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Wednesday, December 22, 2021

1st Day of Winter Technology News and More!

Technology News and More




Quantum computing company Rigetti has announced it is exploring experimental new hardware configurations that could improve the performance of its quantum processors . As explained in a blog post , the firm has introduced a third energy state to its qubits, thus turning them into qutrits. According to Rigetti, doing so allows for significantly more information to be manipulated, while also decrea



200+How-To Geek / 20h
If you constantly close apps on your iPhone while attempting to speed things up or save battery life, you’re doing the opposite and making your iPhone perform worse. Here’s why. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Array Ventures Raises•
300+TechCrunch / 14h
Shruti Gandhi wants to clear up a misconception in first-check fundraising: Every founder doesn’t need their early-stage investors to be a shoulder for them, they just need their investor to understand their business in a way that others don’t. Most of the entrepreneurs in her portfolio for Array Ventures , a fund she started five years ago to back enterprise companies, are repeat founders with n




TechCrunch / 19min
European startup and venture capital data company Dealroom has raised a €6 million Series A, it told TechCrunch. The company’s new capital comes nearly two years after it raised €2.75 million in early 2020 . Its database competes with a number of rivals in North America, including PitchBook , CB Insights , and my former employer Crunchbase . Beringea led the Series A, which also saw participation
YESTERDAY



LG DualUp Monitor CES Two•
LG has revealed a couple of monitors it's debuting at its virtual CES event, and one of them is apparently a completely new format in the market. The company's new DualUp Monitor has an unusual 16:18 aspect ratio. It's a vertical display with a 2,560 x 2,880-pixel resolution that LG is calling "Square Double QHD." When you use its vertical split view function, the DualUp looks like you put two 21



SAVE 86%: CyberGhost VPN is offering deals on all of its plans this Christmas. The best? A three-year subscription to CyberGhost VPN is on sale for £1.59 per month, and includes an extra three months for free. Selecting the right VPN for you and your lifestyle is tough, but it's really just the beginning. Once you've considered all of the options out there and finally decided on a particular serv



TL;DR: The 2022 Professional Podcast Masterclass Bundle is on sale for £18.75, saving you 98% on list price. After logging hours of podcast listening (thank you Spotify Wrapped) you might be inclined to think you can start one. And you are correct. Starting a podcast could be quite the power move in 2022 — and it’s not as complicated as you might think. If you've got an extra £20 to spare, this P



Bluetooth Home COVID•
At a time when President Biden is preparing to make at-home Covid tests available to more Americans, a security researcher has discovered a flaw that could allow someone to change the results in one such test that has been granted emergency use authorization in the US. While there are now a number of at-home Covid-19 tests available, Elume offers a self-administered antigen test that individuals



Google Google has made a variety of devices that run its platform, often positioning them as exemplars of those operating systems. The Nexus and Pixel devices, for example, are the epitome of Google’s vision for Android, while the Pixel Chromebooks show OEMs and users how Chrome OS is supposed to behave. Google even has smart speakers that demonstrate the power of … Continue reading



OnlyFans Tim Stokely•
OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely has stepped down from his position as CEO, naming spokesperson Amrapali "Ami" Gan as his successor effective immediately. The choice seems fairly unusual. "Ami has a deep passion for OnlyFans’ business and I’m passing the baton to a friend and colleague who has the vision and drive to help the organization reach its tremendous potential," Stokely said in a press relea



Walk Metal Detectors•
21Gizmodo / 6h
Researchers have discovered a total of nine software vulnerabilities in a commonly used metal detector product. If exploited, the security flaws could allow a hacker to take detectors offline, read or alter their data, or just generally mess with their functionality, the research reveals. Read more...



Google Pixel Exynos•
Gizmodo / 6h
Google’s Pixel smartwatch is one of the most anticipated devices on the horizon despite not being a confirmed product, and a new report makes us even more eager to see what’s coming. Read more...



