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

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Tuesday Technology News and More...

 Technology News and More...





Some fear that Twitter agreeing to new rules in Nigeria may encourage others to restrict social media.



Mashable / 15min
Dating is a wild ride at the best of times. And it feels like there's a never-ending stream of new dating terms. Here to help you navigate the rapidly evolving dating realm is Stephen Colbert, our romansplainer-in-chief. In his recurring "Romansplaining" segment, the Late Show host explains the meaning of new dating terms. First up: outercourse. As the name suggests, this is about sex. According



PlayStation Sony Europe•
European consumers can now sign up to purchase a PS5 , directly from Sony. The PlayStation Direct store, which has already been running in the US since 2020 and launched in the UK in November 2021 , is rolling out an initiative in certain European territories that lets users register their interest in purchasing a “limited amount” of PS5 consoles once they’re available. The list of countries incl




TechCrunch / now
Verana Health, a company focused on collecting and organizing troves of medical data, announced a $150 million Series E funding round on Friday. This round comes as the company sets its sights on new types of medical data, invests in organizing traditionally messy forms of information (like physician notes) and aims to extract more usable insights from Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Verana Hea



TAP Air Portugal’s Miles&Go frequent flyer program offers quite a few promotions to earn miles and elite status. For quite a while now, TAP Air Portugal has been offering a generous status match promotion, which is particularly useful if you’d get value out of Star Alliance status. I wanted to post a reminder of this offer, as it continues to be available in 2022. TAP Air Portugal status match pr



The Wheel of Time season 2 is in development. Filming is well underway on the next entry in Prime Video’s big-budget fantasy series, so we hope it’ll arrive sooner rather than later. But, as you’ll find out below, it may not be released for some time yet. The show’s first season was well received by fans and critics alike ( us included ), so Amazon’s gamble on adapting Robert Jordan’s beloved nov



Airlines say the start of 5G mobile phone services on Wednesday will hit aircraft navigation systems.



The official trailer for Marvel Studios' Moon Knight has landed online – and, thankfully, we don't have long to wait for its arrival on Disney Plus. As we previously reported , Moon Knight will launch on Disney's streaming service on Wednesday, March 30. That's good news for all MCU fans (us included), as we had expected that the next Marvel Phase 4 project we'd get to see would be Doctor Strange



Nintendo Switch•
Brazilian journalist Necro Felipe has shared images of special hardware used by Nintendo to inspect and test the integrity of game cartridges for the Nintendo Switch . According to Felipe, the machine in the first image is what's used to inspect the cartridges, with several of them visible on a conveyor belt. The second device, which is shaped like a box, is what's used to manually check the cart



We haven’t heard much about the iPad 2022 yet, but now a leak has revealed many possible core details of the slate, with the highlight being that it might support 5G, unlike its predecessor the iPad 10.2 (2021) . This is according to leaker @dylandkt , and unfortunately this might be the only particularly interesting upgrade the iPad 2022 gets, because in most other ways it sounds similar to the



Logitech Pen Chromebooks•
29Engadget / 36min
Logitech has launched a new stylus called the Logitech Pen designed specifically with K-12 students in mind. It will work with touchscreen Chromebooks that support the Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) standard and is Works with Chromebooks certified. Google backed the initiative in 2018 and joined other supporters like Intel and Lenovo in their quest to create an open active stylus standard, and



While American Express has refreshed much of its card portfolio in the past few years, one card that hasn’t changed much is the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card . Back in the day I thought this was one of the best cards for earning Amex Membership Rewards points . How has this card held up, given all the changes that have been made to other cards? Amex EveryDay Preferred Card Basics For Janua



Istanbul Dream Games•
TechCrunch / 43min
Yet more funding is finding its way to Istanbul’s gaming startups. Today, Dream Games — the casual games developer behind the hit game Royal Match — is announcing a $255 million Series C that values the startup at $2.75 billion. This Series C is being led by Index Ventures, with Makers Fund, IVP, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Kora and Balderton Capital also participating. The funding w



Leica cameras are big on heritage and tradition, but this sometimes results in the omission of modern conveniences. Some new Leica Q3 rumors, though, suggest that the upcoming full-frame camera could finally be embracing one very handy feature – a tilting touchscreen. As spotted by Leica Rumors , an animation in the Leica Fotos app shows the back of a Leica Q-style camera, but one that doesn't ma



343 Halo Infinite Shop•
Halo Infinite ’s in-game store prices are set to change this week in response to player feedback. The prices of individual items will be lowered, and changes made to how they are packaged within bundles. Jerry Hook, head of design at developer 343 Industries, made the announcement on Twitter , confirming revisions will start today (January 18) and continue to be made across the coming weeks. “Sta



China Beijing Olympics App•
100+NYT > Technology / 54min
Researchers said the app, which will store sensitive health data on participants at the Winter Games, has serious encryption vulnerabilities.



