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Thursday, December 9, 2021

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Technology News and More...




December 9 marks the last giant tech day of the year (we hope) because not only is a new Motorola phone launching, but the Realme GT 2 Pro is too. These are the first two phones to pack the new super-powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and Realme and Motorola are two of the companies vying to debut the processor first in their mobiles. You're here for the Moto Edge X30 though, a brand-new Motoro



TechCrunch / 30min
As many edtech companies benefited from the disruption of the pandemic, attracting wads of cash from investors globally, it did feel like African startups were left out. Well, not anymore: Two-year-old startup uLesson announced today that it closed a $15 million Series B round. The investment, which comes 11 months after uLesson raised a $7.5 million Series A , was completed by five investors: Te



Italy Italian Amazon•
Engadget / 32min
Italy's antitrust authority (AGCM) has fined Amazon €1.13 billion ($1.28 billion) for "abuse of dominant position," the second penalty it has imposed on Amazon over the last month. Amazon holds a position of "absolute dominance" in the Italian brokerage services market, "which has allowed it to promote its own logistics service, called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)," the authority wrote in a (Googl



TechCrunch / 44min
Embedded finance — where companies tap into APIs to integrate banking and other financial tools without having to build everything themselves from the ground up — has been one of the major trends in fintech in the last decade. Today, one of the biggest startups building those APIs and the backend technology behind them is announcing a major round of funding to double down on the opportunity. Mamb



100+TechCrunch / 1h
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings have existed for a long time, but increased in popularity as the pandemic made more people shop online and conserve cash . Though BNPL has taken off in most parts of the world, it’s yet to pick up steam in Africa. But in countries such as South Africa and Egypt, there is a newfound surge in demand for such services. In the latest development, Sympl , an Egyptia



Meet Collective , a French startup that wants to redefine what it means to work as a freelancer in development, product design, digital marketing, data strategy and more. The company has built a platform so that multiple freelancers can team up and work together on the same project. The trick is that those teams remain independent freelancers. They’re not working for the same company, they’re jus
YESTERDAY



Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon tried to draw actor Nicole Kidman into a speed round of Christmas questions during Wednesday's episode, asking her about everything from her favourite holiday movie to her favourite holiday pie. Unfortunately for Fallon, the Australian actor either didn't understand the concept of a speed round or just wasn't in the mood to play along. "Real tree or fake tree?" Fall



Razorpay 2022 India•
Razorpay is making it more convenient for users to pay businesses with a faster checkout option as the leading Indian payments infrastructure giant pushes to win a bigger slice of the world’s second largest internet market. The new feature, called Magic Checkout, saves shopper’s information — password, card details, addresses — during their first purchase and prefills those when they transact wit



Klarna Browser Extension•
Fintech startup Klarna is launching a desktop browser extension that provides many of the features that you can find in the company’s mobile app — but on your computer. In addition to the ability to manage your Klarna payments, the extension automatically applies coupon codes when you’re on a checkout page. Klarna has acquired Piggy for the automatic couponing feature. Piggy originally built a br



SpaceX NASA IXPE 9•
74Engadget / 3h
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has blasted off with NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) satellite. First announced in 2017, the IXPE is the first satellite capable of measuring the polarization of X-rays that come from cosmic sources, such as black holes and neutron stars. The fridge-sized satellite has three telescopes that can track and measure the direction, arrival time, energy, and po



Pleo Europe Valuation•
Danish startup Pleo , a developer of expense management tools aimed at SMBs to let them issue company cards and better manage how employees spend money, has picked up a large tranche of funding to help it double down on its business at a time of strong growth. The company has raised $200 million, money that Jeppe Rindom, Pleo’s co-founder and CEO, said it will be using in areas like M&A, picking



Robotic Research Raises•
Robotic Research, a self-driving technology company that has spent the last two decades developing on and off-road autonomous vehicles for the Department of Defense, raised a $228 million Series A round. The company will use the investment, which was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Enlightenment Capital, to build out the commercial side of its business. Crescent Cove Advisors, Henry Crown and C