Image Credit: Lenovo Last-minute shopping is upon us and, right on time, Lenovo has finally made its 2021 premium Android tablet available in new markets, including the US. Going beyond specs and features, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro might be a worthwhile gift for someone knee-deep in Android app development. Why? Because the model has the distinction as being the first — and … Continue reading



Try Prime now To make use of this bonus credit offer, you'll need to be an Amazon Prime member. If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so now by clicking on the link below – this gets you a 30-day free trial and free expedited delivery on eligible products, plus access to Prime Video, Prime Reading and Prime Gaming. Try Amazon Prime now Amazon is discounting a range of Windows 11 laptops and 2-



35Gizmodo / 7h
LG already jumped the gun by announcing new OLED monitors before CES kicks off in January; now the company is announcing another pair of panels, and these are designed for productivity. Read more...



Gizmodo / 7h
For most of 2021, if you wanted to see a major blockbuster that was coming to theaters, there was some kind of at-home option . Even this week you don’t have to go see The Matrix Resurrections in theaters; it’s streaming on HBO Max. However, as the year went on, some options began to go away and one of the biggest… Read more...



100+Futurism / 7h
Blockchain Casual Because 2021 couldn’t get much dumber, someone has begun minting Olive Garden NFTs — even though they admittedly do not have any affiliation with any actual brick-and-mortar Olive Gardens. Taking the generalized meme surrounding the fast-casual “Italian” chain to the next level, the person or people behind these “ Non-Fungible Olive Gardens ” admit on their site that, for now, p



You've probably noticed that Christmas is just around the corner, and if you're anything like me... you're panicking. A mixture of not wanting to venture outside in the current climate (both pandemic and weather) and being just that distracted by a million emails and spreadsheets, I still need to buy presents for some key people. The answer is: gift cards. Wait, wait, wait... it's different now.



Google OnHub 2022 NW•
Enlarge / The Google OnHub. (credit: Ron Amadeo) If you're still using a Google OnHub router, Google wants you to know that you're nearing the end of the line. According to Android Police , the company has been emailing OnHub owners to let them know that support for the router is ending on December 19, 2022. The router will still function on a basic level after that date, but advanced services an



Microsoft Edge PDF•
Microsoft is currently working on a new update for its browser that will add even more functionality to the Web Capture tool which first appeared in Microsoft Edge last year. For those unfamiliar, Web Capture allows you to take screenshots of either an entire webpage or just a portion of it directly from Edge's three-dot menu at the top right of the browser or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+



Cryptographer/Shutterstock The White House has announced another addition to its ongoing COVID-19 response, this time stating that the US will expand public access to free testing. This effort will include, starting next month, providing half a billion at-home COVID-19 tests to the public for free. This new offering will join other methods intended to help address the pandemic and its impact … Co



Arsenal Club Fan Socios•
The Advertising Standards Authority said the club "failed to illustrate the risk of the investment".



Gizmodo / 8h
Fans of animation will probably not be shocked to hear that three of the four most nominated films for this year’s Annie Awards this year hail from Disney. Raya and the Last Dragon leads all nominees with 10 total, followed by Encanto with nine and Pixar’s Luca with eight. However, right on the heels of those films is… Read more...




The founder of the content subscription site is stepping aside to focus on new endeavours.



Despite being seen as a somewhat controversial - and slightly tacky - move, Amazon had a good reason to add a smile logo to the outside of its Amazon Echo Buds (2nd Gen) true wireless earbuds . According to the company’s Head of Audio, people kept putting them in wrong. “We found that with our first-generation, people were actually putting them in upside down or backwards,” said Phil Hilmes, Dire



Delta Air Lines warned Tuesday of possible staffing shortages and “significant” operational disruptions due to the omicron variant , and more specifically, due to CDC guidelines that the airline characterized as unnecessary and burdensome. Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG’s free new biweekly Aviation newsletter! In a letter to CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Delta CEO Ed Basti



So your friend/sibling/neighbor just had a baby, or is having a baby soon. Huzzah! Now you’re trying to figure out what to get them for the holidays… and, well, it can get a bit overwhelming. There’s so much stuff for babies and new parents, all marketed in a way that makes it all seem absolutely crucial . It is, of course, mostly not. For this gift guide, I tried to focus on stuff that is truly



