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Wednesday, February 8, 2023

HumpDay Technology News and More...

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The 6,167-Piece Rivendell Is the One Lego Lord of the Rings Set to Rule Them All



2KGizmodo / 19h
Take a really close look at the reflection in the gold ring that Lego teased on Twitter yesterday and you’ll see that the company actually shared an early sneak peek at today’s big reveal: an absolutely stunning 6,167-piece recreation of Rivendell reflecting the elaborate locale we’ve seen on screen. Read more...


Elon Musk to unveil 'fully sustainable energy future for Earth' at Tesla Investor Day
Mashable / 21min
Concerned about the future of energy on Earth? Worry not, it's all been solved! On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he plans to present the "path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth" at Tesla's next Investor Day, scheduled for March 1. It will be the third instance of Musk's "Master Plan," a long-term strategy for Tesla that Musk first started posting in 2006 . Tweet may hav


Wyze Is Down, It’s Not Just You
How-To Geek / 56min
Wyze has a heap of smart home products under its belt, and you may have noticed that most of them are having problems right now. Don’t worry, it’s not just you. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›



Zoom is laying off 1,300 employees, CEO taking 98 percent pay cut
Mashable / 2h
Zoom is laying off approximately 1,300 employees, reducing its workforce by around 15 percent. It's the latest company to be hit by widespread Big Tech layoffs, joining a slew of others such as Microsoft , Amazon , Meta , and PayPal . The mass layoff was announced in a blog post from Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan on Tuesday, who stated impacted employees in the U.S. would be notified via email w


Apple's retail staff is reportedly testing its 'buy now, pay later' service
Engadget / 3h
Apple has expanded the internal testing for its Pay service's buy now, pay later feature to include its retail employees, according to Bloomberg . When the tech giant's experimental features make their way to its retail staff, that's typically a sign that it's going to be released in the near future. Apple Store workers started testing the company's credit card in 2019 a month before it became av


Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for February 8
Mashable / 3h
A new Wordle has arrived, offering you a little puzzle break in your busy day. And as usual, we're also here with a few hints and tips to help you figure out the solution. If you prefer us to just tell you the solution, you can scroll to the bottom of this article for February 8's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather work through it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strate


'Quordle' today: Here are the answers and hints for February 8
Mashable / 3h
If Quordle is a little too challenging today, you've come to the right place for hints. There aren't just hints here, but the whole Quordle solution. Scroll to the bottom of this page, and there it is. But are you sure you need all four answers? Maybe you just need a strategy guide. Either way, scroll down, and you'll get what you need. What is Quordle ? Quordle is a five-letter word guessing gam


Learn to meditate with this discounted online bundle
Mashable / 3h
TL;DR : The 2023 Learn to Meditate Bundle is on sale for £23.53, saving you 97% on list price. Making a New Year’s Resolution is the easy part. Actually sticking to it takes a lot more work. If you resolved to become more mindful and try meditation in the new year, some expert guidance might make the whole process easier. The 2023 Learn to Meditate Bundle could help you make meditation and mindfu


Palm.hr raises $5M, embarks on MENA growth
34TechCrunch / 3h
A few years ago, Richard Schrems was working as a human resources consultant in Riyadh, and at one point sought to implement a tech-solution for his clients to help them better their huge teams, but couldn’t find a localized solution. Schrems told TechCrunch he needed a system that was employee-focused, but found many of the HR software he interacted with to be “very complex”, with “a lot of feat


Save 49% on the best Netflix VPN
Mashable / 4h
SAVE 49%: Access extra libraries of content from around the world with ExpressVPN. A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for £85.41 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. Netflix has been dominating the headlines recently due to its crackdown on password sharing . We're still processing exactly what this means for subscribers, especially those who tra


The best MIT courses you can take online for free
Mashable / 4h
TL;DR: A wide range of online courses from MIT are available for free on edX. Find comprehensive courses on everything from machine learning with Python to creating policies for science, technology, and innovation. Do you have the time to learn something new? Probably not, but you should make the time for this batch of free online courses. Not all online courses are created equal, and this select


Joe Biden Says Tech Needs Washington’s Parental Oversight in State of the Union
Gizmodo / 4h
President Joe Biden took direct aim at tech companies during his second State of the Union address Tuesday evening. Over the course of an hour, the president railed against Big Tech’s data collection practices, its use of targeting ads on young users and anti-competitive business practices. For all of those issues,… Read more...


