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The Future of Tech, News and making sense of it all!

Monday, December 13, 2021

New Week, New Technology News and More!

Technology News and More..




TechCrunch / 9min
Manish Maheshwari, the former head of Twitter India who recently moved to San Francisco to work at a different division within the company, is leaving the firm to launch an edtech startup, according to nine people familiar with the matter. Maheshwari and Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment two weeks ago. People requested anonymity as the details are private. Maheshwari has engaged wit



How-To Geek / 32min
Do you have a foodie in your life who loves dipping everything in sauces? Or, maybe there’s a special someone who always appreciates bright, brilliant flavors. If so, these amazing condiments will make the perfect stocking stuffers for any of your foodie friends or family. Read This Article on LifeSavvy ›



More of Microsoft’s apps are slowly being updated to match the aesthetic of Windows 11, but three apps could also benefit from this upgrade. Notepad is the latest to reap the benefits of Fluent Design, with re-arranged features, an updated look, and a dark mode option for when you decide to change your desktop theme to a darker shade. Currently in testing in the Insider Build Dev Channel of Windo




Brochure for R.H. Fyfe & Co., advertising men’s and women’s slippers. Printed on front: “Christmas slippers. R.H. Fyfe & Co., Detroit. Christmas 1921.” Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library



Vivaldi’s CEO has fired a copious amount of flak at Microsoft in a fresh move in the browser wars , accusing the software giant of going “back to its old tricks” with promoting the Edge browser in Windows. Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive of the rival Vivaldi browser, wrote a lengthy blog post which complains about how it’s “frustrating in 2021 to find Microsoft blatantly engaging in anti-compe



TechCrunch / 16min
As more enterprises sign on to the trend of digital transformation and bringing more of their legacy work into the modern era of work, a company called SnapLogic , which has built a platform to integrate those apps and data, and to automate some of the activities that use them, has raised a big round of growth funding. The company has raised $165 million, money that it will be using to continue e



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 ...



Amazon Tomorrow Rs•
Amazon Prime membership, which has so far been on offer for a nominal Rs 999 per year, is set to cost more starting tomorrow (December 14). The hike announced during Diwali time by the company, envisages a rise of 50% in the fee. "Since the launch 5 years ago in India, Prime has continued to increase the value it offers members. Prime provides an unparalleled combination of shopping, savings and



TechCrunch / 30min
Thirdweb , a software startup for web3 projects, closed on $5 million in funding from a group of high-profile business leaders, entrepreneurs and creators, including Gary Vaynerchuk and Mark Cuban. The company launched its free tools three months ago for developers to build, launch and manage their web3 projects without writing any lines of code. Thirdweb was created by Social Chain founder Steve



TechCrunch / 30min
When the global pandemic hit, Russell d’Sa was running product at Medium and recognized early on that with everyone working from home, the company’s culture was impacted, affecting a lot of the interaction between employees. “What disappeared was the collegial conversations, the drinks on Friday evenings or making coffee together,” he told TechCrunch. “So much about becoming friends at work under



Wired / 31min
The Oxo Brew 9-Cup Coffee Maker sets a new standard for drip brewing. It's also remarkably unfussy.



Our team at TPG stays in a lot of hotels each year. Many of them are for our in-depth reviews, while others are for personal stays. Either way, we often end up comparing notes and suggesting properties to each other. Basically, we love a great hotel. For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter . Earlier this month, our reporters and editors gathered in



How-To Geek / 32min
Note-taking apps are essential tools for organizing things, and there are many available for macOS. A good note-taking app has all the features you need and none that you don’t. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Walmart has just dropped the price on the latest Apple Watch Series 7 down to just $349 (was $399) today - a discount that actually beats the one offered on this device over Black Friday. And, if that wasn't news in itself, today's price at Walmart is also available on the darker Midnight color - one of the more popular hues out there right now. This very same color on the baseline 41mm GPS versi



Kimpton has a pretty cool “social password” concept, whereby you can receive extra perks for sharing a phrase at check-in. I wanted to talk about what the password currently is, share my experience using it, and also pose a question to Kimpton regulars about the least cringeworthy way to go about saying it. What is the current Kimpton password? Kimpton is one of the cooler IHG hotel groups, and t



The global PC market is set to emerge stronger from the pandemic than many industry experts expected, a new report from IDC has claimed. The analyst firm predicts that although the traditional PC market is set to slow slightly as the global chip shortage continues to affect global chains, this will be offset by a continued upward trend in sales for the next few years as sales recover, led mainly



