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Thursday, May 19, 2022

Technology News and More for a Thursday

 Technology News and More...






"We were really expecting to just be guests like a few hours ago." These are the words of Wednesday's guest-abruptly-turned-co-host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! Andy Samberg, as he gleefully fills in for an absent Kimmel by interviewing other guest-turned-co-host – and his co-star of the upcoming movie Chip 'n Dale – John Mulaney. It's pretty clear that the pair didn't have all that much time to prepare



Victory Farms , an aquaculture startup and farm for tilapia fish comprising hatcheries, nursery ponds and deep-water cages, has raised $5 million in new funding. The investment was led by Ed Brakeman, a senior managing director at Bain Capital and Hans den Bieman, founder and ex-CEO of Mowi, one of the largest salmon businesses globally. It is the startup’s first institutional investment followin



Call of Duty Vanguard•
Call of Duty: Vanguard’s multiplayer has gone free-to-play for a limited time as part of a new promotional event. The one-week free access period is running now, and lets you access all of Call of Duty: Vanguard ’s multiplayer content until 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST on May 24 – or 2am AET, May 25. Unlike previous free access periods , this event includes all of the game’s multiplayer content. Ac




I recently spent nearly 10 hours at Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH). While I spent most of that time in Qatar Airways’ Al Mourjan Business Lounge , I also decided to check out the airport’s unique Priority Pass concept. Specifically, Doha Airport has a Sleep ‘n Fly Sleep Lounge , which essentially consists of individual nap pods that Priority Pass members can enjoy for a period of two to t



Casio G-Shock has revamped its digital G-SQUAD running watch and G-LIDE surf watch lines with brand new looks. The newest additions to the G-SQUAD line, or the GBD-200 series to use its less catchy name, come in new gray (200UU-9, pictured above) and black (200UU-1, pictured below) colorways. The GBD-200 series are digital fitness watches that do offer Bluetooth connectivity to the G-Shock Move a



There's more good news for PC gamers as GPU prices continue to fall – with AMD graphics cards dropping faster than Nvidia GPUs. We reported a few days ago about how AMD cards were nearing MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) at certain retailers, and now the HardwareUnboxed YouTube channel has released a report on the kind of price drops we’re seeing at Newegg, one of the biggest retailer



Gizmodo / 13min
As a genre, science fiction has long provided a way for audiences to imagine the future and their places in it. A lot of the best sci-fi films of prior decades pictured what life would be like in the years to come. Such movies asked: What would America and the world look like in the 1980s? What about the 1990s? The… Read more...



YouTube Replayed Parts•
YouTube has launched a new feature that lets viewers see the most-watched parts of any given video, signified by a semi-translucent graph that appears above the video's progress bar. Announced on the official YouTube community site, the feature is rolling out now across Android and iOS devices, as well as on desktop. The automated graph, which is driven entirely by community engagement, is joined



ChargeLab , a Toronto-based startup that builds software to operate and optimize electric vehicle charging equipment for fleets and commercial customers, has raised a $15 million Series A round. The round was led by King River Capital and notably includes participation from strategic investor ABB E-Mobility, a spinoff of technology company ABB that focuses on electric mobility and building chargi



Squid Game Season 2•
Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has confirmed that season 2 of the hit Netflix show will feature more perilous puzzles. “Humanity is going to be put to a test through those games once again,” Hwang said of the series' return in a recent interview with Vanity Fair . “I want to ask the question, ‘Is true solidarity between humans possible?'” While Squid Game season 2 was officially renewed by Ne



Germany Berlin Zolar•
Berlin-based Zolar has bagged €100 million (~$105M) in Series C funding to expand its supplier network for small solar systems to meet rising demand for clean energy. Germany is particularly exposed to the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine as it remains heavily dependent on Russian gas imports — meaning consumers there face soaring gas bills. And while the country’s political leaders



Fans of Midsommer , or any horror that comes with creepy cults and the vague threat of human sacrifice, may want to take note — Shudder's new movie Moloch could be one for you. Nico van den Brink's creepy chiller starts with the excavation of a very old corpse on the edge of a town in the Netherlands, then quickly spirals into full-on ancient creature, everybody-in-the-town's-in-on-it-and-we-coul



