Technology

British audio manufacturer Chord has announced a successor to the excellent Mojo, a battery-powered accessory that aims to improve the sound of your wired headphones or speakers when paired with your phone, laptop, tablet, or other digital media source. New features for the Mojo 2 include a USB-C input, better battery life, and new tone controls that effectively work like an equalizer to customize the sound it puts out. The Mojo 2 retails for $725 (£449), which is hardly affordable by any measure. However, if it’s as good as its predecessor, then this might be a price worth paying to accompany a pair of suitably premium wired headphones or speakers. It’s available globally starting today. The Mojo 2, like the original Mojo, is effectively a battery-powered digital-to-analog converter (aka ...

Microsoft appears to still be working on true 3D emoji for Windows after first teasing it last year and then only shipping 2D versions in Windows 11. Nando Costa, a distinguished designer at Microsoft, revealed recently that the company is still working on making Windows 11’s emoji look more 3D. On Friday, Costa authored a blog post on Microsoft’s new direction for its emoji system, detailing the company’s push towards 3D after a 2020 hackathon. Responding to a tweet from someone wanting 3D emoji in Windows 11, Costa says “We’re working on that,” with a grinning face with sweat emoji. We still don’t know when 3D emoji will appear in Windows 11, but at least Microsoft is still working on bringing its original vision to life. 3D emoji may still be coming to Windows 11.Image: Microsoft While ...

BAPE has officially announced its entry into the NFT space with (B)APETAVERSE, an NFT community that promises BAPE fans access to exclusive content and other opportunities. “All beings of the Metaverse, come greet The King of Apes, whose new face shall be unveiled soon,” reads the description. There will be 10,000 unique NFTs total, and judging from the blacked-out teaser image, the artwork looks to deviate away from the usual pixel-art and drawing-based styles currently prevalent in the market, opting for a more life-like digitally rendered aesthetic. BAPE’s new announcement is part of a larger industry movement towards the metaverse space with the two largest sportswear giants already involved: Nike through RTFKT and adidas with Bored Ape Yacht Club. BAPE is perhaps the first and largest...

Joe Rogan has issued a response to the ongoing controversy that has seen artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their music from Spotify because of not wanting to share a platform with his popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. In a nearly ten-minute video uploaded to Instagram, Rogan defends his decision to book contentious guests, apologizes to Spotify for the backlash, and details how the podcast may change in the future. “These podcasts are very strange because they’re just conversations,” Rogan says. “And oftentimes I have no idea what I’m going to talk about until I sit down and talk to people. And that’s why some of my ideas are not that prepared or fleshed out because I’m literally having them in real time, but I do my best and they’re just conversations, and I...

Spotify will be adding content advisories to podcast episodes discussing COVID-19, shortly after artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from Spotify over Joe Rogan‘s podcast episode from December 31. In a recent blog post, co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek shared that they are aiming to “combat misinformation” with the newly-added warnings. “This advisory will direct listeners to our dedicated COVID-19 Hub, a resource that provides easy access to data-driven facts, up-to-date information as shared by scientists, physicians, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources,” he wrote. “This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days. To our knowledge, this content advisory ...

An unofficial Minecraft NFT collection has been the latest project at the subject of another rug pull. Earlier this week, the project named “Blockverse” which considered “an an on-chain Ethereum NFT that enables a unique P2E on Minecraft like no other,” also known as a play-to-earn PvP Minecraft server, seemingly sold $1.2 million USD in tokens before completely disappearing. Blockverse initially released 10,000 NFTs all priced at $124 USD each, also known as 0.05 ETH. All the NFTs were sold out in less than eight minutes, but days later, the project’s creators pulled the plug and even deleted their website, game server and Discord server. Along with those, the creators also vanished with all the money. After a few days of silence, the Blockverse founders resurfaced on Twitter to explain a...

T-Mobile is the newest company to announce that it will fire its unvaccinated corporate employees starting April 2. The company confirmed the news to Engadget, with a spokesperson stating, “T-Mobile’s badge-controlled offices continue to be accessible only to those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 and we have shared with employees that we are requiring office workers to be fully vaccinated by April 2nd.” The spokesperson continued, “We understand that this is a deeply personal decision for some employees but we believe that taking this step will put us in the best position to protect our T-Mobile community.” According to an internal email, the company’s chief human resources officer Deeanne King stated that staff who are only half-vaccinated by February 21 will be put on unpaid leave. T...

Spotify will now add COVID-19 content advisories to podcast episodes that discuss COVID-19 following criticism of the platform’s handling of the controversial content in the Joe Rogan Experience. The advisory will lead to Spotify’s COVID-19 hub, which contains credible and up-to-date information about the pandemic. To increase transparency around its treatment of the issue, Spotify is making its COVID-19 content policy and general platform rules publicly available on its site. Spotify says anyone who breaks the rules may have the content in question removed, with repeat offenders potentially having their accounts suspended or banned. The Verge obtained this policy ahead of the platform’s public release, and an internal memo revealed that Joe Rogan’s podcast didn’t “meet the threshold for r...

Apple will now let developers distribute unlisted apps through the App Store that only users with a direct link can access (via MacRumors). While unlisted apps aren’t discoverable by the general public through search results, App Store categories, charts, or recommendations, they’re available to administrators via the Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager. Unlisted apps are ideal for “limited audiences” Apple notes that unlisted apps are ideal for “limited audiences,” such as guests at a special event, members of an organization, research study participants, or a specific group of employees. To make an app unlisted and obtain a link, developers will first need to submit a request to Apple. Apps that have only been approved for private download on the Apple Business Manager or Appl...

AT&T has a new Unlimited Max prepaid plan with 5G, and it’s available at Walmart for $45 / month. The plan comes with unlimited 5G data, unlimited talk and text, 100GB of cloud storage, HD streaming, and 10GB of available data when using your phone as a mobile hot spot. AT&T’s lowest-priced unlimited 5G plan available outside of Walmart (which doesn’t even come with HD streaming) will cost you $65 / month. While the Walmart-only Unlimited Max plan does allow for HD streaming, it streams in standard definition by default. You can stream in HD by turning off Stream Saver (a mode that plays video in 480p to save data) on AT&T’s prepaid site, or by calling 611. For comparison, several standard prepaid unlimited 5G plans, like Metro by T-Mobile’s $50 / month plan, Mint Mobile’s $40 ...

Popular podcast host and author Brené Brown says she’s not going to release any new podcast episodes “until further notice” and didn’t offer a specific reason why. Brown’s pause on her podcasts comes shortly after both Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music off Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast series. Brown signed a multi-year deal with Spotify in 2020, and is the host of Spotify exclusive podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead. “I will not be releasing any podcasts until further notice,” Brown wrote on Twitter. “To our #UnlockingUs and #DaretoLead communities, I’m sorry and I’ll let you know if and when that changes.” I will not be releasing any podcasts until further notice. To our #UnlockingUs and #DaretoLead communities, I’m sorry and I’ll let you ...

A new teaser for Paramount Plus’ live-action Halo series reveals the long-awaited show’s release date: March 24th, 2022 (via IGN). At around the 52-second mark, you can hear the announcer state the fast-approaching release date. The one-minute video teases a longer trailer set to debut during tonight’s AFC championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals — it flashes between clips of the live-action series and both teams on the field. The upcoming trailer will air during the game between 4:45PM to 5PM ET, which you can view on CBS or Paramount Plus. The Halo show stars Pablo Shreiber of American Gods as Master Chief, with Jen Taylor taking on the familiar role of the super soldier’s AI assistant, Cortana. Natasha McElhone, who was originally cast to play Cortana, wil...