Warning: If you’re planning to watch the Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That , avert your eyes for this intro — spoilers are incoming. Peloton probably wished everyone did just that. Yes, the ubiquitous, expensive exercise bike featured in a major plotline in the first episode of the new series, which itself isn’t particularly shocking. The shock came when Carrie's husband, Mr. Big, died



Don't Look Up Enlarge / Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence co-star as low-level astronomers in Don't Look Up (credit: Netflix ) Two low-level astronomers discover a "planet killer" comet hurtling toward Earth but struggle to get anyone to pay attention in Don't Look Up , a new satirical sci-fi from Netflix. Directed by Adam McKay ( The Big Short ), it's a mostly amusing, star-studded confect



Wired / 1h
Guardians of the Galaxy has one of the 2021's most ambitious video game scores. An MCU-obsessed composer and a made-up metal band brought it to life.



21Wired / 1h
A three-person team within the startup was tasked with developing top-secret tech. When a cofounder was fired, things started to fall apart.




Wired / 1h
Researchers have created jellyfish whose nerve cells light up when they fire, offering a tantalizing view of neurology before the rise of the brain.



The post appeared first on Popular Mechanics .



Look, we all like a good Christmas miracle, but rumors of a cryptomining farm running next-generation Nvidia RTX 4090 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards is just too far-fetched. Why are we so keen to shout “humbug!” at this rumor, reported by Wccftech ? It’s simply too good to be true. According to a listing at Flexpool , which is an online cryptocurrency mining pool, there is a cryp



Bill Gates believes that the future of remote work meetings is changing, predicting that most will be held in the Metaverse within the next three years. This claim was part of a much broader commentary made by the man himself on his blog, GatesNotes back on December 7 2021, where he reviewed the difficulties faced in 2021 and prospects to remain optimistic into 2022. As reported by VRScout , Gate



Is your priceless data locked away on an Iomega Zip disk from the 1990s or 2000s? There are several easy ways you can copy files from Zip disks over to a modern PC or Mac yourself. We’ll show you how. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



NVIDIA’s Shield TV Pro is a multi-talented Android TV device that can not just stream Netflix, but also work as a Plex Server and run NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service. The biggest drawback is the $200 price, and it rarely goes on sale. Luckily, you can pick one up today for $180 at Amazon and Best Buy , matching one of the lowest prices we've ever seen. Buy NVIDIA Shield TV Pro at Amazon



A bunch of almost 20-year-old graphics cards have received an open-source driver update, courtesy of developer Emma Anholt. As reported by Tom's Hardware , the ATI Radeon R300, R400 and R500 are getting new drivers under Linux , allowing the GPUs to request NIR shaders from the Mesa 3D graphics library’s state tracker, and to use the NIR to TGSI path. Due to hardware limitations, the NIR could be



Gizmodo / 2h
Roughly 40% of new covid-19 cases in London consist of the recently discovered omicron variant, according to UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who made the starling claim on Monday . The news comes as the British public is urged to get coronavirus booster vaccines to help shore up protection against a disease that has… Read more...



Even if you primarily think of yourself as a domestic ecommerce brand, you have an international presence. Channels like Google, Facebook, and Instagram make it possible for anyone in the world to find brands that they like, including yours. Even if this hasn't happened yet, it will. With cross-border ecommerce rising at a rapid rate, it's not a question of if but when. There are shoppers in othe



Sony's next mirrorless camera launches could be significantly delayed by the chip shortage, according to speculation about the rumored Sony A7R V and Sony A9 III. The reliable Sony Alpha Rumors says it's received "rumors from solid sources" that Sony is "going to focus on lens announcements during the first half of 2022", with the upcoming 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II and 85mm f/1.2 GM tipped to be among



After six months of virtually nothing, Chromecast with Google TV owners have finally been treated to a new update, and it's a pretty good one. The update adds better Dolby Vision playback on some apps, as well as storage and security improvements for the streaming device. As reported by Android Community , the update clocks in at around 158MB, which doesn't sound like much until you remember Chro



SAVE 69%: Echo Buds offer premium speakers that driver deliver crisp and dynamic audio. Echo Buds (first-generation) wireless earbuds are on sale for $39.99 at Woot, saving you 69% on list price. We know you're busy and you've got plenty of things to do today, but we also know that you might be hunting for the best deals in the build up to Christmas Day. You haven't got a lot of time to left to s