Samsung 4 Geekbench•
We haven’t seen much to get excited about in Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 leaks yet, with the available information suggesting that it'll be very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 . But finally we’ve seen something that could make it worth upgrading to. Leaker @UniverseIce has spotted a Geekbench benchmark listing for the phone, and it includes a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus chipset. This is a chipset



IAG Boeing 737 MAX•
In June 2019 at the Paris Air Show, International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Vueling, signed a letter of intent to acquire up to 200 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. There were questions about how serious IAG was about the order, given that the 737 MAX was grounded at the time, and it also wasn’t yet a firm commitment. Never mind how the pandemic



SoftBank Cars24 600•
Cars24, a marketplace for used cars , has laid off about 600 people just five months after closing a $400 million financing round, the latest Indian unicorn to cut its workforce as it attempts to steer through the gloomy market conditions. The Cars24 layoff, which represents about 6% of the startup’s workforce, affects staff across multiple divisions, a person familiar with the matter said. A spo



Robots Netflix 3 LD&R•
Netflix's Love, Death + Robots is back , with Volume 3 premiering on Friday. In the meantime, though, the dark, NSFW comedy anthology has a complete new episode available to stream on YouTube titled "Exit Strategies", with the robots continuing their investigation into the end of the (human) world. Join the trio of droids, K-VRC, XBOT 4000, and 11-45-G, as they look into the potential survival of



TL;DR: As of May 19, you can get The Complete American Sign Language Master Class Bundle for just $49.99. It usually costs $349, so that's 85% off. There are so many ways to learn American Sign Language (ASL) that don’t involve struggling to stay awake in a classroom. You could try an app or simply watch dozens of YouTube videos. But if you want something a little more structured than scrolling t



TL;DR: As of May 19, The Complete 2022 CompTIA Cyber Security & PenTest Super Bundle by a CompTIA official partner, worth $1,770, is on sale for $49. That's savings of 97%. You can’t just jump into CompTIA exams and expect to pass with flying colors. Careful preparation is required. After all, the exams are quite comprehensive and designed to not only validate your knowledge, but your ability to



TL;DR: As of May 19, a lifetime of NatureID Plant Identification's premium plan is on sale for $19.99, making it 66% off its regular price of $59.99. Growing your own veggies and herbs is a pretty genius way to curb some of the steep grocery prices caused by inflation. But it’s far from easy. If you’re new to plant parenthood, you’ll need some assistance on your journey. That’s where NatureID com



TL;DR: As of May 19, you can get a refurbished WiFi-Only Apple iPad Pro with 128GB of storage for 17% off, as it's on sale for $264.99, down from $321 refurbished (and down from an original price of $749). If you’re like me and always wanted an iPad, but could never justify spending that kind of money on yet another device for your arsenal, here’s a solution: Buying refurbished. A refurbished iPa



Amber Heard Johnny Depp•
A few years ago, I came to briefly know Amber Heard. The woman I met on the phone, then later in person, struck me as authentic and sincere as she spoke about her role as a Human Rights Champion of the United Nations Human Rights Office . I never imagined she'd one day become the singular focus of influencers and creators eager to mock and monetize her tears . But for the past few weeks, people h




Welcome to Thanks, I Love It , our series highlighting something onscreen we're obsessed with this week. Bob's Burgers has always known that the devil is in the details. From the changing storefront names in the opening credits to the restaurant's punny burgers of the day, the show constantly rewards fans for taking a closer look. That attention to detail follows Bob's Burgers everywhere it goes,



Former boy-bander Harry Styles' third solo album, Harry’s House, had a break in. The full album leaked almost a month ahead of its May 20 release date, and fans had a tumultuous response — one side called the cops, the other threw a rager. It's not necessarily breaking news. Album leaks are par for the course in large fandoms, especially among the pop aficionados, from Taylor Swift to Charli XCX



NHTSA Tesla Crash Three•
A recent Model S crash that killed three people has sparked another Federal probe into Tesla's Autopilot system, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is conducting the investigation and said it's currently looking into more than 30 incidents involving Tesla's Autopilot. The accident occurred on May 12th in Newport Beach's Mariners Mile s



The soaring drug fatalities in the U.S. are being fueled partly by fentanyl-tainted pills bought by teenagers and young adults on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and other social media apps.