Developers from Python have published three new versions of the programming language, and apologized for the process not going as smoothly as planned. In the release announcement, CPython core developer Łukasz Langa said that all versions were “cursed in some way”, and that developing them was a “bumpy ride”. However, the Python Software Foundation (PSF) is happy with the end result, and claims t



Gizmodo / 56min
Crypto.com suspended all withdrawals from the platform on Monday and is forcing users to reset two-factor authentication methods, according to tweets from the company. And while Crypto.com is claiming everyone’s money is “safe,” there were reports from users on social media that millions may have been lost to hackers. Read more...



Mastercard PSR Five•
The UK's Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has fined Mastercard and four other companies for "cartel behaviour" in the pre-paid credit card market by agreeing not to poach each others' customers on cards offered by local authorities. The cards are used to distribute welfare payments are used by people without a home, victims of domestic abuse, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable individuals. Maste



Samsung Galaxy S22•
One remaining question we’ve had about the Samsung Galaxy S22 range is what chipset the phones will use. Typically Samsung splits its flagship line between a Snapdragon chipset in the US, and an Exynos one in Europe and most other places. This year there was a suggestion that more places or perhaps even all places would get a Snapdragon, but that’s now looking unlikely. GalaxyClub has found early




Kingdom Hearts Switch•
30Engadget / 1h
Late last year, Nintendo revealed that the Kingdom Hearts JRPG trilogy would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, with the caveat that they'd be cloud streaming titles only. Now, Square Enix has announced that the three games, Kingdom Hearts - HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix , Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and Kingdom Hearts III will arrive to Switch via cloud on February 10th for a rather exorbit



China Digital Yuan CNY•
41TechCrunch / 1h
One of the fastest-growing apps in China right now, by installs, is the central bank’s digital yuan wallet. 261 million individual users (as opposed to enterprises), about one-fifth of the population, have set up e-CNY wallets so far, and 87.5 billion yuan ($13.78 billion) worth of transactions has been made using the digital fiat currency, Zou Lan, head of financial markets at the People’s Bank



Google White Noise•
Google Nest’s new white noise sound has left many users annoyed and unable to fall asleep. Last week, seemingly out of nowhere, Google decided to change the white noise sound used by its Google Nest devices – much to the chagrin of those who rely on the audio feature to relax. While the new white noise sound loops more smoothly than before, many have noted that its shorter length and more muffled



Amazon has slashed 33% off the price of the hugely versatile Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer , reducing it from £179.99 to just £119.99 . (Not in the UK? Scroll down for the best Instant Pot deals in your region.) The best Instant Pots are versatile kitchen gadgets that offer a multitude of cooking methods in one appliance, saving space on your kitchen countertop – and the Duo Crisp + Air Fryer



Redmi Note 11 Xiaomi•
After launching in China and India last year, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 is finally gearing up towards a global launch, and the company has confirmed when we'll be able to see this new family of cheap phones . We now know that the Redmi Note 11 launch will take place on January 26 at 4am PT / 7am ET / 12pm GMT / 10:30pm ACT, and will be hosted on loads of websites including various social media pla



If you're on a January health kick a great pair of running headphones can make all the difference to your workout regime – and this great deal from Amazon on the Bose Sport earbuds means you don't have to break the bank in your quest for fitness. Amazon has slashed the price of the Bose true wireless earbuds from £179.95 to just £139 – that's the lowest price we've seen for these in-ear running h



GTA Grand Theft Auto•
A Brazilian dataminer by the name of Matheusvictorbr has claimed on Twitter that the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S ports of Grand Theft Auto 5 could be delayed by another month or two. According to its own sources, the dataminer states Rockstar Games is still aiming for a March release, but development is proving complicated. However, it does not provide any specifics. They add that



Rivian Amazon Electric Van•
The company has big plans to turn its delivery fleet green. But very few of the vehicles are made right now.



