Thursday, June 23, 2022

Thursday Technology News and More...

Technology News and More...






The scars and pockmarks of the aging apartments and housing units under the purview of the New York City Housing Authority don’t immediately communicate the idea of innovation. The largest landlord in the city, housing nearly 1 in 16 New Yorkers , NYCHA has seen its buildings literally crumble after decades of deferred maintenance and poor stewardship. Just as the physical infrastructure has brok



It's not too much longer before Halo Infinite's campaign co-op finally arrives but thanks to a new leak, we've got a clear look at how it'll play. With a Halo Infinite co-op beta test currently underway for Halo Insiders, one participant known as Foxie117 has seemingly leaked this footage from this test early. Spotted by a too-rude-to-directly-name-user on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours , Foxie117 poste



Samsung 200MP ISOCELL•
Engadget / 25min
Samsung Electronics has unveiled its latest 200-megapixel camera sensor with some of the tiniest pixels yet, which it says will allow manufacturers to keep their premium smartphones slim. At the same time, the HP3 sensor packs technology like autofocus capability in every pixel, binning for better low light capability and multi-gain ISO for maximum dynamic range. The sensor is 1/1.4-inches in siz



Google News Gets Spain•
Mashable / 49min
Google is celebrating 20 years since it launched Google News – yes, 20 years, we couldn't believe it, either – and to mark the occasion, News was given a much-needed redesign. The Google News of old was too cluttered and not particularly beautiful. The new Google News has a simplified, two-column design, with most of the navigation residing on top of the page, and it's a big improvement. There's



Paris-originated VC Breega wasn’t enormously well-known in the VC world (it only closed its 1st fund in 2015) until, perhaps, it started attracting attention with its second €110 million Seed fund, just under a year go. It’s portfolio now includes a number of scale-ups including Moneybox, Cuvva, Coverflex and Libeo. Perhaps part of its ‘secret sauce’ is how it has managed to put together an in ho



Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max•
When it comes to the shortlist of suppliers providing Apple with displays destined for this year's iPhone 14 series, Samsung has reportedly just found itself to be the top pick through its Display arm. According to a report from South Korean news publication ETNews , “industry insiders” are claiming that Apple has formally approached Samsung Display with an order for approximately 80 million scre



Twitter Notes Long•
Twitter is trialling a new longform format that will let you shoot well past 280 characters, meaning you may no longer have to relay your humorous anecdotes via numbered tweet threads. Called Notes , the new feature enables users to write entire articles straight onto the social media platform, and even include photos, videos, GIFs, and tweets. "From the rise of the screenshot announcement Tweet



A decade ago, SumUp was one of the army of fintechs that made names for themselves with dongles that turned basic smartphones into card payment terminals. Today, the London-based company has expanded into a wider range of business services that are used by some 4 million small and medium businesses in 35 markets, and as it continues to scale out its ambitions, it’s closed in on a major round of f



Uber said on Thursday it has never explored exiting India, a key overseas market for several tech giants, dismissing a claim that it has had held discussions to sell the local unit. Bloomberg reported earlier in the day that the San Francisco-headquartered firm had explored selling the India business, but “suspended discussions after tech startup valuations cratered.” In a statement, an Uber spok
YESTERDAY



Google News Spain Desktop•
As part of its twentieth anniversary, the Google News redesign has officially launched adding a bigger emphasis on accessibility and customization. Google states the redesign “was inspired by feedback [they] received from readers” as the desktop site aims to make catching up on the news easier. Major stories will have a bigger thumbnail and adjacent articles next to them for different types of co



China has taken another step to regulate how online influencers impart information to their followers. The government has put a great deal of effort into moderating digital content over the years. The rise of more real-time media formats, like livestreaming and snappy video sharing, has made it harder to weed out illegal and unwanted information. As such, new control measures are constantly being



eBay NFT KnownOrigin•
eBay truly has fully embraced non-fungible tokens: The e-commerce company has acquired KnownOrigin, an established marketplace for digital art NFTs . As CoinDesk notes, eBay hasn't disclosed how much it paid for the marketplace, but it said in its announced that the purchase is an "important step in [its] tech-led reimagination." KnownOrigin has been around since 2018 and gives artists a platform



