Thursday, February 24, 2022

Thursday Technology News and More

Technology News and More...





1KHow-To Geek / 15h
When Apple introduced AirTags, privacy advocates immediately voiced concern that the trackers could be used for stalking. That concern turned out to be completely, totally valid. After dozens of reports of AirTag stalking, Apple now says it will try to fight the problem with future iOS updates, giving you a new reason to keep your iPhone up to date. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



2KArs Technica / 14h
An international team of scientists used synchrotron radiation to image and analyze fossilized fish from the Tanis deposit in North Dakota. Some 66 million years ago, a catastrophic event wiped out three-quarters of all plant and animal species on Earth, most notably taking down the dinosaurs. The puzzle of why so many species perished while others survived has long intrigued scientists. A new pa



China Rover Glass Moon•
7KFuturism / 16h
Globular Glass China’s Yutu-2 rover just won’t stop making — or at least claiming – weird discoveries on the Moon. Case in point, Chinese space authorities now say it’s found several mysterious glass spheres found on the far side of the lunar surface. The team behind the discovery published a paper about the findings in the journal Science Bulletin, in which they describe the objects as “transluc




TechCrunch / 15min
I recently wrote about the so-called “Embedded finance” trend, citing the example of Intergiro’s recent fund-raising in the space. There’s now yet another example of this trend in the shape of HUBUC . Billing itself as “AWS for financial services” the startup — which emerged from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain — has now raised a $10m Seed funding round co-led by WndrCo and Runa Capital. WndrCo is a



TechCrunch / 15min
French startup Finary has raised a $9 million Series A round (€8 million). The company has built a comprehensive aggregator so that wealthy individuals can get the full picture when it comes to tracking wealth. And that means that Finary isn’t restricted to bank accounts. You can track a lot of assets, from real estate to cryptocurrencies and stocks. And the startup’s vision hasn’t changed much s



Engadget / 15min
Twitter has admitted that it mistakenly removed accounts sharing Russian military activity in the midst of the Ukraine invasion. As TechCrunch notes, the deleted accounts, which have since been reinstated, included an aggregator of user-generated posts from Ukraine and accounts owned by people doing open source intelligence investigation (OSINT) to debunk fake news and claims. While users first b



TechCrunch / 22min
Meet Specify , a startup that is creating a common language for Figma and GitHub. Specify acts as a central repository and API for your design tokens and assets. In other words, designers can update canonical Figma files, and changes will be reflected in GitHub repositories. The startup raised a $4.6 million (€4 million) seed round led by Eurazeo. Bpifrance’s Digital Venture fund, 360 Capital and
YESTERDAY



Online advertising is generally terrible and our expectation that ‘information should be free’ has tragically even ended up powering disinformation-filled social networks like Facebook. Many companies have tried and failed to turn advertising into a way to power good causes. What is to be done? When I met Amy Williams back in 2016, it seemed her idea of a “advertising for good” platform would, li



Niyo Raises India Accel•
India’s Niyo has raised $100 million in a new financing round as the consumer-facing neobank platform looks to add lending and insurance to its offerings and make deeper inroads in the world’s second largest internet market. Accel and Lightrock India co-led the Bengaluru-headquartered startup’s Series C financing round. Existing investors Prime Venture Partners, JS Capital and Beams Fintech Fund



Discord is most popularly known as a chat app for gamers , enabling them to yell expletives and curse each other's mothers with ease. Yet the blinding white windows of Discord's default theme can throw off the dark RGB-lit vibe, shining stark and unflattering light on your shameful behaviour. Fortunately, Discord does have a softer dark mode, so you can continue to sit in the dark and ignore unpl



TL;DR: The Ultimate 2022 Backend Developer Bundle is on sale for £29.42, 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



NFT 2022 Canna•
TL;DR: The All-in-One NFT Masterclass for Artists and Entrepreneurs Bundle is on sale for £25.74, saving you 98% on list price. You’ve surely seen or heard the term “NFT” by now, whether on social media, a podcast, or the news. But if you’re like most people, you still have absolutely no idea what it means. Experts insist NFTs are sticking around, though, so you might want to figure it out — espe



