Thursday, April 21, 2022

Technology News Thursdays and More...

Technology News and More...






Plastic foam like Styrofoam is a ubiquitous, harmful, and nearly immortal single-use material that is long overdue for a good, green replacement — and Cruz Foam is here to supply it. The startup creates a durable yet backyard-compostable packing foam out of shrimp shells produced (and discarded) by the seafood industry. It recently extended its seed round to accommodate the interests of Leonardo



CDC Airport US Mask•
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday said it is asking the Justice Department to appeal a Florida federal judge’s order voiding the federal government’s mask mandate. Minutes after the CDC’s announcement, the Justice Department announced it had filed the appeal. The Justice Department had previously said that



Netflix Hastings Supported•
500+Ars Technica / 14h
Enlarge / Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on October 18, 2021. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg) Netflix plans to launch a lower-priced subscription tier with ads, CEO Reed Hastings said Tuesday in an interview to discuss first-quarter earnings . Netflix revenue growth is slowing amid a loss in subscribers, and the company's stock




Engadget / 11min
Spotify is losing Barack and Michelle Obama after their partnership ends in October, according to Bloomberg . The former first couple's exclusive podcast deal with the streaming giant is coming to an end, and they won't be signing a new one. Their production company, Higher Ground, is reportedly seeking a partner that would allow it to produce several shows and release it on multiple platforms at
YESTERDAY



Half Apple China 200•
As Covid cases continue to rise in China, many major tech suppliers are having to close their factories or restrict the movement of their workers, something that might be a huge headache for Apple this year as roughly half of its Chinese suppliers are in and around the hardest hit region of the country. A new analysis conducted by Nikkei Asia found that found half of Apple's 200 main suppliers ar



Netflix Hastings Years•
For the first time in over a decade, Netflix is on the back foot. Despite still boasting more subscribers than any other streaming service (around 221 million at the turn of the year), Netflix bosses revealed in the company’s latest investor report that the platform has hemorrhaged 200,000 paying customers since the beginning of 2022 – a figure expected to reach 2 million come the end of June. Sh



Alienware AMD 6000•
Last year, Alienware began offering its popular gaming desktops and laptops with AMD Ryzen processors. It was a major change for the company, and it was likely inspired by the stellar multi-threaded performance (and reasonable cost) of AMD chips. Now, Alienware is launching a flurry of new AMD-powered machines to cover nearly all budgets. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



Russia S7 Airlines•
Russia’s second biggest airline has just been suspended from a global airline alliance… S7 airlines suspended from oneworld It has been announced that oneworld and S7 Airlines have agreed to a temporary suspension of the Russian carrier’s membership in the alliance as of April 19, 2022. With this suspension: oneworld benefits for customers of partner oneworld member airlines will be suspended whe



TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to the Freemake Complete Video Conversion Suite is on sale for £15.35, saving you 79% on list price. There are all kinds of scenarios in which you may find yourself needing a video converter. For example, you may need to alter a video’s format to be compatible with portable devices or media players. Or maybe you want to upload a video to YouTube, but it’s way too la



Apple iPhone 14 USB•
The upcoming iPhone 14 line is almost certainly going to be a powerful step forward - and the iPhone 14 Pro will be the flagship device in the lineup. The Pro is set to come with powerful cameras, the faster, modern processor and the best screen technology - where the iPhone 14 ‘base’ model will come with an older CPU and likely less-capable cameras to save money where users might not need every



It looks like HP may be the next computer manufacturer to enter the foldable laptops market, but is there really a need for these unique devices?



An impressive collection of luxurious EVs is on the way from Lincoln Star. Here's everything we know about their production and release so far.



