Saturday, April 02, 2022

Technology News and More-Saturday Edition

Technology News and More...






Amazon Staten Island•
Despite heavy lobbying by the company, workers at the facility voted by a wide margin for a union. It was seen as a rebuke of the company’s treatment of its employees.



Amazon Staten Island•
6KEngadget / 15h
There should be at least one unionized Amazon warehouse in the US. CNBC reports Workers at the company's JFK8 facility in Staten Island have voted 2,350-1,912 in favor of joining a union in a late March election . While the official count isn't yet available, the remaining uncounted and challenged ballots aren't expected to sway the outcome. The decision came after numerous challenges. Workers ha



Smith Academy Chris Rock•
1KMashable / 8h
Will Smith has resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after slapping Chris Rock onstage at the 94th Academy Awards. Smith apologized to Rock the day after the Oscars — where he w on Best Actor — and the Academy began disciplinary proceedings against Smith in the past week. SEE ALSO: Why you can't stop reading about the Slap On April 1, Will Smith resigned from the Academy i




Today Wordle April•
Morning, Wordlers! New day, new Wordle . You'll find today's Wordle answer at the bottom of this post, but if you want to try and get there yourself first, you'll find a few clues as well as general Wordle tips, strategies, and info as you make your way down. Created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner and later bought by the New York Times in a seven-figure deal, Wordle has made fi



TL;DR: A one-year subscription to Podomatic Pro Plus is on sale for £7.60, saving you 91% on list price. If you've ever heard a popular podcast and thought, "I can do this," you're not alone. That's why thousands of people have launched podcasts in the last year or so. But you don't need to have access to a fancy studio or cash to get started; you mostly just need the right software. Podomatic is



At just under $1,500 (about AU$2000, £1,150) , Sabrent’s newest SSD (solid state drive) is neither the biggest, nor the fastest nor the cheapest per TB capacity but it hits a nice, sweet spot. The Rocket 4 Plus 8TB is the fastest, very high capacity model available on the market right now, as most if not all of its rivals are either smaller and as fast or just as big and smaller in capacity. The



25TechCrunch / 6h
TechCrunch Live has an exciting slate of episodes scheduled for April. The speakers come from a variety of disciplines, backgrounds and locations. Like always, each episode features an entrepreneur presenting their early pitch deck along with the investor who funded the company. We want to know how the founder hooked the VC, what makes their partnership work and how other founders can improve the



CVE-2022-22965•
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Hype and hyperbole were on full display this week as the security world reacted to reports of yet another Log4Shell. The vulnerability came to light in December and is arguably one of the gravest Internet threats in years. Christened Spring4Shell—the new code-execution bug in the widely used Spring Java framework—quickly set the security world on fire as researchers



Mozilla has released a new extension for Firefox that allows users to manage color calibration in its browser across devices. By default, Firefox uses color management from Windows, macOS, Linux and other operating systems to optimize and render colors and images to enhance users’ browsing experience. However, with its new Extended Color Management Add-On, users can disable color management and t



87Gizmodo / 7h
If there’s anything you can count on, it’s that Hollywood is never too far away from making yet another Crow reboot announcement . This time around, Bill Skarsgård ( It ’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown ) is attached to don Eric Draven’s harlequin makeup, marking the end of Jason Momoa’s tenure of trying to get The Crow … Read more...



Gizmodo / 8h
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Google Unfairly India•
48Engadget / 8h
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday released early findings of an investigation into Google’s app store and its payment system, Google Pay. As Bloomberg reported , it found that Google’s Play Store billing system for app developers is “unfair and discriminatory”. Back in 2020, Google decided to delay enforcing its 30% commission for app developers in India following an outcry from



NIH Moderna Covid Vaccine•
Enlarge / A vial of the current Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. (credit: Getty | Ivan Romano ) Mild or not, more SARS-CoV-2 variants are inevitable. To avoid any blips in our pandemic endgame, researchers at the National Institutes of Health on Thursday announced the start of a complex Phase II clinical trial to find the best COVID-19 booster regimen to protect against variants that emerge in the wake



Gizmodo / 8h
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of all things good and plastic on the internet. This week, Lego dips into Lightyear , and Moon Knight swings into the merchandising world with new figures from Hot Toys and Hasbro. Plus, begun, the Lego Clone Wars have, and at last: a talking Pikachu you can squish.… Read more...