SAVE 58%: TunnelBear offers an intuitive and easy-to-use app that's suitable for cybersecurity beginners. A two-year subscription to TunnelBear is on sale for £73.35, saving you 58% on list price. The world of VPNs can be intimidating for anyone new to cybersecurity. It shouldn't be this way, because everyone deserves the right to online security and anonymity. Fortunately, there are beginner-fri



QuantrolOx , a new startup that was spun out of Oxford University last year, wants to use machine learning to control qubits inside of quantum computers. The company, which was co-founded by Oxford professor Andrew Briggs , tech entrepreneur Vishal Chatrath , the company’s chief scientist Natalia Ares and head of quantum technologies Dominic Lennon , today announced that it has raised a £1.4 mill



NayaPay Pakistan $13M•
Pakistan-based fintech platform, NayaPay , has raised $13 million in a seed round to rollout its multi-service messaging and payment app, and to build payment acceptance and financial management tools for businesses in the South Asian country. NayaPay CEO and founder Danish Lakhani told TechCrunch that the super-app allows people residing in Pakistan to send and receive money, split bills and mak



Google Chrome Lite Mode•
As the cost of cellular data plans has decreased significantly in recent years, Google has revealed its plans to discontinue its Lite Mode feature in Google Chrome on Android. First released back in 2014 under the name “ Data Saver ”, the feature was later rebranded as “Lite Mode” in 2019 and was designed to help those with slow or limited data connections. When enabled on an Android smartphone ,



A new Capital One Dining platform is launching , intended to offer cardmembers access to a curated collection of restaurants. While we’ve seen quite a few dining programs from credit card companies over the years, what makes this one different? How Capital One Dining will work Starting in early March, Capital One Dining will launch with more than 350 restaurants across 11 cities in the United Sta



Microsoft Twitch Xbox•
Twitch has returned to Xbox consoles, though the company says the new integration has been "re-engineered" to offer an improved experience.



Samsung has surprised Galaxy Fit 2 wearable owners with a new software update, one that adds a few extra features to the aging fitness band.



Are suggested posts clogging up your Instagram feed? You've come to the right place. You can typically recognize a suggested post in your Instagram feed because it's posted by an account you don't follow. A suggested post will also feature a reason above the post for why it's appeared in your feed. Instagram determines suggested posts through what posts you like and comment on, what accounts you



Microsoft is currently working on several new updates for its spreadsheet software that will make it easier to work with formulas in Excel . For those unfamiliar, formulas allow you to use the built-in functions in Excel to perform calculations and solve problems more easily. If you're just getting started using formulas in Microsoft's spreadsheet software, you can also download the company's For



75Mashable / 6h
If Mark Zuckerberg is to be believed, the AI-powered future is being born now. Unfortunately for him, it clearly has a long gestation process. The Facebook (er, Meta ) CEO on Wednesday demonstrated what he described as an " AI concept " dubbed Builder Bot. Like some sort of digital castaway shouting commands to his robotic Wilson , a Zuckerberg avatar was shown populating a computer-generated spa



The price of high-end phones continues to climb each year, and to many customers, used phones are the solution. Shopping secondhand can save you hundreds on a phone; there’s no denying that fact. But used smartphones aren’t always the cheapest option, and in some cases, they’re actually a terrible value. Read This Article on Review Geek ›




While full-stream Hi-Res Audio over Bluetooth is still a ways off, audio maven Astell&Kern claims that it’s making the world’s first Bluetooth speaker that supports both LDAC and aptX HD codecs for CD-quality wireless streaming. It's called the Acro BE100 and it’s part of the company’s ACRO line of speakers. What makes the BE100 different compared to other Bluetooth speakers out there – outside o



White House Russia•
Biden administration officials have warned Russia that it could face further restrictions on technology that is critical to its economy and military.