100+TechCrunch / 5h
The Boring Company, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s project to build underground highways to alleviate traffic congestion, has raised a $675 million Series C round, bringing its valuation up to $5.7 billion. The round was led by Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, 8VC, Craft Ventures, and DFJ Growth. The company says it will use the funds to signifi



Lincoln Star Concept•
Lincoln has finally unveiled its first electric vehicle concept , and it's now a little clearer as to where the company is headed. The upscale Ford badge has unveiled the Star, a luxury SUV that hints at the design direction for production EVs. There are some of the usual concept car excesses, but also some technological developments that might reach something you can drive. The Star is sleeker t



Lincoln Star Concept•
Lincoln unveiled Wednesday at an event in Hollywood its first fully electric concept vehicle: The Lincoln Star Concept, a crossover that looks a lot like a Corsair or Nautilus crossover with a longer, lower-slung body, sharper body creases highlighted with LED lighting effects and a few interesting offerings that are unlikely to make their debut on any future production vehicle. The Lincoln Star



Activision Blizzard•
A California judge today granted Activision’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who asserted the company misled them about sexual harassment allegations at the company, including probes by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). First reported by Bloomberg Law , the judge ruled that the plainti



Apple Atlanta Union•
When Elli Daniels started working at the Apple Store in Cumberland Mall location in Atlanta, her hourly wage was $16.50 — rosy by comparison to the federal minimum Georgia adopts, but below average for sales in her metro region. Three years later and in spite of several raises, her pay has nowhere near kept up pace with national inflation , or Apple's soaring profits for that matter. She's one of



300+Gizmodo / 5h
The return of Miles Morales is going to be just a little bit longer. Sony just announced that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will now be released June 2, 2023, moved back eight months from its most recent October 7 release date. Which sucks. But, we now know when the second part is coming too. Spider-Man: Across … Read more...



Wordle Today April 21•
It's Wordle time! Today's new word puzzle is live and ready for you to stretch your brain on. But if you're a little stuck and need some help, here are some hints and tips to help guide you to the solution. If you want to bypass the struggle, you can jump to the bottom of this article to get April 22's Wordle solution straight up. But if you prefer to work it out yourself, keep reading for a few



Valve still hasn't shipped the Steam Deck's dock accessory, but it looks like it'll pack upgraded features when it does finally reach consumers.



Ordinary Folk , a Singapore-based telehealth startup dedicated to men and women’s health issues, has raised $5 million in pre-Series A funding from Monk’s Hill Ventures. The funding will be used for hiring and expand into Hong Kong while scaling in Singapore. Founded in 2020 by Sean Low, the startup has two main platforms: Noah is for men’s sexual health, mental wellness, hair care and weight man



Earlier this evening, the Capitol Police in Washington, D.C. called for an evacuation of Congress due to an "aircraft that poses probable threat" which was flying circles around Capitol Building airspace, according to the Associated Press's Zeke Miller. Given the violent riot and attempted insurrection that recently took place there, one could forgive USCP for operating with an abundance of cauti



Tesla has raised prices on its vehicles as it anticipates cost pressures from suppliers and logistics over the next six to 12 months, the automaker said on Wednesday during its first-quarter 2022 earnings call . “We absolutely want to make EVs as affordable as possible. It’s been very difficult with inflation at a 40 or 50-year high, and I think the official numbers actually understate the true m




Musk Tesla Robotaxi 2024•
100+TechCrunch / 7h
Tesla plans to bring a dedicated robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals to market by 2024, CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday during Tesla’s first quarter 2022 earnings call . That’s just two years to develop, test, verify, produce at volume and commercially launch a robotaxi service that meets regulatory rules that vary from state to state. In California, Tesla’s largest market for passenger vehicl



Drones•
Drones can be dangerous, and we’ve seen consumer-grade drones used for all sorts of nefarious purposes. Back in 2018, some drone sightings interrupted travel plans for 140,000 travelers in London, and drones were reportedly used in an attack against the U.S. power grid last year, too. There are a number of products to take drones down from the sky, from the humble and time-tested shotgun, gun-lik



500+TechCrunch / 7h
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company’s robot, named Optimus, will be “worth more than the car business, worth more than FSD.” FSD, or “full self-driving,” is Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system that relies on cameras and computer vision technology to perform some autonomous driving tasks. An FSD subscription costs Tesla owners about $12,000, or up to $199 per month. The executive shared dur



Tesla Musk Twitter•
Elon Musk's Tesla has raised prices for its electric cars as it faces higher costs.



