Wednesday, February 09, 2022

Wednesday Technology News and More...

Technology News and More...




3KGizmodo / 14h
Science fiction cinema would not be what it is today without the work of Douglas Trumbull. Trumbull helped drive effects on films like 2 001: A Space Odyssey , Blade Runner , and Close Encounters of the Third Kind , each time changing the field in ways that would resonate for decades. After an incredible life and career,… Read more...



Alchemy Web3 Valuation•
500+TechCrunch / 17h
As proof that web3 is not some passing trend, blockchain infrastructure startup Alchemy announced today that it has closed on a $200 million Series C1 equity round that values the company at $10.2 billion. For the unacquainted, web3 refers to a decentralized web based on the blockchain. And put simply, Alchemy wants to do for blockchain and web3 what AWS (Amazon Web Services) did for the internet



Spotify Rumble Joe Rogan•
Spotify is embroiled in a controversy surrounding its endorsement of podcaster Joe Rogan. His podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience , is the most popular show on the music streaming service , with the company buying the exclusive rights to distribute it for $100 million (around £73 million) back in 2020. The controversy stems from allegations that Rogan’s podcast has spread misinformation around the

TODAY



Smartphone sales in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region grew 13% YoY in 2021, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service . After crossing the post-pandemic phase of pent-up demand, smartphones remained in high demand throughout the year, despite the market facing many difficulties, including macroeconomic worries, supply chain issues and the emergence of new C



TechCrunch / 35min
A new venture from space infrastructure company Momentus founder and former CEO Mikhail Kokorich aims to build a hypersonic aircraft for autonomous cargo delivery around the world. While the craft is far from completion, let alone testing and certification, a $29M seed round should help things along. The stated plan is to build a hypersonic vehicle (i.e. multiples of the speed of sound) powered b



TechCrunch / 49min
The MENA region has about 400 million people with $500 billion in annual savings. But as a relatively young population, most of them have minimal equity market and investment exposure. Replicating the success of Robinhood in the U.S., some platforms are looking to create investors out of the region . One such is Egypt-based Thndr . The company has raised a $20 million Series A round to democratiz



Omega DoD Open Source•
TechCrunch / 49min
Jean-Paul Smets Contributor Jean-Paul Smets is the CEO of Rapid.Space , a hyper open cloud provider offering virtual private servers (VPS), content delivery networks (CDN) and global IPv6 (SDN). Picture this scenario as a young enterprise: You are a customer of Azure, AWS, or the Google Cloud Platform, assuming they are the frontrunners. While traveling in Russia or a European Union country on a



Xpressbees Blackstone•
Xpressbees, an Indian logistics startup that works with several e-commerce firms in the country , has more than tripled its valuation to $1.2 billion in a new financing round. The Pune-headquartered startup said on Wednesday it has raised $300 million — $100 million in primary and $200 million in secondary (to give partial exit to Alibaba and full exit to one unspecified Chinese investor) — in a



TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to an Enpass Password Manager Individual Plan is on sale for £22.13, saving you 62% on list price. Leave the annoyance of forgetting your passwords in 2021. In 2022, you should finally let technology do what it was intended to do: make your life easier. Enpass Password Manager secures all of your logins in a digital vault and automatically fills them in for you. So,



TL;DR: The 2022 FullStack Web Developer Bundle is on sale for £22.13, saving you 98% on list price. Whether you've always been interested in web development but have no idea where to start, or just want to sharpen your skills, this web developer bundle can help. With over 430 lessons and 11 courses that you can learn at your own pace, you'll cover everything you've ever wanted to know about Docke



SAVE UP TO 50%: Lovehoney is the top choice for deals on sex toys, lingerie sets, bondage gear, and much more. Save up to 50% in Lovehoney's Valentine's Day sale . Valentine's Day is coming up, and if you're looking for a little treat, the Lovehoney's Valentine's Day sale is worth checking out. You can save up to 50% on sex toys and lingerie sets in Lovehoney's Valentine's Day sale. There are a l



Shure today unveiled new enhancements and improvements to its portfolio of SRH Headphones, with the second-generation of its SRH440A and SRH840A headphones. The updated models provide improved audio, long-wearing comfort, and signature durability. These are the best headphones you should be picking up today The new models incorporate a series of design upgrades, and are optimized for critical lis



Telstra Day is back, and for today only (February 9) Telstra is offering AU$200 off the elite Google Pixel 6 Pro . This is Google’s first top-tier smartphone, with power to rival the iPhone 13 Pro Max – only the Pixel 6 Pro is much more affordable at its newly discounted price of AU$1,099. If that cost is still a little too high for your liking, Telstra has also knocked down the price of the Goog



