Technology

Sifu is very hard. You will metaphorically ram your own head through a wall trying to finish the game as often as you will literally ram the heads of your various assailants through walls, windows, glass bottles, metal pipes, bats, and the occasional footstool. Sifu’s difficulty is also underpinned by the challenging conversations happening around the game itself. As hard as Sifu is, and as thorny as the discourse surrounding its provenance and development are, Sifu succeeds in its attempt to capture the frenetic action of the kung fu film and tries to be a thoughtful and respectful portrayal of Chinese martial arts culture. But that authenticity and respect also exist in parallel with the game’s problems of representation. Sifu is a playable martial arts flick. It is The 36th Chamber of S...

If you’re looking to upgrade your current webcam or you’re buying your very first one, prepare to be overwhelmed by options. Webcams come in all shapes, sizes, and prices, but not many of them are worth your money. If you just want a few pointers to get better video quality than your average plug-and-play webcam can likely provide, we’ve got you covered. In this video, we dig into exactly why the Opal C1 is a great webcam if you’re someone who values good video quality. What sets it apart from other webcams is its reliance on software and machine learning — not just hardware — to provide a good picture. It’s close to being the ideal gadget for those who can’t put down several hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on a high-end DSLR-turned-webcam. It’s $300 and currently available through invi...

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a subpoena to Tesla over Elon Musk’s 2018 tweet about taking the company private, according to Bloomberg. The news of the subpoena, which was issued November 16th, 2021, reignites a feud between Musk and the SEC that has been simmering for over four years. Musk sent the notorious tweet on August 7th, 2018, in which he claimed to have the funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share. (Tesla has been a publicly traded company since 2010.) Musk said on Twitter that he had “funding secured” to pull off the deal and buy out any shareholders who didn’t want to stick with the company. He published these tweets during the afternoon while trading was still happening, and the company’s stock price jumped in response. reigniting a feud between Musk and t...

Six Dr. Dre tracks that made their first appearance in GTA Online’s The Contract update from last year are now available on music streaming services including Apple Music and Spotify, Rockstar Games has announced. As well as Dre himself, the tracks include appearances from guest artists like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Anderson .Paak, Busta Rhymes, Nipsey Hussle, and Ty Dolla $ign. GTA is part of a growing list of games that have debuted new music. Guns n’ Roses premiered the song “Shackler’s Revenge” in Rock Band 2 in 2008, and Weezer included four unreleased songs from its Black Album in a custom map in Fortnite in 2019. But Dre’s collaboration with GTA Online was a little more interesting. The rapper actually appeared in the game itself, and a key storyline involved recovering a stolen phone wi...

Just ahead of Apple‘s rumored hardware event next month, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is now back with more leaks about the upcoming MacBook Pro models. According to the analyst, the tech giant won’t be equipping its latest entry-level model with the ProMotion displays found on the 2021 upgraded models, so you won’t have the option of accessing a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It also won’t be coming with Mini-LED backlighting either, and internal storage options will be lower than its more premium counterparts. Gurman does note however that it’ll remove the controversial Touch Bar feature. Overall, Apple is rumored to be releasing a range of four new Mac models carrying its latest M2 chip. Aside from the entry-level model, there’ll be an updated MacBook Air as well as a 24-inc...

The U.S. House of Representatives has just passed a bill that would allocate hundreds of billions of dollars towards researching and producing semiconductors domestically. On Friday, the House passed the 2,900-page American COMPETE Act of 2022, designed to bring America closer in competitiveness with China when it comes to manufacturing microchips amid the global shortage. Roughly $52 billion USD will be spent on manufacturing capabilities while another $300 billion USD will be used for research and development. Within the act is also an $8 billion USD contribution to the Green Climate Fund to mitigate the effects of climate change resulting from semiconductor production. Having passed the House of Representatives, the bill will now need to be negotiated with the Senate, and President Joe ...

Nike-owned virtual collectibles studio RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) has released a new “MNLTH” series featuring Nike and RTFKT co-branding. The “MNLTH,” which is currently sold on OpenSea, was airdropped to current Clone X holders alongside PodX virtual spaces. RTFKT’s Clone X by Takashi Murakami is currently one of the top traded NFT collections in the world with a total transaction volume of 114,600 ETH (approximately $352 million USD) at the time of writing. The object features a dark metallic finish with geometric patterns etched and overlayed on the exteriors with glowing Nike and RTFKT logo cutouts on the laterals. What’s housed within the boxes is being kept a secret. “Like this post if you’re confused,” RTFKT comments on its own announcement post. RTFKT was founded by three friend...

If you’re looking to spice up your morning runs or gym sessions with a few tunes or a fresh podcast, adidas is here to help with its new FWD-02 SPORT in-ear wireless earbuds. Designed with athletes in mind, the new earphones offer exceptional ergonomic fits with a wide range of interchangeable tips and wings so you’ll find the perfect fit no matter how active your workout is. Its intuitive controls are both glove-friendly and sweat-proof to provide an optimal user experience regardless of the weather, and a compact charging case will keep things light and handy when you’re on the move. Each session can last up to six hours in battery life, with the case providing a total of 19 hours when recharging the buds. If you’re exercising outdoors, there’s also an awareness mode to let ambient noise...

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed staff in a late night memo addressing Joe Rogan’s use of the n-word and the mysterious removal of 70 podcast episodes earlier this week. The total number of deleted Joe Rogan Experience episodes is now 113, according to the website jremissing.com. “Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful — I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company,” Ek writes in the memo, which The Verge obtained. “I know this situation leaves many of you feeling drained, frustrated and unheard.” He goes on to say Spotify spoke with Rogan and his team about “some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language.” Following these chats “and his own reflections,” Ek says Rogan “chose to remove a ...

The Galaxy S22 has leaked extensively, but there’s only so much you can tell from renders. For example, it turns out that Samsung has created a “new material” to use in the product — one made from the plastic in discarded fishing nets. Samsung says it’ll soon “incorporate repurposed ocean-bound plastics” across its whole product lineup, and the first example will be the Galaxy devices introduced at the Unpacked event this Wednesday, February 9th. It’s not yet clear to what extent the material will be used or in which parts of the products; Samsung isn’t explicit about how it fits into any of the devices’ construction. Citing a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that says 640,000 tons of fishing nets are discarded in the oceans every year, Samsung says t...

Samsung has revealed that its future Galaxy devices will be built with a new material that incorporates repurposed ocean-bound discarded fishing nets, as part of a broader Galaxy for the Planet sustainability initiative. While ocean plastic is often thought of as single-use water bottles or bags, 640,000 tons of fishing nets are abandoned and discarded every year. The “ghost nets” have floated in the oceans for centuries, posing a serious hidden threat to marine ecosystems. Beyond repurposing ocean-bound plastics, Samsung’s Galaxy for the Planet mission also aims to eliminate all plastics in mobile packaging, achieve zero waste to landfill, and incorporate recycled materials in all mobile products by 2025. “We believe that everyone has a role to play in providing innovative solutions that ...

After getting a glimpse at Oppo’s upcoming flagship phone in January (which is said to be called the Find X5 Pro), a new leak from WinFuture gives us a pretty solid picture of what to expect, both in terms of design and technical specifications. As mentioned by the previous leak, WinFuture indicates the Find X5 Pro comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. Alongside the top-of-the-line CPU could be a Qualcomm Adreno 730 graphics chip, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of internal storage. The device is also rumored to have a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 3216 x 1440px and a refresh rate of 120Hz. WinFuture also found that the phone may come with a 5,000mAH battery pack, in addition to having 80W fast-charging capabilities. The Find X5 Pro may come in black and white.Image by WinFutu...