In 2012, scientists announced they'd found a planet potentially made of diamonds, one of several known exoplanets that may be home to the valuable gemstone.



Fessenheim Nuclear Plants•
Enlarge / An aerial view of the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant, near Red Wing, Minnesota. (credit: Getty Images ) Nuclear plants occupy an odd position in the US's energy landscape. They're currently the most expensive form of generation out there, and many of the plants are a decade or more past their planned life span. At the same time, nuclear power is the US's largest single source of low



100+Gizmodo / 8h
When Google first rolled out its Accelerated Mobile Page (or AMP) protocol back in 2015 , the search company promised that the tech would bring faster surfing to handheld gadgets everywhere. That may be the case, but what has also become clear in the years since is that AMP has become less about speed and more about … Read more...



Google Project Zero 2021•
Google's in-house security team has warned that zero-day security threats are becoming a bigger risk than ever before. In its annual round-up of the zero-day threat landscape, the Google Project Zero team noted that 58 distinct threats were identified in 2021, the biggest number seen since it began investigating back in 2014. This is up from the 25 exploits discovered in 2020, and nearly double t



Read more...



The CDC and the Administration has bungled this. They should have taken the win of having the mandate end without their having to end it. Now the best they can do is file an appeal, without having the order stayed, and then let the appeal become moot with the expiration of the rule. Worse would be to litigate this aggressively with the ensuing chaos of trying to re-impose the mandate. Continue re



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 . Happy 20th of April, 2022, which has no particular significance and we are not making any jokes. It’s been a strange news day, but never fear, we have some great stories for you to peruse. Today’s Equity podcast is a good one, with Alex and Natasha discussing startu



2023 Lexus RZ Toyota•
The Lexus RZ has arrived as the automaker's first purpose-built electric vehicle. The luxury EV includes dual motors and a steer-by-wire design.



VR Meta Quest 2 Showcase•
The few psychos eagerly awaiting Meta’s grand metaverse vision may have to wait up to a decade longer, the company said during an event Wednesday. In the meantime, Meta’s hoping a fresh catalog of improved VR games can function as a type of gateway drug to get users accustomed to their days jacked into a VR headset. Read more...



ASUS ZenBook AMD Intel•
Asus announced a pair of Zenbook laptops today, and one, in particular, has my attention. Revealed alongside the Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED, the Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302) is an ultra-sleek clamshell laptop with AMD CPUs and an OLED display. That’s all well and good, but what really holds my gaze is the Zenbook S 13's… Read more...



Yesterday, Tumblr rolled out Tumblr Blaze to all users over 18 in the United States. The feature lets users promote their content in the same way you might boost a tweet or a Facebook post on those respective platforms — you pay a set fee between $10 and $150, and you’ll get an estimated 2,500 to 50,000 impressions on your post. But when you release a feature called Blaze literally the day before



Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) Earth Day is April 22, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost their sustainability and minimize their climate impact. You can unde



Forbeck Marvel Multiverse•
39Gizmodo / 9h
One of the draws of playing a franchise’s licensed tabletop role-playing game is the ability to role play as your favorite character. This is, unfortunately, also one of the big pressure points I commonly see in adapted games. The game becomes dedicated to the ability to play these characters , built up to serve the… Read more...



Netflix Years 200000•
The company faces a number of challenges, but its problems may be an indication that its competitors are racing toward an unstable future.



NASA is working hard to return humans to the moon under its Artemis program, but why did it take so long to get the ball rolling? Here's what astronauts say.




Garmin Vívosmart 5•
Garmin has launched the latest iteration of the Vívosmart fitness tracker, the long-awaited Vívosmart 5 . It’s been nearly four years since Garmin released the previous iteration of the Vívosmart, and for the most part, the new model doesn’t fix what wasn’t broken. It still has the same slim appearance as its predecessor, albeit with a much larger OLED screen and an interchangeable band. Unlike o



Tape storage is far from obsolete as a new report from the LTO Program has revealed that a record 148 exabytes of tape was shipped last year. LTO Program Technology Provider Companies HPE and IBM have released their annual tape media shipment report which shows that LTO tape saw an impressive growth rate of 40 percent in 2021. Although only 105EB of total tape capacity was shipped during the pand