Kamigawa Neon Dynasty•
Throughout its almost 30-year history, Magic: The Gathering has focused primarily on fantasy elements and tropes. Now the trading card game is exploring something a bit more high tech, blending traditional and sci-fi elements in the upcoming set, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty . Due for release later in February, the 302-card expansion returns to Magic 's Japanese-inspired Kamigawa plane, which was last



Oculus Quest 2 Body•
While most of the best VR headsets are only capable of tracking head and hand movements, this could soon change for the Oculus Quest 2 and future Oculus hardware. As discovered by Upload VR , the most recent release of the Software Development Kit (SDK) – a set of tools designed to help the platform's game and app developers – includes an option for 'body tracking support'. There's been no offici



The 2022 Winter Olympics are underway in Beijing, but the real party isn’t on NBC — it’s on TikTok. Athletes from around the world are using the platform to give a behind-the-scenes look at life in the Olympic Village. Between day-in-the-life vlogs, OOTD snippets, and “things in my Olympic room that just make sense” videos, TikTok is where these Olympians go to express themselves away from the co



A decade ago, when you made a new friend IRL, you'd add them on Facebook. You'd see each others' posts and, eventually, when you wanted to invite them to a party, you'd create an event page and add them to it. But now, when you meet someone new, maybe you'll follow them on Instagram or Twitter or no social media at all. And none of those platforms have a solid way to invite someone to an event. S



Postmodern Studio/Shutterstock The IRS is abandoning plans to require facial recognition to authenticate online access following criticism from politicians, privacy advocates, and tech experts, forcing the agency to look at other options to beef up security. The agency ignited a firestorm when it announced it was partnering with ID.me to use its facial recognition tech; the plan was to require it



Earlier today, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who allegedly attempted to launder more than 25,000 Bitcoins that were stolen as part of the 2016 hack of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. What was unclear to us at the time was that an even greater crime had played out across Morgan's social media pages: her rap career. Spotted



Now that Amazon Prime costs $140 a year, nearly twice its original launch price, many customers are questioning whether they should stick with the service. In many cases, the answer is “no.” We’ve grown reliant on Prime, but from a cost perspective, it’s rarely worth your hard-earned cash. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



MediaTek Home theaters have grown in popularity as high-end entertainment hardware makes it possible to enjoy cinematic quality without heading to the local theater. Once a rarity, the home entertainment market is now packed with 4K TVs, making it possible to enjoy the latest movies and TV shows in stunning quality. The next evolution in small-screen entertainment is upon us, however, … Continue



Most companies today recognize the importance of global warming. As such, they are redefining their goals in an effort to address the climate change issue. Envisioning Partners , a Seoul-based venture capital firm, has secured its latest impact fund, the oversubscribed $64 million (76.8 billion KRW) Envisioning Climate Solutions (ECS) Fund, to back startups combating the climate crisis. Hyunjoo J



Peloton 2800 2 800•
The chief executive stepped down as a glut of unsold machines, negative TV portrayals, activist investors and a recall plagued the fitness company.




23Gizmodo / 7h
Stuck working the midnight shift on the eve of her 30th birthday, London bus driver Natasha (the excellent Susan Wokoma of the late, great Truth Seekers ) believes her vehicle is empty—until the bell starts dinging... and a cloaked figure seems to materialize in one of the upper-level rows. Read more...



Bitcoin 2016 Bitfinex•
The couple were accused of conspiring to launder Bitcoin that had been stolen in 2016 from Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges.



Nvidia SoftBank Arm’s•
52Wired / 7h
The combination would have been the biggest in chip history. Arm, which licenses designs to Google, Apple, and others, now faces increased competition.



500+Ars Technica / 7h
Enlarge / A massive document filed by Intellivision on Monday clarifies just how gloomy the company's Amico console's future appears to be. (credit: Intellivision / Aurich Lawson ) The Intellivision Amico's wild ride as a possible video game console may soon come to an end, according to financial disclosures tucked into the company's most recent fundraising announcement. On Monday, Intellivision



100+Mashable / 7h
If there's one thing we've learned from the Wildlife Photography Awards, it's that you can never have too many wildlife photos to look at. The Natural History Museum's annual contest is a constant source of stunning imagery, collecting together photos from across the world that showcase nature at its most beautiful and brutal. The main awards took place in August last year, but — as is tradition