It could be close to a year and a half before Amtrak’s new, state-of-the-art Acela Express trains begin service, an Amtrak representative told TPG on Friday. It’s a timeline that falls far short of previous projections by the rail operator that the new trainsets would be serving the northeast U.S. by 2021. The new timeline calls for the trains to hit the tracks by fall 2023. Word of the delay for



One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “How much is a point or mile worth?” The true answer varies from point to point and person to person and depends on your travel goals and how well you can maximize a particular loyalty currency. Still, some rewards are clearly worth more than others — my goal is to give you a sense of how they stack up. Historically, TPG has valued points and miles ba



We quizzed The Bubble cast and director on their comedy film knowledge to see who really knows their stuff. Find out who ends up on top!



To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PT, subscribe here . A fine day to you, and welcome to Daily Crunch for Friday, April 1, 2022 ! It was a slow news day at TC Towers because we double-checked every PR pitch for April Fools’ Day silliness and every PR agency in the world advised their clients to set embargoes to literall



Apple LG iPad MacBook•
Rekindled rumors of OLED iPads and MacBooks now suggest that LG could be a key supplier of foldable displays for Apple's rumored future devices. Korean supply chain industry sources report that LG is collaborating with Apple to develop a flexible OLED panel with ultra-thin glass (UTG) on top, instead of polyimide like the first Samsung Galaxy Fold used. Samsung now uses UTG in the Z Fold and Z Fl



100+Mashable / 9h
Five days after the infamous Oscars Slap and I've lost count of the links I've clicked about the controversy. I only know that more content keeps surfacing — Celebrities support Chris Rock! Will Smith apologizes! Jada Pinkett Smith breaks her silence! Will Smith resigns from the Academy! — and I feel a strange gravitational pull toward all of it that I cannot explain. It's so strong that I made t



Researchers Hong Kong•
The team hope the slime could one day be used to collect accidentally-swallowed objects.



Editor’s note: This post has been updated with new information. If you truly want to maximize your miles, periodic transfer bonuses can offer lucrative opportunities for fantastic points redemptions . You can sometimes get up to 50% more value from your points by transferring them to a specific airline or hotel partner during one of these bonuses. To give you an idea of the value of these bonuses




Managing all of the devices used in a large organization or even an SMB can be difficult which is why Microsoft has released new guidance regarding the Windows Update policies admins should be using. In a new blog post , senior program manager at Microsoft, Aria Carley has shared a list of the policies admins should be setting for single-user devices, multi-user devices, education devices, kiosks



iPhone Android Lightning•
Enlarge / A Lightning port on a Samsung Android phone... if you're into that. (credit: Exploring the Simulation (Kenny Pi) on YouTube ) We're not sure why you'd want such a thing, but someone modified an Android phone to use Apple's Lightning port instead of the industry-standard USB-C connection. The modification was undertaken by Ken Pillonel, who previously made waves across the Internet for a



100+Gizmodo / 10h
Financial troubles, job stress, and a fraught home life would be enough to push anyone to the edge, but as Gordon Fleming ( Westworld ’s Peter Mullan) discovers, there’s nothing like a (probably haunted) abandoned psychiatric hospital to really turn the screws. Read more...



Lapsus$ Two UK Teenagers•
The actions of the relatively new group have led to an international police hunt.



China WeChat NFT Accounts•
The popular messaging app said the move was in line with "relevant national regulations".



The European Union is investing billions of euros in developing a world-beating chip industry.



100+The Points Guy / 10h
Editor’s note: This is The Points Guy’s permanent page about the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex’s latest quarterly bonus categories. A new quarter has arrived, which means reshuffling which credit cards to use to maximize all of your purchases. Starting today, those with the Chase Freedom (no longer open to new applicants) or the Chase Freedom Flex can activate the new 5% cash-back rotating



Rovio Angry Birds Android•
SlashGear / 10h
Years after Rovio removed the original Angry Birds from app stores, the classic game is making a comeback with an updated engine and a low price tag.



SlashGear / 10h
Water cooler manufacturer EK is positioning itself to launch a new line of water blocks for the new NVIDIA RTX model. Here's what we know.



