Friday, February 25, 2022

Friday Technology News and More

Technology News and More...






The fast-paced online coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday followed a pattern that’s become familiar in other recent crises that have unfolded around the world. Photos, videos, and other information are posted and reshared across platforms much faster than they can be verified. The result is that falsehoods are mistaken for truth and amplified, even by well-intentioned people.



If you’ve been hoping to get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy S22 then today could be the day, as the whole range – including the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra – is now on sale. Or at least it is in the US, and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is also out now in the UK, but that phone isn’t coming to Australia until March 3. Both the UK and Australia have to wait a bit for the ot



Gizmodo / now
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has called on all citizens of Kyiv who own hobby drones to bring them in and help monitor the city as Russia invades, according to a new Facebook post by the military. Even if people don’t know how to fly their own drones very well they’re still being encouraged to bring them in so that… Read more...




PlayStation Spartacus•
The Xbox Game Pass rival that Sony is cooking up for the PlayStation will have three tiers that cost $10, $13 and $16 a month, according to VentureBeat's GamesBeat . Bloomberg first reported about the all-in-one game subscription service codenamed Spartacus back in December. Based on the documents the publication saw, Spartacus would merge the perks offered by PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus
YESTERDAY



Russian Aeroflot UK•
It’s heartbreaking beyond words to see the events unfolding in Ukraine. What a helpless and horrifying situation, and like so many people I’m keeping everyone there in my thoughts. Countries are starting to impose sanctions against Russia, and in some cases this could have implications for aviation. UK bans Aeroflot flights The UK Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the foreign carrier permit



Tumblr Free Ads Month•
Gizmodo / 2h
In an online world where ads have become inseparable from social media, Tumblr—yes, it’s still around —is going against the grain. Its message: Say goodbye to the bizarre ads on Tumblr, if you want. Read more...



Citibank Phishing DHL•
Citibank customers are now being targeted in a phishing campaign by scammers impersonating the bank online. According to Bitdefender , the cybersecurity firm's Antispam Lab recently observed thousands of phony email messages sent to the bank's customers with the aim of stealing their personal information and online credentials. While these campaigns are primarily focused on the US with 81 percent



TL;DR: The 2022 Premium Python Programming PCEP Certification Prep Bundle is on sale for £25.72, saving you 98% on list price. Whether you're somewhat familiar with Python programming and want to fine-tune your skills or are just starting out with no prior knowledge, this course bundle can help you advance your career in programming. And for a limited time, it's on sale for just £25.72. The 2022



TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to WiredVibe is on sale for £36.75, saving you 95% on list price. Spotify and Apple Music are great for getting the party started, driving, winding down at night, or even getting some stuff done around the house. But in a world of distractions, your favourite songs and playlists definitely don’t do wonders for your productivity. Sure, you can find some instrumental



SAVE 49%: ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing bonus content on Hulu. A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for £76.04, and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. Hulu is one of the most popular streaming sites in the world, with plenty of award-winning movies, hit shows, and regular releases of original content. Unfortunately, Hulu is only availa



The OPPO Pad has arrived sporting a flashy design arguably inspired by the latest iPad Pro models. Unlike the iPad, however, this slate has a very low price.



Beam $93M Series Asia•
78TechCrunch / 6h
Beam , a Singaporean shared micromobility operator, announced today that it has raised $93 million in a Series B round to accelerate growth into new countries in Asia. The fresh capital, which brings its total funding raised to $135 million, was led by Affirma Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital India, Hana Ventures, ICT Capital, EDB Investment (EDBI), AC Ventures, RTP Global and Mom



Email Campaigns•
Amazon was the most impersonated brand worldwide in email phishing attacks in 2021 according to a new report from AtlasVPN . Last year, 17.7 percent of brand phishing emails impersonated Amazon while 16.5 percent impersonated the global logistics company DHL and 12.7 percent impersonated the eSign software company DocuSign . Further down the list, popular payment gateway provider PayPal took the



All signs are pointing toward an Apple AR/VR headset launch, but questions remain. If industry sources are correct, it may arrive this year packing iOS.