Michael B. Jordan joined Desus and Mero to talk about a great many things, including his directorial debut with Creed III , currently set for release in 2022. As well as starring in it, the Creed and Creed II actor is sitting the director's chair for the third instalment, with Phylicia Rashad and Tessa Thompson returning alongside new addition to the franchise Jonathan Majors. Jordan said his dec



Hilton Honors has launched its latest promotion on purchased points . In this case different members are being targeted for different bonuses, so this won’t be the best deal for everyone. Promotion on purchased Hilton Honors points Through Friday, December 31, 2021, Hilton Honors is offering a bonus on purchased points . Different accounts seem to be targeted for different bonuses, so you’ll want



Our top-rated fitness tracker of 2021, the Fitbit Luxe , is down to its lowest price ever at Amazon. This is a top-of-the-line Fitbit with excellent health monitoring tools and a stylish design. The Luxe tracks stats including sleep, respiration, swimming, workouts and heart rate, all of which are clearly shown on a bright AMOLED display. This fitness tracker also has a five-day battery life, and



Peloton Big Chris Noth•
Warning: major spoilers follow for episode 1 of And Just Like That. Sex and the City has returned after a break of 11 years, and the first episode of the new TV show And Just Like That features a prominent production placement of a Peloton bike. Peloton is a fitness brand that offers home gym equipment with virtual workouts run by instructors via a tablet at the end of an exercise bike or treadmi



Apple brought some design chops back to the iMac lineup with the 24-inch 2021 M1 models , and a pretty good dose of extra performance, too. If you've been looking at getting an 8-core model for productivity or creative chores but found the $1,500 price a tad much, there's good news. The 8GB version with 256GB of storage is now available at Amazon for $1,400 , the lowest price we've seen yet. Buy



Keanu Reeves 2077 P. Red•
Keanu Reeves hasn’t played Cyberpunk 2077 – even though he starred in it. That’s the revelation that’s come from an interview with The Verge , with the actor revealing he just doesn't really play video games. Speaking while on the press tour for his latest movie, The Matrix: Resurrection , the star said he’s “seen demonstrations” of Cyberpunk 2077, but hadn’t sat down to play the troubled RPG him



Whether you plan to relax on white-sand beaches or dance the night away in one of its famous hotspots, the Dominican Republic is a year-round destination for many travelers. For baseball fans, it’s also the birthplace of many notable players and the sport remains popular throughout this Caribbean nation. JetBlue is offering some steals to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with fares under $300 roun



Intel ARC Alchemist•
Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics chips have been shown in a video, complete with fresh rumors about the possible launch schedule. This comes from YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID), a common source of Intel and AMD leaks, who shared some images in a video (spotted by VideoCardz ), with the pics showing what appears to be two different graphics chips, high-end with up to 512 EUs (or Execution Units




Days after the dangerous Log4Shell zero-day vulnerability was found in the Apache Log4j Java-based logging platform, experts have begun warning that malicious actors are already exploiting the flaw against vulnerable endpoints in various ways. Microsoft has published a list of ways Log4Shell (tracked as CVE-2021-44228) is being used: to install malware, cryptominers, to add the devices to the Mir



One aspect of World of Hyatt that some members find confusing is the Milestone Rewards program. In this post I wanted to provide an in-depth look at how exactly the Milestone Rewards program works, and how you can maximize the value you get through it. This has been especially important to understand in 2021, given that World of Hyatt reduced elite thresholds by 50% , but didn’t reduce Milestone



Nintendo Switch OLED•
You can now buy the Nintendo Switch OLED dock separately for $70 / £59.99 , which means users can upgrade their existing Switch dock to the new model or buy a spare one to use in another room if they’d like. The question is, though, should you bother picking up the new Nintendo Switch OLED dock? Nintendo’s redesign dock isn’t a dramatic departure from the original, but a few improvements may make



The Polar Grit X running watch is down to just £309.99 at Amazon right now. That's a saving of almost $120 off its regular price, and stock is already limited, so you'll need to move fast to grab one. The Polar Grit X earned a place in our guide to the best running watches thanks to its super rugged design, plus advanced training insights to help you optimize fuelling and recovery. When we tested



My name is Jennimai, and I am addicted to my iPhone. As a Gen Z-er, I can barely remember a time before smartphones. My first cell phone was a purple monster with a sliding screen. I traded it in for my first iPhone in 2013 and never looked back. I do everything on my phone: text, FaceTime, mindlessly scroll for hours and hours. I can hardly imagine going even a day without touching my phone, and