Report: Qatar Airways 787 Pilot Loses Situational Awareness, Puts Plane Into Dive
53One Mile at a Time / 4h
My goodness, the number of near disasters we’ve seen in the airline industry lately is troubling. We’ve seen some recent ground incidents in the United States ( between an American 777 and Delta 737 at JFK , and between a Southwest 737 and FedEx 767 at AUS ), and here’s an incident that happened shortly after takeoff in Qatar. Qatar Airways 787 enters steep descent after takeoff The Aviation Hera


Canon's $680 EOS R50 is its most affordable RF camera yet
Engadget / 4h
Canon is adding a new, more affordable entry point into its RF mirrorless camera ecosystem. Alongside the full-frame EOS R8 , the company unveiled today the EOS R50, an APS-C RF mount camera that will start at $680 when it goes on sale later this year. Based on the price and spec sheet, the R50 could quickly become a go-to for many beginners. The camera features a 24.2-megapixel sensor capable of


Canon's full-frame EOS R8 offers uncropped 4K at 60p for just $1,500
Engadget / 4h
Canon has put Sony and its other rivals on blast with the launch of the $1,500 24-megapixel EOS R8, its cheapest full-frame camera yet. Released alongside the $680 R50 APS-C model, it's targeted to photographers and video creators on a budget. However, it's got some impressive features like uncropped, oversampled 4K video up 60 fps, shooting speeds up to 40 fps and Canon's excellent Dual Pixel au


Canon EOS R8: five things you need to know
TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 4h
Canon announced two new mirrorless cameras and two new lenses on February 8, 2023: the Canon EOS R8 and Canon EOS R50, along with the RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 and RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1. In September 2023, Canon’s EOS R system celebrates its five-year anniversary. The range already boasts some of today's best mirrorless cameras , especially in its full-frame lineup, which the Canon EOS R8 enters, sittin


Toxic gaming tackled by Ubisoft's unique police alert system
47BBC News - Technology / 5h
BBC News has exclusive access to how Ubisoft's customer relations centre is working with police.


Biden’s SOTU: Data Privacy Is Now a Must-Hit US State of the Union Topic
74Wired / 5h
Biden’s speech proves that protecting personal info is no longer a fringe issue. Now, Congress just needs to do something about it.


Delta Employees Get 5% Pay Raises As Of April 2023
One Mile at a Time / 6h
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian has this week announced that employees will be getting a 5% pay raise. Well, all non-union employees. Non-union Delta employees get pay bump As of April 1, 2023, Delta is offering a 5% base pay increase for ground and flight attendant employees, at all steps of the pay scale. This is Delta’s second pay raise in the past year, as Delta awarded a 4% pay increase in Ma


Lost and found: Codebreakers decipher 50+ letters of Mary, Queen of Scots
68Ars Technica - All content / 7h
Enlarge / Sample ciphertext (F38) found in the archives of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, now attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots. (credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France) An international team of code-breakers has successfully cracked the cipher of over 50 mysterious letters unearthed in French archives. The team discovered that the letters had been written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to tr


Bing and ChatGPT might be the future of search, even if Google doesn't believe it
20TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 8h
Welcome to the AI wars. Not the kind we imagined where Skynet launched a surprise missile attack on its makers, but one in which companies are all vying to be the dominant source of your artificial intelligence connection. To put this powerful technology at your and everyone else's fingertips. And at the tip of this spear are, somewhat unexpectedly, Microsoft and Bing. Here's the crazy thing, tho



Researchers Decrypt Coded Letters Written by Mary, Queen of Scots
Gizmodo / 8h
A computer scientist, a musician, and a physicist enter the archives of a national library. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but the punchline is a serious one: Researchers of various backgrounds managed to find and decipher 57 letters written by Mary, Queen of Scots during her imprisonment by her cousin Queen… Read more...