Whether your child can recite from memory the names and philosophies of Black leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and Angela Davis or they need an introduction or refresher on pivotal Black figures, February is a good time for children to learn more about Black history. Of course, learning about Black history and culture, along with racial justice, should always be a priority. Still, there's no federal ma



Netflix Oscar Year•
37Mashable / 7h
Now that the fervor around the Oscar nominations has settled, it's time to check out the nominees you may have missed before the winners are announced on March 27. Films like West Side Story , Licorice Pizza , and Drive My Car are only in theaters. However, if you don't feel comfortable going to the movies just yet, you've still got plenty of options to watch at home. The majority of nominees (in



Apple Days Benefits Retail•
Apple will expand benefits for all of its retail employees in the US, beginning April 4th. Bloomberg reports the new benefits include increased vacation and sick days, paid parental leave and more. It will impact both full-time and part-time employees across all 270 Apple Stores nationwide. The tech giant’s offer of more generous benefits didn’t come out of the blue. Apple, like many corporations



23Gizmodo / 7h
With the 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the books , it’s time to let the public choose the top nature images from the past year. The contest, produced by the Natural History Museum, London, saw over 50,000 photos entered from 95 countries. For the People’s Choice award, the public was asked to vote on a… Read more...



GoTo Company Merger•
GoTo Global, an Israeli mobility company that offers shared micromobility and car-sharing services in Spain, Israel, Malta and Germany, is going public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) through a merger with shell company Nera Tech Media. The merger is expected to close in early April, which will initially give GoTo access to the $12 million Nera Tech holds in cash assets, money GoTo will use



Wordle Nintendo Game Boy•
@ghidraninja It’s justifiable if Wordle creator, Josh Wardle, needs to pinch himself every now and then, given the way his simple but addictive five-letter word game has taken the world by storm. Originally created as a game for him and his partner to play, Wordle went live on the web for anyone to play only as recently as October 2021. It … Continue reading



US Bitcoin Bitfinex•
Two suspects allegedly conspired to launder the money after it was stolen by a hacker in 2016.



Peloton John Foley•
John Foley is being replaced as potential suitors circle amid a downturn for the exercise firm.



37TechCrunch / 8h
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 Tuesday, February 8, 2022! Today we’re talking layoffs, blockchain infra, a called-off mega-deal, and chip-based national security. It’s a killer group of stories, bringing us around the world and from the earliest stages of st



Gizmodo / 8h
In a major turn of events, embattled identity verification company ID.me says it will make facial recognition verification optional for all of its public sector government partners. Additionally, starting March 1, the company says all ID.me users will be able to delete their face scans. Read more...



ZAGG Device charging and power accessory manufacturer ZAGG has revealed a pair of new mophie-brand travel accessories intended for Apple products: a 3-in-1 MagSafe travel charger, and a portable magnetic stand. Both devices are available now at Apple Stores around the world and from ZAGG’s online shop. “The mophie 3-in-1 travel charger with MagSafe charges your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods … C



500+Gizmodo / 8h
He’s one of America’s greatest living composers, his work scoring films has elevated cinema soundtracks as a whole and some franchises specifically. He’s John Williams , and he’s celebrating his 90th birthday today. So why not celebrate with him by listening to a few of his greatest songs? Read more...



Even if the thought of working out on vacation usually has you reaching for the snooze button, a new lineup of fitness classes offered at Disneyland just might have you springing from bed to lace up your sneakers (and don those Mickey ears). Tenaya Stone Spa , which opened at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa in September 2021, is introducing a series of new fitness classes that gives gues



Lyft Q4 2021 Full-Year•
28TechCrunch / 8h
U.S. ride-hailing company Lyft dropped its fourth-quarter financial results Tuesday, a report that showed a mixed bag of growth — that in the area of active riders failed to meet analysts’ expectations. The public company had Q4 2021 revenues of $969.9 million, up around 70% from its year-ago quarter that was hit hard by the pandemic and its economic disruptions. On a sequential basis, Lyft grew



Enlarge / Ivermectin tablets arranged in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. The US Food and Drug Administration warned Americans against taking ivermectin, a drug usually used on animals, as a treatment or prevention for COVID-19. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg ) The Kansas medical board is facing attacks from state lawmakers for investigating doctors who have prescribed the antiparasiti




23TechCrunch / 9h
Hydrogen pioneers Verdagy — from “verde” for green, and “agy” for energy — raised $25 million from a fistful of strategic investors in the energy sector in a bid to take a messy, not-that-environmentally-friendly process of making hydrogen and replacing it with an industrially scalable solution with no nasties going into the air. It turns out that the most common way (more than 90% of hydrogen ma



Antihistamines COVID•
Gizmodo / 9h
In a new case report this week, medical professionals in California say that at least two of their patients have experienced substantial and rapid relief from their long covid symptoms with the help of over-the-counter antihistamines. Importantly, the findings are only anecdotal at this point, but they may point to… Read more...



