Technology

Right now, you can save $30 on Microsoft’s Xbox Series S at eBay, which drops the price to $269.99 — the lowest we have seen yet. Reputable eBay seller Antonline is offering two options: the standard Xbox Series S console and the Xbox Series S Fortnite and Rocket League Bundle. Both packages get you the console and a matching white controller for that nice $269.99 price, but the Fortnite and Rocket League bundle includes extra in-game content for both free-to-play titles. If you’re hesitant about eBay purchases, Antonline maintains a 98.8 percent positive feedback score on its eBay store and offers a 30-day money-back return policy. While the Series S may be the lesser of the two Xbox consoles in terms of features and power, lacking a disc drive, and topping out at 1440p for games while th...

More than 350 blind people around the world have implants in their eyes made by the company Second Sight Medical Products, which could help partially restore aspects of sight. But the company abandoned the technology a few years ago when it was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, according to a new investigation from IEEE Spectrum. Now, if something goes wrong with the implants, users are left stranded. “It is fantastic technology and a lousy company,” Ross Doerr, a Second Sight patient, told IEEE Spectrum. Second Sight’s implants, the Argus I and the Argus II, don’t restore normal vision; people see things in shades of gray that disappear when they move their heads. And results vary from person to person. Some users of the implants, which rolled out a decade ago, have struggled to make ...

HBO’s upcoming The Last of Us series seems like it will be a faithful adaptation of the hit video game — but unfortunately, it won’t be airing this year, according to comments HBO chief content officer Casey Bloys made to The Hollywood Reporter. “The Last of Us is shooting right now in Canada. We haven’t announced an air date yet,” Bloys said. “But it’s not 2022. They’re still shooting in Calgary.” He said something similar to Deadline, too: “[The Last of Us] is not going to air in 2022 — they are still shooting in Canada. I imagine you will see it in ’23.” While it’s a bummer that the show won’t be out in 2022, I’m just fine with HBO taking all the time it needs. The Last of Us is one of my favorite video games, and I really want to see HBO do it justice, so I am okay waiting to see the s...

A report recently published by Politico about the automated transcription service Otter.ai serves as a great reminder of how difficult it can be to keep things truly private in the age of cloud-based services. It starts off with a nerve-wracking story — the journalist interviewed Mustafa Aksu, a Uyghur human rights activist who could be a target of surveillance from the Chinese government. But though they took pains to keep their communication confidential, they used Otter to record the call — and a day later, they received a message from Otter asking about the purpose of the conversation with Aksu. Obviously, it was a concerning email. After receiving mixed messages from an Otter support agent about whether the survey was real or not, the reporter went down a rabbit hole trying to figure ...

Spotify is making more podcast acquisitions. The company announced today it’s acquiring both Chartable and Podsights — two of the most prominent podcast marketing and ad attribution companies. The deal price hasn’t been disclosed, but this marks the first major acquisition the company has made this year in a long line of audio purchases. Both Podsights and Chartable allow podcasters and networks to include tags in their shows that are used to track who listened, if they heard an ad, and whether they took action upon hearing it. Spotify says it plans to use Podsights’ technology outside podcasting and will bring it to the “full scope of the Spotify platform, including audio ads within music, video ads, and display ads.” The Chartable acquisition appears to be more directed toward podcasters...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the relationship between the US branch of cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two trading firms that have ties to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, as reported by The Waall Street Journal. The two firms, Merit Peak Ltd. and Sigma Chain AG, serve as market makers that continually buy and sell crypto on Binance.US, helping to lower price volatility. The SEC is particularly concerned with the way Binance discloses its ties to the two trading firms, WSJ reports. On the Binance.US website, the crypto exchange tells users that affiliated market makers can trade on the platform. However, it doesn’t name specific firms. The SEC has asked Binance.US for more information about both firms The SEC has asked Binance.US for more information about b...