Jonathan Majors Breaks Down the Essence of Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Gizmodo / 8h
With the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania , audiences are about to really get a glimpse of the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe . His name is Kang and he’s played by Jonathan Majors. Majors made his Marvel debut last year in Loki as He Who Remains, a version of a supervillain who is going to have such… Read more...


Rolls-Royce Spectre EV First Drive: Elegant, Understated, Silent
50Wired / 8h
WIRED got two hours behind the wheel of a preproduction prototype of what might be the ultimate high-end EV. It wasn’t enough.


ChatGPT Has Been Sucked Into India's Culture Wars
Wired / 9h
Hindu nationalists claim that the chatbot has insulted their deities, sparking an online uproar.


OnePlus takes on the iPad with the OnePlus Pad
Ars Technica - All content / 9h
The OnePlus Pad doing its best iPad Pro impersonation. Android tablets are on their way back, and one of Android's biggest manufacturers (we're talking about OnePlus parent company BBK) is bringing an Android tablet to the US for the first time. Say hello to the OnePlus Pad, an 11.61-inch tablet with an optional keyboard and stylus. We don't know how much it costs, so don't ask. There's also no h


Report: Sonos’ next flagship speaker will be the spatial audio-focused Era 300
Ars Technica - All content / 9h
Enlarge / Sonos One smart speaker. (credit: Getty ) Sonos will release a new flagship speaker "in the coming months," according to a report Monday from The Verge . The publication said this will be called the Era 300 and that Sonos is prioritizing the device's spatial audio capabilities. The Verge claimed that Sonos is aiming for the Era 300 to be its most accurate speaker yet. It pointed to a he


Google will soon default to blurring explicit image search results
Ars Technica - All content / 9h
Enlarge / Google's new "Blur" setting for SafeSearch will soon be the default, blurring explicit images unless you're logged in and over 18. (credit: Aurich Lawson) Google has debuted a new default SafeSearch setting, somewhere between "on" and "off," that automatically blurs explicit images in search results for most people. In a blog post timed to Safer Internet Day , Google outlined a number o


Microsoft announces AI-powered Bing search and Edge browser
100+Ars Technica - All content / 9h
Enlarge / Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Microsoft's modern life and devices group, speaks during an event at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on Tuesday. (credit: Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Fresh off news of an extended partnership last month , Microsoft has announced a new version of its Bing search engine and Edge browser that will integrate ChatGPT-style AI l


Disney is bringing the first episode of 'The Mandalorian' to broadcast TV
Engadget / 9h
For one night only, Disney’s breakout Star Wars series is coming to cable TV. Ahead of the premiere of the third season of The Mandalorian on March 1st , Disney announced today it would air the show’s debut episode, “Chapter 1: The Mandalorian,” on February 24th. If you somehow haven’t seen the series before, you can catch the episode that started it all on ABC, Freeform or FX. All three stations


Daily Crunch: Global VC firm Partech reaches first close of largest African fund at €245 million
22TechCrunch / 9h
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 . What’s up, Crunchy readers! True crime has its grip on us all, and Lorenzo ’s review of “Tracers in the Dark” is fascinating. In the book, the author covers how cops go after cybercriminals, and it shows that there is hope in stopping drug dealers, dark web market


Sennheiser Boosts the Bass With a New Addition to Its Long Adored 600-Series Headphones
41Gizmodo / 9h
Headphone enthusiasts can be a fickle bunch, but if you manage to pull a group of them away from their amps and Super Audio CD players to ask them to recommend a pair of cans, most would point you towards the Sennheiser 600-series. Over the past 25 years, Sennheiser has been trickling out minor updates to the line,… Read more...


GlossAi’s generative highlights are a glimpse of content’s crowded future
TechCrunch / 10h
For anyone who wants to get a piece of content they’ve created out there, the number of platforms and formats means it’s not so simple as it used to be. GlossAi is a startup aiming to automate the process using (what else?) AI, and its approach of turning a half hour of content into an infinity of short clips and posts may not be palatable to everyone, but investors are betting on the tech to the


The Legends of Tomorrow Will Return One Last Time Thanks to The Flash
21Gizmodo / 10h
Praise Beebo , my friends. While a lot of familiar faces are returning for The Flash ’s ninth season, it won’t just be the friends and family members of the Iris West clan. Showrunner Eric Wallace has revealed that the fan-favorite Legends of Tomorrow cast will make an appearance, almost certainly for the final time. Read more...


