Technology

Apple has long been rumored to be working on a set of augmented reality glasses, and back in June of 2020, the tech giant actually patented a design for the device. While the company hasn’t announced anything official despite all these years of work, it now appears that the AR headset is about to become a reality, thanks to analysts sifting through Apple’s code. As Twitter users Rens Verhoeven and Steve Troughton-Smith highlight, references to a “realityOS” can be found hidden in some of Apple’s open-source code through the App Store upload logs recently. Given its name, many have speculated that realityOS will be the operating system Apple’s AR headset will run on upon release, and its inclusion in the new code hints at the device possibly arriving soon. According to 9to5Mac, Apple i...

SpaceX has now offered a closer look at what its future Starship launch could look like in a new animated clip. Providing the first major update about the giant rocket in years, the company’s CEO Elon Musk showed off the capabilities of the long-awaited Starship during a presentation earlier last week. The current system pairs a Starship spacecraft on top of a Super Heavy booster which Musk claims has more than twice the thrust of Saturn V, the largest rocket to ever go to space so far, thanks to its whopping 29 Raptor engines. Eventually, it’ll be able to carry 33. Once the spacecraft leaves our planet, the Super Heavy booster will separate and fly back to SpaceX’s launch tower, where it can be refueled and reused every six to eight hours for as many as three launches a day. The company h...

If you’re in the market for a Google Assistant-supported smart lamp, you’ll be sorely disappointed to know that Google created one, but it’s only for employees, as reported by 9to5Google. Google designer Ben Gold tweeted out an image of the lamp, cleverly called the dLight, noting it “will likely never be for sale outside of the company.” The Google lamp is called the “dLight” and I confirmed that it’s not confidential. Again, this product will likely never be for sale outside of the company. pic.twitter.com/fMmDXdr6Yk — Ben Gold (@bengold) February 11, 2022 The ultra-modern lamp features a circular base and thin post that houses a cylindrical light, and, admittedly, its bright white color almost makes it look like something you’d find at an Apple store. As noted by Gold, you can move the ...

The Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teaser that played at the very end of Spider-Man: No Way Home was an unexpected surprise that, for all its flashiness, didn’t say a thing about the movie’s plot or how Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) are meant to help Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) fix the existence of all things. The movie’s latest trailer does, though. [embedded content] Somewhere out there in the multiverse, one of the countless variants of Stephen Strange has gone and put a dent in the multiverse that the original live-action variant now has to put right. Strange’s recent magical meddling in No Way Home probably has something to do with how the multiverse is damaged and how a seemingly evil variant of Strange ends up escaping fr...

Coinbase just made its Super Bowl debut with a remarkable clever QR code ad that might have been too popular: the company’s “Less talk, more Bitcoin,” campaign appears to have temporarily knocked out its app following the ad airing during the broadcast The full 60-second ad almost entirely consisted of a colorful bouncing QR code, reminiscent of the iconic bouncing DVD logo meme. When scanned, the code brought viewers to Coinbase’s promotional website, offering a limited time promotion of $15 worth of free Bitcoin to new sign ups, along with a $3 million giveaway that customers can enter. The offer is a limited time one, with new customers having until February 15th to get the $15 promotion — something that may be an issue, as Coinbase’s app is currently down, presumably due to the massive...

Polestar made its Super Bowl debut with a Polestar 2 commercial that aimed to set the electric car newcomer apart from traditional car companies by taking a shot at the entire concept of flashy car commercials — and at Tesla and Volkswagen, specifically. The 30-second ad, titled “No Compromises” makes a litany of claims for Polestar, promising “No epic voiceovers,” “No empty promises,” and “No hidden agendas.” More pointed claims saw Polestar take a jab at Tesla CEO Elon Musk (“No conquering Mars,”) and Volkswagen (“No dieselgate,”) over soaring shots of the company’s Polestar 2 electric sedan. Polestar is a relatively new player in the electric car space, tied closely to Volvo and (notably) offering the first car that’s entirely powered by Google’s Android Automotive operating system. But...

It’s time to return to Middle Earth: the first trailer for Amazon’s incredibly ambitious The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has finally arrived during the Super Bowl LVI, giving a first good look at the upcoming prequel series. The trailer reveal comes after a steady stream of teasers for the upcoming series, which will be set hundreds of years before the events of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings in what Tolkien referred to as “The Second Age” of Middle Earth (as opposed to his more popular books and their film adaptations, which take place during the Third Age.) Amazon’s series will be condensing some of Tolkien’s timeline from The Silmarilion, which spans thousands of years and documents key events in the history of Middle Earth like the fall of Númenor, the rise of Sauron, an...

Tinder has added a new “Blind Date” feature to its ever-expanding suite of Fast Chat features, which will require users to chat before revealing their identities. Here’s how it works: users will answer a series of icebreaker questions and be paired with others based on commonalities in their responses. From there, users will enter a timed chat, only knowing the other user’s answers to the aforementioned multiple-choice icebreaker questions. After the timer runs out, users will have the option to like the other’s profile, which will then reveal if there is a match. According to Tinder, “members who used the Blind Date feature made 40% more matches than those using another Fast Chat feature with profiles visible.” “We’ve all seen the mix of anticipation and excitement going on a blind date b...

Alienware’s upcoming 34-inch gaming monitor is the first of its kind to come with Samsung’s new Quantum Dot OLED panel, and it will cost you a reasonable $1,299, according to a report from Ars Technica. The Dell-owned company debuted the monitor (AW3423DW) at CES this year and will start shipping it out this spring. We’re excited to announce that the Alienware 34 QD-OLED Gaming Display will arrive early this Spring for $1,299 USD. In addition, the Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset (AW920H) is also set to arrive early Spring for $199 USD. pic.twitter.com/C4QoIGfjea — ALIENWARE (@Alienware) February 11, 2022 While the price isn’t exactly low, it’s still cheaper than some of the standard OLED monitors currently on the market. For example, LG’s 32-inch Ultrafine UHD OLED monitor...

Last month, an astronomer and space tracking expert made a bit of a splash when he predicted that a piece of an old SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket left in space for the last seven years was going to collide with the Moon this March. But now he’s changing that prediction in a big way. While the rocket part he’s been tracking is still on a collision course with the Moon, he now believes that the vehicle is not an old Falcon 9 part, but an old Chinese rocket instead. The update comes from Bill Gray, an astronomer and asteroid tracker running Project Pluto, who has been following this doomed object since March of 2015. He says the object was first picked up by the Catalina Sky Survey, a program that uses telescopes near Tucson, Arizona to scan the sky for potentially dangerous asteroids that could pos...

Intel is investing in blockchain technology with a new chip designed to mine cryptocurrency (via Reuters). The company is focusing on sustainability, and plans on “developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale.” Intel’s first crypto-focused chip, which it calls a “blockchain accelerator” is set to ship later this year. Two companies have already preordered the technology, including Bitcoin mining company GRIID Infrastructures and Block, the Jack Dorsey-owned fintech company formerly known as Square. The environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining has become a huge concern “We expect that our circuit innovations will deliver a blockchain accelerator that has over 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining,” Raja Koduri, Intel’s s...