Nick Clegg — Meta’s head of policy and communications — is getting a fancy new title: he’s being upgraded from vice president of global affairs to president of global affairs. The move seems less about elevating Clegg’s responsibilities and more about positioning him (rather than CEO Mark Zuckerberg or COO Sheryl Sandberg) front and center for Meta’s major policy decisions and interactions with governments. “For the last three years, Nick has managed some of the most complex issues our company faces — including content policy, elections, the establishment of the Oversight Board, and more,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post announcing the move. “Nick will now lead our company on all our policy matters, including how we interact with governments as they consider adopting new policies and regulation...

During Google’s I/O event last year, the company laid out plans to significantly revamp the look and feel of its Workspace cloud apps (they were called G Suite until a 2020 name change). That includes a new look for Gmail that’s starting to roll out this month, search chips (you can just call them filters) for Google Drive, and a set of changes that are about to arrive for Google Docs and Google Sheets. The theme of this approach is called “smart canvas.” It takes some hints from productivity apps like Notion to give you more options for blending the features of multiple tools in one screen and to promote ways that you can collaborate remotely with coworkers, powered by Google’s AI. Integrating its various office apps is an approach that conveniently helps Google increase corporate lock-in...

Meta has agreed to pay a decade-old $90 million USD class-action lawsuit over tracking users’ habits across the internet, even once they had logged out of Facebook. Filed in 2012, the case specifically applied to users who visited non-Facebook websites that showed a “Like” button, CNN Business reported. This includes a broad variety of sites, ranging from Pandora to ESPN. Per the platform’s terms and conditions, Facebook had obtained consent to track users’ actions while they were logged into their account but they were expected to stop the tracking once the user logged out. Announced on Tuesday, the settlement had been submitted for approval in California court the day prior, though it is still subject to court approval. The funds are to be distributed among plaintiffs who proved that the...

Twitter will allow users to tip creators with Ethereum, the company announced on Wednesday. The new update also includes support for several other payment services, including Barter, Paga and Paytm. “Have you set up Tips on your profile yet so it’s easy for people to show their support?” Twitter Support wrote on the social media platform before announcing the expansion. Have you set up Tips on your profile yet so it’s easy for people to show their support? Yes: Cool, we’ve added Paga, Barter by Flutterwave, Paytm, and the option to add your Ethereum address. No: What are you waiting for? Here’s how: https://t.co/Id5TwTpnCF — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 16, 2022 “Like Twitter, digital currencies operate without global barriers. We’re excited to incorporate Ethereum in additio...

Valve’s Steam Deck portable game system, launching February 25th, won’t necessarily play every Windows game you own — but a brand-new release of Valve’s Proton compatibility layer, version 7.0, is making the PC versions of PlayStation Vita hit Persona 4 Golden, Nintendo Switch darling Monster Hunter Rise, and Xbox favorite Forza Horizon 5 playable. Heck, we might even be getting Apex Legends as well. It’s no exaggeration to say that Monster Hunter and Persona were killer apps for the PlayStation Vita, and all three of these games are fantastic titles whose journey to PC we’ve been following with great interest. (My colleague Jay called Forza Horizon 5 “the perfect portable Xbox game” after using Microsoft’s xCloud to stream it to a phone.) But there’s been an open question whether the Stea...

We always knew that when General Motors decided to resurrect the Hummer brand as an electric truck, we were still going to get something excessively massive, as per its namesake. But I don’t think we were adequately prepared for the amount of truck bloat encapsulated in the Hummer EV. According to test data filed by GM with the Environmental Protection Agency — which was first spotted by Car & Driver — the GMC Hummer EV clocks in at an eye-watering 9,063 lbs. That’s several pounds heavier than the 9,046 lbs first reported last summer by enthusiast site GM Trucks. But that wasn’t the number that really floored me. The one that really singed my corneas was 2,923 lbs, which is the total weight of the Hummer EV’s battery. That’s heavier than a whole ass Honda Civic, bulkier than a Subaru B...