In 2020, Africa50, an infrastructure financier backed by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) Group and a good number of African governments, hosted an innovation challenge that sought affordable and reliable solutions for last-mile internet connectivity across the continent. A proposal by Poa Internet , a Kenyan startup beat 673 others from across the world as a result of which it was added to Afr



Hero MotoCorp Gogoro•
Gogoro, the Taiwanese company best known for its electric Smartscooters and swappable battery infrastructure, has just added current strategic partner Hero MotoCorp, activist and impact investment firm Engine No. 1 and another investor to its PIPE investment, bringing the total funding to $285 million, up from $257 million. The oversubscribed PIPE (private investment in public equity) round, whic



Biologists at several startups are applying the latest advances in genetic engineering to the age-old problem of baldness, by creating new hair-forming cells that could restore a person’s ability to grow hair. Some researchers tell MIT Technology Review they are using the techniques to grow human hair cells in their labs and even on animals. A startup called dNovo sent us a photograph of a mouse



The post appeared first on Popular Mechanics .



Blossom Capital Europe•
European startups collectively raised a record $100 billion+ in funding in 2021 , a sign of their swelling ranks, ambitions and stature. Now, a VC in London has closed a record round of funding to cater specifically to that opportunity. Blossom Capital , which makes investments in European startups at the Series A stage, has raised $432 million in its third fund, from a mix of limited partners th



The digital banking space in Africa is taking shape as neobanks on the continent grow in numbers like their global counterparts . Venture capital bet from institutional investors in this class of fintechs is massive and in the latest development from Africa, it seems individual investors appetite is increasing likewise. Finclusion Group , a fintech that uses AI algorithms to provide financial ser



Yoga, personal trainers and other kinds of online coaches have a bewildering array of platforms on which they can launch their class, either in platforms specializing in verticals (PTs) or more general ones. A new UK player hopes – perhaps a little optimistically – hopes to make inroads into this market with a ‘one stop shop’ for live online coaches. LiveHive is aimed at anyone coaching online –



Samsung Exynos GPU•
44Engadget / 3h
Samsung has revealed the Exynos 2200 , its first mobile processor with an AMD RDNA 2-powered GPU that will allow ray-tracing and other gaming features. The system-on-chip (SoC) will likely feature in Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S22, rumored to be launching at an Unpacked event on February 8th. The Exynos 2200 with AMD's "Xclipse" GPU will be manufactured on Samsung's 4-nanometer EUV process. "Samsu



Raducanu Australian•
Emma Raducanu and Sloane Stephens face off in the headline tie of the 2022 Australian Open first round today. It's also the 19-year-old Brit's AO bow and her first ever match against a grand slam winner. The match is expected on the Margaret Court Arena at 10.30am GMT / 5.30am ET . Read on as we explain how to watch Australian Open tennis online and get a Raducanu vs Stephens live stream wherever
YESTERDAY



Orda $1.1M Pre Africa•
Cloud-based point of sales for small, medium and large-sized restaurants has increased tremendously in both size and popularity. The market, dominated by incumbents like Toast and upcoming players such as MarginEdge and Brazil’s Zak , has its value pegged at over $70 billion globally and is expected to reach $116 billion in the next four years. As with most technologies, Africa is playing catch u



42TechCrunch / 5h
Fintech startup Spendesk is announcing that it has raised an extension to its Series C round. Tiger Global is investing $114 million (€100 million) in the startup. Following today’s funding round, the company says that is has reached a valuation of more than $1.14 billion (more than €1 billion). In other words, Spendesk is a new unicorn in the French tech ecosystem. Funding news has been accelera



Mashable / 6h
TL;DR: A one-year subscription to a YogaWorks All-Access Live and On-Demand Plan is on sale for £145.46, saving you 66% on list price. The season of giving is good for your soul. But it can also lead to unnecessary stress and tension if you don't take care of yourself. Unwind by starting a yoga practice. This YogaWorks live and on-demand subscription deal can help you get into a groove — and for




Moon Knight Oscar Isaac•
The long-awaited first official trailer for Marvel Studios' Moon Knight series has finally dropped, and it looks darker and weirder than any live-action Marvel show that Disney Plus has put out to date, such as WandaVision , Loki and Hawkeye . Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) plays the titular Moon Knight, a vigilante with supernatural powers whose unpredictable nature makes him a force



Mashable / 6h
TL;DR: The 2022 Ultimate Advanced CyberSec Professional Certification Bundle is on sale for £50.43, saving you 95% on list price. To practice law, you have to pass the bar exam. To practice medicine, you need a license. And to work in cybersecurity, you’re going to need some certifications. A company isn’t going to trust you to protect their most precious data if you don't have the credentials th