One Zero Trust Strategy•
Although organizations are increasingly aware of the benefits of Zero Trust technology and even plan to adopt it, new research from One Identity has revealed that only 14 percent of businesses have implemented a Zero Trust strategy. Following the release of the White House's “ Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity ” back in May, Zero Trust awareness continues to rise in the US a



Andrew Chen has long been a student, and teacher, of how startups engage their users while managing to amass a slew of new ones. Today, he espouses his learnings — as a founder and a former Uber exec who led the company’s “rider growth” product teams for several years — to his portfolio companies as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Among these is All Day Kitchens, Clubhouse, Substack and



TL;DR: The Android App Development with Kotlin Bootcamp Bundle is on sale for £9.80 as of Dec. 9, saving you 97% on list price. Have a great idea for an app? Don’t waste it — build it yourself. You can learn to build your own Android apps right at home with the help of this 23-hour course collection. It’s still on sale for Cyber Week, for less than £10, so if ever there was a time to get started



Kenya Kwara Breega•
42TechCrunch / 4h
The Kenyan fintech Kwara was launched in 2019 to help credit unions (savings and credit cooperatives societies, SACCOs) in the East African country shift to digital platforms by providing them with its proprietary Back-end-as-a-service (BaaS) software. The startup’s trajectory has been steep, as its clientele shot up from two to 50 in just over two years. This is as it became clearer to the count



Google Stadia LG Tvs•
Ascannio/Shutterstock Google’s cloud-based gaming platform Stadia is now available on certain LG smart TVs. The new support eliminates the need to purchase and use a separate device for accessing one’s Stadia library, though it’s important to note that only newer LG models running specific versions of the company’s webOS support Google’s gaming service. LG smart TVs join the Stadia lineup Unlike



200+Gizmodo / 7h
Of all the Star Wars shows coming to Disney+, one remains the most mysterious . It’s set in a time period most fans don’t know and it’s not about a preexisting character, at least we think it isn’t. What we do now is that the show has its star: Amandla Stenberg. Read more...



Npm Packages Discord•
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Researchers have found another 17 malicious packages in an open source repository, as the use of such repositories to spread malware continues to flourish. This time, the malicious code was found in NPM, where 11 million developers trade more than 1 million packages among each other. Many of the 17 malicious packages appear to have been spread by different threat a



Instagram Mosseri Feed•
100+Mashable / 7h
Instagram says it's working on new ways for users to sort their feeds — including finally bringing back the ability to view it chronologically. "We’ve been experimenting with Favorites, a way for you to decide whose posts you want to see higher up, and we’re working on another option to see posts from people you follow in chronological order," the official Instagram Comms Twitter account posted o




Image Credit: LetsGoDigital Watching the Galaxy S21 FE story unfold is a bit entertaining, almost like observing a hero’s journey in progress. Right from the start, it almost seemed like it was doomed to fail, and only a Samsung exec’s bullishness provided hope for its survival. Now it seems that the journey is about to come to an end, and just like any … Continue reading



Since July 2021, Amazon Australia has allowed New Zealanders to shop on the site and have select items shipped across the Tasman Sea... for a price. Starting today (December 9, 2021) that price is being scrapped for select items, but your total order will need to be the equivalent of AU$59 or more (about NZ$62 at current conversion rates) to qualify for free shipping. This is excellent news for K



74Gizmodo / 8h
By now, you’ve likely heard that virtual private networks protect your privacy . You’ve probably also heard that they don’t actually do that . Who to believe? Read more...



