Technology

The Alfa Romeo Tonale SUV is the “first car on the market” to come with an NFT digital certificate, that the Italian automaker says will increase the car’s residual value. How? Well, that’s not exactly clear, but it involves recording information from the car’s electronic system to the blockchain as proof that a car has been properly serviced when it comes time to sell it. “With the customer’s consent, the NFT will record vehicle data, generating a certificate that can be used to assure the car has been properly maintained,” Alfa Romeo’s press release says. “On the pre-owned car market, NFT certification represents an additional source of credibility for owners or dealers to count on.” However, as CNBC notes, the data must be recorded by a certified Alfa Romeo dealer. “NFT certification re...

The European Union has outlined an ambitious new industrial policy that aims to make the bloc a significant player in the global semiconductor industry. The European Chips Act, adopted this week by the EU Commission, bundles together €43 billion ($49 billion) in public and private funding for the sector, with an end-goal of doubling the EU’s share of global chip production from 9 percent to 20 percent by 2030. For years, the EU has wanted to increase its leadership in the development and fabrication of semiconductor chips (it unveiled a similar funding package in 2013), but the global supply chain crisis triggered by the pandemic has sharpened the urgency of these plans. “the global shortage of chips has really slowed down our recovery” “You all know that the global shortage of chips has r...

Apple’s long-rumored virtual or augmented reality headset might not launch until 2023, but developers have spotted additional mentions of a new “realityOS” that could power it. First referenced as “rOS” in 2017 by Bloomberg News, realityOS was also spotted as part of some pre-release iOS 13 builds. 9to5Mac reports that developers have now found references to realityOS in GitHub repos and in App Store upload logs. “What is Apple’s realityOS doing in the App Store upload logs?” asks iOS developer Rens Verhoeven. Fellow developer Steve Troughton-Smith says a GitHub repo referencing realityOS confirms it “has its own OS & binaries… and has a realityOS simulator.” He also speculates this could simply be “a remnant of somebody’s pull request from a fake account.” realityOS is reportedl...

Nothing has added voice assistant support to its Ear 1 earbuds, allowing you to summon either Google Assistant or Siri with a triple-tap, the company announced on Twitter. The addition comes as something of a surprise given Nothing originally told Android Central it had no plans to add voice assistant support to the Ear 1. According to 9to5Google, the functionality is rolling out with firmware version 0.6700.1.86, and also supports Amazon’s Alexa in addition to both mobile OS’s native voice assistants. Unfortunately, it sounds like the feature is currently a little buggy, with 9to5Google reporting the earbuds sometimes fail to register that all-important third tap. Alexa, play “Nothing Else Matters” Yeah, it’s time to say hey to Google and Siri. Voice Assistance is now av...

In 2016, a Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange platform Bitfinex was the subject of a hack that saw 119,756 BTC, which is valued at approximately $63.7 million USD at the time, disappear from the company. The amount is currently worth approximately $4.5 billion USD. Earlier this week, the Department of Justice announced that it has found the culprits of the hack and seized over 94,000 BTC and arrested the duo that allegedly conspired to launder the cryptocurrency. The amount seized by the U.S. government is now currently worth about $3.6 billion USD. The DOJ reported that the alleged conspirators Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan worked together to steal the bitcoin after Bitfinex’s platform was breached by hackers, which initiated over 2,000 unauthorized transactions. The stolen ...

Lately, many in the crypto community have felt the negative aftermath of the volatile bitcoin market. Even, Tesla‘s head honcho Elon Musk has been subject to unpredictable changes. The electric vehicles producer recently disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission in an annual report that it suffered a $101 million USD loss due to its recent bitcoin investment. However, it does not impact Tesla’s overall financial health, as the company also reported a balance of $2 billion USD in bitcoin. After selling some of its holdings in March 2021, the company recorded a $128 million profit from its bitcoin investment. At the beginning of the week, Tesla shares were up by 2%, though stocks have generally fallen over 10% this year as investors have moved out of tech stocks due to underperform...

Instagram‘s new update is making it a lot easier for users to delete past posts, comments likes and other activities on the photo-sharing platform. The features are a part of the company’s Safer Internet Day initiatives, which gives users greater control of their content and account. Users can now delete comments and posts in bulk, as well as review past interactions on their account including previous likes and searches for specific content on any day. According to the official announcement, Instagram is testing out a “new experience” where bulk managing like deleting or archiving content like posts, stories, IGTV and Reels as well as interactions including story sticker reactions will be a reality. People will be able to filter and sort out their content and interactions by date. Instagr...

Peloton’s vice president of hardware engineering, Sam Bowen, and its commercial operations executive, Rob Barker, are leaving the company, according to a report from Bloomberg. Bowen led the development of the company’s bikes, treadmill, heart-rate monitor, as well the not-yet-released Guide device, while Barker previously served as the CEO of Precor, a company bought by Peloton that provides workout bikes to gyms and hotels. In a note on LinkedIn announcing his departure, Barker said, “After 27 years in various roles at Precor, Amer Sports and Peloton, I am moving from being a full-time executive at one company to a fitness industry small entrepreneur and advisor. I will continue to focus where my passion and heart lies: the fitness industry and those companies that are “helping people li...

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink just got dealt an expensive blow — the company’s currently estimating that 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites it launched on February 3rd will be destroyed because of a geomagnetic storm. The storm caused “up to 50 percent higher drag than during previous launches,” keeping the deployed satellites from reaching their proper orbit around the Earth. And while Starlink tried to fly them “edge-on (like a sheet of paper)” to reduce that drag, it now looks like as many as 40 of them will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere instead of reaching their destinations. SpaceX recently crossed the 2,000 satellite launch milestone, and has plans to launch 12,000 if not a great many more — so losing 40 of them might not be a huge deal in the grand scheme of thin...

The world’s most-used web browser, Google Chrome, is receiving a redesign for the first time in eight years. Google interaction designer Elvin Hu recently took to Twitter to explain the changes that will be appearing soon. Continuing the trend from the 2011-2014 change, the new icon features an even more minimalistic design, eliminating shadows for a flatter aesthetic. The saturation of the colors has been dialed up, and the middle blue circle is noticeably bigger than its predecessor. Hu shares that the changes come in order to “align with Google’s more modern brand expression,” and offers a fun fact that is barely distinguishable to the naked eye: “we also found that placing certain shades of green and red next to each other created an unpleasant color vibration, so we introduced a very ...