Don't Fall for These Scam 'Notifications' on Your Mac
Lifehacker / 10h
You’re minding your own business, getting some work done on your Mac, when all of a sudden, you receive a notification from System Settings: Your iCloud is being hacked! Click here to remove the virus. Hold up, though: Any program telling you to “click here” to “remove the virus” is lying to you, and shouldn’t be… Read more...


Former Affirm exec Silvija Martincevic to lead shift work management platform Deputy
20TechCrunch / 10h
Silvija Martincevic, former chief commercial officer of Affirm , one of the U.S.’s biggest buy now, pay later startups, has been appointed to CEO of shift work management platform Deputy . Based in Australia, Deputy is focused on expanding in the United States and other countries, and Martincevic will oversee its growth strategy. She will also take a seat on Deputy’s board of directors. As part o


The OnePlus 11 Is Here, but With a Rough Start
How-To Geek / 10h
Since its inception, OnePlus has always released its phones in the US, and since the OnePlus 6T, carriers like T-Mobile have sold its phones. The OnePlus 11 has been announced, and it’s a big step forward — but also a step back in terms of US support. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›


Microsoft Edge Is Getting AI Chat and a New Look on Windows
How-To Geek / 10h
Microsoft announced a major update to Bing earlier today with AI-powered features, a bit like ChatGPT. The company also revealed a visual update coming to Microsoft Edge, and some new Bing integration. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›


Microsoft Announces "New Bing" with an Integrated AI Chatbot
How-To Geek / 10h
For the first time in a decade, Bing is relevant. Microsoft has kicked off its “new Bing” initiative, which integrates ChatGPT AI technology with the search engine. Similar changes are also coming to the Microsoft Edge Browser’s sidebar. Read This Article on Review Geek ›


Biden to address children’s online safety at State of the Union
TechCrunch / 10h
President Joe Biden will address the nation on Tuesday evening in the second State of the Union address of his term. Per a release from the White House, the president is expected to weigh in on children’s online safety issues, as well as data privacy. The briefing says that Biden will call on bipartisan lawmakers to ban targeted advertising toward young people, and protect children’s privacy, hea


Scientist Who Gene Edited Human Babies Says Mistakes Were Made
500+Futurism / 10h
Chinese geneticist He Jiankui rocked the scientific world with his gene-edited baby experiments back in 2018, a highly controversial use of the technology that ended up sending him to a three-year stint in prison for illegal medical practices. Now, just under a year after being released, He has some regrets about rushing into the experiments. "I did it too quickly," He told the South China Mornin



Scientists Develop Compound That Kills So Efficiently They Named It After Keanu Reeves
1KFuturism / 10h
Killer Reputation Got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? An Oscar? An EGOT, even? All very cool. But not nearly as cool, at least in our humble opinion, as being so badass onscreen that scientists go as far as to name a group of wildly effective, lab-engineered, fungi-killing molecules after you. That's influence. Meet: "Keanumycins," a new pesticide invented and named by a team of researchers


The Last of Us Continues to Rise in the Ratings
85Gizmodo / 10h
HBO’s The Last of Us might be stepping aside for the Superbowl (catch the next episode this Friday, rather than the usual Sunday), but it’s still becoming a force of nature as far as ratings are concerned on its own. After the massive buzz around episode three , episode four boasted the highest numbers to date. Read more...


What to Say to Someone Pushing Crypto at You
Lifehacker / 10h
The tail end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 have brought with them a slew of negative crypto news , from industry layoffs to fraud charges against one of the industry’s former gurus . Once you’ve digested the bad news (and brushed up on the basics of all things cryptocurrency ), you might find yourself feeling resolved… Read more...