To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here . Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for December 21, 2021. This is my final Daily Crunch with you for the year. So, let me just say thanks for reading since I took over writing the newsy bits of this newsletter. It could have gone horribly, frankly, given how much fo



kontrymphoto/Shutterstock USB-C and Thunderbolt are two of the most common types of ports for computers, smartphones, and tablets. Both ports offer high-speed I/O and support a wide range of devices. While the two ports are visually indistinguishable, there are significant differences between them. The latest version of the USB interface, USB-C, was quickly adopted by many device manufacturers. C



Google Voice Lets Custom•
Google now lets you customize how its Voice service handles incoming calls . Starting today, you can configure the app to forward calls from either individual or groups of contacts to a linked phone number or your voicemail. Separately, you can set a rule that plays custom voicemail greetings for specific contacts. And if you want to avoid taking calls unless absolutely necessary, you can tell it



Last year’s Essential implosion marked one of the most high-profile consumer electronics startup failures in recent memory. Launched in 2017 with $330 million, a killer pedigree and some truly grand ambitions, the company sputtered through a combination of industry issues, disappointment and troubling allegations against founder Andy Rubin. The brand was eventually purchased by Carl Pei for his n



200+Gizmodo / 9h
The Spider-Man of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe was hailed when he truly arrived in Homecoming as the Spidey with no unnecessary origin —we’d all experienced Uncle Ben, great power, and greater responsibility enough that it was thought unneeded. But No Way Home ultimately concludes that in order to grow and move on, our… Read more...



Milwaukee Coat Check•
Back in the day, I used to fly from cold winters in Washington, D.C., down to the sunny climes of Naples, Florida, to visit my godmother. Because it was so cold, I’d need to drag my winter coat with me for the beginning and the end of the trip — which was always a big pain. My Florida flights were always full (because who doesn’t want to leave the cold and snow for sun and temperatures in the 80s



Lukas Gojda/Shutterstock Boeing and Airbus have written a joint letter to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asking that Verizon and AT&T’s rollout of C-band 5G be delayed. At the heart of the issue is concern over interference with aircraft altimeters. Verizon and AT&T were the largest bidders for C-band spectrum, in the mid-band range, at a recent FCC auction. In fact, under … Continue



Ericsson 2021 Smart•
Gizmodo / 10h
U.S. carriers have talked a big game around 5G for years now, claiming its “ blazing fast ” upload and download speeds could usher in everything from driverless cars and smart cities to HD movie downloads in less than a minute. That clearly hasn’t happened, and until relatively recently most everyday consumers couldn’t… Read more...



With the newly announced Ink Business Premier Credit Card , there are even more options when it comes to business credit cards — especially if you are looking to earn cash back. But with so many business credit cards, it’s hard to determine which one is actually best for your business needs. Up until now, the only other Ink business credit card that offered top-notch benefits was the Ink Business



A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips. Continue reading ...



OnePlus 10 January•
Gizmodo / 10h
OnePlus may have lost its steam this year compared to other Android phone makers—namely Google with its impressive Pixel 6 —but the company has a new smartphone up its sleeve. Read more...



Apple 27 Inch iMac Pro•
We’ve been hearing for a while now that the upcoming 27-inch iMac Pro will launch with a mini-LED display, and a new report adds even more evidence that our hopes will be fulfilled. Apple suppliers seem to be shipping these a limited number of mini-LED iMacs out to larger manufacturers for assembly, according to a paywalled report from DigiTimes . This report aligns with display analyst Ross Youn



FDA Injectable Hiv PrEP•
100+Gizmodo / 10h
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for preventing cases of HIV. The treatment is called Apretude, and it’s the first PrEP medication to be taken via injection instead as a once-daily pill. Apretude will only need to be taken once a month initially, then every… Read more...