Lander Biden White House•
77Futurism / 9h
President Joe Biden’s top science advisor, Eric Lander, resigned Monday night after admitting that he abused employees — an awkward look for the White House, given that Biden swore on day one of taking office last year that he would fire anybody “on the spot” if they “treat another colleague with disrespect.” Lander served as the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and



PlayStation 5 Sony•
The next PlayStation 4 and PS5 system update will add a handful of new accessibility and quality of life features to Sony’s consoles. Among the additions is support for voice commands on PlayStation 5 . Sony’s previous-generation console has had that feature since launching in 2013, but it’s now making its way to the company’s latest console too. Starting with a beta Sony will make available to E



Gizmodo / 9h
The highest court in Ecuador ruled last week that Indigenous communities in the country should have a stronger say over extractive projects like oil drilling and mining that affect their ancestral lands. Read more...



63Gizmodo / 9h
He’s jumped off buildings, hung outside airplanes, and will soon be diving off a cliff on a motorcycle . However, for his next trick, Tom Cruise might be going on his most impossible mission yet : ending the franchise. Read more...



NHTSA Hyundai Kia US•
oleg_aryutkin/Shutterstock CNN Business is reporting that both Hyundai and KIA have issued a recall for over 357,000 and over 126,000 vehicles, respectively, as well as cautioning owners against parking indoors or close to buildings due to a potential fire risk. Both companies have revealed a problem with the anti-lock brake computer control module, which could short circuit and start a fire … Co



Australia January Wind•
Gizmodo / 9h
January was a banner month for renewables Down Under. According to an analyst at Rystad Energy, who shared the figures with clean energy site Renew Economy , three of Australia’s six states saw new records for wind and solar power production. In total, utility-scale wind and solar produced 3,628 gigawatt hours of power… Read more...



100+Mashable / 9h
Whoa. The legendary Hubble Space Telescope, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), captured a dazzling snapshot of a large galaxy (NGC 169) pulling cosmic material away from a smaller galaxy (IC 1559). "As common as these interactions are thought to be in the Universe, it is rare to capture an image of two galaxies interacting in such a visibly dynamic way," explained the ESA . The



NASA’s two Mars rovers, Perseverance and Curiosity, are currently exploring the red planet to learn more about its history and to search for evidence that there could once have been life there. But these are just the first stages in exploring Mars. To really learn about the make-up of the planet, and to confirm if there could be signs of … Continue reading



200+TechCrunch / 9h
The donation site used by truckers in Ottawa who are currently protesting against national vaccine mandates has fixed a security lapse that exposed passports and driver licenses of donors. The Boston, Massachusetts-based donation service GiveSendGo became the primary donation service for the so-called “Freedom Convoy” last week after GoFundMe froze millions of dollars in donations, citing police



Marriott says they’ll be offering 20 Bonvoy points per dollar on bookings made through their Homes & Villas by Marriott International site from February 9th to February 11th. That’s four times the usual number of points. These bookings qualify as Marriott spend for bonus earnings with their cobrand cards, too. Continue reading Earn 20x On Home Rentals When You Book Through Marriott February 9-11



I did not grow up watching the Super Bowl. The closest thing my home state of Mississippi has to a professional football team is the Saints, but my dad and grandfather were far too busy cussing at the TV while watching Mississippi State lose to pay attention to any of that. Besides, the Super Bowl always falls on a… Read more...



NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has covered a lot of ground in the decade since it first touched down on Mars, and that ground hasn't exactly been paved, as new photos from NASA reveal . The latest images were uploaded to NASA's official Curiosity mission website, and is part of a regular check-up for the rover. "Historically, we perform wheel imaging every 500 meters," Andrew Good, a NASA Jet Propul



Coco, a company that offers food deliveries by remote-controlled robot , has expanded beyond its home base of Los Angeles for the first time. The service is now available in Austin as it commences a nationwide rollout. Coco plans to bring its robots to Dallas, Houston and Miami in the next few months. The company says its service, which debuted in 2020, now has hundreds of delivery robots on the