7000 Delta Employees Are Protesting Being Locked Out Of Sky Clubs
View from the Wing / 10h
Since Friday, February 3 Delta Air Lines employees are no longer permitted to use Sky Clubs when traveling as nonrevs - even if they purchased a club membership or have the American Express co-brand Reserve card that comes with access. Now there's a petition with over 7,000 signatures asking Delta to restore access. It's an open letter to airline CEO Ed Bastian, 'let my co-workers in!' Continue r


Fly to multiple cities in Europe for as little as $453 round-trip
The Points Guy / 11h
Attend a port wine tasting in Porto, Portugal, or try a pastry at the Cafe Central in Vienna. It would normally cost a lot to travel to places like Porto and Vienna. However, airlines are offering marked-down flights to cities across Europe, with the cheapest flights starting at $453 round-trip. From the U.S., you can primarily fly to Europe from Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Miami and Minneapolis.


Microsoft's new Bing and Edge hands-on: Surprisingly well-integrated AI
Engadget / 11h
The age of generative AI is upon us, and this week alone Google and Microsoft made major announcements around their respective products for the masses. While Google unveiled an "experimental conversational AI service" called Bard yesterday , Microsoft had a fuller slate of news to share at its event in Redmond, WA today . Through a partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Microsoft is adding more a


Navy Releases Up-Close Pics of Chinese Spy Balloon Retrieval
35Gizmodo / 11h
Last week, an unidentified object appeared 60,000 feet above the ground in Montana. Originating from China, the balloon gave all the appearance of being a spying aircraft. Read more...


15 of the Best Countries to Get a Digital Nomad Visa
Gizmodo / 11h
Spain is introducing its own digital nomad visa, adding it to the list of nearly 50 countries that have implemented it in recent years. The country’s parliament approved the visa in November last year and will allow non-EU citizens to remain in Spain for up to five years. Read more...


The Easiest Ways to Dry Your Laundry Faster
Lifehacker / 11h
You have better things to do than wait for your laundry to dry (like folding your laundry and remaking the bed and getting on with your day). You are not fated to sit around and wait until the dryer completes a full cycle; you can speed it up. First things first: check and clear your lint trap and clean your vents.… Read more...


Facebook updates comment moderation tools for creators
Mashable / 11h
Meta announced new updates today that are aimed to help creators have more control over their comment section on Facebook . Creators can now search their comments by keywords and take bulk actions through the Comments Manager in their Professional Dashboard. For instance, you could search for the heart eyes emoji and bulk like the comments, or search for the word "ugly" and hide them all. SEE ALS


OnePlus 11 is a handsome phone that (mostly) brings the goods
Mashable / 11h
As an iOS lifer, I’m occasionally jealous of how many genuinely good phones Android enthusiasts get to choose from each year. The same holds true for the OnePlus 11. The latest flagship smartphone out of the Chinese tech giant is an exercise in minor iteration. There aren’t many eye-popping new software features to play with or a radical redesign that will make you rethink smartphones generally.


BP: We’re Making Lots of Money on Oil, so Screw the Climate
51Gizmodo / 11h
BP is raking in a huge amount of cash these days on oil, so it wants you to ignore all those lofty promises it made about the climate just a few years ago. Read more...


Zoom cuts 15% of staff in post-pandemic 'reset'
33BBC News - Technology / 11h
The video call firm that surged in popularity during the height of Covid is cutting 1,300 people.


Microsoft unveils new Bing with ChatGPT powers
100+BBC News - Technology / 11h
Bing will now have "answer" and "chat" options in search using the latest in artificial intelligence.


Microsoft Taps ChatGPT to Boost Bing—and Beat Google
200+Wired / 11h
The second-ranked search engine is getting a new chatbot interface that attempts to synthesize information from sites across the web.


Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business card review: Sky Club access and 100,000 miles
49The Points Guy / 11h
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information. Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card overview The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card is Delta’s top-tier, cobranded business credit card, offering benefits best suited for high-budget businesses that are loyal to Delta. If Delta Medallion elite status and lounge access are import


Alien-Detecting AI Finds Eight "Suspicious" Signals
300+Futurism / 11h
Strange Signals A group that's at the forefront of the search for alien life has found some strange radio signals from space — and they're as confused by their origins as we are. Speaking to New Atlas , University of Toronto student Peter Ma described the incredible — and "suspicious" — findings from a new machine learning algorithm he developed and brought to Breakthrough Listen, an Australia-ba


These Kindles Are Up to 30% Off Right Now
Lifehacker / 11h
Amazon’s newest Kindle E-readers are on sale right now , and most of them are the cheapest they’ve been since their release dates last year. If you’ve been holding off on upgrading your e-reader or want to try one for the first time, now is a good time to take the plunge. Read more...