Fitbit Sleep Profile•
Fitbit has introduced a new Sleep Profile feature for Fitbit Premium users, a feature that collects long-term Sleep Metrics to tell you more about your bedtime habits. The feature is compatible with the best Fitbit devices including the Fitbit Sense , Versa 3 , Versa 2 , Charge 5 , Luxe , and Inspire 2 devices, and is set to launch during the week of July 4. The feature is designed to offer “a ne



Payment•
“Cash-flow is the lifeblood of any business” - we have all heard the phrase, to the point that it has become accepted common wisdom bordering on a cliché. It is easy to understand why when you break it down to the most basic business principle. No matter how great your business is, if you run out of cash the game is up. Add to this that virtually every business decision culminates in the transfer



Musk Tesla Berlin Texas•
Elon Musk said the Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai was "very difficult" for the electric car maker.



If, like this writer, your Google TV recommendations have been sullied by your kid’s viewing habits, the great news is that your next suggested show to watch will likely be something more fitting than Puppy Dog Pals or Blippi. Much to the relief of parents and apartment sharers alike, Google TV is at last rolling out multiple user profiles to people in a free update. The software upgrade now enab



Florence Healthcare•
Florence Healthcare , which creates software that connects clinical trial sites, sponsors and contract research organizations, announced today that it has raised a $27 million Series C-1 led by Insight Partners. Insight Partners is known for its ScaleUp program that helps its portfolio companies grow rapidly. Florence Healthcare, which has now raised $114.1 million to date, which use its latest c



Social commerce — the process of buying and selling products or services directly through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — is becoming the most natural way for consumers to make purchases since people use social media and messaging apps almost every day. SleekFlow , an omnichannel social commerce platform that helps businesses build customer flow automation from messag



2023 BMW M3 Touring•
BMW has announced a touring version of its 2022 M3, but the release comes with a big catch that may prevent some fans from even getting their hands on one.



A version of Microsoft Edge used for testing new features has revealed three upcoming built-in tools heading to the relatively new internet browser.




Twitter has officially introduced a new long-form posting option, but it warns that the feature is still a test at this point. What does that mean for users?



Sequoia India Surge•
Sequoia India and Southeast Asia is broadening the range of its check size for the Surge program as the storied venture firm attempts to make its seed investments more “relevant for a larger set of founders,” it said Thursday. The venture firm’s check size for the three-year-old Surge program , which previously made $1 million to $2 million investments in early-stage startups in the region, will



One of the best parts of the Indiana Jones films is that Indy is always after something tangible. In particular, the fertility idol, the Sankara Stones, the Holy Grail , and a crystal skull . That’s great for fans because it means you can act like Indy and have one or all of these items in your collection. Unlike Indy,… Read more...



Amazon Alexa Voice•
100+Engadget / 8h
At Amazon’s Re:Mars conference , Alexa’s senior vice-president Rohit Prasad exhibited a startling new voice assistant capability: the supposed ability to mimic voices. So far, there's no timeline whatsoever as to when or if this feature will be released to the public. Stranger still, Amazon framed this copycatting ability as a way to commemorate lost loved ones. It played a demonstration video in



300+Gizmodo / 9h
Beloved Spider-Man Miles Morales is set for some highs with the upcoming release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One), a sequel to the Oscar-winning animated hit which propelled the Afro-Latinx character to break out into mainstream popularity. On the comics side of things, however, there’s been a very… Read more...



Twitter Notes Long•
The trial will allow some users to share "notes" beyond the normal 280-character limit for tweets.



18 Months Chinese Alibaba•
The woman was assaulted after being made to drink on a work trip, and then fired after going public.