Norwegian Cruise Line•
In an unexpected move, Norwegian Cruise Line , which has taken the most conservative approach to passenger COVID-19 safety of any cruise line, is rolling back its onboard mask policy and part of its vaccination policy. Beginning March 1, Norwegian will allow unvaccinated children younger than 5 to sail on its ships. Previously, the line required 100% vaccination — the only major line to do so — p



Google Cloud VMTD VM•
To keep its virtual machines (VM) safe from cryptominers, Google has launched a new platform aimed at stopping malware for good. The new Virtual Machine Threat Detection (VMTD) tool is available for Google Cloud’s Security Command Center Premium customers, and will work without additional software, meaning there won’t be any significant impact on the performance of the virtual machines, or operat



DARPA Sikorsky Black Hawk•
400+Gizmodo / 10h
The United States military just inched one step closer to bringing autonomous helicopters to the battlefield. Like most strange feats of advanced military technology , this one comes from The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known simply as “DARPA.” Read more...



Buzz C. Evans Lightyear•
Chris Evans voices a young Buzz Lightyear in Pixar's forthcoming Lightyear . We have a shiny new trailer for Lightyear , the latest animated feature from Pixar. It's a spinoff from the studio's hugely successful Toy Story franchise, with Chris Evans replacing Tim Allen as the voice of titular protagonist Buzz Lightyear. (The character's name honors Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.) Pixar



Mashable / 10h
Unlimited Tomorrow has created a prosthetic arm that can be 3D scanned, match your other arm identically, and comes in 450 different skin tones.




300+Futurism / 10h
It’s 2022, so naturally, the feds have brought down a Bitcoin-laundering power couple — one half of whom is a crypto wallet CEO who is also an extremely bad rapper. Heather Morgan and Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein were arrested by federal agents on Tuesday for allegedly laundering $4.5 billion in Bitcoin that was stolen during a 2016 hack. In its affidavit , the Department of Justice claimed that the



Adobe Premiere Pro•
Engadget / 10h
It can be a pain to time music with a video you're editing — you may spend ages trimming and slicing tracks to create an arrangement that matches your footage. Adobe thinks your computer can do the heavy lifting, though. It just updated Premiere Pro with a Remix feature that uses AI to re-time music to fit your video's duration. This probably won't be completely satisfying if you're exacting abou



Snoring can bother your bed partner, and can sometimes be a red flag for health conditions (notably, obstructive sleep apnea). But sometimes you’ve got a snoring habit that is harmless and still drives your partner nuts. Here are some of the ways you can become a quieter sleeper. Read more...



IRS Facial Recognition•
100+Wired / 10h
Privacy advocates and lawmakers from both major parties objected to the agency's use of a third-party system to confirm taxpayers' identities.



Steam Deck Two Hours•
SlashGear / 10h
Steam/Valve The earliest Steam Deck reviews are in, giving interested consumers their first hands-on look at Valve’s upcoming portable gaming console. Though none of the early reviews offer a comprehensive look at the complete product, they do cover the Steam Deck’s hardware, including benchmarks, offering gamers an idea of what they can expect when the product launches later this month. Three …



83Gizmodo / 10h
Federal authorities have arrested a DeFi investor and his finance influencer wife for allegedly having laundered billions of dollars in cryptocurrency stolen from a crypto exchange. Read more...



Nintendo Direct 2022•
SlashGear / 10h
Nintendo has just announced that it will hold a Nintendo Direct event this week. This is the most exciting time for any Nintendo Switch gamer, as the company promises around 40 minutes of new game announcements, with the Switch console being the main focus. Nintendo is keeping pretty hush about which titles we can expect to see, but we do … Continue reading



33TechCrunch / 10h
Renowned Silicon Valley operator Adam Nash thinks you want to donate much more than you do, and he’s about to make it dead simple for you. Such is the message we received when talking late last week with Nash, whose most recent full-time roles include as a VP at Dropbox and president and CEO of the financial advisory firm Wealthfront, but who also serves on the boards of the auto e-commerce platf



Enlarge / The small light-absorbing portions (labeled 12 in this diagram) are key to Sony's solution to the "god ray" problem. (credit: Sony / USPTO ) If you've spent any significant amount of time in virtual reality, you've probably encountered issues with " god rays ," a specific type of lens flare that looks a bit like a sunbeam shining through the clouds and right on your eye. Now, a recently



Leica L1 L2 Watches•
36Gizmodo / 10h
For more than 150 years, Leica has made a name for itself producing binoculars, microscopes, rangefinders, cameras , and other devices with high-quality optical lenses, but for the first time ever, the German-based company is expanding into high-end timepieces. Unfortunately, the new L1 and L2 watches somehow make… Read more...



