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Friday, April 2, 2021

Technology News and More Good Friday Edition

 


Technology news and more...





Twins Alan and Alex Stokes are sentenced for a "prank" robbery video which they filmed for YouTube.



50Engadget / 23min
Amazon has been examining the idea of opening discount stores or outlets selling unsold electronics and home goods at steep discounts.



The new Google Nest Hub (2nd generation) is the first smart display that can track sleep, but here’s why I think it works only if you sleep alone.




Businesses with slow websites lose up to $80bn in unrealized sales every year.



More sources claim that LG is quitting the smartphone business, and that the official announcement is coming soon.



Mashable / 39min
Sony is launching a new Xperia smartphone on April 14. The announcement, spotted by Droid Life , appears to have been made only through a banner on Sony Xperia's YouTube channel , which sounds like either Sony did this in error, or the company's not particularly interested in hyping up the upcoming device(s). Image: sony In any case, there's no details on what, exactly, is coming on April 14, but



Chris Fox looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week



Mashable / 56min
Planning a Marvel movie marathon is quite the feat, if only because the already-huge franchise is set to hulk up even further in its post-Infinity Saga Phase Four with the release of at least ten new movies through 2023. (That's on top of its foray onto the small screen with new TV shows like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , which are officially confirmed as canon .) So much Ma



The 21-year-old posted a video addressing the recent accusations, saying he believed they were 18.



How to achieve successful digital transformation using cloud-ready storage innovation with IBM's three-stage framework.



OnwardMobility and Foxconn are making a new BlackBerry for a possible 2021 release; here's what we know so far
YESTERDAY



We have an estimate for when Android users can expect the popular, audio-only social app to arrive



The Falcon and the Winter Solider form an entertaining duo, getting us excited to watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3



100+Engadget / 3h
Sony is launching a new Xperia product on April 14th at 4:30PM Japan time or 3:30AM Eastern time in the US.



54Gizmodo / 4h
Let me start right off the bat with the disclaimer that this is not an April Fool’s joke. Atari, or rather, the corporate entity that now runs the shell of the beleaguered video game company, has jumped on the non-fungible token hype train to shamelessly cash in on that arcade nostalgia. Read more...



Mashable / 4h
TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to the Aryel AR Marketing Platform is on sale for £36.32 as of April 2, saving you 95% on list price. Augmented reality is an excellent way to shake up your business's content and get people to check out your campaigns. And the Aryel AR Marketing Platform offers small businesses and individuals a way to turn heads. AR is similar to virtual reality, except instead of



Mashable / 5h
TL;DR: A 10-year subscription to VPN.asia is on sale for £58.11 as of April 2, saving you 92% on list price. Secure VPNs like VPN.asia work by encrypting your computer as you surf the internet, no matter where you are. If you have VPN.asia downloaded to your devices, you can log onto WiFi networks and hotspots and rest assured you're browsing safely and securely. VPN.asia works by creating a tunn



100+Engadget / 5h
E3 2021 will be '100 percent free' according to its organizers, with no paywalled content.



SlashGear / 6h
With just a couple months to go before the show would normally kick off, we don’t know a whole lot about E3 2021 yet. Earlier today, rumors started circulating which claimed that the Entertainment Software Association was considering putting at least some parts of the show behind a paywall. Now the ESA has pushed back against those rumors, in the … Continue reading



48Gizmodo / 7h
Another purported casualty of the coronavirus pandemic has surfaced, folks: Amazon brick-and-mortar discount stores. Yep, the e-commerce giant considered opening up permanent retail locations to peddle unsold inventory before the world descended into lockdown, Bloomberg reported Thursday . Read more...




Get ready for a Best Buy PS5 restock today, as the retailer is reportedly prepped to sell the console online. Here's what you need to know.



SlashGear / 8h
Epic has revealed the next Fortnite Fortography challenge, and this time you’ll have to get up close and personal with dinosaurs. The raptors have just hatched from their eggs and, well, they don’t have the friendliest disposition. That’ll make this one of the most fun photography challenges. The Fortnite Fortography contest is a bragging-rights challenge that seeks in-game screenshots featuring



28Gizmodo / 8h
A number of prominent U.S. colleges have become the newest, unlucky recipients of a cybersecurity migraine currently affecting dozens of organizations all over the world. Read more...