Almost exactly two years ago, we talked with Brendan Wallace, the cofounder of the property- and real-estate-tech-focused venture firm Fifth Wall , about a trip from which he’d just returned. His visit had been to Singapore, where he described scenes of masks and social distancing and explained that, out of an abundance of caution, he was planning to stay inside his home in Venice, Ca., for 14 da



Facebook Half Climate•
Facebook may be failing to tag a large amount of climate misinformation posted on its site, a study released today indicates. Researchers from the Center for Counter Digital Hate analyzed 184 exceptionally popular stories from what it identified to be the top ten publishers of climate change denial content in the world (a list that includes Russian state media, The Daily Wire, Breitbart and other



The company also said it would restore many of its famed office perks.



74Gizmodo / 7h
Put the word “dinosaur” in front of anything and it automatically gets cooler. “Dinosaur” baseball. “Dinosaur” dinner. “Dinosaur” table. “Dinosaur” phone. See what we mean? The same goes for “Dinosaur” book, “dinosaur” war, and “dinosaur” movie —three of which are about to smash together like a T-Rex through a Jeep. Read more...



ASUS is back with two new Chromebooks, including one with a stylus and tablet mode. The CR1 is designed to handle daily use and the occasional spilled drink.



The company also said it would restore many of its famed office perks.



Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a couple in possession of an engagement ring must be in want of an epic honeymoon. Not the exact quote from “Pride and Prejudice,” but it’s the truth all the same. In fact, one of the questions we often get at TPG is how to use points and miles to plan a honeymoon. It’s als



50TechCrunch / 7h
In an interview with TechCrunch onstage at the Ethereum Denver conference, Tesla board member Kimbal Musk, brother of CEO Elon Musk, said that the company had been “very ignorant” of the environmental impact of Bitcoin when it announced last year that it would purchase $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency and would plan to allow owners to purchase the company’s vehicles with the currency. “Wh



Dragorad Knezi Contributor Dragorad Knezi is the CEO and co-founder of eyezon , an on-demand human-centric social shopping platform. The inclusive shopping market may just be the largest untapped opportunity in the e-commerce world today. By one estimate , it totals a staggering $8 trillion. It’s also not as fragmented as you might think. For example, more than 2.2 billion people experience visio



29Gizmodo / 8h
Bat meets Cat , Penguin, and Riddler without an origin story in what we know so far about The Batman , which was stipulated by design in order for Matt Reeves to sign onto the film. Robert Pattinson’s masked crusader is centered in his sophomore year of crime fighting and encountering figures that will begin to fill out… Read more...



Trump Truth Social•
35Mashable / 8h
Truth Social is finally here…sort of. Former-president Donald Trump's very own social media platform officially went live in Apple's App Store on Monday, President's Day. However, the launch of Truth Social has not been pretty . Bugs, long waitlists, and various other problems have left people asking a lot of questions. This comes with the territory though. Truth Social is a Donald Trump product,



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 Wednesday, February 23, 2022! There is so much to get to today I won’t slow us down apart from saying that our mobility-focused event is shaping up to be a bangerÎ . To work! – Alex The TechCrunch Top 3 Cuban-backed Fireside lo



Apple Dutch Siri 15.4•
Enlarge / The back of the iPhone 13 mini. (credit: Samuel Axon) There are already four American-accented English voices for Siri, but Apple will add a fifth in iOS 15.4. The new voice aims to provide a gender-neutral option for the first time, as reported by Axios. The voice is labeled "Voice 5" in the Settings panel in the current beta release, though developer Steve Moser noted on Twitter that



Enlarge / The burial mask of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen recovered from the boy king's tomb. (credit: Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images ) Among the many items recovered from King Tut's tomb was a dagger made of iron, which is a material that was rarely used during Egypt's 18th dynasty. That iron likely came from a meteorite, and a recent paper published in the journal Meteorites and Planetary Scie



USPS the Postal Service•
The U.S. Postal Service is sticking with its original plan to replace up to 90% of its mail delivery fleet with gasoline-powered vehicles from Oshkosh Corp. The decision dashes the hopes of the Biden administration, which had lobbied the independent agency to switch to a predominantly electric vehicle fleet. It also ends any chance, at least in the near term, for any EV manufacturer to capture so



Following suit of fellow European nations , Iceland will drop all COVID-19 restrictions starting Feb. 25, a move the Iceland Health Ministry said was due to the development of the pandemic to an “epidemic.” For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter . The northern lights in southern Iceland on Dec. 4, 2021. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty



the Steam Deck•
The Steam Deck's launch day is nearly upon us, and now Valve is back with details on how people who reserved units can go about actually claiming them.