Samsung has been making good time on testing and rolling out One UI 4 to its 2021 flagships, which also brings Android 12 to these phones. As they say, haste makes waste and while Samsung has improved its development process, it’s not completely surprising it would also hit a few bumps along the road. Unfortunately, Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy … Continue reading



Upmesh Instagram Live•
59TechCrunch / 8h
Two months after its seed round announcement, Singapore-based startup Upmesh has raised a $7.5 million pre-Series A round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. The new funding brings its total raised so far to $10.5 million. Upmesh will use the pre-Series A funding to expand its regional presence in Southeast Asia and launch its first Instagram live selling app and backend automation features like logisti



Facebook Professional•
Meta has announced a new professional mode for Facebook user profiles that makes it easier for content creators to monetize their posts on the social network. While professional mode will first be available to select users in the US, the company plans to expand it to more countries in the coming months while also adding access to more monetization options and platform tools. Content creators that



Instagram’s top executive spent more than two hours being grilled by the Senate about Instagram’s safety policies and its impact on teens’ metal health. Unfortunately for Mosseri, members of the subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security came to the hearing armed with fresh anecdotes from their own finstas. During the hearing, Mosseri’s first time appearing in Congress



Best Free VPN iPhone•
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock Virtual private networks (VPNs) are an important part of modern computer security. While VPNs have been widely used for decades, the rise of remote work has brought them into the spotlight for many users and raised questions about where and on what devices they should be used. A VPN works by creating an encrypted tunnel between your device and the … Continue reading



Gizmodo / 9h
Apple doesn’t need to give app developers the ability to add links to external payment options—or not yet, at least. Read more...



91Gizmodo / 9h
Hey, would you like to watch another 60-second trailer for the upcoming Star Wars TV series The Book of Boba Fett , even though it contains almost no new footage? Let me answer that for you: yes, you do, because the operative word there is “almost.” Read more...



Enlarge / The mushroom cloud from the Soviet detonation of "Tsar Bomba" on October 30, 1961, was so large that the photographers had a hard time capturing its full dimensions. (credit: Rosatom ) The detonation of the first nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 is seared into our collective memory, and the world has been haunted by the prospect of a devastating nuclear apocalyps



46Wired / 10h
The Russia-led campaign was a wake-up call to the industry, but there's no one solution to the threat.



Ola Raises Temasek•
23TechCrunch / 10h
Indian ride-hailing giant Ola has raised $139 million at a valuation of about $7.3 billion, it said in a filing, ahead of its plans to file for an initial public offering early next year. Mumbai-headquartered financial giant Edelweiss led the new investment tranche. IIFL, Siddhant Partners, Tejal Merchantile, Hero Enterprise also poured money, Bangalore-headquartered Ola said in the filing, which



God War Requirements•
SlashGear / 10h
Santa Monica Studios/Sony Next month, we’ll see what is almost certainly the biggest Sony PC release yet. After bringing Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone to PC, Sony will be bringing 2018’s God of War to the platform in January. Today, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio revealed the PC specifications for the game, and it looks like it will run on a rather large … Continue reading



Engadget / 10h
After more than 15 years off the air, Reading Rainbow will return to TV in early 2022. Per CBS News , this latest version of the classic children’s show will be known as Reading Rainbow Live . It will feature an interactive component that kids will be able to access through Looped . The platform will allow viewers to ask questions of the cast, and participate in games. Naturally, Reading Rainbow



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 8, 2021! TechCrunch is getting into the holiday spirit with some end-of-year content, including our Vaunted, Famous and World-Renowned gift guides. Lucas dug into camping gear , if that is your jam. And Anna and I have



Facebook Instagram Mosseri•
89Mashable / 10h
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, told Congress on Wednesday that the devastating effect his app has had on young people should really be blamed on the entire industry. "But, mom, we were all doing it!" Mosseri faced questions before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security about Instagram's effect on young people's mental health. His overwhelming respo



200+Gizmodo / 10h
Though The Last of Us follows Joel and Ellie as the pair fight to survive a zombie apocalypse, the story in both the original video game and HBO’s upcoming adaptation introduces a variety of other characters with drastically different motivations and outlooks on the rise of the infected. Small as those supporting… Read more...