The week is halfway over and you're already looking forward to the next Wordle puzzle. How hard is #369? We've got the answer and some solid clues.



Microsoft Russian Ukraine•
A report published by Microsoft also found that Moscow’s disinformation campaign to establish a narrative of the war favorable to Russia was doing better than expected.



Altria FDA Juul US•
It’s almost Shakespearean. Juul, the e-cigarette company that took the U.S. by storm five years ago — and which was valued at its peak at $38 billion — is about to get kicked out of the country, according to the WSJ. Per the outlet’s report earlier today, the Food & Drug Administration could announce as early as today that the San Francisco-based outfit is no longer allowed to sell its products i



500+Futurism / 9h
Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Good news for American royalty, sometimes controversial climate advocate, and storied king of science programming, Bill Nye the Science Guy! He was reportedly married late last month, to former Washington Post journalist and New York Times best-selling author Liza Mundy. People Magazine got an exclusive look at the wedding, which was officiated by none other than Robert Pi



1KGizmodo / 10h
Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy hit the streamer today with its third season , unfurling more time-travel troubles and timeline shenanigans for the super-powered Hargreeves siblings. But one key part of season three happened both on-screen and behind the scenes. Read more...



Altria FDA Juul US•
Enlarge / Mint and menthol pods for Juul Labs Inc. e-cigarettes are displayed for sale at a store in Princeton, Illinois, in September 2019. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg ) The Food and Drug Administration is reportedly preparing to deny authorization of Juul's tobacco- and menthol-flavored products, effectively forcing the e-cigarette giant out of the US market, according to a report by The Wall St



NASA Three Nuclear Moon•
NASA isn't planning on getting back to the moon alone - it will be working with other agencies and private companies involved in various parts of the project.



The best open-back headphones offer a listening experience that's different from the more common closed-back style headphones most of us are used to using. As their name implies, open-back headphones don't have a backplate, which means sound from its drivers will hit your ears, then reverberate into the space next to your head. When listening to music on closed-back headphones, sound will come at



300+Futurism / 10h
Not to freak you out, but if you have trouble standing on one foot for ten seconds — well, actually, this might freak you out. A new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine linked an inability to balance unsupported on either leg to a nearly doubled risk of death — from any cause — within the next ten years. While falling is known to be a major cause of unintentional death world



The advisory group reviewing Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation decisions issued its first annual report Wednesday, capping off its first year in operation. The Oversight Board apparently received over one million appeals from Facebook and Instagram users in 2021. Most of those requests asked the board to overturn content on Meta apps that were removed for breaking the rules against hate



Micron 1.5Tb microSD•
Micron has unveiled the world’s highest-capacity microSD card , the i400, with storage space of up to 1.5TB, 50% more than the former champion, the C200 . The semiconductor giant reached that capacity by using its 176-layer 3D NAND technology (similar to that used in SSDs ) and will target the enterprise market, especially anything that has to do with video storage at the edge. In other words, do



Remember Mega , the encrypted cloud storage company? No? Well, maybe you remember its predecessor, Megaupload , the file hosting provider that was accused of acting as a haven for licensing pirates during the mid-2000s and was subsequently shuttered by authorities. Prior to its shutdown, Megaupload was thought of as… Read more...



To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here . Is it Wednesday already? The calendar tells me that it is. (Fun fact: My apartment’s so full of date-displaying smart displays that it’s a struggle not to trip over them.) Time sure flies when the Daily Crunch team entrusts you — meaning me — with TechCrunch’s news




As inflation and interest rates rise in tandem, the price of homes in certain United States cities begun to fall—or at least level off. According to Redfin Real Estate News , an increasing number of home sellers began lowering their asking prices this month, signaling a cooling in the recently red-hot housing market.… Read more...