Meta Zuckerberg AI•
The Metaverse , that immersive virtual world where Meta (née Facebook) imagines we'll work, play, and interact with friends and family is also where we may someday build entire worlds with nothing but our voice. During an online AI development update delivered, in part, by Meta/Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday (February 23), the company offered a glimpse of Builder Bot, an AI




Twitter Russian Ukraine•
Twitter disclosed that it mistakenly removed a number of accounts sharing details about Russian military activity Wednesday, as the nation’s aggressive posture toward neighboring Ukraine threatens to tip into a full-scale invasion. Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler called attention to the mistaken account suspensions early Wednesday after Twitter user @667_mancer was taken offline. An open source



Hostage Amsterdam Apple•
Before he was apprehended by Amsterdam police, the suspect involved in Tuesday’s Apple Store hostage situation demanded a €200 million (approximately $226 million) ransom paid in cryptocurrencies, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Police say they have yet to establish a motive for the 27-year-old gunman, whose identity they didn’t share. What we know is that he was a resident of the city and had a c



Intel Arrow Lake A.•
We now have a first look at both the specs and a likely release date for Intel’s 15th-generation Arrow Lake-P mobile processors , and we haven’t even had a chance to test its 12th-generation Alder Lake-P chips yet. This leak is thanks to a recently leaked roadmap of the Intel Gen Arrow Lake lineup, and it shows how Intel plans on fighting back against Apple’s M1 Pro/Max chips, which have so far m



25Gizmodo / 9h
At the dawn of the ‘90s, Star Wars ’ “dark ages” —with the end of Marvel’s Star Wars comics, new toys on the decline, and the movies long over in the eyes of fans and perhaps even its creator—suddenly ended in a brilliant flash. Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire heralded a new, post- Return of the Jedi saga that would be… Read more...



Florida Orlando Iceland•
Icelandic low-cost carrier Play is still two months away from its first flight from the U.S. , but that isn’t stopping the airline from expanding its American network. The airline said Wednesday that it will launch service from its Keflavik Airport (KEF) hub near the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik to Orlando (MCO), with flights beginning in September. Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for



Google Dark Mode iPhone•
A new even-darker-than-dark-mode for Google Search for desktop is slowly rolling out to some users online, offering hope for better battery life and spared eyesight. The user reports, first flagged by 9to5 Google , aren't very widespread and the rollout might just be a test. Some users who saw their previous dark mode go fully black from the usual deep grey found, after a short time, their themes



Meta Zuckerberg AI•
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, today showed off a prototype of an AI system that enables people to generate or import things into a virtual world just by using voice commands. The company sees the tool, which is called “Builder Bot,” as an “exploratory concept” that shows AI’s potential for creating new worlds in the metaverse. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the prototype at the Meta AI:



Jumia Fourth-Quarter•
Share sell-offs continued today in the wake of public companies’ earnings reports, proving especially significant amongst firms that benefited from the pandemic . While new and established public companies in market categories like software, fintech, gaming and social media witnessed significant declines in recent weeks amidst rising interest rates, g rowth-oriented e-commerce companies like Jumi



Audi Verizon 2024 Lineup•
Audi plans to add Verizon 5G to some of its cars in the US starting with its 2024 model year, providing drivers with direct access to high-speed internet.



29Mashable / 9h
The series finale of The Office was an absolute tearjerker, but the show's final moments might not have been as sweet had Jenna Fischer not fought to cut a controversial storyline from Season 6. The last five minutes of the series finale include a montage of Dunder Mifflin employees leaving the office, saying farewell to each other, and recording their final talking heads with the documentary cre



27Gizmodo / 9h
Argentina is on fire. For weeks, firefighters have battled the flames that have burned some 800,000 hectares in total, with about 30,000 hectares burning each day, Al Jazeera reported . Read more...