TL;DR: The BetterMe subscription is 30% off when you use code BetterMe-Plan-21 as of Dec. 13. The BetterMe behavioral healthcare program is a fitness app that offers tools for healthy eating and better workouts. It's designed to help you create a behavior-changing healthy lifestyle, and offers plans across different spectrums of ability. After working with each member to create a personalized mea



Tom Holland Spider-Man•
South Korean YouTube channel ODG has used a Spider-Man: No Way Home press interview to make a young fan's dream come true, introducing the nine-year-old boy to stars Tom Holland and Zendaya in an adorable video. Harang Seong was initially told he'd be studying English to practice talking to Spider-Man if he ever met him, before ODG sprung the surprise video call on him. It was big moment for him,



Microsoft AI Tool Code•
Microsoft researchers have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution that they believe can help programmers debug their applications faster and more accurately. Called BugLab, the AI is based on a “hide and seek” game model, and works in a fashion similar to how the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) are created. Detailing the research in a blog post , researchers Miltos Allamanis (Pr



MGM Resorts Try VR•
MGM Resorts is letting applicants try out casino and hotel jobs in virtual reality (VR) before signing on, Business Insider has reported. It's part of a new effort to reduce employee attrition during the "great resignation" that has caused labor shortages in the US and elsewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic. The casino and resort group is using headsets from a VR company called Strivr that specia



Samsung Galaxy G. T. S8•
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 series is rumored to be the company's next line of top-end tablets, and these are likely to be some of the very best Android tablets that money can buy in 2022. We've seen numerous leaks around each of the three new tablets, and the latest gives us an idea of what color options we should expect as well as storage sizes. According to a Twitter post by @_snoopytech_, a sou



The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has explained how the franchise's forthcoming Blood Origin TV show will "surprise" fans. Speaking exclusively to TechRadar at The Witcher season 2 press junket, Hissrich offered an insight into why fans of Netflix 's hit show will want to tune into the prequel series when it arrives in 2022. Asked what will set The Witcher: Blood Origin apart from th



Samsung Galaxy S22•
The Samsung Galaxy S22 range must be almost here. We know that not just because it’s been almost a year since the Samsung Galaxy S21 range launched, but because of the quantity and quality of leaks we’re seeing, which now even includes a photo of the standard Galaxy S22. The image was shared by reputable leaker UniverseIce on Weibo (a Chinese social network), along with text claiming that they su



Fae Saulenas does not want your sympathy. Saulenas, along with her 46-year-old daughter Lauren, spent last winter—their covid winter—in Saugus, Massachusetts, in a house without a working furnace. Saulenas is in her 70s. Lauren, because of brain injuries she experienced in the womb, is quadriplegic, blind, and affected by a seizure disorder, among other disabilities. In winter, it’s not unusual f



Amazon has slashed 43% off the price of the Eufy Robovac G30 Edge in the US, reducing it from $349.99 to just $199.99 . That’s the same record low the robot vacuum hit on Black Friday and Cyber Monday , making it great value. In the UK, you can pick up the same model for £229.99, which is down from the list price of £339.99 , and the lowest price we’ve seen the appliance drop to. (Not in the US o



A great home cinema setup can make a world of difference to your movie nights, but getting the right kit can be pricey - however, this brilliant deal on the Polk Audio React soundbar could be the perfect addition to your system if you're on a budget. Amazon has slashed the price of the Polk Audio React soundbar from $249 to $199 , saving you $50. (Not in the US? Scroll down for the best soundbar



Rivian R1T MotorTrend•
If the rave reviews (including Mashable's ) didn't convince you about Rivian's first auto, an all-electric truck called the R1T, maybe this will: It was just named MotorTrend's Truck of the Year for 2022 . The $73,00 pickup with 314 miles of range beat out other new or updated truck models like the GMC Hummer EV , Ford Maverick (a hybrid), Hyundai Santa Cruz, and others. Last year's winner was th



Fuse Southeast Asia•
Indonesia-based insurtech startup Fuse announced today it has secured $25 million of Series B extension round as it plans to enter more countries including Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. The startup has closed three funding rounds of Series B within the past six months, bringing the company’s total raised to over $70 million. The fresh capital was led by an undisclosed global fintech fun



Your home Wi-Fi network has never been more in demand; not only is it used for video conferencing and online learning, but it’s also used for 8K streaming and online gaming when it’s time to relax. Thankfully, Devolo’s Magic 2 WiFi 6 adapters are here to help. They’re the world’s first Powerline adapters with Wi-Fi 6, which means they can handle such bandwidth challenges with ease. Whole-home Wi-



NASA Sleeping Bag Space•
Becoming an astronaut requires perfect 20/20 vision , but unfortunately, the effects of space can cause astronauts to return to Earth with degraded eyesight . Now, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a sleeping bag that that could prevent or reduce those problems by effectively sucking fluid out of astronauts' heads. More than half of NASA astronauts that went to the In
YESTERDAY



Enlarge (credit: Getty Images / Bill Hinton ) Log4Shell is the name given to a critical zero-day vulnerability that surfaced on Thursday when it was exploited in the wild in remote-code compromises against Minecraft servers. The source of the vulnerability was Log4J, a logging utility used by thousands if not millions of apps, including those used inside just about every enterprise on the planet.