Over the last few days, my WeChat has been inundated with people reminiscing about the first post they ever published on the app’s newsfeed, which marked its 10-year anniversary this week. The newsfeed feature, called Moments, is like a social network that lives within the WeChat super app. Unlike many other social networks, which either die down over time or have fallen from grace among their or



AMD Radeon 6400 ITX•
AMD launched the RX 6400 today without much fanfare as several partners like ASRock, Gigabyte, and MSI listed the new graphics cards with major retailers. Though it’s a weaker GPU than even the RX 6500 XT – which has received rather lukewarm reviews at best – the RX 6400 is designed for those with a low-profile PC that probably can’t fit much else. It’s a single slot that fits into narrow cases w



Some people seem to have a “green thumb”—a natural affinity with houseplants that lets them grow anything, anywhere. I am not one of these people. The only way I can grow anything is by ignoring my natural instinct, breaking things down logically, and following a strict schedule. But my plants live a lot longer thanks… Read more...



71Futurism / 9h
You Better Work The military tensions between the US and Russia amid the latter’s invasion of Ukraine on Earth have not harmed the countries’ relationship aboard the International Space Station — according to NASA’s incessant messaging , at least. During an event unveiling the new Peregrine Lunar Lander, NASA administrator Bill Nelson reiterated to the press that the “working relationship” betwee



FAA Zero Tolerance•
The mask mandate might be gone ( at least for now ), but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will continue its zero-tolerance enforcement policy on unruly passengers. That policy was first implemented in January 2021 in response to an uptick in violent incidents on aircraft. It involves the agency skipping warning letters and counseling after a violent incident — and heading straight to fin



Apple Atlanta Union•
The petition for a union vote continues a trend of organizing at service-sector employers like Starbucks and Amazon.



Now that U.S. mask requirements on planes have generally been lifted, some people are starting to realize that not all restrictions are permanent and that at a minimum we should be doing cost-benefit analysis … and that much of the security theater we engage in wouldn’t pass critical scrutiny. Continue reading ...



Lenovo Vulnerable New•
Lenovo laptop users need to install critical security patches right away to fix several major vulnerabilities that leave their device open to dangerous malware attacks. Read more...



Daisy Apple iPhone•
You have no idea how mesmerizing it is to watch a robot disassemble an iPhone. In honor of Earth Day this Friday, April 22, Apple is opening up its efforts to cut down on e-waste, including using more recyclable materials in new products and packaging and letting a robot breakdown returned and discarded iPhones to recover precious components and safely dispose of hazardous materials. In a new vid



There’s no better way to celebrate 4/20, the stoner’s holiday, than by going down the vast rabbit hole that is the internet to find nerdy bongs, pipes, and vape pens. Read more...



The number of cores your processor has is one component that determines your CPU performance. In the past, each processor had only one core. Modern CPUs have two to eighteen and higher. Here’s how to check how many cores your processor has. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



One of the rarest cars in the world is a '90s-era electric vehicle you've probably never heard of. What happened to GM's EV1 and why is it so valuable?



We all use them: Single-use plastic bottles are readily available and inexpensive to buy, so it's easy to see why so many people drink water from them all the time. In fact, the entire world goes through about 1.2 million plastic bottles a minute , with only less than 9% of them finding their way into recycling bins after use. That's not to mention how Americans alone use half a billion plastic d



Tesla 2022 Supply Chain•
Tesla said Wednesday that a prolonged supply chain crunch has limited production capacity at its factories and expects the pain to continue through the rest of the year. “Our own factories have been running below capacity for several quarters as supply chain became the main limiting factor, which is likely to continue through the rest of 2022,” Tesla said. Tesla included the warnings in its first



Here’s a Moon Knight theory about Harrow’s Ammit-headed cane and how it could tie into other parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe . As the slow burn of the Disney+ show kicks into gear and for the most part stands on its own in terms of world-building, we couldn’t help but notice this small detail. Read more...