Global Entry is an incredibly useful program for anyone who travels internationally with any frequency. I’ve now had Global Entry for over a decade, and just went through the process of renewing my membership. I wanted to outline how that works in this post. What is Global Entry? For those not familiar, Global Entry is a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program that allows expedited clearan



It’s almost Valentine’s Day. Sometimes called “Oh, shit, I forgot again” Day, the annual Feb. 14 celebration of love is marked by candy, greeting cards, and difficult-to-obtain dinner reservations, but where did Valentine’s Day come from? Why do we celebrate it? Who said we have to give people candy? What does it all … Read more...



Gizmodo / 10h
Two young women—one an African warrior , one a Viking princess —become important allies in Black Shield Maiden , a new medieval fantasy that’s the first in a new series from musician turned debut author WILLOW , co-written with Jess Hendel. io9 is excited to share a vivid first excerpt from the book today. Read more...



Engadget / 10h
Just as many of the ugliest online fights begin these days, Brian "Box" Brown, an Eisner-winning illustrator and comic artist, sent a seemingly innocuous tweet . It read, in part, "my former regular freelance employer has let me know they'll be...Embracing NFTs 🙃 so...we had to part ways." The then unnamed business, Gumroad, shot back the next day with a now-pinned response denying it had plans



73Gizmodo / 10h
Bernardinelli-Bernstein is officially the largest comet ever discovered, according to updated observations of the inbound object. Read more...



Samsung Galaxy 4 Google•
Samsung has announced a new fitness upgrade that sees it bringing much-needed fitness and wellness features to the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic - two of the best smartwatches on the market in our tests. The headline upgrades focus heavily around fitness and wellness: users will now get a 30-day trial of the Chris Hemsworth-helmed Centr training platform (which is a pretty decent upgrade, as



52Wired / 11h
In a year when streaming services dominated Hollywood, this could finally be the year they also clean up at the Academy Awards. Here's where to stream them.



Facebook Meta Europe•
Engadget / 11h
Meta has “absolutely no desire to withdraw from Europe.” The company issued the statement in a blog post it published on Tuesday after some media outlets published reports claiming it had “threatened” to pull Facebook and Instagram from the continent amid uncertainty over whether the US and European Union would agree to replace a scrapped transatlantic privacy agreement. The “threat” Meta made ca



300+Futurism / 11h
As if the NFT trend wasn’t already mind-meltingly unintelligible and annoying enough. Investors are now buying up exclusive rights to simple strings of emojis, for some reason. The consecutive row of cartoonized images are now being referred to as “Yats” among early adopters, The Wall Street Journal reports — definitive evidence that we’re nowhere near hitting peak NFT yet. Or, uh, yat. “If your



Games PlayStation 2022•
Futurism / 11h
The PlayStation 5 has been hard to find since its release in November 2020, but that hasn’t stopped developers from supporting Sony’s latest console with incredible games. The PlayStation 5’s games library has continued to grow with a mix of titles from both monolithic and independent developers. These game makers have had enough time with the PlayStation 5 to fully take advantage of its hardware




Synthetic Tooth Enamel•
200+Futurism / 11h
Got teeth? Great news! S cientists have created a synthetic tooth enamel they claim is stronger than actual human teeth. An international team of researchers developed the synthetic enamel to outperform the real thing, according to a paper of their findings published in the journal Science . If all goes well, the findings could finally provide a compelling solution to decaying teeth. To develop i



Apple Tap Pay iPhone•
Enlarge / The iPhone XS, the oldest iPhone that will support Tap to Pay on iPhone. (credit: Samuel Axon) Today, Apple announced a limited new feature coming to iOS. With "Tap to Pay on iPhone," merchants and vendors will be able to accept contactless payments from customers at point-of-sale using just an app on the iPhone. No additional hardware will be necessary. Up to this point, point-of-sale



US Morgan Bitfinex•
53TechCrunch / 11h
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has seized over 94,000 bitcoins that were allegedly stolen in the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex and arrested a married couple suspected to have laundered the money, the department announced today . The couple — Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and Heather Morgan, 31 — faces charges of conspiring to launder money and to defraud the U.S. government. Facing up to 25 y



In theory, a homeowners association (HOA) is a great idea: Property owners in a neighborhood banding together to share expenses and enforce a few simple rules that will improve their quality of life—and their property values. Read more...



Using the Xbox Game Pass on a PC is great, with some caveats. The Xbox app doesn’t allow you to install games in a custom folder on your computer; by default, you can only choose which drive the games are installed on. If you like to keep things more organized than that, there are ways around this limitation. Read more...