Rodgers Panchakarma•
Enlarge / Quarterback Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers warms up prior to the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field on January 2, 2022, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (credit: Getty | Patrick McDermott ) In what may be the worst bait-and-switch in the history of bait-and-switches, sports fans tuned in to The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday in anticipation that one of his regular guest



Gizmodo / 9h
Like it or not, Meta’s doubling down on its efforts to make 3D avatar playpens synonymous with future computing. In an event on Tuesday, the company showcased a variety of new AI tools, including a voice assistant, a universal language translator, and a programming tool capable of generating digital objects through… Read more...



Microsoft Sql Servers•
Security researchers have identified a new campaign installing Cobalt Strike beacons on poorly protected Microsoft SQL Servers. Plenty of MS-SQL Server instances are exposed to the internet by carrying weak passwords, something many threat actors know how to abuse - and cybersecurity researchers from Ahn Lab’s ASEC have now found someone doing just that. First, they scan the internet for endpoint



Google's Area 120 incubator has launched a new privacy platform called Checks which uses AI to identify potential privacy and compliance issues with mobile apps. As the privacy and compliance landscape continues to evolve, developers are often left at a loss when it comes to ensuring their mobile apps remain compliant on both Android and iOS. For this reason, Google's Area 120 has created a solut



Alexa, what happens when a trillion-dollar company outsources its menial work to pseudonymous volunteers? Way back in 2019, Amazon announced that, going forward, any old idiot off the street could provide answers for its voice assistant Alexa to read aloud in response to questions from Alexa users. It turns out that many people played along, though perhaps not in the way Amazon intended. Instead



Covid-19 Vaccines UK Long•
500+Gizmodo / 10h
Vaccines seem to significantly reduce the risk of long covid, UK health officials say. In a recent review of the evidence, they concluded that vaccinated people who developed covid-19 were much less likely to experience long-term symptoms than those unvaccinated. Vaccines may also show some promise in reducing… Read more...



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 ...



Russia Ukraine Ukrainian•
64Gizmodo / 10h
As an ongoing political crisis continues to roil Ukraine, the nation’s banks and government agencies have been struck with disruptive cyberattacks for the second time in two weeks. Read more...



Musk Tesla Steam Games•
36Ars Technica / 10h
Enlarge / Drive through the Lands Between in style... (credit: Aurich Lawson / Tesla / FromSoft ) Since Tesla first introduced in-car gaming with a 2019 port of Cuphead , the list of games available on its "Tesla Arcade" platform has slowly grown to include just under 20 games . Now, though, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has expressed interest in expanding that list of Tesla-compatible games to include the




300+Futurism / 10h
Scientists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia have managed to regrow bone by firing high-frequency sound waves at stem cells, a potential breakthrough in regenerative medicine. Best of all, they say, it’s faster, more efficient, and cheaper than existing experimental methods of regrowing bone using stem cells extracted from bone marrow, an often painful and invasive pro



Virgin Galactic Two•
200+Futurism / 10h
Virgin Galactic announced that is lost an astonishing $1 billion in 2020 and 2021, which is a colossal figure, especially considering that the company reported a minuscule $3.5 million in revenue during the same period. It’s a sobering snapshot of the commercial space travel industry, especially considering the company is hoping to start commercial suborbital flights some time this year. But new



Marvel Netflix Disney•
Engadget / 10h
Sure enough, Marvel's outgoing Netflix shows are coming to Disney+... but only for some viewers. Engadget has confirmed a MobileSyrup report that Daredevil , Jessica Jones and other productions will be available on Disney+ starting March 16th, but only in Canada. If you're fortunate enough to live in the country, you'll only have to wait a couple of weeks to keep watching after the superhero show



SlashGear / 10h
Google's version of the Easter egg is more appealing to grown-ups than to kiddos. These Google Easter eggs are sure to help you kill any spare time.