Hades a Hugo Award•
SlashGear / 10h
Supergiant Games A video game has finally won a Hugo award. Hades, a roguelike developed by Supergiant Games, managed to win the award in a one-off category over other titles like The Last of Us 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Blaseball. The Hugo awards have been a long-running annual literary award since 1953. Since that time, the … Continue reading



Boeing Airbus Biden•
Enlarge / Aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus claim that an upcoming C-band 5G rollout will interfere with airplane instrumentation. Boeing and Airbus have asked US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to delay the deployment of C-band spectrum for 5G wireless service. The companies claim the rollout will interfere with key aircraft instruments. “5G interference could advers



Microsoft EU Nuance•
Engadget / 11h
The European Commission has approved Microsoft’s $19.7 billion bid to buy Nuance Communications. The regulator said on Tuesday the proposed acquisition “would raise no competition concerns” within the European Union. In analyzing the bid, it found that “Microsoft and Nuance offer very different products.” Moreover, it believes the company will continue to face “strong” competition from other firm




Attackers have managed to create a novel exploit capable of bypassing a critical remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office which was patched earlier this year. According to new research from the cybersecurity firm Sophos , the attackers were able to take a publicly available proof-of-concept Office exploit and weaponize it to deliver the Formbook malware . Back in September, Microso



It’s beginning to look a lot like the end of the line to wrap up airline elite status. As the calendar rockets toward Dec. 31, which is the cut-off with most programs for this year’s elite-eligible activity, the options narrow for travelers trying to decide if they will make it to the next elite tier. This elite status situation could be further complicated in 2021 for travelers who were counting



Pegasus NSO Khashoggi•
42Gizmodo / 11h
The phone of Hanan Elatr, the wife of slain dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi, was infected with sophisticated commercial malware in the months before he was murdered, according to a new report by the Washington Post. Read more...



100+Gizmodo / 11h
You’d be forgiven for feeling blue today, what with Omicron ruining Christmas and Joe Manchin ruining everything else . But I say, rejoice! For today is the first day in six months when we can say, geophysically at least, that brighter days are ahead. Read more...



100+Gizmodo / 11h
I don’t think it’s presumptuous of me to have assumed that Dragons of Spring Dawning , the third novel in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman ’s beloved first Dragonlance trilogy, would heavily feature… well, dragonlances . These books kicked off the brand-new Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, introduced the dragon-filled… Read more...



MIT Scientists Venus•
2KFuturism / 11h
Researchers made a huge splash last year when they announced the discovery of significant sources of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. The colorless and odorless gas, they claimed at the time, could be a possible sign of life, as it’s often the result of organic matter breaking down here on Earth. The hypothesis remains a bit of a stretch : that clouds in the planet’s thick, carbon dioxide-fi



It’s the holiday season, and millions of Americans are about to hit the road and take to the skies. This is not an exaggeration: AAA has predicted that 109 million people would travel during the holidays. But in the back of many travelers’ minds is the threat of the omicron coronavirus variant, which is now the most common variant in the United States and accounted for 73% of new cases last week.



48How-To Geek / 11h
There’s going to be a new web browser entering the battle, and it comes from DuckDuckGo, one of the first names in privacy. If you’re a fan of the mobile app, the desktop browser looks to bring all the best features to larger devices. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



TASCAM 424 Portastudio•
Engadget / 11h
Tascam knows some musicians pine for the 'warm' quality of cassette recordings, and it's willing to effectively resurrect dead technology to meet their needs. The company has introduced a 424 Studio Master High Bias Type II Cassette designed for the brand's decades-old Portastudio four-track cassette recorders. Artists can record analog samples and tunes without hunting down rare tapes and fretti



Duckduckgo Desktop•
SlashGear / 11h
Eliseu Geisler/Shutterstock Following the popularity of its mobile app, DuckDuckGo has announced that it wants to bring its privacy-focused browser to desktop users. The company announced the desktop browser in a post looking back on the things it accomplished throughout 2021. Chief among those accomplishments was the release of an all-in-one privacy browser. The app is available on Android and i



Gizmodo / 12h
Attempts at recreating the hoverboards seen in Back to the Future II have so far been either disappointing self-balancing, two-wheeled vehicles that frequently catch fire , or jet-powered floating platforms that require a highly skilled pilot. But as MIT engineers have recently proposed , creating a levitating vehicle… Read more...