In a one-minute video that went viral in China in early May, three government workers in hazmat suits spray disinfectant all over someone’s home: inside the fridge, under the television, over the couch. On social media, Chinese people worried about whether their home would experience the same treatment if they were unlucky enough to catch the virus. Outside China, people have mostly moved on from



There’s a new fitness tracker in the Garmin lineup — the $149.99 vívosmart 5 — that the company says was designed for individuals who are new to fitness and health tracking, or seeking a simple, easy-to-use device. But with advanced sleep tracking, blood oxygen saturation and respiration monitoring, energy level estimating, and a whole lot more, we have to ask: How simple can the vívosmart 5 real



The post appeared first on Popular Mechanics .



New York Discord Buffalo•
Prosecutors will ask whether social platforms were "used to stream, promote, or plan" the murders.



If meme stocks can be a thing, what’s to stop audio meme sharing from going viral!? Hoping to storm the ear-bending arena of social audio and win friends amid the gamer/creator crowd is Voicy — a Netherlands-based startup that’s building a platform for user-generated audio snippets (typically a few seconds long), offering tools to create emotive samples for reaction sharing to spice up your messa
YESTERDAY



Apple Union WTC NYC•
The Communications Workers of America has filed a second Unfair Labor Practice charge against Apple this week. This time, the labor union is accusing the tech giant of violating multiple federal labor laws at its flagship World Trade Center store. The complaint alleges that Apple interrogated workers at the WTC store regarding their "protected concerted activities." Apple also allegedly monitored



We all love an unhinged NextDoor thread ( except the racist ones ), but we love it more when you can put faces to those usernames instead of a string of various hypothetical Karens and Kens. Kudos to whichever writer at Jimmy Kimmel Live decided to makes those faces extremely famous ones, and corralled a whole bunch of big names to act out one neighborhood's concerned discussion of some unsavory



Google Russian Bankruptcy•
, stating that the Russian government has seized its local bank account. According to the tech giant, this has made it no longer possible for its local office to continue operation. "The Russian authorities’ seizure of Google Russia’s bank account has made it untenable for our Russia office to function, including employing and paying Russia-based employees, paying suppliers and vendors, and meeti



MacBook Pro Shanghai•
COVID-19 lockdowns in and around Shanghai have severely impacted production for the MacBook Pro, to the point that 14-inch and 16-inch versions have been delayed to as far as August. In response, Quanta Computer – the sole supplier of high-end MacBook Pro models – is looking into moving production to another location, according to DigiTimes, via MacRumors . One such location being investigated is



TL;DR: The 2022 Advanced Cryptocurrency Trading Bundle is on sale for £28.10, saving you 97% on list price. Even if you have no desire to participate in investing or trading digital assets, it doesn’t mean you should turn a blind eye. For only £28.10, you can sign up for the Advanced Cryptocurrency Trading Bundle and figure out what it’s all about with 27 hours of content spread across seven cour



YouTube Music Wear•
YouTube Music on Wear OS is finally able to stream music over LTE and Wi-Fi. Previously, you had to download an entire playlist to your smartwatch in order to listen to music. In a recent community post , Google explained that you will now have access to over 80 million songs and thousands of playlists on the YouTube Music platform. As part of the update, the app now comes with Smart Downloads, w



Elden Ring’s in-game map has been gradually evolving since the action RPG launched earlier this year, as Bandai Namco inconspicuously edited the game without players noticing. The changes to Elden Ring ’s map have been documented by YouTuber and FromSoftware aficionado Illusory Wall (thanks, VG247 ). In a recent video, they explain that the game’s post-release patches have made several secret car



Max Schireson Contributor Max Schireson , the former CEO of MongoDB, is an executive-in-residence at Battery Ventures, where he helps advise the firm’s cloud and data portfolio companies on a variety of strategic and tactical business issues. More posts by this contributor Tracking the explosive growth of open-source software The Money In Open-Source Software “Are you gonna hire a bunch of useles



Indonesia’s 60 million blue collar workers contribute 20% to its gross domestic product, but they face a lot of uncertainty. Many are forced to bounce from job to job, some fall victim to scam job postings and without a steady employment history, are unable to qualify for financial services, say the founders of Pintarnya . That’s why they created the app, which includes verified job postings and



Vivo is back with another flagship smartphone. The Vivo X80 Pro is as aesthetically pleasing as it is pricey, and it really shines when you focus the cameras.