75Engadget / 10h
Tesla built 305,000 vehicles in the first " exceptionally difficult " quarter of this year, delivered 310,000 of them, and opened new factories in Berlin and Austin — all while CEO Elon Musk sought a highly publicized hostile takeover of Twitter . Tesla's recent factory investments, as well as efforts to shore up its battery component supply chain, are part of the company's localization strategy,



300+TechCrunch / 10h
Netflix practically admitted during yesterday’s earnings call that there is some tough competition out there and Netflix needs to step up its game. Revenue and subscriber growth have clearly slowed, and content just isn’t hitting the mark. The company acknowledges this need for improvement. Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive officer and chief content officer, Netflix, said, “Honestly, we’ve got to



Tesla Q1 2022 Earnings•
Today after the bell American electric vehicle giant Tesla reported its first-quarter performance . The company detailed revenues of $18.76 billion and $2.86 worth of earnings per share, up from its Q1 2021 results of top line worth $10.389 billion and earnings per share of 93 cents. Tesla said it faced several challenges in the first quarter related to global supply chain, transportation, labor




Yesterday, my very own sister, Sydney, attempted to publicly shame me for an incident that occurred over a decade ago in the Burbank Costco parking lot. I was young, hungry, and had not been properly satiated by the various samples, so I ripped open a block of just-purchased Colby jack, took a big bite out it, and… Read more...



Enlarge (credit: Nicholas Skopal) Hundreds of huge stone jars lie partially buried on hillsides and ridges in northeastern India. A recent survey found 65 jars at four previously undocumented sites, and the survey’s leaders say there are probably many more sites still hidden in the area’s mountainous forests. The jars are part of a whole landscape of megaliths carved by an ancient Indian culture



New York City may be the Big Apple, but the Peach State may soon become home to the first Apple union. Workers at an Atlanta Apple Store filed for a union election Wednesday, the first in the country to do so. Read more...



The post There’s a place for big and small farms in securing South Africa’s food supply appeared first on Popular Mechanics .



Astrobotic NASA Peregrine•
500+Futurism / 10h
Peregrine Lander Pennsylvania-based space company Astrobotic has unveiled its Peregrine Lander, the first US lunar lander designed to touch down on the Moon since the last Apollo mission almost half a century ago, a collaboration with NASA. The mission is part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, designed to leverage contractors to deliver cargo to the surface of th



300+Futurism / 10h
Cloudscapes Have you ever been on a city street and looked up at the space above you and thought, “they should really do something with that?” No, this isn’t a 4/20 bait question. As Fast Company reports , Framlab eco-architect Andreas Tjeldflaat is proposing actual floating buildings that would use hover, zeppelin-like, in the empty space above municipal roadways and even fight climate change wh



Shredder’s Revenge•
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge will feature the original television show's voice cast, and will be released this summer.



huariqueje : Lesbian Art in America - Libby Black , 2013. American, b. 1976 - oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in



O Dowd Senate Musk Tesla•
Dan O’Dowd, the billionaire founder of The Dawn Project and Green Hills Software, is running for U.S. Senate on a single issue. It’s not unemployment or inflation or even education. It’s about making computers safer for humans, starting with a ban on the Tesla-branded “Full Self Driving” beta software that some 100,000 owners currently have access to as part of a safety mission that takes inspira



Traveling through space can get lonely. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is currently on a six-year journey to Jupiter, traveling through the sparse interplanetary medium since launching in October 2021. Luckily for Lucy, the views have been spectacular. Read more...



If you want to speed up a slow-motion video, or increase a regular video’s speed, it’s easy to do that on your iPhone using the Photos and iMovie apps. We’ll walk you through the entire speed-up process. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Today Google announced some big changes to the Chrome Web Store and extensions. Chrome will now display a new badge designating “Featured” extensions or “Established Publishers” to keep users safe and free from malicious content. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



Instagram Original•
32Engadget / 11h
Another day, another change to Instagram’s algorithm. The app is tweaking the way it ranks content in order to “value original content more,” according to Instagram Head Adam Mosseri. Mosseri called out the update in a video on Twitter, saying the change was aligned with Meta’s broader goal of empowering creators. “If you create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you are r



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



20Gizmodo / 11h
Russian Doll is back, baby! After nearly a three-year wait, the elegantly realized time-loop series drops its second season today on Netflix . This season takes a slightly different spin: instead of our main characters being stuck in their own time loop, they find a portal to other times, and spend the whole season in… Read more...