Card Annual Rewards•
The British Airways Visa Signature® Card is one of Chase’s popular co-branded airline credit cards. British Airways Executive Club is a valuable frequent flyer program, so in this post, I wanted to take a closer look at this card. This card is especially worth considering in light of the massive welcome bonus that’s currently available. Who should be applying for this card, and under what circums



500+Gizmodo / 11h
He’s among the most popular Star Wars characters of all time. He was a fan-favorite years before he appeared on screen in The Empire Strikes Back . He was so popular he was retroactively inserted into A New Hope and then introduced in the prequels, where he’s treated with so much narrative reverence he effectively… Read more...



Intel Risc Processors•
Intel has launched a new $1 billion investment fund in support of semiconductor companies working on open source RISC-V processors and other chip innovations. The company says it will look to support both early-stage startups and established companies building disruptive technologies for the foundry industry. The focus of Intel's Innovation Fund will be on laying the foundation for modular produc



Trumbull Blade Runner•
Engadget / 11h
Douglas Trumbull, the visual effects mastermind behind Blade Runner , Close Encounter of the Third Kind , 2001: A Space Odyssey and numerous others, died on Monday at age 79. His daughter Amy Trumbull announced the news on Facebook, writing that her father’s death followed a “two-year battle” with cancer, a brain tumor and stroke. Trumbull was born on April 8, 1942 in Los Angeles, the son of a me



Meta Board Facebook•
Meta’s external advisory organization issued new recommendations Tuesday, urging the company to bolster its policies that protect users against doxing. Facebook requested advice on the policy last year, acknowledging that it had difficulty balancing access to public information with privacy concerns. The company now known as Meta’s current policy on sharing private identifying details carves out



YouTube offers the option to enable and disable comments on your videos, so you can decide where you’d like to allow or disallow the discussions. Here’s how to manage the comment settings for your YouTube videos on desktop and mobile. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Microsoft Defender•
Microsoft appears to have jumped the gun and released the latest edition of its Windows 11 security tool onto the app store early. The Microsoft Defender Preview app can be downloaded and used free of charge, but the company has already warned it will only be free during the preview period. In addition to providing a basic security overview, Microsoft Defender Preview gives details of security al



200+Wired / 12h
In Ottawa, a protest against vaccine mandates has become an international sensation. American far-right personalities are behind its online rise.



Instagram Rolls Bulk•
Engadget / 12h
Instagram is making it a whole lot easier to remove posts, comments and other activity from the platform. The photo sharing app is rolling out new account controls that allow users to bulk delete comments and posts, and review past interactions and search activity. The features will be available in a new section of users’ profiles called ”your activity.” The goal, according to Instagram, is to ma



300+Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge / Two formerly paralyzed individuals go for a stroll in Lausanne, Switzerland. (credit: EPFL) Spinal cord injuries are life-altering, as they prevent the transmission of nerve impulses past the point of injury. That means no sensory inputs make it to the brain, and no signals from the brain make it to the muscles normally controlled by the brain. But improvements in our understanding of n



200+The Points Guy / 12h
Adventure-thirsty travelers have received another boost after Vietnam announced plans to fully reopen its borders to foreign visitors “ideally at the end of March and no later than the end of April.” Those were the words of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh who has begun easing his country out of one of the strictest zero-tolerance COVID-19 policies in Southeast Asia. For more TPG news delivered eac



Startups do not have a great survival rate. Nine out of ten will fail, and those that persist will likely need at least three to four years to become profitable. Entrepreneurs who are fortunate enough to make it across the finish line of an exit often still find themselves running uphill: reorganizations and layoffs create profound cultural shifts that few are prepared for. Last month, enterprise



Google Two 2SV 50%•
Engadget / 12h
Google's decision to enable two-factor authentication by default appears to have borne fruit. The search firm has revealed that account breaches dropped by 50 percent among those users where 2FA (two-step verification in Google-speak) was auto-enabled. The plunge was proof the extra factor is "effective" in safeguarding your data, Google said , although it didn't disclose the exact number of comp



Peloton 2800 2 800•
200+Mashable / 12h
Peloton, America's favorite at-home workout bike, is spinning out of style. The company saw a huge spike in growth amid the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic largely because gyms were closed and people wanted to work out with similar energy to an in-person class, which Peloton provided. In September 2020, delivery wait times for Peloton bikes and treadmills were absurd. But now, as gyms re



200+Futurism / 12h
Scanning… Scanning… A team of astronomers have used the Murchison Widefield Array, a massive network of over 4,000 antennas spread out over the Western Australian desert, to look for aliens. They collected seven agonizing hours worth of data — and to their dismay, they found nothing. As detailed in their new paper , accepted for publication in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society




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 ...