Thursday! What a concept! And what a day to solve another Wordle . If you haven't found today's answer yet, we're not spoiling it... yet. But you can find it down the bottom of this post (scroll carefully to avoid the clearly marked spoilers). If you just want a few clues to help you get the answer, keep reading for some background, tips and strategies we've reported on here at Mashable. Some bac



We take the ability to video chat with anyone in the world for granted, but it wasn't that long ago the technology seemed as magical as it is useful.



More than a million Illinois residents will receive a $397 settlement payment from Facebook this week, thanks to a legal battle over the platform’s since-retired photo-tagging system that used facial recognition. It’s been nearly seven years since the 2015 class-action lawsuit was first filed, which accused Facebook of breaking a state privacy law that forbids companies from collecting biometric



Macs have notoriously poor webcam quality, but fortunately, there's a way around that: using the iPhone as an external webcam when one is needed.



For Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander heritage month, Kelly Marie Tran ( Raya and the Last Dragon ) sat down with StarWars.com to discuss her experience being a part of the Star Wars universe as a first generation Asian-American when she was cast as Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In the open… Read more...



Editor’s note: This post has been updated. There are some new ways to stock up on Marriott points and save some money. Uber One members can earn 2 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar on eligible rides and Uber Eats deliveries now through June 16. And if you usually call Ubers to and from the airport, listen up. You can now get 10% Uber Cash back when you reserve a ride to or from the airport using



Cape Town is truly one of the world’s most magnificent cities. From mountains, oceans and beaches to vineyards and wildlife areas, the city is truly a must-stop in South Africa. Plus, it’s filled with a mix of cosmopolitan hotels, dining spots and only-here cultural icons. Now Washington, D.C. , residents can visit for less than $700 on Delta Air Lines for select dates in the fall. These fares ar



If you had told me a year ago that I’d successfully convince my wife to apply for a credit card offering just 20,000 points as a sign-up bonus, I would have laughed. I’d have thought the hard inquiry on her credit report wasn’t worth it, and I likely would have said something about the “opportunity cost” of putting spending on a card offering such a low bonus. Wouldn’t she be better off putting t



MGM Cosmopolitan MR•
While Las Vegas may have lacked its normal level of tourism during the earlier months of the pandemic, it was a jackpot for real estate sales and transactions. Resorts World Las Vegas opened. Las Vegas Sands sold The Venetian Resort for $6.25 billion. MGM Resorts made plans to sell The Mirage, and the new owners of Rio Las Vegas plan a major overhaul in partnership with Hyatt . Marriott-affiliate



Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, is in some ways a simple creature. But in others it is so complex that, as with any form of life, we are only scratching the surface of understanding it. Researchers have taken a major step with D. melanogaster by creating the most accurate digital twin yet — at least in how it moves and, to a certain extent, why. NeuroMechFly, as the researchers at



Withings ScanWatch•
I tried out the brand new Withings ScanWatch about six months ago, and concluded that it was a great smartwatch for people who prioritize their health over wearing a tiny iPhone-like device on their wrists. Today, the French company announced a classier-looking version of the same watch, borrowing design language from dive watches of yore. As an avid scuba diver, I’m always a little confused by “



2 TTPs•
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Malicious hackers, some believed to be state-backed, are actively exploiting two unrelated vulnerabilities—both with severity ratings of 9.8 out of a possible 10—in hopes of infecting sensitive enterprise networks with backdoors, botnet software, and other forms of malware. The ongoing attacks target unpatched versions of multiple product lines from VMware and of BI



Bentley EV 0 1.5 Seconds•
Bentley's CEO has revealed some key specs for the luxury automaker's upcoming first electric vehicle, including blistering speeds and a price to match.