If you’ve ever wanted to listen to music without losing track of your surroundings, it may be time to shop for some bone conduction headphones. These specialized headphones lack speakers and leave your ears free to hear external noises, such as voices or oncoming cars. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



Carvana KAR Global ADESA•
55TechCrunch / 7h
Carvana, the online used car marketplace, has agreed to buy Kar Global’s Adesa U.S. auction subsidiary for $2.2 billion in cash, an acquisition aimed at adding another revenue stream as well as a network of physical sites that could help bolster operations. The acquisition announcement , which was made alongside a fourth-quarter earnings report , marks a transition for the pure online business in



Gizmodo / 7h
It’s probably safe to say Marvel has put out some reasonably good comics over the last 60 years. It’s probably also safe to say that it’s put out some of the greatest and most beloved comic stories of all time. We asked you, the readers, to give us your favorites, and here’s some of what you told us. Please note:… Read more...



FAA US Says Boeing 737•
Following the rollout of C-band 5G across the US, the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) has issued a new Airworthiness Directive (AD) for Boeing 737 aircraft. In its advisory , the government agency warned that C-band 5G transmissions could potentially interfere with landing operations at a small number of airports for most Boeing 737s. However, this new AD does not apply to landings at air



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



Russia Putin Ukraine•
500+Wired / 8h
By promising a response “never seen” in history if other countries interfere in Ukraine, the Russian leader upended decades of relative stability.




20Gizmodo / 8h
Though Hasbro has yet to let the incredibly malleable world of Transformers really shine on the big screen, the opposite is the case on toy shelves. We’ve seen Transformers figures mash-up with Back to the Future , Ghostbusters , Top Gun, and more. Now, the Robots in Disguise are teaming up with their most natural… Read more...



Arcimoto's Mean Lean Machine takes your energy and puts it back into your three-wheeled electric scooter. The e-trike was announced at electric vehicle maker Arcimoto's new product event Tuesday and shows how a three-wheeled device can be as thrilling as a regular e-scooter. But it features a lot more tilting and self-charging than your average ride. The MLM features a pedal generator so you can



UK Tech Firms Identity•
24TechCrunch / 8h
The UK government has announced (yet) more additions to its expansive and controversial plan to regulate online content — aka the Online Safety Bill . It says the latest package of measures to be added to the draft are intended to protect web users from anonymous trolling. The Bill has far broader aims as a whole, comprising a sweeping content moderation regime targeted at explicitly illegal cont



Facebook has brought back its profile lock feature, this time for users located in Ukraine. The tool was previously released in 2021 for users in Afghanistan.



The low-tech approach that helped Taiwan efficiently fight off coronavirus.



Enlarge / Lateral view of a skull found at the El Pendón site in Spain, showing signs of a primitive form of ear surgery. (credit: ÑFotógrafos Photography Study) Archaeologists have excavated a 5,300-year-old skull from a Spanish tomb and determined that seven cut marks near the left ear canal are strong evidence of a primitive surgical procedure to treat a middle ear infection. That makes this t



36Gizmodo / 9h
If you haven’t seen the trailer for Everything Everywhere All at Once , you’re missing out on probably the best damn teaser for an upcoming movie, truly. The mind-melting multiverse family dramedy from directing duo Daniels ( Swiss Army Man ) stars the legendary Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn, a Chinese immigrant thrust into a… Read more...



20TechCrunch / 9h
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 Thursday, February 24, 2022. No peppy intro from me today; I am a little consumed with news outside our orbit. Now, to work. – Alex The TechCrunch Top 3 How tech is responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine : The technology wo



Clubhouse Text Chat•
74Engadget / 9h
Social audio app Clubhouse is adding a text chat function to its voice rooms, it announced Thursday. Similar to what you see in Discord or a Zoom call, users who don’t want to speak can write out their opinions in the room’s chat channel. While it may seem counterintuitive for an audio-only app to also feature text, it’s a change that some users have been gunning for. Especially in extra-large ro



US Semiconductors Russia•
100+Wired / 9h
Russian firms and government agencies rely heavily on semiconductors from Western companies that will be cut off following the Ukraine invasion.