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 ...



Read more...



SlashGear / 10h
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will undergo a critical testing regimen this weekend, but the media won't be there to cover it. Here's what we know.



Apple April Fools 2022•
44Futurism / 10h
According to legend, April Fools’ Day was once a fun holiday. Back in the ancient days of the 2000s, for instance, there was a general sense of lively wit when companies like Google pulled off silly pranks like sewer-based broadband . Nowadays, after a few years of a global pandemic and way too many brand shenanigans, the whole thing feels a lot more tired than it used to. But then again, we all



Space US ISS Ukraine•
51Futurism / 10h
By Invitation Only A crew of space tourists are set to launch to the International Space Station later this month on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon, as part of Axiom Space’s AX-1 mission. It’s billed as the “ first-ever entirely private mission ” to fly to the ISS. But given the tense geopolitical crisis unfolding back on terra firma — and the fact that the ISS is the culmination of decades of collab



Futurism / 10h
As the 32-bit generation starts having kids, it’s only natural parents would want to share their love of console gaming with their offspring. It’s never been easier to game either. Sure, there are the three main home consoles, but everything from streaming devices to smartwatches run video games nowadays. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best consoles just for kids. Regardless of the platf



When I first met Garrett Camp in March 2007 on a reporting assignment, it was at the San Francisco-based offices of StumbleUpon, a web-discovery tool that had registered more than 2 million users and drawn attention to Camp, the startup’s twenty-something-year-old founder. Seed funded with $1.5 million by storied angel Ram Shriram among others, StumbleUpon would go on to be acquired several month



Gizmodo / 10h
The Steam Deck is now shipping to customers, which means those who pre-ordered the handheld console should be receiving it...eventually. I’m afraid there is not much Gizmodo can do about shipping delays. What we can do is provide the tools you need to get the most out of the console once it arrives. We’ve already… Read more...



SlashGear / 10h
One of the biggest browser debates right now is whether to use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Here are the details on each, and which is better for what.



24TechCrunch / 11h
The sidewalks along University Avenue in Palo Alto used to be a great place to do business. For decades, there were several blocks where angels and VC partners camped out at café tables, taking pitches between lattes. The pandemic put a stop to that, however. These days, when you have an opportunity to sell an investor on your idea, it will likely be via a video call, not over a croissant or a sh



Gizmodo / 11h
Comics have a long, convoluted, and wildly inconsistent history with licensed brand crossovers . As of late, DC in particular has gone through this, delivering branded tie-ins that range from working on absurdity alone , actually working as great comics, or just being absolute garbage . But its latest crossover might be… Read more...




I used to be freaked out on airplanes. My aerophobia wasn’t severe enough that I took trains everywhere, but it was bad. I had to force myself to board flights, and the days preceding any trip were spent fretting about the upcoming trial-by-airline instead of planning vacation activities. Read more...



In February, we learned that Qatar Airways would soon use Avios as its loyalty currency . Then, in March, Qatar launched Avios transfers and British Airways lowered the price of Qsuite awards. TPG even wrote about why Qatar’s switch to Avios is huge news for Citi ThankYou points . Get the latest points, miles and travel news by signing up for TPG’s free daily newsletter . However, now the good ne



Gizmodo / 11h
A team of researchers recently reported that a little over 4 pounds of helium-3 leak out of Earth every year, an indication that our planet formed in a solar nebula. Read more...



Hyper Light Breaker•
89Engadget / 11h
Hyper Light Drifter 's retro style and relentless action have prompted a spiritual successor and even an animated series , but what about a follow-up? Don't worry, it's coming. Eurogamer notes Heart Machine has unveiled Hyper Light Breaker , a game set in the Hyper Light universe but with very different mechanics. Gone is the Zelda -like 2D view and solo-only gameplay — instead, you're slashing t



SlashGear / 11h
Confused by all this talk about our "quantum" future? Here's everything you need to know about the quantum internet and how it might change the world.



