App Store AmpMe 2022•
36TechCrunch / 12h
Around the same time Apple was touting its sizable App Store revenue growth this week, developer and noted App Store critic Kosta Eleftheriou brought to light what appeared to be yet another App Store scammer hiding in plain sight. On Twitter , Eleftheriou documented the earnings for a music syncing app called AmpMe , which claims to boost your music’s volume by syncing it across devices, includi



Developers at the open source project TeleDrive have come up with a simple trick to use the encrypted messaging service Telegram to provide users with free cloud storage . In addition to offering unlimited file sharing and encryption, Telegram also has an API that developers can use to access the service's cloud storage feature. By leveraging the Telegram API, the developers at TeleDrive have dev



Engadget / 12h
Digital sleuths have obtained one of the most elusive video games to date. According to Kotaku , game conservationists Forest of Illusion have obtained eSmart 2.0 , a very rare Nintendo DS training game distributed to Japanese McDonald's employees in 20


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