Intel has quietly acquired a German software developer with the aim of bringing fresh life to a key, decades-old Linux kernel project. In a blog post, vice president and general manager of system software engineering at Intel's Software and Advanced Technology Group, Mark Skarpness revealed that the company had acquired the German firm Linutronix which provides services for Linux-powered industri



One Facebook Account•
88TechCrunch / 9h
Even technically sophisticated friends are currently getting “hacked” on Facebook — here’s how to avoid it, and how to make sure your hacked account is fully recovered. Usually, accounts are “hacked” because someone somehow gets a hold of your password. That’s bad for Facebook in particular, because people often use Facebook to log into other things — so if someone gets into your Facebook account



In recognising and celebrating the most important products, technologies and companies operating in the PC space each year, the Australian PC Awards helps consumers make an informed choice about everything from motherboards and video cards to systems and storage. The editorial teams at APC , TechLife , TechRadar , PC PowerPlay and PC Gamer have combined their expertise to choose the very best of



49Gizmodo / 10h
There’s a new Batman film in theaters next week, but in a shocking twist, it doesn’t show the death of his parents. That Bruce Wayne’s parents are killed in cold blood is, of course, a key component to the character, so it’s mentioned—but for the first time in a while, we don’t actually see it happen. Read more...



SlashGear / 10h
Despite the pandemic and related industry struggles, Samsung claims its newly released Galaxy S22 smartphones have seen strong demand from consumers.



The late Senator Ted Kennedy was flagged at the airport because his name was similar to someone on the No Fly List.* Delta’s CEO wants to expand the use of these lists. And of course we can totally trust that only bad people will be hassled, right? Because law enforcement doesn’t make mistakes. Tell that to Bethany Farber who was arrested at LAX and jailed for two weeks because, police say, she h



AMD RDNA 3 will soon be upon us now that it’s been over a year since AMD introduced its RDNA 2, or Big Navi, graphics architecture design with the Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. The 6000-series successor is nearly due, going by AMD's typical product cadence, but times have been anything but typical. RDNA is the architecture and instruction set of AMD’s graphics processors. It includes ever



SEC Tesla Elon Musk•
Jon Fingas Contributor Jon Fingas is a contributing writer at Engadget . More posts by this contributor Ford’s Mustang Mach-E ousts the Tesla Model 3 as Consumer Reports’ top EV Elon Musk accuses SEC of conducting a ‘harassment campaign’ Elon Musk isn’t about to catch a hoped-for break from the SEC any time soon. Sources for The Wall Street Journal claim the SEC is investigating whether Musk and



Mashable / 10h
It's been more than 15 years since The Office first aired on NBC, but fans are still learning mind-blowing new facts about the show every week. On a recent episode of the Office Ladies podcast , former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the two-part Season 6 episode, "Niagara." They spoke with showrunner Greg Daniels about a scrapped storyline involving Pam's ex Roy crashi



2022 is shaping up to be another exciting year of tech but, before we get too stuck in, let's take advantage of that 20/20 hindsight to nominate the best consumer PC tech of 2021 – because most of these products are current, and there's no better buying guide than a list of the very best of the best. It’s the annual Australian PC Awards, and it’s underway right now. The experts at TechRadar, APC,




29Ars Technica / 10h
Enlarge / Artist's conception of a high-energy burst coming off the surface of a magnetar. (credit: Goddard Space Flight Center ) Fast radio bursts were an enigma when they were first spotted. At first, each FRB followed the same pattern: a huge surge of energy in radio wavelengths that lasted less than a second—and then the burst was gone, never to repeat. We initially suspected FRBs might be ha



European EU Data DA•
Maxime Agostini Contributor Maxime Agostini is the co-founder and CEO of Sarus , a privacy company supported by Y Combinator that lets organizations leverage confidential data for analytics and machine learning. Michael Li Contributor Tianhui Michael Li is the founder of The Data Incubator , an eight-week fellowship to help Ph.D.s and postdocs transition from academia into industry. It was acquir



US Semiconductors Russia•
38Gizmodo / 10h
Semiconductor chips, the seemingly unremarkable component responsible for derailing global supply chains over the past two years, may play a pivotal role in the international community’s efforts to curtail Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Whether those tactics will actually work as intended remains far from certain. Read more...



Russia NASA US ISS•
Space has always been a geopolitical battlefield, from the first Soviet satellite to the brewing space race between China and the United States. This time, thanks to SpaceX, NASA can sidestep the thorny issue of just-announced Russian sanctions following that country's invasion of Ukraine. Among the sanctions that US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday was a ban on high tech and aerospace t



33Gizmodo / 10h
Last week, Comixology launched a 4.0 update that radically overhauled the biggest digital storefront in comics —a new app that replaced the original bespoke mobile experience with a Kindle-esque format, and the loss of Comixology’s own website in exchange for a presence within its owner Amazon’s website. To say that… Read more...