53Ars Technica / 8h
Theatrical trailer for The Suicide Squad takes a more ominous tone than its red-band sibling. If you ventured into a movie theater for the first time in a year to see Godzilla vs. Kong —and Ars' Sam Machkovech suggested in his review that, if you can safely do so, that might be the most satisfying way to watch it—you likely caught a brand-new trailer for the forthcoming The Suicide Squad , with s



26Gizmodo / 8h
Two more services are losing support for regional sports as the RSN streaming drama continues. Read more...



200+TechCrunch / 8h
Kevin Xu Contributor Kevin Xu is an early-stage investor and founder of Interconnected , a bilingual newsletter covering tech, business and U.S.-Asia relations. Mexico has been known as an up-and-coming tech hub and a gateway to the Latin American market. As an investor focused on developer-centered products, open-source startups and infrastructure technology companies with a particular interest



Fujitsu-led new collaboration is working to develop a 1000 qubit quantum computer.



SlashGear / 9h
The FDA has authorized multiple over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 tests that will enable asymptomatic people to be routinely screened for the coronavirus. The authorization covers multiple varieties of Abbott BinaxNOW, as well as the Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 test and the BD Veritor System for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2. A year after the pandemic was declared, COVID-19 testing has bec



A few weeks ago it was announced that New York would end its domestic quarantine requirement. Well, it’s a big day for New York, as that new policy has kicked in as of today. New York ends domestic travel quarantine As of April 1, 2021, New York has eliminated its quarantine requirement for domestic travelers . This applies both to those visiting New York, and to New Yorkers returning home. There



Ideas about what constitutes “beauty” are complex, subjective, and by no means limited to physical appearances. Elusive though it is, everyone wants more of it. That means big business and increasingly, people harnessing algorithms to create their ideal selves in the digital and, sometimes, physical worlds. In this episode, we explore the popularity of beauty filters, and sit down with someone wh



There's very little to worry, then, about vaccinated people getting sick or getting others sick. There's very little to worry, then, about vaccinated people traveling. Vaccinated people shouldn't even need to wear masks, except that it's difficult to tell who is vaccinated and who isn't, and it'll be difficult to manage compliance by the unvaccinated up in the air. That's why the timetable for li



100+Engadget / 9h
ILM made StageCraft better and easier to use.



SlashGear / 10h
Samsung has teamed up with Hulu to launch a new reality competition series called Exposure. This is, put simply, a branded collaboration that will essentially market the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G handset to viewers — the entire series is based on using the phone to complete photography challenges. Exposure is set to hit Hulu on April 26. Budding photographers will … Continue reading



78Gizmodo / 10h
One of the hosts of the anti-conspiracy theory podcast QAnon Anonymous is no longer so anonymous. Read more...



A couple of months ago American Airlines announced updates to its lounge access policy. This is a reminder of that, as these changes kick in as of today (April 1, 2021), and apply for a “limited time.” Unfortunately the changes are a bit worse than we were initially told. As it’s described, this updated policy is intended to “streamline” lounge access. For some people these changes will be good n



Xbox Live is down right now, and we're can't access Xbox Live Game Pass and other services through Microsoft's network.



The iPhone SE 3 could support 5G when it launches in 2022, a new leak suggests, though it will reportedly still keep the same aging 4.7-inch display.



22Gizmodo / 10h
The pandemic has thrown gadget release schedules all out of wack, so while we wait for new devices to officially be announced, leaks today suggest Google’s next two products could be a new Nest security cam and updated Pixel Buds. Read more...



Microsoft 365 Xbox Live•
300+Engadget / 10h
Having Xbox problems? Microsoft's cloud outage could be causing sign-in problems.



Gartner says there will be 6.4 billion PCs, smartphones and tablets in use this year.