Over the last seven years, an average of 104 million people have tuned into the Super Bowl—and it’s safe to say, lots of people will be doing the same when the Rams take on the Bengals this weekend. But what’s a non-football fan to do while the rest of the country guzzles weak beer and tries to keep buffalo wing… Read more...



25Wired / 12h
Dismissed as gimmicks at first, gadgets with flexible screens are starting to feel truly mature.



Google Chrome Journeys•
Google Chrome's latest feature, Journeys, is here to help lead you back from your web meanderings to where it all began. Journey's will take items in your search and browsing history and group them by subject, like travel, place names, or even topics like Covid-19. "When you type a related word into your search bar and click on 'Resume your research' or visit the Chrome History Journeys page, you



Puma Kronos Ransomware•
The impact of last year's Kronos ransomware attack is still being felt, with sports equipment company Puma now confirming it has suffered a related breach. As reported by Bleeping Computer, Kronos filed a breach notification with several attorney generals’ offices earlier this month, which states that the attackers took data on Puma employees and their dependents from the Kronos Private Cloud (KP



NASA Lockheed Martin Mars•
Engadget / 12h
The Perseverance rover is a capable machine, but one thing it can't do is send rock, sediment and atmospheric samples from Mars back to Earth by itself. NASA hopes to retrieve some of those through its Mars Sample Return Program, and it's taken another step forward in the project. The agency has chosen Lockheed Martin to build the first rocket to be fired off another planet. The Mars Ascent Vehic



Looking to get yourself a new laptop for 2022? You can currently get the Dell XPS 15 for a steal right now over at the Dell website, with the original price of $1199.99 slashed down to just $930.99 . This obviously isn't one of the cheapest laptops on the market, but that's because the Dell XPS 15 is one of the best laptops in the world, combining a stunningly thin and light design with powerful



Gizmodo / 12h
The month of January had more than its fair share of newsworthy surprises , but the end of the month certainly threw some sizable curveballs our way. In the gaming space, everyone was shocked to learn that Bungie, the original developers of Halo and currently working on the Destiny franchise, had been bought by Sony … Read more...



Nvidia Arm Rene Haas•
SlashGear / 12h
MZinchenko/Shutterstock The acquisition of Arm, a CPU architecture company, by NVIDIA has been called off, with the two companies citing regulatory challenges as a significant factor in the decision. The acquisition was originally announced in 2020, however the two companies have seen a lot of push back since then, with some even calling it a national security risk. In the wake … Continue reading



Mashable / 12h
Save $20.01: Make streaming more convenient when you pick up a Roku Streaming Stick 4K for just $29.98 from Amazon. As of Feb. 8, that's 40% off the original price of one of the newer and more powerful Roku devices. The complete list of 2022 Oscar nominations is out. That means you have just over a month to watch these movies and prepare your opinion on why the Academy got it all wrong when the c



One Credit Card Months•
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information. When it comes to personal finance (including how to get the best credit cards ), your credit score plays a large role. Creditors use it as a barometer for how trustworthy you are as a borrower. One of the main factors used in determining your score is credit utilization, which is a term not everyone is super familiar



Bengals Burrow Rams•
20Lifehacker / 12h
There’s a lot going on in the world, so you can be forgiven for not paying this year’s NFL season the attention it deserves, but football is way more fun to watch with some context. Before you show up to that Super Bowl party, read through this thumbnail sketch of the teams, players and drama that will define 2022's… Read more...



The new World of Hyatt Business Credit Card isn’t a game-changer and I think because the card is new and because it’s from Hyatt it’s being judged against an almost impossible standard. It’s a great card to get for the up front bonus. In fact, if you’re eligible for new Chase cards and can get a business card, that’s a rich enough reward to make applying almost a no-brainer. The card is reasonabl



One of the most hotly anticipated TV adaptations of a book for some time hits the airwaves this month with the Ben Whishaw-starring medical drama-comedy This Is Going to Hurt. Read on as we explain how to watch This Is Going to Hurt online and stream the series today - it's 100% free to watch in the UK thanks to BBC iPlayer and can also be enjoyed wherever you are in the world right now. Watch Th



If your credit card has expired, or you simply don’t wish to use it for Amazon purchases, it’s easy to remove your credit cards as well as any other payment methods from your Amazon account. We’ll show you how to do that on your desktop and mobile. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›


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