RightHand Robotics•
COVID, supply chain issues, labor shortages, Amazon. Take your pick. The reasons for getting excited about logistics robotics are numerous and growing. RightHand Robotics had already amassed its share of buzz well before this whole pandemic thing really accelerated things, raising a fair amount from investors like GV, Menlo and Playground Global over a series of rounds. And unlike a lot of newcom



TJD US China Chinese•
The US Justice Department said Wednesday it is ending its controversial China Initiative and will pivot to a new strategy to counter threats from nation states. The program began under the Trump administration as an effort to root out economic espionage, but drew criticism for falling short of that stated goal while increasingly focusing on academics and researchers of Chinese descent . Assistant



Google Pixel 7 Pro 6•
Enlarge / Behold the Pixel 7 Pro. It looks just like the Pixel 6. (credit: OnLeaks x Smartprix ) The Pixel 6 is just a few months old, but the first leaks of the Pixel 7 designs are out. Google seems to have sent the CAD files to the case manufacturing industry recently, since both Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka OnLeaks) and David Kowalski (aka xleaks7) have posted Pixel 7 renders today. These unoffici



The world is poised on the brink of a geopolitical paradigm shift while still reeling from a global pandemic. Traditional markets are growing uneasy and new ones look like they’re in freefall mode already. These are, as they say, interesting times. Read more...



the Steam Deck•
The Steam Deck is set to launch soon. Valve is testing every game on the Steam library to get ready for the release to see which games will work with the company’s portable PC. It has made it easy to look at the games you currently own and see which ones you can take on the go. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are relatively new, but we’re already getting plenty of information about the upcoming Pixel 7 series. Last week we reported the first Pixel 7 rumors, and now 3D models and leaked renders are giving us a good look at the Pixel 7 Pro and its huge cameras. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



SlashGear / 10h
Two different sources have leaked several renders allegedly showing the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones, both of which look awfully familiar.



browsethestacks : DC Heroes Knowledge is Real Power! Poster (DC Comics/American Library Association/Marketing by Design, 1983). Batman, Wonder Woman, and Robin the Boy Wonder crash into a library in celebration of the delights of reading. Time was, when a public library wouldn’t allow a comic book into its stacks – but by the 1980s, libraries had begun to learn the drawing power of funnybooks. Th



27TechCrunch / 11h
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., but the healthcare industry spends more money helping patients after they get sick, instead of keeping them healthy. To fill this gap, Heartbeat Health , founded by Dr. Jeff Wessler, has raised more than $30 million , developing a digital data layer that uses telemedicine, remote diagnostics and digital heart health programs to give patient



Trump Truth Social•
28Ars Technica / 11h
Enlarge / Trump decided to make his own social network after being banned from Twitter. (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan ) The rollout of Donald Trump's social network has predictably been a disaster. Truth Social's debut on Monday was marred by technical problems and a gigantic waiting list, while some people who actually were able to use the service complained of being "censored." Truth



Russia Space Ukraine•
Enlarge / Russia's chief of spaceflight, Dmitry Rogozin, is barred by US sanctions from traveling to the United States. (credit: Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images) On Wednesday morning, the sprawling Russian corporation that oversees the country's space activities, Roscosmos, issued a statement from its general director on Twitter that appeared to speak both to NASA as well as Russian leader Vlad



The futuristic transport firm is changing direction and laying off staff, blaming the pandemic.



40Futurism / 11h
Tilda Swindle As the old saying goes, “don’t get mad; get even.” A group of crypto enthusiasts took that approach when they were scammed by an NFT project. Instead of walking away to lick their wounds, they decided to band together and make things right. It all started when thousands were swindled into purchasing “Cool Kittens” NFTs. Its developers promised a variety of perks including a unique t



Futurism / 11h
You might assume that dangerous power surges either come from lightning strikes or problems with equipment at the utility company. While these are certainly the most dramatic, and potentially damaging, around 50 percent of power spikes actually originate within the home. Every time air conditioning goes on and off it creates an imbalance. The same is true of refrigerators, and other devices like



20TechCrunch / 11h
The market for mechanical keyboards has boomed in recent years and the pandemic only added fuel to it as people looked to improve their home setups (and spend their stimulus checks). Today, you can find anything from a $20 AliExpress special to a $600 Keycult board — before keycaps and switches, if you can even get one. And then there is Angry Miao ‘s Am Hatsu , a wireless ortholinear split ergo



California Court Waymo•
Gizmodo / 11h
A California court ruled this week to let Waymo hide some of the safety data for its autonomous vehicles—a decision that could have ripple effects for how other autonomous vehicle makers handle the trade secrets of their self-driving tech moving forward. Read more...