Mashable / 6h
TL;DR: Become a Python pro by learning everything from the basics to Object Orientated Programming. These Python courses are available for free on Udemy, saving you up to £59.99 on list price. It's that time again. Udemy fairly regularly offers popular online courses for free, and we try to let everyone know when they do. As usual, you need a code to learn for free. It's not exactly catchy, but i



Mashable / 6h
SAVE 82%: PureVPN is one of the best services for unlocking streaming sites like Netflix and Disney+. A two-year subscription to PureVPN is on sale for £1.44 per month, saving you 82% on list price. The very best VPNs can reliably access content from around the world by bypassing geo-restrictions. This might sound complex, but it's really not. Services like PureVPN hide your real IP address and c



The end of last year saw cloud providers resume spending big on compute and storage infrastructure after a cooldown in the middle of the year that occurred from overprovisioning at the beginning of the pandemic according to new data from IDC . As reported by The Register , the market intelligence firm has released its latest tracker covering buyer and cloud deployment which shows that spending on



Moon Knight Oscar Isaac•
Oscar Isaac plays Steven Grant/Marc Spector, who becomes the conduit for an Egyptian god in Moon Knight . Fans finally get to welcome Oscar Isaac to the MCU. As promised, Marvel Studios dropped the official trailer for its forthcoming series, Moon Knight , during the NFL Super Wild Card matchup, along with a new poster . Isaac plays the title role: a former mercenary with multiple personalities w



Moon Knight Oscar Isaac•
100+Mashable / 8h
The first full trailer for Marvel's Moon Knight has arrived, giving us a closer look at Oscar Isaac as the titular, oft-memed vigilante. Though he probably won't be chasing up Dracula for money, it looks as though he'll still have his hands full. The gritty six-episode series will follow Moon Knight AKA Marc Spector: former U.S. Marine, man with dissociative identity disorder, and avatar for an E



Spain Regulate Influencers•
100+Engadget / 8h
Spain is establishing rules related to how influencers, their sponsors and others promote cryptocurrencies . Influencers and other advertisers with more than 100,000 followers in the country must notify the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) at least 10 days before plugging crypto assets. They'll face fines of up to €300,000 (around $342,000) for breaching the rules, which come into for



25Gizmodo / 8h
Although Disney and Marvel Studios briefly gave us a glimpse of Oscar Isaac in action as one of Marvel Comics’ most iconic street-level vigilantes around a few months ago, now we have a full, proper glimpse at what happens when Marc Spector becomes the Moon Knight —the answer is a snazzy white suit and a whole lot of… Read more...



Google White Noise•
45Mashable / 9h
Google Assistant has switched up its ambient white noise track, replacing the sound with a shorter, quieter clip. It's caused an unexpected change in many users' bedtime routines, and people aren't happy. Available on Google's smart speakers and Android phones, Google Assistant is equipped with the ability to play a variety of ambient sounds , including rain, a fireplace, the ocean, and white noi



IBM Hybrid AI Shopping•
As the pandemic has transformed the nature of work with more employees working from home than ever before it has also changed how consumers shop according to new study from IBM and the National Retail Federation. The new global study of over 19,000 titled “ Consumers want it all ” revealed that hybrid shopping which mixes physical and digital channels in shopping journeys is on the rise as a resu



Crypto.com Jon Russell•
36TechCrunch / 9h
Crypto.com, a popular cryptocurrency exchange, has extended its venture arm’s fund size to $500 million as it looks to more aggressively back early-stage startups to help the nascent ecosystem grow, following similar moves by rivals Binance, Coinbase and FTX. The broadening of Crypto.com Capital comes less than a year after the Singapore-headquartered firm unveiled its maiden fund of $200 million



Subaru Electric STI•
SlashGear / 10h
Images: Subaru Corporation Japanese automaker Subaru is harking back to its rallying pedigree by introducing two new STI (Subaru Tecnica International) electric concept cars at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon. But instead of affixing its sights at worldwide rally stages, Subaru is dead set in achieving a Nürburgring lap record. We’re talking about the STI E-RA (Electric-Record attempt), an all-electric



Awesome Games Quick•
30Engadget / 10h
The latest Awesome Games Done Quick speedrunning marathon is in the books. After another week of players showing off their skills and romping through games as quickly as possible, AGDQ 2022 raised $3,416,729 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. That's a record total for any Games Done Quick event in the organization's 12-year history. 🏁TIME 🏁 #AGDQ2022 has raised a total amount of $3,416,729 for