55Ars Technica / 10h
Enlarge / Northwestern University scientists have developed the first mechanical simulation of a rat whisker inside its follicle, to better understand how that sensory input is communicated to the brain. (credit: Niccirf/Getty Images ) Rats, cats, and many other mammals have whiskers , which they typically use to sense their surrounding environment, akin to the sense of touch. But scientists have



100+TechCrunch / 10h
Edtech unicorns have boatloads of cash to spend following the capital boost to the sector in 2020. As a result, edtech M&A activity has continued to swell. The idea of a well-capitalized startup buying competitors to complement its core business is nothing new, but exits in this sector are notable because the money used to buy startups can be seen as an effect of the pandemic’s impact on remote e



100+TechCrunch / 10h
Tiger Global closes a $6.65 billion fund, Facebook gives users more tools to encourage COVID vaccination and iPhone app spending continues to grow. This is your Daily Crunch for April 1, 2021. The big story: Tiger Global raises one of the biggest venture funds ever Investment giant Tiger Global had already announced that it was raising $3.75 billion for its thirteenth venture fund, but a new SEC



SlashGear / 10h
MSI has introduced two new laptops designed for business users: the Summit E13 Flip Evo and the Summit E16 Flip. The new models were introduced as part of the company’s MSIology ‘Determined to Succeed 2021’ streaming event. Both laptops feature the slick designs we’ve come to expect from MSI, as well as considerate design aspects that are tailored for business … Continue reading



300+Wired / 10h
A couple's divorce provides the surprising foundation of the best co-op video game since Portal 2.



Microsoft 365 Xbox Live•
200+TechCrunch / 10h
Microsoft stumbled back online Thursday after an hours-long outage in the middle of the U.S. west coast working afternoon. Besides its homepage, Microsoft’s Xbox and Office services went down, log-in pages didn’t load, and the company’s status pages were also knocked offline by the outage. Worse, Microsoft’s cloud service Azure also fell offline, causing outages to any sites and services that rel



29Gizmodo / 11h
The battle between streaming services for your binge-watching hours continues. Read more...



With the start of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey's alpha phase kicking off this week, we took a look at the early phase of the game's latest expansion.



32Gizmodo / 11h
Police in the U.S., including officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), have been accessing vehicle location data provided by car parts manufacturers, a new report from Forbes reveals. Documents reviewed by the news outlet show police using this data to track suspects involved in criminal… Read more...



After being pressured to speak out against a new voting bill in Texas , American Airlines has issued a statement. Continue reading ...



100+Engadget / 11h
In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Dish has accused T-Mobile of becoming precisely the type of incumbent player it spent years trying to fight.



100+Ars Technica / 11h
Enlarge / The new lawsuit from Xinuos echoes the still-ongoing SCO vs IBM lawsuit in some key aspects, while adding new and heavy-duty anti-trust allegations alongside. (credit: Spencer Platt via Getty Images ) Yesterday, UnixWare/OpenServer vendor Xinuos filed a lawsuit in the US Virgin Islands, alleging theft of intellectual property and monopolistic market collusion against joint defendants IB



SlashGear / 11h
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published its provisional mortality data on the leading causes of death in the US last year. Having claimed around 375,000 lives, the CDC says that COVID-19 was the third-highest cause of death in the United States in 2020, coming in third only to heart disease and cancer. The CDC notes that at … Continue reading



58Engadget / 11h
Intel unveiled its plan to get the company back on track. including taking contract manufacturing jobs, and a massive $20 billion investment in building new factories.



SlashGear / 11h
Mustang fans may still be divided over whether Ford’s new Mustang Mach-E electric crossover is worthy of the iconic badge, but that doesn’t seem to be putting a dampener of demand for the EV. The automaker confirmed Q1 2021 sales today, and it’s an impressive showing for the electric pony car, regardless of whether or not you think it deserves … Continue reading



Supreme Court Facebook•
500+Gizmodo / 11h
Rather than dole out what is, essentially—at least to one of the richest companies on the planet—a handful of spare change, Facebook set out to purposely undermine one of the most important legal protections Americans have against unwanted robocalls. Today it accomplished that mission. Read more...



200+Lifehacker / 11h
As if there weren’t enough looter-shooters around, Outriders is out today. It’s a whole lot of game, with a whole lot of settings that can affect how you play. Some are obvious; some are not. It goes without saying that such things are a matter of taste, but I’ve found the following tweaks have made my time on Enoch… Read more...