Twitch Program Hours•
Engadget / 11h
Twitch has launched an incentive program that will guarantee select streamers a certain amount of ad revenue per month. Many creators have spoken out about the difficulties of earning a consistent living from the livestreaming platform for all but the top-tier of streamers. Unless you have a consistent base of followers, the income you earn from Twitch can vary widely from month to month. “Having



Oh hey, it’s us again — that new How-To Geek series where we dig up deets on the hottest deals and serve them to you on a platter of savings. This week, we found something special for the folks who like powerful tablets, blitzing-fast Wi-Fi, and affordable webcams for home, office, and hybrid workers alike. Let’s do this! Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Engadget / 11h
Astell & Kern is still best known for keeping high-end MP3 players alive, but it's now branching out into Bluetooth speakers — and there might be reason to take notice. The Iriver (now Dreamus) brand's new Acro BE100 includes a 32-bit DAC to preserve the audio quality regardless of the source. Accordingly, it's also billed as the first Bluetooth speaker to support both the aptX HD and LDAC 24-bit



47Lifehacker / 11h
When I first joined TikTok in 2020, I couldn’t go a day without seeing videos about narcissists, “toxic” exes, or emotionally absent parents. While narcissists obviously do exist, the content was so prevalent that you’d be forgiven for thinking narcissists were as common as people named Bob. Narcissism had become … Read more...



Russia Hackers Botnet•
500+Wired / 11h
Western intelligence services are raising alarms about Cyclops Blink, the latest tool at the notorious group’s disposal.



100+The Points Guy / 11h
Imagine it: The warm sun is shining down on your face, an ice-cold margarita is in your hand and the sound of gentle waves rolling back and forth on the shore float through your ears. This is a Caribbean vacation — and you absolutely deserve to be on one. But while it’s easy to picture yourself relaxing on the beach, it’s harder to decide which resort is worthy of your points and best fits your n



SlashGear / 11h
With only days left to grab the February free games, Sony has unveiled the titles that'll be offered up under PlayStation Plus in March 2022.



Donda 2 Stem Player•
200+Mashable / 12h
Do you want to listen to the artist formerly known as Kanye West's newest album, Donda 2? If so, I have many followup questions for you, including: Why? And, did you buy his required $200 Stem Player ? It's not surprising that Ye would want to create a unique and innovative way to disrupt music streaming — he did, after all, turn down $100 million from Apple Music , and announced on his Instagram



Verizon Audi 2024 US•
Good old 3G is at the top of the news cycle these days, as it finally fades into the sunset . Automakers sounded the alarm that the move would break all sorts of important-sounding functions in their vehicles, but so far few have proposed solutions. Audi and Verizon, however, are well down that path, as the two announced a partnership to integrate 5G tech into upcoming models from the German auto



21TechCrunch / 12h
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: Should we seek a K-1 visa or marriage-based green card? ​​He



100+Gizmodo / 12h
The Oscar broadcast has cut eight awards presentations from its live line-up—including craft categories like Production Design, Film Editing, and Sound that have often been where science fiction and fantasy films have found their most success. Read more...



Russia Ukraine Ukrainian•
Multiple government and company websites go down in the largest cyber-attack since the crisis began.