NHTSA Tesla Crash Three•
A U.S. federal agency is investigating a crash involving a 2022 Tesla Model S that may have been operating in Autopilot during a crash that killed three people. Autopilot is Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) that performs automated functions such as steering, accelerating and automatic braking. Bloomberg first reported on the news. The accident, which happened earlier this month, o



Andreessen Horowitz•
Andreessen Horowitz is launching a new vertical fund exclusively focused on opportunities in the games industry. The new $600 million fund brings a pool of dedicated capital and a new internal structure dedicated to sourcing deals inside the games vertical. The new vehicle, called Games Fund One, joins other industry-specific arms at a16z, including its crypto and bio divisions. The fund is led b



New York Discord Buffalo•
52Mashable / 11h
Twitch , Discord, 4chan, and 8chan all played a role in the white supremacist mass shooting in Buffalo this weekend, according to the shooter himself. New York Attorney General Letitia James wants to know exactly what role each one played. On Wednesday, James announced in a tweet that she was launching an investigation into those four platforms, as well as any other online space that was used by



New York Twitch Buffalo•
New York Attorney General Letitia James will launch an investigation into the role that social media and online message boards played in the tragedy that unfolded in Buffalo over the weekend. On Saturday, an 18-year-old shooter opened fire at a Tops supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three others. In online materials, the suspected shooter describes how discovering white supremacy on 4ch



Kim North Korea COVID•
Enlarge / People watch a television broadcast showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a military parade at the Seoul Railway Station on May 4, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea. (credit: Getty | Chung Sung-Jun ) A mushrooming COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea has reached over 1.7 million cases, with nearly 233,000 new cases reported on Wednesday alone, according to state media rep



The Department of Homeland Security suspended the work of a panel focused on the subject of disinformation. The group had provoked accusations of government overreach.



Joby FAA NASA Agility•
Joby Aviation , a California-based company developing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL) for commercial passenger service , announced the acquisition of Avionyx , an aerospace software engineering firm, on the TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility stage on Wednesday. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, but Joby said that Avionyx will become a wholly-owned subsidiary




It’s Wednesday, May 18, 2022, and we are hanging out at our Mobility event, ogling cars that fly, drive themselves and have various identity crises. Wish you were here if you’re not, and hope to run into you if you are! — Haje and Christine The TechCrunch Top 3 Fintech finds footing in fraud : Prevention, that is. Plaid is providing new tools so users can share data more securely via its platform



United Washington CT•
In early March, United Airlines filed with the with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to launch a new route between Washington and Cape Town, complementing the carrier’s Newark to Cape Town service . The airline didn’t say anything publicly about this route otherwise… until today . United’s Washington to Cape Town route plans United is seeking permission to operate 3x weekly year-round fligh



48Gizmodo / 12h
If you managed to score tickets to this year’s Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California, next week, I sincerely hope you also managed to save up some galactic credits. Besides actual Star Wars news , the amount of exclusive merchandise that will be available to you there, and there alone, is simply staggering—so… Read more...



In addition to its Time Machine system backup feature, Apple also makes it possible for Mac users to backup files and data to their iCloud accounts.



DHS Jankowicz Board•
29Gizmodo / 12h
On April 27, the Department of Homeland Security announced the new Disinformation Governance Board, a group within the federal agency focused on researching the best ways to fight rampant online lies and misleading content seen as a danger to national security . Less than a month later, though, and the board has… Read more...



500+Gizmodo / 12h
Alongside 150 full time employees Netflix axed Tuesday, dozens of contract writers were shown the door. Bitter tweets flooded in after the job cuts were announced. Many of those writers were part of Netflix’s large-scale diversity communications initiatives, and they said that the struggling streaming giant had left … Read more...



Two Amazon employees have accused the company of retaliating against them for their efforts to organize workers at a warehouse in Liverpool, New York. Ashley Mercer and Jason Main filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on May 17th. According to Vice News , Amazon tasked Mercer last week with picking up cigarette butts, broken glass and other discar



Buffalo Discord 30 Minutes•
Discord has provided more insight into how the shooter who opened fire in a Buffalo, New York supermarket over the weekend used its service prior to the tragic act of violence . The shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, is charged with first degree murder in the mass shooting, which left 10 people dead and three injured. In the month leading up to the attack on the Buffalo Tops grocery store, whic



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