2KFuturism / 11h
A blind patient regained their vision for over a year after getting a single injection of an experimental gene therapy directly into their eye. The treatment uses RNA molecules that can infiltrate cells and reverse a specific mutation linked to Leber congenital amaurosis, an eye disease that causes blindness early in life, according to research published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine .



There was a lot of exciting news out Wednesday with Alaska Airlines joining the oneworld global airline alliance and additional benefits being announced for Alaska Airlines elites flying American Airlines and vice versa . However one thing seems especially odd. Continue reading ...



62Ars Technica / 11h
Cortana on an iPhone. (credit: Microsoft ) Microsoft's Cortana app for iOS and Android will soon shut down, the company has announced on a support page. This effectively puts a nail in Cortana's coffin for consumer use cases, at least as far as competing directly with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa goes. Here's what the announcement says: We will soon be ending support for the Cortana app on An




100+How-To Geek / 12h
Throwback alert! Microsoft’s vintage File Manager program, which originally shipped with Windows 3.0 in 1990, has been ported to Windows 10, and it’s available for free from Microsoft. Here’s how to get it. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



21How-To Geek / 12h
This is the age of the streaming video service. New services seem to emerge every month, and the content licensing wars are reaching deafening levels. And now, Comcast is mulling whether to pull its movie library from HBO Max and Netflix and use it to bolster its own streaming service, Peacock. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



20How-To Geek / 12h
Simple bank was known for its excellent budgeting tools like Expenses and Goals. Was being the keyword because it will shut it down with no replacement in sight. If you’re still looking for an alternative, Ally might be an option to add to the list thanks to new Buckets and Boosters features. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



58How-To Geek / 12h
Facebook is making it easier to control what you see on your News Feed with the Feed Filter Bar, a new menu at the top of your News Feed. The Feed Filter Bar contains shortcuts to all your favorite news sources, plus the option to sort your feed chronologically and turn off political ads on the fly. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



300+How-To Geek / 12h
April Fools was canceled last year, for better or worse. But companies are going all-in this year, with gag products and sarcastic videos that should put a smile on your face. Here are the best April Fools jokes of 2021—or, more accurately, all the jokes that we could stomach. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



200+How-To Geek / 12h
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that sometimes people are awful and take advantage of unsuspecting victims. So it’s important to keep in mind that Microsoft will never call you about your computer, that FedEx text message may be a lie, and now Roku won’t charge you to activate service. Read This Article on Review Geek ›



24SlashGear / 12h
It’s April 1st, and just as Nintendo warned us six months ago, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is no longer available on the Switch eShop. While some were hoping that we’d see Nintendo make a last-minute reversal and keep Super Mario 3D All-Stars up on the eShop permanently, Nintendo stuck to its guns and removed the game just as it said … Continue reading



200+TechCrunch / 12h
Today Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency trading platform and software company, said that it will begin to trade via a direct listing on April 14th. In a separate release the company also said that it will provide a financial update on April 6th, after the close of trading. Coinbase’s impending public debut comes at an interesting market moment. As some tech companies delay their offerings over



Hopes are high for both sets of fans after major personnel changes in the off-season - here's how to watch the Mets vs Nationals online and get an MLB live stream from anywhere.



200+Gizmodo / 12h
April Fool’s is the worst holiday, but this is one stunt we can get behind. Someone built an obviously fake Nvidia RTX 4090 and 4090 Ti to get into the spirit—and to poke fun at the current graphics cards situation —and it’s so ridiculous it has to be seen to be believed. Read more...



200+TechCrunch / 12h
While several tech companies are opting to delay their IPOs in the face of less-than-enthusiastic market demand for their shares, real estate tech company Compass forged ahead and went public today. After pricing its shares at $18 apiece last night, the low end of a lowered IPO price range, Compass shares closed the day up just under 12% at $20.15 apiece. TechCrunch caught up with Compass CEO and



Tuorein iOS 14.5 -päivitys mahdollistaa akkutilanteen uudelleenkalibroinnin tarkemman tiedon saamiseksi, mutta tällä erää muutos näyttäisi koskevan vain iPhone 11 -mallistoa.