20TechCrunch / 10h
It’s one thing to develop a medical algorithm, quite another to prove that it actually works. To do that, you need one crucial thing that’s hard to come by: medical data. And one startup is ready to provide that in spades, along with the tools to make validation studies easier. Gesund, founded in 2021, emerged from stealth this week with a $2 million seed round led by 500 Global. The company has



500+The Points Guy / 11h
Ukraine has been forced into war after Russia invaded. Over the past 24 hours, explosions have been heard all around the country, with civilian deaths and injuries already being reported. Unfortunately, there has been no sign of slowing these senseless attacks as Russia aims to “demilitarize” the independent country of Ukraine. This has disrupted the lives of Ukrainians all across the country. So



US Russia Space NASA•
400+Futurism / 11h
Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s space corporation Roscomos, is no stranger to bizarre outbursts. And now he’s back at it. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Rogozin reiterated that aiming new sanctions against Russia’s space program could have some disastrous consequences for its adversaries. In fact, Rogozin went as far as to level what appears to be a direct threat at the United States. “



Russia NASA US ISS•
1KFuturism / 11h
US President Joe Biden announced a fresh wave of sanctions aimed at Russia over its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday. The goal: to cut off Russia’s economic ties to the rest of the world, starve its military — and put its space industry on ice. “We estimate that we will cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports, and it will strike a blow to their ability to continue to modernize their m



SlashGear / 11h
The 2022 Toyota Pius Prime promises the best of both electrified and combustion worlds, but prioritizes frugality before full functionality.



35Gizmodo / 11h
In a press conference Thursday, NASA described the final steps in anticipation of the Artemis 1 uncrewed test flight, which set to occur this spring. The immediate focus is on a “wet dress rehearsal” of the Orion spacecraft that is scheduled for mid-March. Eventually, the Artemis program aims to put humans on the Moon… Read more...



SlashGear / 11h
Word has surfaced about a new "Fallout" game, but don't get too excited. Assuming the rumor is correct, it could be years before fans can get their hands on it.



500+Gizmodo / 11h
Seemingly for the first time ever, doctors have gotten a detailed look at the brain of a person during their final moments of life. The findings were obtained from a hospital patient who suddenly died while having his brain monitored for seizures, and they may offer some support for the idea that people see their… Read more...



200+Gizmodo / 11h
Cult-beloved ‘80s sitcom ALF , about a sarcastic alien who crash-lands on Earth and finds refuge in a middle-class suburb, is ( finally ) set to come back to screens in a big way. Read more...



Clubhouse Text Chat•
The voice-first social network has finally introduced a way for longtime lurkers to get in on the action. Clubhouse announced in-room chat Thursday , adding a text chat feature into its voice rooms that’s akin to what people might see on YouTube or Twitch. In-room chat is an optional feature, so anyone running a conversation on Clubhouse can toggle the option on when they kick off a room. When en



SEC Tesla Elon Musk•
3KEngadget / 11h
Elon Musk isn't about to catch a hoped-for break from the SEC any time soon. Sources for The Wall Street Journal claim the SEC is investigating whether Musk and his brother Kimbal violated insider trading regulations with recent share sales. Officials are concerned Elon might have told Kimbal he planned to ask Twitter followers about selling Tesla stock, leading the brother to sell 88,500 shares



Roccat Kone XP Mouse•
Enlarge (credit: Roccat/Amazon ) For power users, gamers, and those seeking a highly functional mouse, more buttons is beneficial. Roccat wants to appeal to such people with its upcoming Kone XP, which has 15 buttons that can serve as 29 different inputs after programming via software. Roccat's announcement of the Kone XP today described the peripheral is "ideal" for MMOs and strategy games. But



Coinbase Earnings Revenue•
25TechCrunch / 11h
Shares of Coinbase, the American crypto trading giant, initially soared when it reported its Q4 2021 earnings today, but investors quickly sold off the spike bringing the stock price down as much as 9%, hovering just above an all-time low. The company bested investor expectations in the trailing period. However, citing a “decline in crypto asset volatility and crypto asset prices,” Coinbase said



27Lifehacker / 12h
As the adults of the world watch Russia invade Ukraine, unleashing what many fear will be the biggest war in Europe since 1945 and potentially affecting global fuel, food, and metals prices (among the obvious other impacts of war), our kids may be absorbing not just our words, but also our tension. Whether they’re… Read more...