Customers who qualify for the Warm Home Discount Scheme are running out of time to save £140 on their energy bills this winter. This is because some of the UK’s biggest suppliers have already started to close applications. So far, EDF Energy, Scottish Power and Utilita have all closed their schemes because they’re oversubscribed, according to research from Uswitch. Previous research has also show



Biden COVID Omicron•
43Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge / Rapid at-home COVID-19 test kits. (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images) In an address to the nation today, President Joe Biden outlined his administration's plans to battle the omicron variant. The federal government plans to purchase 500 million rapid COVID-19 test kits for home use, set up new testing sites, and mobilize 1,000 military medical personnel to pitch in at hospitals slammed b



22Lifehacker / 12h
“Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior,” a phrase coined by Facebook, is the use of multiple social media accounts or pages to mislead or influence people for political or financial ends. As part of the deception, these pages hide the identities and obscure the motives of the people behind them. Read more...



200+The Points Guy / 12h
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information including the latest Amex Platinum offer. The Platinum Card® from American Express has long been one of the best premium travel rewards cards out there, thanks to a long list of benefits, a strong earning rate on flight purchases and a solid welcome bonus. Thanks to a wholesale revamp earlier this year, the card now h



200+Gizmodo / 12h
Before the pandemic in early 2020, as we basked in the enjoyment after the release of The Witcher ’s first season, one thing above all stood out: everybody just could not stop thinking about the bardic release of the year, “ Toss a Coin to Your Witcher .” Its shadow lingers in the show’s newly-released second season, but … Read more...



If you no longer wish to be part of Pinterest, and you’d prefer getting all your boards and Pins deleted, it’s actually easy to delete a Pinterest account. We’ll show you how to do that on your desktop and mobile. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



1KFuturism / 12h
She may look like a preteen, but Shauna Rae is legally old enough to drink — and soon the world will know her story, or at least the TLC version of it. Next month, the channel is airing a docuseries called “ I Am Shauna Rae ,” which it’s billing as a look into the life of the 22-year-old who looks like she’s about eight, due to complications from surgery she had as an infant. Rae was just six mon



61Gizmodo / 12h
Antarctica is often portrayed as a barren wasteland of ice and snow, about as inhospitable as any place on Earth . But a team of researchers just pulled up a huge amount of life from underneath the frozen continent, a testament to the tenacity of these extremophile organisms. Read more...



Delta and Alaska Airlines commit to delivering checked bags within 20 minutes of each flight arriving. If they fail to meet that, you're entitled to miles or a credit towards a future trip as compensation. Neither United nor American offer this. A brief moment of honesty from an American Airlines manager explains why they can't do it. Continue reading ...




Microsoft Xbox Adidas•
39Engadget / 12h
Since October , Microsoft and Adidas have been releasing commemorative Xbox-themed sneakers to mark the brand's 20th anniversary. It all started with a pair of Forum Tech shoes the two companies gave away to a group of lucky fans. Then, in November, they released a pair of Xbox 360-themed Forum Mid sneakers you could buy in the US and Canada. Now, for their third and final drop, the two have come



FAA Unruly TSA PreCheck•
Airline passengers who break rules, get in fights and assault flight attendants will face a new consequence, according to the TSA: loss of access to the PreCheck program. The FAA will share names and other information about passengers who it has fined for unruly behavior with the TSA, the security agency said on Tuesday. This may remove said individuals from the trusted traveler program. Want mor



2 Apple Watch 7 Weather•
Ever wanted to browse the internet on your Apple Watch? There’s an app called µBrowser ($0.99) that lets you do just that, so that if your phone is dead or you’re at the gym without it, your Apple Watch can still help you find things on the web. Read more...



AT&T Xandr Microsoft•
Microsoft has announced that it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire the online advertising and analytics firm Xandr from AT&T. The agreement builds on a decade-long relationship between Xandr, its predecessor companies and the software giant for delivering digital media solutions for advertisers on a global scale. Through its data-enabled technology platform, Xandr provides tools which



OnlyFans Tim Stokely•
100+Gizmodo / 12h
OnlyFans CEO Tim Stokely is calling it quits and will step down five years after starting the online creator platform that’s now synonymous with sex work. That’s according to a recent Bloomberg report, which revealed former OnlyFans spokesperson Ami Gan would take over as CEO. Read more...


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