Apple Epic App Store•
Enlarge / A Fortnite loading screen displayed on an iPhone in 2018, when Apple and Epic weren't at each other's throats. (credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images ) Apple has won a last-minute stay on an injunction that would have required the company to begin allowing iPhone and iPad app developers to direct users to alternative payment options. The requirement to allow in-app linking to



Jupiter Scientists New•
5KFuturism / 10h
Rejoice! Scientists have discovered a new planet — and it’s really honkin’ big ! The new exoplanet, named “b Centauri b” for its location orbiting the b Centauri binary star system, is located a cool 325 light years from Earth in the neighboring Centaurus constellation. First photographed by the aptly-named Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory — confusingly located in Chile —




CIA Cryptocurrency•
200+Futurism / 10h
The feds are looking intro cryptocurrencies, and apparently have been since the Trump administration. This revelation came during the Wall Street Journal ‘s uberhyped CEO Summit on Monday, where as Vice reported , CIA Director William Burns admitted that his agency has “a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency.” He went on to say that he “inherited” the agency’s crypto maneuvers f



Game Nintendo Switch 2021•
Mashable / 10h
It's been a strange year for video games. There's no way for any of us to know just how much release schedules were impacted by the pandemic, but there's no doubt whatsoever that changes had to be made. A nixxed feature here, a shifted release date there. The year-plus spent at the mercy of COVID was an inescapable chaos agent. Despite that, or perhaps in some cases because of it, 2021 dished out



Hyatt Apple Wallet•
SlashGear / 10h
Vadym Shapran/Shutterstock Hyatt Hotels has announced that guests at six of its properties in the US now have the option of unlocking their rooms and common areas using an iPhone or Apple Watch instead of a physical room key. The support, which was first promised earlier this year, revolves around Apple Wallet and the ultra-wideband digital keys support that arrived with iOS … Continue reading



PokéStops Pokémon Go•
27TechCrunch / 11h
Niantic announced a Pokémon GO feature today that will incentivize users to conduct more AR scans of landmarks in their neighborhood. This user-generated data will help Niantic build its “ real-world metaverse ,” which will be powered largely by Lightship , its free AR Development Kit (ARDK). In Pokémon GO, users visit PokéStops, which represent real-world places — these can be anything from a mu



23Gizmodo / 11h
The Defense Research Intelligence Agency, the gonzo R&D arm of the Pentagon, has had a hand in inventing everything from GPS and speech translation to the early precursors of the internet. (The agency also tried to develop a mechanical elephant to traverse South Vietnam, but who’s keeping count). Now the agency is… Read more...



Facebook Instagram Mosseri•
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri testified before Congress for the first time Wednesday, defending the app’s impacts on teens and its aspirations to bring younger children formally into the fold. In September, leaked documents from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen painted a picture of a company that knows it takes a toll on the mental health of some of its most vulnerable users. “Thirty-two pe



Intel Core Alder Lake•
Intel's new Alder Lake processors have been hailed as a major return to form for the processor pioneer, but if a new benchmark leak is any indication, its upcoming budget processors might be an even more exciting development. The benchmarks appeared on the Chinese video streaming and social media platform Bilibili, posted by user Enthusiastic Citizen Stroke Monster . The photos appear to show res



Microsoft Notepad 11•
Microsoft is giving its iconic text editor a visual redesign for Windows 11 along with new features to help programmers and others who rely on Notepad in their day-to-day workflows be more productive. According to a new blog post , the redesigned Notepad for Windows 11 is now rolling out to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel and the software giant is encouraging users to submit any suggestio



Twitter Project Guardian•
Engadget / 11h
As the meme goes , the goal of every Twitter user is to avoid being the main character of the day. But if you end up being that unlucky soul, it turns out Twitter is prepared to help you survive the potential trolling onslaught. As Bloomberg reports , the company has developed Project Guardian, an internal list of thousands of accounts who could potentially be attacked by other users. Being on th