If you've been keen on getting yourself Apple's best earbuds to date but missed out on its Black Friday discount, don't fret as the 2021 AirPods Pro are going for less on Amazon Australia right now. They were down to just AU$319 during Black Friday 2021 – a discount of AU$80 and the lowest price we've seen to date – but at the current AU$325 a set, they're not far off that. And, considering the k



23Gizmodo / 11h
When it comes to Amazon and money, never say never. Two days before the e-commerce giant was set to ban Visa credit cards in its UK store, it has changed its tune. Visa credit cards are still welcome on the platform, for now. Read more...



31Ars Technica / 11h
Enlarge / The ship's ram as it was found on the seabed off Sicily at a depth of nearly 90 m, covered in marine life. (credit: K. Egorov/SDSS-GUE) Shipwrecks hold an enduring fascination, both because of how they connect us to the past and because of the potentially priceless treasures that could be lurking within their sunken remains. They are also invaluable resources for scientists interested i



How visual, auditory and kinesthetic tools used to teach kids coding should be adapted for adults.



FAA Boeing 787 Verizon US•
100+The Points Guy / 11h
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information. The CEOs of America’s major passenger and cargo airlines wrote a letter to key members of the Biden administration on Monday, sounding the alarm if 5G C-band implementation goes forward as planned this Wednesday. In the letter from Airlines for America, the industry’s lobbying group, the CEOs called for a 2-mile buffer zone around a



Mio Vietnam Series•
200+TechCrunch / 11h
Mio , the Vietnamese social commerce platform, has raised an $8 million Series A, less than a year after announcing its seed round. The funding was led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from Patamar Capital and Oliver Jung. Existing investors investors GGV, Venturra, Hustle Fund, iSEED SEA and Gokul Rajaram also returned for the round. TechCrunch first covered Mio at the time of its $1 milli




300+TechCrunch / 11h
South Korea-based human resources management platform flex announced today it has closed a $32 million Series B round at a valuation of $298 million. The latest funding, which brings its total raised to $42 million, was led by Greenoaks , with participation from DST Global Partners . The startup’s mission is to enable corporations to automate and streamline manual human resources work processes a



Microsoft Malware Ukraine•
31Ars Technica / 12h
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Over the past few months, geopolitical tensions have escalated as Russia amassed tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine’s border and made subtle but far-reaching threats if Ukraine and NATO don’t agree to Kremlin demands. Now, a similar dispute is playing out in cyber arenas, as unknown hackers late last week defaced scores of Ukrainian government websites and le



Yellowjackets Season One•
51Mashable / 12h
After one of the most rip-roaring, obsession-worthy debut outings in modern TV memory, Yellowjackets Season 1 has come to a close. On Sunday, Showtime aired "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," the epic survival horror series' tenth and (for now) final episode. We went into the finale with a mountain of theories and questions , then somehow left with even more . Luckily, Yellowjackets Season 2 has already



Activision Blizzard Kotick•
1KEngadget / 12h
Since July, 37 Activision Blizzard employees have been fired or forced out and another 44 have been disciplined as the company attempts to address accusations of harassment and misconduct, a spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal . In October, the company said more than 20 people had departed and at least another 20 had been disciplined. The game publisher was supposed to share a summary of th



India Arya Raises Asia•
TechCrunch / 12h
Indian agritech startup Arya, which reaches hundreds of thousands of farmers in the South Asian market and helps them store and sell their produce and secure credit, has raised $60 million in a new financing round as it enters a new phase of growth. Asia Impact SA, Lightrock India and Quona Capital co-led the $46 million Series C financing round. US International Development France Corporation an



Pfizer Omicron Vaccine•
Enlarge / EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS - 2022/01/08: A vial containing Moderna COVID-19 booster vaccine at a vaccination centre. (credit: Getty | SOPA Images ) As the US weathers record COVID-19 cases from the ultra-transmissible omicron variant, vaccine makers are thinking about future waves—and the shots that could help prevent them. Leading mRNA vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are current



Editor’s note: Freelance writer Harriett Baskas sailed as a press guest on Hurtigruten Expeditions’ inaugural cruise aboard the Santa Cruz II in the Galapagos Islands. The opinions expressed below are entirely hers and weren’t subject to review by Hurtigruten Expeditions. If you


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