I use Apple Pay for everything. It’s fast, secure, and best of all it gives me 2% cash back on my Apple Card. However, some stores don’t stop at 2% cash back—participating retailers offer 3%. So if you want to squeeze every cent of credit card rewards you can into your shopping, you might want to consider picking… Read more...



Apple Atlanta Union•
33Mashable / 11h
Union drives are heating up at Apple. Workers at the Apple Store in the Atlanta area Cumberland Mall will hold a vote on whether to unionize, according to Bloomberg Law . This is the second report of union activity among Apple Store retail workers in a span of days . On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that workers at the Grand Central location were collecting the signature cards from employe



Musk Tesla Twitter•
Enlarge / Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at gigafactory opening party in Austin, Texas, on April 7, 2022. (credit: Getty Images | Suzanne Cordeiro) On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged a judge to reject a request for a gag order that would prevent him from continuing to publicly claim that his infamous "Funding secured" tweet was accurate. The motion for a temporary restraining order "asks this Co



Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Organizations using newer versions of Oracle’s Java framework woke up on Wednesday to a disquieting advisory: A critical vulnerability can make it easy for adversaries to forge TLS certificates and signatures, two-factor authentication messages, and authorization credentials generated by a range of widely used open standards. The vulnerability, which Oracle patched



Apple Atlanta Union•
20Engadget / 11h
Workers at an Apple Store in Atlanta have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board . This marks the first time that Apple Store employees in the US have formally requested a union election. They'll be represented by the Communications Workers of America. Over 70 percent of more than 100 eligible workers at Apple's Cumberland Mall store have signed union authorization car




Did you know that the National Aeronautics and Space Agency was pushed into existence by President Eisenhower amid a space race sparked by a dog named Laika?



No one likes waiting in line — for anything. And some of the worst lines can be those at airport rental car counters. These (frustratingly) always seem to appear after a long flight with your family, when all you want is to get in the car and go. Forget all of the other perks that come with rental car elite status. The upgrades, the “free second driver” — even the four-hour grace period on return



100+Wired / 11h
Subscriber fatigue, unwelcome price hikes, and competition from the likes of Disney+ and HBO Max have rattled Netflix. What’s next?



Google Project Zero 2021•
Google’s security-focused Project Zero first started keeping records of exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in popular software in 2014. Since then, no other year has seen as many open exploits as 2021, the tech company announced this week. Read more...



You’ve probably gotten one already: a text from a strange number ( maybe even your own ) advertising CBD gummies, confirming a package delivery, or letting you know a bill has been paid, complete with a seemingly unsuspecting link. These texts are scams called “smishing,” and apparently they are on the rise. Read more...



DualSense Firmware•
DualSense controllers, which were formerly tough to update due to lack of compatibility, are now easier for gamers to keep up to date.



Music festivals have come a long way from the muddy fairgrounds of Woodstock in 1969. What started as an expression of counterculture has turned into a mainstream, billion-dollar industry. According to Nielsen’s Audience Insights Report on Music Festivals , approximately 32 million Americans attend at least one music… Read more...



New research explores how radical “fixes” to our planet’s climate could have serious side effects—including exposing a billion more people to infectious diseases. This study looks at the possibility of what’s known as solar radiation management, the idea that we could use aerosols in the atmosphere to block sunlight… Read more...



Even though ski season isn’t quite over for some, now is the time to start acting on your ski plans for next year as prices are set to start rising beginning this week. Additionally, some passes allow you to ski this spring with next year’s pass. Buying a pass this spring also locks you into the lowest price of the season and, in some cases, also comes with a few extra perks. While there are an e



100+Gizmodo / 11h
Yes, Moon Knight fans. That happened. You didn’t dream the last 10 minutes of the latest episode, “The Tomb.” They were real and you’ll be happy to know it wasn’t just some random creation. The twist is strongly rooted in one of Moon Knight ’s most surprising and fascinating comic book stories ever, a run by Jeff… Read more...