300+Gizmodo / 12h
A team of scientists has combined modern and ancient genomes to build a new “genealogy of everyone,” in an achievement that sets the groundwork for future studies into our evolution and global spread. Read more...




SlashGear / 12h
Intel is back with a new NUC, but don't let its small size fool you. This PC packs a lot of power into a tiny package, though its price tag isn't as small.



Kanye isn’t the first artist to craft his own audio player. If you can remember back to 2014, there was a lot of hype for something called PonoPlayer - a device crafted by artist Neil Young that would be the Hi-Fi replacement for the waning Apple iPod . Long story short, it failed. Big time. Ye’s STEM Player isn’t exactly a one-to-one facsimile of Neil Young’s player and it comes with a few neat



Apple Face Repairs iPhone•
52Engadget / 12h
Apple reportedly told employees its stores and authorized third-party repair shops will soon be able to resolve Face ID hardware issues without having to replace an iPhone entirely. Technicians may have access to a TrueDepth camera part that includes the Face ID and front-facing camera modules. They'll be able to swap it into an iPhone, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors . The co



uwmspeccoll : A Catesby River Bird Feathursday This week we return to our 1974 folio facsimile set of Mark Catesby ’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands originally published between 1729 and 1747. Our facsimile is a limited edition of 500 copies reproduced from a copy of the 3rd edition at the Boston Athenaeum , and published by The Beehive Press in Savannah, Georgia, wit



Artificial Venus Flytrap•
500+Futurism / 12h
Snapped Shut It’s “Little Shop of Horrors” meets “Terminator.” A team of scientists successfully took control over a Venus Flytrap, a type of cultivated carnivorous plant, by implanting a tiny microchip in it. This “artificial neutron” was able to force the plants to open and close — conventionally a way for them to devour its prey — mimicking the brain’s methods of processing and transferring in



100+Futurism / 12h
D’Awww Some days, you just need to be reminded of the good in the world — and today, that reminder comes in the form of an unlikely photo of a NASA space shuttle. It’s unclear which NASA shuttle Twitter user and obvious spaceflight enthusiast @McOfficialPlays booped on the snoot in this awesome photo, but as one responder noted, it was indeed epic . Whomst among us, if given the opportunity to bo



Mashable / 12h
Save $300: As of Feb. 24, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is only $1,499.99 at Amazon. This 17% discount matches the lowest price we've ever seen on this model, which features an Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. Can't decide between a laptop and a tablet? A 2-in-1 laptop offers the perks of both. Released late last year, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is avail



Knockout City EA Studios•
21Engadget / 12h
Dodgebrawl brawler Knockout City will be free-to-play on all platforms, starting with the launch of its sixth season later this year. Game developer Velan Studios will also be publishing Knockout City in-house, instead of through its original publisher, Electronic Arts. According to an announcement published today on the game’s website, this will give Velan the ability to grow Knockout City ’s gl



SlashGear / 12h
We already knew Netflix is about to lose a bunch of Marvel shows, but now we finally know where they'll end up...at least when it comes to the Canadian market.



When you have flexibility in your travel dates, it can be helpful to check rates across a week or even a month. And while some airline and hotel programs offer a calendar search feature, IHG Rewards loyalists have long been forced to either search day by day to check nightly rates. Thankfully, there’s now a better way, though there are quirks to it. Just after writing about Marriott’s Lowest Rate



Nvidia LHR Unlocker•
29How-To Geek / 12h
A program called Nvidia RTX LHR v2 Unlocker was making the rounds all over the tech media as a way to restore the Ethereum mining power of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 and A-series graphics cards. As it turns out, it’s malware and should be avoided. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Microsoft Windows 11•
Enlarge / Touchscreen devices like the Surface will benefit from some of the new features in the latest Windows 11 preview builds. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) Microsoft famously went all-in on a tablet-centric touchscreen interface with Windows 8 , and the company has spent pretty much every major Windows release since then slowly backing away from that decision. That retreat culminated in Window



Tumblr Ads Free Month•
Engadget / 12h
Tumblr may have introduced ads to user blogs several years ago, but it's now happy to take them away for a price. The social media site has launched an ad-free option that removes the marketing from microblogs for $5 per month, or $40 per year. You'll have to set up the feature on your c


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