CVE-2022-0342•
The network equipment maker Zyxel has patched several of its business-grade VPN and firewall products to prevent hackers from exploiting a security flaw that could give them admin-level access to vulnerable devices. The critical-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-0342, affects business VPN and firewall products from the company’s USG/Zy Wall, USG Flex, ATP VPN and NSG (Nebula Security Ga



While I doubt all that many people are going to be rushing to take advantage of this opportunity, I still think it’s worth covering. Air France first class is amazing & exclusive Air France first class, also known as La Premiere, is an absolutely incredible product. It’s only available on key routes on select Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The cabin features just four seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration,



Samsung NFT Nifty Gateway•
Gizmodo / 11h
“Why are NFTs?” is a question I ask myself every day. I don’t have the answer yet but Samsung wants to put them in your living room anyway. Read more...



My daughter recently asked for chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast on her birthday. Since it fell on a school day and pancakes are never made in my house without substantial emotional drama about the comparative size, quantity and facial composition of said pancakes in relation to those of their siblings (we have… Read more...



Here at TPG, we strive to make sure we’re sharing the important news you need to know to be the best traveler possible, such as Marriott’s major move to dynamic pricing, European Union nations ditching COVID-19 travel restrictions and even the launch of a new video series that’ll teach you how to use your points . But right now in the world, there’s a lot of news to digest. And between all the bi



Gizmodo / 11h
Before joining the creative crew behind Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser , Alex Lee worked in the theatrical market, then was recruited by Disney Parks to work on products for East Asian audiences, then did a stint at the Shanghai Disneyland Resort. All of that experience comes together at his current gig: entertainment… Read more...



1KFuturism / 11h
Wood Lover Forget a bad trip — in rare cases, eating psychedelic mushrooms could lead to partial paralysis, experts say. According to Insider , some people who’ve taken “magic” psilocybin-producing mushrooms have experienced “wood-lover’s paralysis,” or WLP. It isn’t yet established beyond any doubt that it’s connected to mushrooms that grow from trees and wood, but there’s growing suspicion that



Bitcoin Mined Left•
200+Futurism / 11h
Hard Cap Bitcoin was designed to have a hard cap of 21 million Bitcoins, a limited coin supply that in some ways mimics the theoretically finite supply of other valuable goods like gold. Well over a decade after the first Bitcoin was mined, the mainstream cryptocurrency is nearing its next threshold: 19 million mined Bitcoins, as Axios notes , a notable milestone. Which leaves the obvious questio



Twitch Boost Train Porn•
200+Engadget / 11h
Twitch is halting a feature that lets viewers pay to promote their favorite streamers after bad actors used it to push porn and other NSFW content onto its homepage. First spotted by PC Gamer , a number of Twitch users on Twitter this week noticed that streams of porn videos were on the homepage, all featuring the caption “Promoted by the streamer’s community." It appeared that a number of uniden



Ukraine Ukrainian Russia•
37Mashable / 12h
You've probably come across at least one article heralding the tens of millions of dollars in charitable contributions to Ukraine's government thanks to the kindness of cryptocurrency holders and advocates. However, an overview of the Ethereum blockchain data shows that the vast majority of transactions over the past five weeks – from when Ukraine started accepting crypto donations until the end



There are a lot of reasons you might want to keep your birth control a secret, but it doesn’t really why—it’s your body and your choice. Whether your parents are being overbearing, your partner is controlling, or you live within a region or culture where it’s frowned upon, it’s stress you don’t need to worry about.… Read more...



Gizmodo / 12h
British Columbia experienced devastating landslides and flooding last fall after torrential rain fell on regions scarred by wildfires, and more of these events are likely coming soon. A study published Friday in Science Advances found that under a high-emissions scenario—in a world where we do nothing to stop current… Read more...



This is not an April Fool’s joke: Chase and Lyft have now renewed their partnership through March 2025, which allows cardholders to continue to earn bonus points when using this popular ridesharing service . For context, Chase maintains many partnerships with everyday brands like DoorDash , Instacart and Peloton — providing exclusive perks for cardholders. First introduced at the onset of the pan



Browser Infinite Mac•
32Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge / The Infinite Mac project emulating a classic System 7 Mac. (credit: Infinite Mac ) For retro computing enthusiasts, there's no substitute for unearthing ancient hardware and computing like it's 1999. But as with old video games, emulation offers a much more convenient way to run old software. Now, running System 7 or Mac OS 8 on a virtual 68k Mac is more convenient than ever, thanks to



48Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge (credit: Archaeological Park of Pompeii) The nearby volcano blackened the sky and swallowed the city in clouds of ash; centuries later, robot dogs now prowl the ruins, guarding the city's dead against the ravages of time. That’s not a movie plot. It’s what’s actually happening at the 2,000-year-old Roman ruins of Pompeii, in Southern Italy. Boston Dynamics’ robot dog, Spot, will help arch




Episode Halo YouTube•
100+Engadget / 12h
You don't have to start a Paramount+ trial just to figure out whether or not the Halo TV series is worth your time. The streaming service has made the first episode of the game-inspired show free to watch on YouTube for a week starting March 31st (sorry!). The freebie is only viewable in the US, but it's worth a look if you want to see Hollywood's take on Master Chief and the Covenant. There's no



Mashable / 12h
Traverse is an interactive art installation that acts as a mirror into the real world. Created by innovative art collective BREAKFAST, the pieces are made from thousands of mechanical pixels that reflect viewers' movements back to them.



Mars Perseverance Martian•
25TechCrunch / 12h
The microphone aboard Mars Rover Perseverance has captured a number of interesting noises in its explorations, but for the most part, “a deep silence prevails” on the red planet. You can still hear the “puff, whir, zap” of the rover’s tools, the hum of the Ingenuity helicopter and the woosh of a gentle Martian breeze in this collection of sounds from the expedition. We previously heard the sound



In March, I’ve tried to figure out whether I could fit stretching into my fitness regimen and like doing it . After almost three weeks, I’m still doing pretty much the same routine I described in my last post . My biggest focus in this time has been consistency—I knew my biggest challenge would be actually doing the… Read more...



Dell Tile Lenovo Fujitsu•
SlashGear / 12h
After partnering with Tile, researchers at Dell have finally solved the extremely frustrating and common issue of the missing stylus.



SlashGear / 12h
Members of the House Oversight Committee have demanded information from the retail giant.



SlashGear / 12h
Hidden in Steam's user account system is a page where any gamer can check on the amount of cash they've spent with Valve since the dawn of the platform.



The best laptop games are there for you whenever you're on break for work and you just need to kill some time before you get back to the grind. Because they're so easy to run, even cheap laptops will be able to play these games just fine. Don't think you're getting some third-rate games here, either. Games like Disco Elysium are not only easy on your laptop, but engaging and hilarious to boot. Th



One of the biggest gripes about OLED TVs is that they can, occasionally, suffer burn-in (image retention) and burn out (dead pixels). That’s something LG Display is keen to fix on its next-generation OLED.EX panels that it’s distributing to TV makers like Panasonic, Philips, Sony and LG’s own Electronics division. The way it’s going about it is implementing a new personalization algorithm that lo



200+Gizmodo / 12h
Imagine being a fan of Halo , waiting what feels like decades to see the game brought to live-action, only for it to happen, it be released, and you can’t watch it. That surely happened to some of the faithful this week when Halo debuted on Paramount+ , if they weren’t subscribers to the service. But the streamer is… Read more...



While using the Safari browser on Mac, it’s easy to see a list of files you’ve downloaded in the past and to clear that download history if necessary. Here’s how to do it. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Ford EV Chevy F150L•
500+How-To Geek / 12h
Electric cars and trucks are all the rage right now. Everyone wants a piece of the action, and almost every major auto manufacturer in the U.S. is building EVs. Americans are also super excited about electric trucks, but there’s just one big problem—actually buying one. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



40Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge / Stretch is ready for warehouse work. (credit: Boston Dynamics) Boston Dynamics has launched its second commercial robot. After debuting its four-legged robot dog, Spot , on the market in 2020 for $75,000, it's now showing off the commercial version of Stretch, a warehouse box-moving robot that is available for purchase. Stretch arrived in prototype form in March 2021, and after a year o



Washington Uber Lyft•
96Wired / 12h
Uber and Lyft have legally cemented the independent contractor status of ride-hail drivers. Now other states are on the horizon.



SlashGear / 12h
A consumer rights group in The Netherlands has taken issue with certain policies that it feels gouge consumers and developers using Apple products.

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