Saints Row Customization•
Saints Row, the upcoming reboot of Volition’s excessively silly open-world crime series, will include heaps of customization options, letting you change the appearance and function of your character, vehicles, weapons, gang, and HQ in intricate detail. Revealed during a preview showcase and press briefing, the customization options in Saints Row range from the silly to the extreme. Its character



The best bookshelf speakers solve a question every music lover has had to face: How do I get great sound without taking up a lot of space? In the speaker world, bigger typically means better because the space is used for larger drivers (the part of a speaker that produces sound). Bigger speakers, typically called floor-standing speakers, also have the luxury of having multiple drivers — one dedic



Chopsticks Kirin Japan•
100+Futurism / 11h
Electric Chopsticks Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, inventor extraordinaire, is expanding beyond TVs that allow you to taste what you’re watching — and has developed a set of special electric chopsticks that he says can enhance the taste of food. The chopsticks, a collaboration between beverage company Kirin Holdings and the Miyashita Laboratory, are aimed at people who follow a low-s



Instagram Improve Better•
Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today that the company is going to tweak its ranking algorithm to highlight original content more on its platform. Following the announcement, a spokesperson for the social media giant told TechCrunch in an email that Instagram is making changes to its ranking algorithm to prioritize the distribution of original content, rather than reposted content, in place



Zoom Desktop Gesture•
Zoom announced a slate of updates and new features, including a virtual whiteboard and gesture recognition. Among the updates is Zoom IQ for Sales , which uses AI to analyze calls. Image Credits: Zoom Zoom added Gesture Recognition, which means that instead of clicking on a reaction you can raise a hand or put a thumbs up to display that reaction in the call. It’s only limited to those two gestur



Meta Quest Showcase VR•
Meta might want us to do everything in VR, from work meetings to exercising , but we often forget that playing video games is actually a pretty legit application of this technology. So, Meta is investing in some big-name IP to roll out a slate of new games on its Quest 2 VR headset this year, which the company unveiled at its Meta Quest Gaming Showcase today. What happened to the Oculus Quest 2?



Apple Music Spatial Audio•
Apple Music is launching a series of new DJ mixes in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos enabled and fifteen new Boiler Room recordings on its app. It's all a part of Apple’s continuous efforts to provide high-quality audio - and maybe a more engaging (thanks, Spatial Audio) experience. The company, which announced the update on Wednesday, goes as far as to call these mixes an “ …immersive audio exper



[no content]



Insiders suggest the next major change to the look of the iPhone will be an expansion of the device's display panel to cover its entire front side.



Netflix Stock•
Netflix is feeling the crunch as people venture away from home more frequently, but there's more to the streaming giant's current market valuation.




Fans of delightfully macabre TV will be thrilled to know that Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are back with another instalment of Inside No. 9, the BAFTA-winning series. Below we explain how you can watch Inside No. 9 season 7 online now, and 100% FREE on BBC iPlayer. Outside of the country? Use a VPN to watch from abroad Watch Inside No. 9 season 7 online Premiere date: April 20, from 10pm



BotenaGo Targets DVR•
A new variant of the BotenaGo malware that exclusively targets DVR for security camera systems has been spotted in the wild by security researchers. For those unfamiliar, BotenaGo is a relatively new malware written in Google’s open source Golang programming language. While it was originally used to target IoT devices in an effort to create botnets, BotenaGo’s source code was leaked online back i



100+Gizmodo / 12h
Some filmmakers are saying they would be using Final Cut Pro rather than most any other editing software, if only Apple would make it worth the trouble. Read more...