63Engadget / 10h
If you’re an iOS user, you’re likely used to tapping “Report Junk” any time you receive a spam iMessage, which sends the information directly to Apple. MacRumors reported that junk SMS messages will soon be included in the reporting feature on iOS 16 beta 2, which was released today for developers and will roll out to the public this July. Apple is only rolling out the feature for certain carrier



Enlarge / She may work hard, but she's likely to get less credit for it. (credit: Qi Yang ) In science, the ultimate measure of academic worth is the number of papers published where you're credited as an author. There are subtleties that matter—where you are in the list of authors and whether others cite your publications. But it's hard for those factors to overcome the weight of raw numbers. Ot



The Boring Company Texas•
Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has filed an application with the city of Austin to build a tunnel under Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas in Austin. The application, which Electrek first reported on , does not state what Tesla intends to do with the tunnel. The application was filed on June 21, 2022, and although it doesn’t specifically mention Giga Texas, the address on the filing is listed as 12733 Tes



Can a big summer blockbuster successfully translate to streaming services, or is the hope dead on arrival? The loyal theater-goer in me says that an epic car chase will never feel the same on a laptop screen, but if there’s a movie that will put my skepticism to the test, it looks like it’ll be The Gray Man . Read more...



42Futurism / 11h
Gender Gap It's not a huge surprise that NASA is a boys club, but according to a former high-ranking official, the agency is more misogynist than we ever could have thought. In her soon-to-be-released memoir, Lori Garver, who served as NASA's deputy administrator during the Obama administration, has made some shocking claims about her treatment at the agency — including alleged verbal and physica



500+Futurism / 11h
Suspended Google engineer Blake Lemoine made some serious headlines earlier this month when he claimed that one of the company's experimental AIs called LaMDA had achieved sentience — prompting the software giant to place him on administrative leave . "If I didn’t know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, I’d think it was a seven-year-old, eight-year-old kid that



The Tesla Semi has had a few delays over the past few years. For example, before they could deliver trucks to major brands like Pepsi, they needed batteries.



400+Gizmodo / 11h
Those weird “loved ones come back from the dead to visit you” stunts pulled by celebrities like Kanye West may soon become a reality through your digital assistant. Read more...



50Gizmodo / 11h
With Prime Video’s prequel series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power arriving in early September, it stands to reason there’ll be a renewed interest in J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings on Middle-earth’s Second Age . So the timing is perfect for The Fall of Númenor , which gathers all of Tolkien’s works on the… Read more...



It’s been more than three decades since the Linux operating system first saw the light of day, yet creator Linus Torvalds is still continually “surprised and pleased” at the amount of innovation coming to the platform. During the Open Source Summit, currently taking place both online and in Austin, Texas, Torvalds discussed the state of Linux with Chief Open Source Officer at the Cardano Foundati



MSC Cruises’ new MSC World Europa — the first in the brand’s new World class of ships — completed sea trials Tuesday, marking the latest milestone in a flurry of new-ship activity from the line over the past several years. While all new ships must successfully complete sea trials in order to begin carrying passengers, what sets this moment apart is that MSC World Europa, at a maximum occupancy of



Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers. When an airline changes or cancels a flight because of weather, crew scheduling, maintenance or another reason, you as the passenger are rarely offered compensation. However, when you need to change or cancel your own reservations, you can be hit with fees on some airlines. Thankfully, many airlines have g



American Airlines pilots union spokesman Dennjs Tajer went on CNBC Squawk Box and made a number of claims against the airline. Some of them are true – like American not keeping pilots current during the pandemic despite receiving government subsidies in order to do so – and then there’s this claim: that the federal government is advising employees not to book travel on American. Continue reading



TUA Academy Season 3•
Emmy Raver-Lampman, Tom Hopper, Robert Sheehan, and cast of The Umbrella Academy , bring us up to speed on what has happened to our superheroes up to the moment season 3 begins. The new season premieres June 22nd on Netflix.