Amazon Search Ads FTC•
21Engadget / 11h
You won’t find a clear distinction between organic search results and paid ads on Amazon, according to a complaint the Strategic Organizing Center filed on Wednesday with the Federal Trade Commission. The organization, which is a coalition of labor unions, analyzed more than 130,000 search results and found that about 28 percent of the results you see on Amazon represent ads. What’s more, SOC say



Sonos 2030 Zero 2040•
Gizmodo / 11h
Sonos on Wednesday announced a new product sustainability program with a lofty carbon neutrality goal for its entire line by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2040. Read more...



American R. Isom Parker•
100+The Points Guy / 11h
Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared in TPG’s biweekly Aviation newsletter. Sign up here to make sure you’ll always be the first to see our exclusive content. The world’s biggest airline will soon have a new leader at the helm. That news came Tuesday, when American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said he’d retire in March. Taking his place will be Robert Isom, currently the carrier’s pr



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 ...



200+Mashable / 11h
If you had " A Congressional hearing on cryptocurrency will launch a new cryptocurrency" on your Bingo card, then you are in luck. On Wednesday, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing titled "Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States." In short: The hearing was on cryptocurrency. A half-d



Instagram Mosseri Feed•
Instagram is bringing back a chronological feed, according to statements made by Instagram head Adam Mosseri during his testimony today before a Senate panel over the harms to young people using the app. Mosseri was asked if he believed consumers should be able to use the Instagram app without “being manipulated by algorithms,” and the executive said he would support giving people the option to h



There are many annoying chores that need to be done daily: washing dishes, spraying and wiping down kitchen counters, picking toys up off the floor, sweeping. And then there are those that are blessedly much less frequent. It will always suck that we have to do more things, but at least some of them are merely… Read more...



Biden Zero Federal 2050•
48Engadget / 11h
The White House's renewable energy push now includes a transformation of the federal government. President Biden has issued an executive order that would require the government to stop buying combustion engine vehicles by 2035, and to switch all buildings to renewables and other zero-carbon energy sources by 2050. The administration willbuy only carbon-free electricity by 2030, and aims to cut bu



67Gizmodo / 11h
Quetzalcoatlus , with its 40-foot wingspan, is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary animals to have ever lived. The creature was capable of flight, but how it managed to launch itself into the air has remained a mystery—until now. Read more...



Apple Epic App Store•
In the ongoing and seemingly never-ending battle between Fortnite maker Epic Games and iPhone maker Apple, the latter just scored a major win, gaining a "permanent injunction" on a key September 2021 ruling that would've forced Apple to allow external links within App Store-hosted Apps to external transaction systems. In the ruling handed down Wednesday by the United States Court of Appeals for t



God War Requirements•
Sony Interactive Entertainment and Santa Monica Studio revealed a brand new trailer for the upcoming PC port of 2018’s God of War on Wednesday, and it looks every bit as phenomenal as expected. The trailer shows off many of the upgrades from the console version including improved lighting and shadow effects, higher detailed assets, higher rendering resolutions, an uncapped framerate, and widescre




Russia Privacy Tor•
20Ars Technica / 11h
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) The Tor anonymity service and anticensorship tool has come under fire from two threats in recent weeks: The Russian government has blocked most Tor nodes in that country, and hundreds of malicious servers have been relaying traffic. Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media, known as Roskomnadzor, began block



500+Futurism / 11h
Vaunted megacorporation Amazon suffered an outage this week that left tons of customers with “smart homes” in the lurch. As Bloomberg reported , the Amazon Web Service (AWS) outage disrupted a wide variety of the company’s Internet of Things products, including its Alexa voice assistant and Ring smart doorbell — and those products’ users were royally pissed when they couldn’t turn on their automa



Calling all Delta loyalists: The airline is running a SkyMiles sale on Delta One business-class seats to much of Europe through May for as little as 148,000 miles round-trip, depending on the route. From Dec. 7-9, use SkyMiles to book Delta One award sale fares to various European destinations, including London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin and Madrid, for travel starting Jan. 10 through May 7, 2022.