200+Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images ) A Supreme Court ruling today in favor of Facebook limits the reach of a 1991 US law that bans certain kinds of robocalls and texts. The court found that the anti-robocall law only applies to systems that have the ability to generate random or sequential phone numbers. Systems that lack that capability are thus not considered autodialers under the la



Laying claim to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion plan to modernize transportation infrastructure, Amtrak has released an ambitious proposal to greatly expand ridership with new routes and enhancements to existing routes. Get points and miles coverage like this delivered to your inbox by signing up for the TPG daily newsletter . With the announcement, Amtrak released a map showing the increasingl



Lifehacker / 12h
Every person who gets vaccinated brings us one tiny step closer to a world with less COVID in it. That’s why it’s great news that protection from the disease begins before you’ve gotten your second dose and that the vaccine seems to be safe and effective in kids . But we all still have lots of questions, and I’d like… Read more...



Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) will be the next airline to turn a parked plane into a restaurant. This is something that Singapore Airlines did with an A380 in late 2020 , so it’s cool to see another airline give the concept a try. ANA’s 777 restaurant at Tokyo Haneda Airport Over the coming weeks, ANA will give people the opportunity to dine on a parked Boeing 777-300ER at Tokyo Haneda Airport



50Gizmodo / 12h
Imagine this: You’re over at your best friend’s house going through their Xbox library. They’ve been wanting to try out one of the latest, hyped-up first-person shooters, but they don’t own it. You do, but it’s through a cloud gaming service. It doesn’t look great on your phone, and your friend doesn’t have a… Read more...



SlashGear / 12h
Rivian plans to use predictive maintenance and home servicing for its upcoming electric pickup and SUV, promising an end to waiting for parts and suffering through bad dealership coffee while you wait for repairs. The new servicing commitment comes ahead of deliveries of the Rivian R1T, the automaker’s first EV, which – like others in the pipeline – will be … Continue reading



28Gizmodo / 12h
While I wish this was a lame corporate April Fool’s, I regret to inform you that Funko is getting in the NFT game. Read more...



SlashGear / 12h
A newly discovered dinosaur called Llukalkan aliocranianus has been detailed in a new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The dinosaur was similar in appearance to the T-rex and was likely, according to the study, a ‘fearsome killer’ that prowled Patagonia around 80 million years ago. Llukalkan roamed around the region now known as Argentina during the Late … Continue readi




100+Futurism / 12h
Just over a year ago, the COVID-19 really started rearing its ugly head. With cases and deaths on a sharp incline, brands knew better than to partake in the yearly clown convention that is April Fools’ Day. April Fools’ Day 2020 was cancelled. But this year, things are starting to look a little different. With mass vaccinations well underway, the world is hopefully headed towards a better place —



Could this be the end of auto-playing videos on Microsoft Edge?



A new report suggests E3 2021 will be an online event that's free to the public, but could have extra content in a paid tier.



100+Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Federal prosecutors have indicted a Kansas man for allegedly logging into a computer system at a public water system and tampering with the process for cleaning and disinfecting customers’ drinking water. An indictment filed in US District Court for the District of Kansas said Wyatt A. Travnichek, 22, of Ellsworth County, Kansas, was an employee from January 2018 t



56Lifehacker / 12h
Thursday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals Read more...



57Lifehacker / 12h
Chances are that if you’ve landed a job interview in this pandemic-stricken economy, you’re doing it over a video conferencing tool like Zoom or Google Meet. But even if you’re a friendly type who thrives off the organic energy of face-to-face interaction, the remote interview format can work to your advantage. Read more...



1KFuturism / 12h
Close Calls On Wednesday morning, a truck carrying radioactive uranium suffered a collision with a passenger van, causing a mass evacuation in case of a hazardous leak. Thankfully, no one seems to have been hurt in the crash itself, according to the ABC News affiliate station ABC11 . A HAZMAT team showed up and cleared the scene, allowing drivers to get back to their cars after five hours. That’s



95Gizmodo / 12h
A recent camera trap survey in a Togolese nature reserve has turned up the first-ever images of a live Walter’s duiker, a petite African antelope species, in the wild. The traps also caught aardvarks and a mongoose species, neither of which had previously been reported in Togo. The team’s findings were published this… Read more...



56Gizmodo / 12h
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