Samsung Montblanc 3•
31Engadget / 11h
As teased at I/O , you no longer need to get Wear OS 3 smartwatches from Samsung — though you will pay for the privilege. The Verge notes Montblanc has introduced the Summit 3 , a significant upgrade to the German brand's luxury timepieces. The improved Google software (including better performance) is the most noticeable update, but you'll also get a much-needed leap from the Summit 2's 2018-era



The past decade has seen Black founders raise a vanishingly small portion of venture capital funding. How to fix the problem? That question is always met with the same answer: Allocate more capital to Black entrepreneurs. But that has yet to happen. In fact, Black founders receive less than 1.5% of all VC funds, whether bull or bear market. So what’s going on? Perhaps it’s time for this discussio



While plenty of beginners can pick up a program and figure out the gym machines as they go, it’s also totally normal to feel intimidated by the whole process. Especially if programs and videos seem to expect a fitness level a notch or two above where you are right now, it can be tough to figure out where to start. Read more...



To the joy of car enthusiasts, a silver 1973 Porsche 911S made a cameo appearance in "Top Gun: Maverick."



You may have thought that the iPod was obsolete, but this YouTuber brought back the iPod Classic as the hippest throwback method for streaming Spotify.




You don’t need us to tell you that the past few years were a challenging time for the global healthcare system. You likely gleaned it from the headlines with every refresh — the shortage of hospital beds, a deluge of news and complicated medical information, and patients being turned away for annual wellness exams, mental health visits, and even chemotherapy treatments. This is where patient advo



From ad trackers to algorithms that monitor your online activity, it can be difficult to remain truly anonymous. You can make your social media profiles private, but it doesn’t change the fact that every post, tweet, and comment is tied to a name. NGL is a new app that allows you to share your thoughts and opinions with your followers anonymously. “NGL” is a social media abbreviation that stands



As layoffs tear through the startup world, the micromobility industry, which has long struggled to be profitable, is getting hit. Just a couple of weeks after Bird laid off 23% of its staff , the next round of industry layoffs is affecting Voi and Superpedestrian, according to LinkedIn posts from former and current employees. ” … we at Voi Technology announced today that we are further increasing



Link: Apply now for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card The Capital One Venture X has quickly become one of the most popular premium credit cards. While the card has a $395 annual fee, that fee is extremely easy to justify , thanks to the amazing perks, huge bonus, and great return on spending. If you’re still not sold on the card, in this post I wanted to share 14 reasons you should ap



Hyenas Sega Shooter Alien•
Creative Assembly is best known for deliberately-paced games like Alien: Isolation and the Total War series, but it's about jump headlong into the multiplayer action realm. The developer is partnering with Sega to introduce Hyenas , a team-based shooter coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PCs in 2023. The title takes its cue from tech headlines, but also doesn't take itself (or its



Neuralink has the potential to drastically change people's lives -- but many experts wonder if the technology is too good to be true.



Is your Android smartphone taking forever to charge? There are a bunch of possible reasons for this issue, and most of them are very easy to fix.



While Instagram captions are helpful in some instances, creators and users don't always want them in every video.



Google Password Android•
28Gizmodo / 12h
Eventually, Google and other big tech companies want to dispense with passwords entirely, but until that day comes, a Google Password Manager feature called on-device encryption might be your best bet for protecting your precious codes. Though it quietly came out earlier this spring , since you can now easily access… Read more...



MasterClass , an education platform that sells subscriptions to celebrity-taught classes, has cut 20% of its team to “adapt to the worsening macro environment and get to self-sustainability faster,” CEO David Rogier tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. The layoff impacts roughly 120 people across all teams, but no C-suite executives were cut, a MasterClass spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. “Our mi



OctoML DevOps AI MLOps•
OctoML, the well-funded machine learning startup that helps enterprises optimize and deploy their models, launched a major update to its product today that will make it far easier for developers to integrate ML models into their applications. With this new release, OctoML can now transform ML models into portable software functions that developers can interact with through a consistent API. With