24Gizmodo / 11h
Florida environmental officials have resorted to feeding West Indian manatees in a last-ditch effort to prevent potentially hundreds of them from starving to death. The reason the gentle ocean mammals are starving in the first place, though, is partly humans’ doing, a result of polluted waterways and climate… Read more...



22Lifehacker / 11h
Everyone on Tinder is looking for sex. Everyone on eharmony is too intense. Everyone on Hinge is more concerned with looking cool than finding a good match (alright, I’m projecting with that last one). Maybe you’re new to online dating, or you’re a swiping veteran getting fed up with false-starts and dead-ends on your… Read more...



23Gizmodo / 11h
The idea of it was too enticing. Would I like to review a $700 Mandalorian helmet ? As a fan of not just Star Wars or The Mandalorian , but Mandalorians in general, I emphatically said “Yes.” I’d seen all sorts of Star Wars helmets before: toy ones , collectible ones, and Lego ones , but never a wearable one with such a… Read more...



27Wired / 11h
They’re still spendy, but they’re a serious upgrade for anyone looking to make better espresso at home.



Apple Ios 15.2 iPhone•
Mashable / 11h
An upcoming iOS update will tell you the repair history for your iPhone , including if it contains official replacement parts or “unknown” third-party components. On Tuesday, Apple published a new support documen t outlining the "iPhone parts and service history" feature coming to iOS 15.2. Users will be able to go to Settings > General > About to view a new information panel containing their iPh



Kickstarter Platform Celo•
51TechCrunch / 12h
Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter is making a big bet on the blockchain, announcing plans to create an open source protocol “that will essentially create a decentralized version of Kickstarter’s core functionality.” The company says the goal is for multiple platforms to embrace the protocol, including, eventually, Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is launching a new organization called Kickstarter PBC



Blizzard Employee Sexual•
Engadget / 12h
In the midst of multiple lawsuits and investigations over allegations of gender discrimination and sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard, an employee on Wednesday made a public statement about the abuse she says she's experienced over her four-year career at the studio. Christine works for Blizzard, the group responsible for games including Overwatch and Diablo, and she stood outside the studi



Facebook Account Hacked•
SlashGear / 12h
Wachiwit/Shutterstock Facebook may be the 800-pound gorilla of social media platforms, but the company’s business practices are leading many users to abandon it. In recent years, Facebook has been embroiled in one scandal and issue after another and has become synonymous with abuse of privacy. The Cambridge Analytica scandal was one of the biggest such examples, with the private data of … Continu



SlashGear / 12h
While many people prefer to keep using the mobile OS with which they’re most familiar, there are plenty of users who aren’t afraid to make the jump to something different. If you’re thinking of moving from an Android smartphone to an iPhone, you’re probably wondering how you’re going to transfer all of your data over. The good news is that … Continue reading



23Gizmodo / 12h
The prime minister of Finland has apologized for missing a text notification instructing her to isolate after a potential coronavirus exposure and instead went clubbing until 4:00 a.m., the BBC reported on Wednesday. Read more...



Instagram Mosseri Feed•
100+Engadget / 12h
After more than five years, Instagram plans to bring back “a version” of its chronological feed next year, the company’s top executive said on Wednesday. Speaking to lawmakers at a Senate hearing on Instagram and teen safety, Mosseri said that he supports “giving people the option to have a chronological feed.” “We're currently working on a version of a chronological feed that we hope to launch n



Chase Air Canada Aeroplan•
While Air Canada and the Aeroplan loyalty program are headquartered north of the border, there are many reasons why U.S. travelers should pay attention. Among them is the fact that Aeroplan has over 45 airline partners, a revamped award chart and now, the newly launched Aeroplan Credit Card from Chase. Open to U.S. applicants, the card is a compelling product with a variety of standout benefits,