NASA Perseverance Mars•
500+Ars Technica / 12h
April 2, 2021, solar eclipse on Mars. When NASA's Perseverance rover landed on Mars in February 2021, it carried a high-definition video camera, complete with a powerful zoom capability. This camera has since provided all sorts of amazing views of the red planet during the last 14 months. However, earlier this month operators of rover turned its powerful Mastcam-Z camera toward the sky to capture



HP Working 17-Inch•
Enlarge (credit: Getty ) While smartphones are having fun with the trend, PCs with foldable screens have yet to become mainstream, partially because there's only one option readily available. But with HP expected to enter the scene, it's possible 'foldable OLED' could become more common laptop lingo. Lenovo made the bold first step into foldable laptops with its 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold . Accor



We wrote last month about Hulu’s obsession with true crime, and the streamer is staying on that train in May. The platform will premiere Candy , a limited series that tells the story of Candy Montgomery, a Texas housewife accused of murder in the 1980s. Episodes of Candy , which stars Jessica Biel as the title… Read more...



If you want to change a contact’s saved details, or you’d like to get rid of a contact forever, Gmail makes it easy for you to update and delete your contacts. Here’s how to do that on desktop, Android, iPhone, and iPad. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Here’s how to be mindful about the tech subscriptions, phone bills and upgrades that drain our budgets.



Sony PlayStation Games•
It looks like Microsoft may not be the only company exploring in-game ads. Sources claim Sony has similar plans for its PlayStation platform.



If you make a big mistake at work, losing your job—and the income and health insurance that comes with it—is the worst-case scenario, but it isn’t often the likely one. What’s more common is gaining a reputation for being bad at what you do. Read more...



My dog ate my homework, I have a secret identity and had to fight crime, I was surfing the crimson wave. Those classic excuses weren’t nearly creative enough for a Tampa airport TSA employee running late for work. Continue reading ...



Meta Quest 2 2022 VR•
On Wednesday, the latest Oculu— er, Meta Quest virtual reality gaming showcase revealed a mix of sequels and new games coming to the all-in-one Quest 2 system "within the next year." New, spooky enemies in the Bonelab universe. You can tear these apart with your VR hands. The event's biggest game reveal came in the form of Bonelab , a sequel to 2019's innovative-but-clumsy PC-VR exclusive Bonewor



Tesla Shanghai Workers•
Tesla's Shanghai factory is reportedly using a closed-loop worker system to avoid losing production time for vehicles during China's latest COVID-19 lockdown.



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: I didn’t win the H-1B lottery. What are my next steps? Here’



Front’s cap table reads like an honor role of investors. CEO and co-founder Mathilde Collin raised funds from numerous Silicon Valley firms and individual investors. On April 27 she’s speaking on TechCrunch Live to share her strategy that allowed her company to raise funds from less traditional VCs. One of those VCs is also speaking on the episode. Frederic Kerrest led Front’s $59 million Series



It’s still possible to find good bargains on round-trip fares to Europe, and this latest deal alert is proof. Flights to cities such as Copenhagen, Helsinki, Munich and Seville, Spain, are currently on sale from departure cities like Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and New York City. Various airlines have marked down flights, but most of the best prices and availability we saw were with TAP Air Portu



I’ll be the first to admit it: I care about having hotel and airline elite status. It’s not because I like flashing some status card a la Ryan Bingham in “Up in the Air” but because it saves us real money in the long run, while also making travel just a little more fun. A relatively attainable hotel elite status level I’ve personally earned and used for many years is Marriott Platinum status . It



300+Gizmodo / 12h
This week kicked off with our long-awaited first look at Thor: Love and Thunder , and even more specifically that that, our long -awaited first look at Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster taking up Mjolnir to become the Mighty Thor . Now, as befitting a Goddess of Thunder, she has her very own version of the movie’s teaser… Read more...



Delta Starlink Internet•
100+Futurism / 12h
Inflight Starlink Right now, getting online on a flight is not only extremely expensive but also clunky and slow. But thanks to SpaceX’s satellite-based broadband internet service Starlink, that might soon start to change. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian revealed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week that the airline is looking to add Starlink connectivity to its commercial flight



Sonicware has stepped into the portable sampler space with its SmplTrek device. The battery-powered groovebox features a built-in mic that'll help you create samples wherever you are. The SmplTrek also lets you add samples from your phone via USB. There are dynamic mic, guitar and line-level inputs as well, and you'll be able to store samples on an SD card. You can auto-slice samples and assign t


Backblaze

Posted by at