Weeks Before Launch, NASA Tells Private Partner to Change Lunar Landing Site to South Pole
24Gizmodo / 11h
NASA is “redirecting” a private partner’s first mission to the lunar south polar region, and with very little time to spare. The company, Texas-based Intuitive Machines, is handling the new assignment with grace, saying it’s a “significant win” for the Artemis program. Read more...


Here's why Twitter users are all posting Twitter Spaces links in their tweets
Mashable / 12h
If you've been on Twitter over the past week or so, you've likely seen extremely viral tweets that include random links to Twitter Spaces, the platform's audio chat room feature. If you've clicked on any of those Twitter Spaces links, you'll likely find a nonsensical Twitter Spaces chat scheduled for some time in the future that's completely unrelated to the tweet. The user also has no apparent i



Zoom to Lay Off 1,300 Workers, Joining Other Tech Giants
100+NYT > Technology / 12h
The company is cutting 15 percent of its work force, or about 1,300 jobs, citing “the uncertainty of the global economy.”


Huge Alaska Airlines Visa Card Bonus: 70K Miles & Companion Fare!
500+One Mile at a Time / 12h
Link: Apply now for the Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card A few weeks ago we saw a huge welcome offer rolled out on the Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card ( review ), which coincides with the card getting new benefits . I wanted to post a reminder of this offer, as it’s only available for a limited time. If you don’t yet have this card and are eligible, you absolutely should apply with this offer.


It turns out lots of us still want to use tablets at
TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 12h
The latest Canalys data for global PC shipments is alarming, if not expected, with the final quarter of 2022 seeing a 21% decrease. In 2022, the world’s tech companies shifted 434.5 million PCs, a figure that includes laptops, desktops, and tablets. This is down 13% from the 499.4 million that were sold in 2021, however there’s a positive figure lurking deep beneath the surface that’s especially


Disney Artist Ashley Taylor on Her Fairytale Inspirations
Gizmodo / 12h
Every year at Epcot kicks off with the International Festival of the Arts, a haven for Disney art collectors that showcases an extensive line-up of work from an array of unique perspectives. The Walt Disney World -exclusive Artful Epcot fest has steadily become one of the best reasons to visit Disney Parks during the … Read more...


A Washington Woman Could Land in Jail After Refusing Tuberculosis Treatment
100+Gizmodo / 12h
A woman’s active case of tuberculosis has prompted health officials in Washington state to alert the public. The woman has reportedly turned down treatment for over a year and disobeyed multiple court orders to stay isolated from others. The health department may pursue further legal action against the woman should… Read more...


Coinbase Ex-Manager Pleads Guilty to Crypto Insider Trading Charges
35Gizmodo / 12h
It’s 2023 and financial crimes and their consequences have officially come to cryptocurrency . Relatively new on the laundry list of blockchain-based offenses that can lead directly to jail : insider trading. A former product manager at the crypto exchange Coinbase pleaded guilty to insider trading charges on Tuesday.… Read more...


Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results
TechCrunch / 12h
Google confirmed it’s putting an end to a feature that allowed users to access playable podcasts directly from the Google Search results in favor of offering podcast recommendations. Officially launched in 2019, the feature surfaced podcasts when they matched a user’s query, including in those cases where a user specifically included the word “podcast” in their search terms. But a few weeks ago,


Zoom is laying off around 1,300 workers
Engadget / 12h
You can add Zoom to the long list of major tech companies that have laid off employees in recent times. It's letting go around 1,300 employees, which equates to 15 percent of the workforce. In a note to staff , CEO Eric Yuan indicated that the company expanded its headcount too quickly after Zoom's pandemic-driven boom — it tripled in size in the space of two years. "We didn’t take as much time a


Make Better Irish Nachos With Guiness Beer Cheese
Lifehacker / 12h
I haven’t done one of those genetic history tests, but I know the results would reveal my ancestors to be very pale and mostly Irish (or some combination of Irish and Welsh). But honestly, I feel about as Irish as a plate of Irish nachos, which do not come from Ireland and have never been to Ireland—but you can imagine… Read more...