Google Stadia LG Tvs•
Enlarge / The official Stadia Controller in "clearly white." (credit: Google) In arguably the first good news for Stadia in 2021, Google's beleaguered game-streaming service has finally landed on a single company's TVs—and only those manufactured in 2020 and beyond. That's not necessarily a reason to strike up the band and throw a "Stadia is back" party (especially without any exclusive Stadia ga



FAA Aircraft Interference•
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a warning that interference from C-band 5G could result in flight diversions as the planned use of this new 5G wireless spectrum by mobile carriers poses an air safety risk. As reported by Reuters , concerns have been raised by both the aviation industry and the FAA that sensitive aircraft electronics such as radio altimeters could be affect



Pfizer BioNTech Omicron•
A double dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine can’t stop the omicron virus, according to labs tests done in in South Africa and Germany, and either a booster or a new vaccine will be needed. The omicron variant was detected in South Africa last month, and because it contains a large number of genetic changes, scientists predicted it might “escape” protection offered by current vaccines, w



Gizmodo / 12h
When Don’t Look Up ’s trailer dropped , I was dumbly excited to see it. As a climate person, you don’t get too many movies made for you. Having gotten a sneak peek, I can safely say it met expectations and then some. Read more...



32TechCrunch / 12h
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, is testifying before the Senate today about the impact of Instagram on teens’ mental health. His first appearance before the Senate, this is just one of several hearings that have taken place ever since whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked documents from Facebook — now Meta — showing that the company knew it was harming teen girls . In July, Instagram gestured towa




2KFuturism / 12h
No Homes Tesla CEO Elon Musk has officially sold off his last remaining home, for a cool $30 million. That means his only official abode is a small, $50,000 prefab he’s renting at his space company’s headquarters near Boca Chica, Texas. Back in June, Musk tweeted that he’d “decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there.” “It’s a special place,” he



Futurism / 12h
Gone are the days when you had to guess at health metrics like your exercise intensity or your stress level—now the best fitness trackers can do it for you . In fact, fitness trackers can help provide health data, metrics, a pretty clear snapshot of your activity levels and, probably most satisfying of all, how that’s changed since you started tracking. And the best part is that fitness trackers



Young Blood Rejuvenate•
5KFuturism / 12h
A team of researchers — who definitely aren’t vampires — have discovered new evidence that the blood of the young could be the secret to actually staying young. In a new study published in the prestigious journal Nature Aging , the team found that particles in mouse blood called extracellular vesicles (EV) send instructions for a longevity protein called “Klotho” to muscle cells, according to a p



23Gizmodo / 12h
Much like in 2020 , we all spent a lot of 2021 taking the time to catch up on old favorites or check out classics we’d missed. Here’s the io9 team’s picks for the things they’ve loved revisiting most this year. Read more...



Apple Epic App Store•
Apple will not have to implement changes to its in-app purchase system and App Store guidelines as ordered by the judge’s ruling in its court battle with Epic Games. While Apple largely won that case, as the court ruled, Apple was not acting as a monopolist — the company had been ordered to stop preventing app developers from adding links that pointed users to other means of paying for their in-a



Apple Wallet Hyatt•
33How-To Geek / 12h
Apple and Hyatt have come together to turn your Apple devices into a hotel room key. You can use either an iPhone or an Apple Watch to take advantage of the feature, but it’s only available at Hyatt hotels for the time being. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Editor’s note : This post has been updated with the latest information. If you’re planning some online purchases in the next few weeks — perhaps you’re shopping for holiday gifts— one of our favorite online shopping portals here at TPG is offering a solid bonus for new members. This represents a chance for existing members to take home either cash or American Express Membership Rewards points as



77Lifehacker / 12h
I’m not generally a religious person, but I do worship every other Sunday at the church of Trader Joe’s. Re


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