1KFuturism / 12h
A Spanish company is pouring tens of millions of dollars into becoming the world’s first commercial octopus farm, in spite of mounting evidence that the creatures can feel pain and pleasure, nevermind the environmental impacts of cephalopod farming. A Reuters report about Nueva Pescanova , the company set to start farming octopi pending European Union approval, spotlights the significant ethical



No, we’re not talking about the woodwind instrument. OBO is an essential acronym if you want to be an online seller. Keep reading to find out why. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



NVIDIA GeForce GPU•
While we're still waiting for Nvidia to actually release the RTX 3090 Ti it announced during CES 2022 , we're starting to see some rumors peeking their heads around the corner. And right now, it looks like the RTX 4090 might be one of the most power-hungry graphics cards of all time. These leaks come from known Twitter hardware leakers @greymon55 and @kopite7kimi. The former suggests that Lovelac



USPS Biden Trucks EPA•
Engadget / 12h
The USPS is moving forward with plans to spend $11.3 billion on a fleet of next-generation mail trucks that mostly run on gas, despite requests from the EPA and Biden administration to electrify its new vehicles instead. The new trucks, which were revealed last year , feature modern amenities like air conditioning, 360-degree cameras, and collision detection. While they can be powered by either g



Cyclops Blink Russian•
100+Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Hackers for one of Russia’s most elite and brazen spy agencies have infected home and small-office network devices around the world with a previously unseen malware that turns the devices into attack platforms that can steal confidential data and target other networks. Cyclops Blink, as the advanced malware has been dubbed, has infected about 1 percent of network f



200+Mashable / 12h
Peacock has spilled the beans on Kevin's famous chili recipe from The Office . Those who actually read the terms of use on NBC's streaming app Peacock have been rewarded with a nod to an iconic moment involving Brian Baumgartner's Kevin Malone, a spilled pot of chili, and a futile attempt to clean it up. Reported in the Daily Dot earlier this week, Peacock's user agreement references a famous col



Mashable / 12h
After you get dumped, it's not uncommon to wallow in nostalgia or obsess over what could have been. But it's not every day you get dumped and fortuitously meet a stranger who also got dumped the same weekend. That's where I Want You Back , starring Jenny Slate and Charlie Day, begins. Our Senior Entertainment Editor, Nicole Gallucci, tells us all about it.



Real meals are back in American Airlines first class which is to say we no longer suffer from shrink-wrapped turkey or pimiento cheese sandwiches. Earlier in the month hot meals returned to first class on flights of 1500 miles or longer. The roll out went surprisingly smoothly. And now meals - albeit a charcuterie plate or vegetarian sandwich on pretzel croissant at lunch - are returning to fligh




Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Cardano are just some of the major cryptocurrencies on the market. Now, there’s yet another cryptocurrency on the scene, FlyCoin , that aims to replace the traditional frequent flyer program. Ravn Alaska, which is owned by the same parent company as the highly anticipated Northern Pacific Airways , is now rewarding its travelers with FlyCoin digital tokens (denoted



PlayStation Sony tPA•
Engadget / 12h
Sony is gradually rolling out an option to let PS5 players access captured screenshots and clips from the PS App on iOS and Android. The company started testing the feature in Canada and Japan in October. At the outset, players in the Americas will be able to view and share their PS5 captures on the mobile app. Folks in the US, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Gu



Engadget / 12h
One of the more popular VR apps you can download through Steam and Meta’s Oculus Quest Store has a child safety problem. If you’re unfamiliar with VRChat , the app styles as “the future” of social virtual reality. “Our vision for VRChat is to enable anybody to create and share their own social virtual worlds,” the game’s developer says on its Steam store page . With some understanding of Unity, p



Acer Swift 5 Intel•
Engadget / 12h
Acer isn't wasting any time in making use of Intel's 12th-gen ultraportable processors . The PC maker has unveiled new versions of its Swift 5 and Swift 3 laptops that not only make use of new 12th-gen Core chips, but include a handful of upgrades of their own. Most notably, the new Swift 5 (pictured above) has switched to a 16:10 2,560 x 1,600 display whose taller ratio not only helps with verti



63Gizmodo / 12h
A well-known erectile dysfunction drug might just have added benefits for dogs, too. A recent study suggests that liquid sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, may help treat dogs with an enlarged esophagus that makes them unable to eat food easily and can sometimes prove fatal. More research will be needed to… Read more...



Amazon Two Fake Reviews•
88Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) After being pressed by the media and government organizations about paid reviews on its site, Amazon is taking its fight against compensated reviews to the courts. On Tuesday, the company filed lawsuits against AppSally and Rebatest, firms tha


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