Bookings on fire: Demand for Royal Caribbean’s new Icon of the Seas is like nothing the line has ever seen
500+The Points Guy / 12h
Thinking about booking one of the first sailings of Royal Caribbean ‘s soon-to-debut Icon of the Seas? You better act fast. And bring a boatload of money. It’s turning into one of the hottest tickets in the history of cruising. “That ship literally has been the best-selling product in the history of our business,” Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley said Tuesday during a conference call with Wall


Devious Hack Unlocks Deranged Alter Ego of ChatGPT
200+Futurism / 12h
Users on Reddit have stumbled upon an astonishingly easy — and hilarious — way to force OpenAI's AI chatbot ChatGPT give up on the company's guardrails that force it to act ethically, as first spotted by CNBC . Users found a way to activate an evil alter ego of ChatGPT dubbed DAN, or "do anything now," that can effortlessly skirt around the rules set out by its creator. Essentially, the command t


Getty Images Sues AI Art Generator Stable Diffusion for Copying Millions of Its Photos
72Futurism / 12h
Instability AI Stability AI, the company behind the popular Stable Diffusion AI image generator, is under the microscope. Already sued by a trio of angry artists , it's also been hit with a one-two punch of copyright lawsuits in the UK last month and now in the US, filed by none other than Getty Images, the world's foremost provider of stock photos. "This case arises from Stability AI's brazen in


Download This App If You Use Multiple Browsers on Your Mac
Lifehacker / 12h
While the dream of having one perfect web browser to use on your Mac sounds nice, for most of us, it isn’t reality. Different browsers have different strengths and weaknesses, especially when it comes to work, so we need to jump between apps like Safari and Chrome all day. The problem is, we’re only allowed one… Read more...


Google expanding SafeSearch by blurring explicit images by default
TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 12h
As part of Safer Internet Day, Google is releasing a variety of security features to better protect people as they browse the internet. Chief among these, the SafeSearch filter for underaged users , is expanding and will become a default setting for all. This means Google Search will automatically blur explicit images appearing in search results even if you don’t have the filter enabled. The reas


Neuroscientists listened in on people’s brains for a week. They found order and chaos.
100+MIT Technology Review / 12h
Our brains exist in a state somewhere between stability and chaos as they help us make sense of the world, according to recordings of brain activity taken from volunteers over the course of a week. As we go from reading a book to chatting with a friend, for example, our brains shift from one semi-stable state to another—but only after chaotically zipping through multiple other states in a pattern


muspeccoll : Dreaming of summer with Crispijn van de Passe’s Hortus floridus , a flower garden in a book. We had this v...
Music, Arts & Literature / 12h
muspeccoll : Dreaming of summer with Crispijn van de Passe’s Hortus floridus , a flower garden in a book. We had this volume out for a class on Friday and couldn’t resist taking a few photos to share. Each page is a delicate, detailed engraving that shows plants, flowers, and pollinators up close. RARE-W QK41 .P3 1614A (1-4)


dame-de-pique: Wilson Alwyn Bentley (February 7, 1865 –...
Music, Arts & Literature / 12h
dame-de-pique : Wilson Alwyn Bentley (February 7, 1865 – December 23, 1931) - Snowflake Study +++


Your Friend Or Spouse Flies Free With New Southwest Airlines Credit Card Offer
View from the Wing / 12h
Chase and Southwest are out with really special offers for their Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credit cards. Instead of earning a bunch of points from an initial bonus, and then still needing (say) 50,000 more points to earn a Companion Pass, a Companion Pass valid through February 28, 2024 is included as part of the initial bonus offer. And you earn bonus Rapid Rewards, too. A friend or spous


Tyler Posey on Returning to Teen Wolf
Gizmodo / 12h
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Ransomware on the rise: how small and medium-sized businesses can achieve cyber resilience during turbulent times
TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 12h
Ensuring cyber resilience is tricky enough at the best of times. These are far from the best of times. Against a backdrop of economic decline and geopolitical unrest, cybersecurity threats are growing in frequency and sophistication. 2022 saw a global increase in malware attacks for the first time