The buy now, pay later (BNPL) market, estimated to be worth $120 billion in 2021 , has grown significantly over the last few years. But for most of its rise to virtual checkout prominence, BNPL largely targeted everyday consumer goods like clothes from Urban Outfitters or a Peloton. Now, the credit method is moving beyond its e-commerce roots. In the past few months, large companies have joined t



Cashify, a marketplace for gadgets trade-ins and buybacks in India , has raised $90 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand its business in the world’s second-largest smartphone market. Prosus Ventures and NewQuest Capital Partners led the seven-year-old Indian startup’s Series E funding, Cashify said on Thursday. Paramark Ventures and existing backers including Bessemer Venture Pa



If there’s nothing good on Disney+ in July, it might be because their corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co., decided to put everything good on Hulu. It’s an especially strong month for the streamer, which will premiere a handful of star-packed films and benefit from the return of cult favorite TV series, including new… Read more...



It’s not optional: every home needs one of the best carbon monoxide detectors. Or, depending on the size of your home, maybe a couple, or even a few detectors to ensure you sleep soundly. Luckily, carbon monoxide detectors are becoming better and better at what they do, and even top-of-the-line models are well within most budgets. After all, this isn’t something you want to cheap out on. Here’s a



NUS New Battery GMC•
200+Futurism / 12h
A Silicon Valley-based battery tech startup called QuantumScape claims to have created a solid-state EV battery that can allow an electric vehicle to cover 400 miles and then recharge from 10 to 80 percent in just 15 minutes, Popular Mechanics reports , in a significant potential step forward compared to current charging technologie. The company says the technology will be deployed in mainstream



27Gizmodo / 12h
Health officials in the UK are on the hunt for any signs of the dreaded polio, the potentially debilitating viral illness that has been nearly eradicated worldwide thanks to vaccines. The country declared a national incident over conspicuous repeated findings of a weakened version of the poliovirus in London sewage. Read more...



Read more...



61Gizmodo / 12h
Born on the same fated day in 1989 to mothers who weren’t pregnant when they woke up that morning—then raised by an eccentric father figure keenly interested in their various superpowers—the Hargreeves siblings have been through a hell of a lot . Season three of The Umbrella Academy arrives on Netflix today to send… Read more...



The rental market is out of control. Viral tweets are making their rounds, showing hopeful renters lining up outside of vacant apartments in New York City, and you probably know someone who has posted pleas for affordable open rooms and sublets. If you’re among those who are desperately searching for a rental right… Read more...




The Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV offers some of the best perks on the market -- including two years of free charging at Electrify America stations.



Paris is always a good idea. It’s about to become an even easier one to act on for South Floridians when budget carrier French bee launches nonstop service from Miami to the City of Light beginning mid-December. Not only will French bee offer affordable nonstop flights from South Florida to France, but we can already see that other airlines are providing competitive fares on this route. That mean



61Gizmodo / 12h
Google has introduced a new label in Maps and Search that allows businesses to self-identify as LGBTQ+ owned, adding to a series of labels already on Google Maps that are meant to help people locate and support local businesses. It also comes with the capability to report any related harassment. Read more...



Hot Tubs Exposed Personal•
21Gizmodo / 12h
Smart hot tubs—yes, that’s a thing!—are the web’s newest spot for cybersecurity snafus. Read more...



It looks like the metaverse won't be the Wild West that today's social media platforms have evolved into thanks to a new consortium of big names.



Acast Facebook Groups•
Your favorite podcast might soon have an official, easy-to-find forum. Meta has teamed up with podcast giant Acast to offer exclusive Facebook Groups for podcasts using Acast+ paid subscriptions. Link your membership to your Facebook account and you'll have a ready-made place to discuss the latest episode with fellow fans — you won't have to hunt for a message board or use social network hashtags



NASA Three Nuclear Moon•
100+Gizmodo / 12h
NASA wants to build and transport a nuclear reactor to the Moon, which would power a sustained human presence for at least 10 years. To that end, the space agency has chosen three companies to develop design concepts for a nuclear fission system to be placed on the Moon in


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