Succession Roman Kendall•
With a turn of the screw and instructions to "fuck off," another season of Succession has come to an end. On Sunday night, HBO aired the explosive Season 3 finale of its Emmy Award-winning satirical drama about a morally bankrupt media empire and the billionaire family who owns it. Titled "All the Bells Say," this episode is one of the most momentous to date — packed wall to wall with major plot



Chinese SenseTime US•
53TechCrunch / 7h
SenseTime, one of China’s most valuable AI solution providers, is putting its $767 million public listing on hold, the company said Monday . The announcement came three weeks after the Hong Kong Stock Exchange gave the go-ahead to SenseTime’s IPO. On December 10, the U.S. Department of Treasury added the firm to a list of “Chinese military-industrial complex Companies,” saying it “has developed f



Five days after Facebook changed its name to Meta, an Australian artist found herself blocked, with seemingly no recourse, from an account documenting nearly a decade of her life and work.



TL;DR: A TravelHacker Premium Subscription is on sale for £29.54, saving you 84% on list price. We’re all eager to get out and see the world after being forced to stay home for a year plus. But, along with everything else, airline prices have surged. With such high demand, it’s difficult to jet out for leisurely air travel whenever you please. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In fact, with



Unarguably one of the most well-known superheroes ever, Spider-Man has been swinging into the hearts and minds of kids and adults since its debut in Amazing Fantasy # 15 in 1962. Since then, we’ve seen countless iterations of the web-slinger that includes animated shows and even live-action movies. As proven over time, Spider-Man still has the power to draw crowds with its live-action movies, whe



Chris Noth Peloton•
The exercise equipment maker released an online parody after a scene that sent its shares tumbling.



Amazon Ban Illinois•
28Mashable / 9h
An Amazon warehouse in Illinois collapsed after it was hit by a tornado on Friday, killing at least six people . Now the retail giant is being criticized for not allowing workers to carry their mobile phones on the warehouse floor, preventing them from receiving weather warnings. Bloomberg reports that Amazon has been slowly reinstating its long-standing policy of banning mobile phones in its war



Well, it turns out the Beatles didn’t get broken up by Yoko after all. But Peter Jackson may have gotten closer. His Get Back movie seemed to be so far over the top that even Beatlemaniacs like myself had had enough. But no. On this edition of the Gang, we still can’t stop talking about it. Random reviews by every third person on the street exonerate Yoko, complain about the weak material, and ge



1KGizmodo / 11h
A 1.1 million-square-foot Amazon warehouse that collapsed in Edwardsville, Illinois was among the buildings hit by a series of deadly tornadoes on Friday that swept across six states, killing dozens of people. The tragedy has put Amazon under scrutiny for purportedly not allowing its warehouse workers to have their… Read more...



81Gizmodo / 11h
As those of us who have watched HBO Max’s And Just Like That, the sequel to the iconic series Sex and the City , can affirm, there are some scenes involving Peloton that could cause the wrong impression. Peloton apparently thought so too, and basically decided to rewrite that part of the story. Read more...



Narendra Modi Twitter•
The Indian prime minister's account had a message stating that bitcoin would be distributed to citizens.



With over 8 million Australian homes and businesses now hooked up with NBN plans , many customers have had the chance to run their service through its paces, perhaps finding that they'd like a little more speed as a result. Thankfully, there's now a healthy amount of providers offering Superfast NBN 250 plans , leading to more competitive prices from a number of telcos. Below are a few NBN deals



500+Gizmodo / 12h
Multiple health departments in Missouri have abandoned most or all of their covid-19 tracking and prevention work after a recent court ruling stripped state and local public health agencies of their powers to establish disease prevention measures. Read more...



Grab your wallets, book nerds! This entirely creative gadget, dubbed the Author Clock, is the perfect gadget to help bookworms see what time it is. After all, why leave the task to boring ol’ numbers when you can use all of these neat book quotes instead? Read This Article on Review Geek ›


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