Technology

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has banned the flying of consumer drones by hobbyists. The news comes after a suspected drone attack hit an oil facility and airport in the country’s capital, Abu Dhabi, last week. The ban was announced by the Ministry of the Interior on Saturday and also applies to light aircraft like gliders. The ministry did not mention the recent attacks in its statement, but referenced “misuse spotted recently,” incidents of drone pilots “trespassing into areas where these types of activities are prohibited,” and a need to “ensure the safety of lives and property.” The attack involved ‘ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones’ The recent attack on the oil facility and airport in Abu Dhabi reportedly involved both “ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones,” acco...

Wisk Aero, the electric air taxi startup, raised $450 million from Boeing in a new funding round that it claims will make it “one of the most well-funded [advanced air mobility] companies in the world.” In its announcement, Wisk highlights the fact that its “a privately-backed AAM leader,” setting up a contrast with a slate of similar startups that have gone public in recent months by merging with special purpose acquisition companies, also known as SPACs or “blank check” companies. Wisk Aero was formed in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, the flying taxi company bankrolled by Google co-founder Larry Page. Wisk says it will use the new funds to undertake a period of rapid growth, adding new employees to its current workforce of approximately 350 people and kicking off ...

Shortly after rumors surfaced suggesting the Samsung Galaxy S22 will carry the company’s latest ray-tracing-enabled Exynos mobile processor, the price list for most of the new series’ models has now reportedly leaked. The numbers originate from WinFuture‘s Roland Quandt, who took to Twitter with a comprehensive price list in Euros for seven variants of the upcoming smartphone along with their RAM and memory capacities. According to the leaker, the lowest entry-level S22 will hold 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, coming with a price tag of €850 EUR (approximately $963 USD), while the S22+ will start at €1,050 EUR (approximately $1,189 USD) with the same memory specs. As for its top tier models, the S22 Ultra with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will come in at €1,350 EUR (approximately...

Ozzy Osbourne‘s new NFT project CryptoBatz has fallen victim to a phishing scam causing tens of thousands of dollars to be drained from buyers. The exploit was made possible after the project changed URLs for its Discord channel from discord.gg/cryptobatznft to just discord.gg/cryptobatz. Despite the swap, the project failed to delete previous tweets promoting the old URL, which scammers subsequently managed to register. The false Discord server brought in 1,330 users, who were then subjected to a phishing scam from links a bot sent regarding verification of their crypto assets in order to participate in the sale. According to Tim Silman, who lost money to the scam himself, roughly $400 USD in ETH was taken from his wallet, but many other users suffered worse fates. “I’ve seen at least a d...

Potential European pricing information for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 series has been released by reliable leaker Roland Quandt, as reported by Android Police. Samsung appears to have carried over its prices from the previous S21 lineup, with the only inconsistency being an equally-priced S22 Ultra model that supposedly comes with less RAM than its S21 predecessor. Whoever said S22 series was to be cheaper, didn’t think of Covid, parts shortages and inflation. Actual official EURO prices:S22 8/128GB = 849S22 8/256GB = 899S22+ 8/128GB = 1049S22+ 8/256GB = 1099S22 Ultra 8/128GB = 1249S22 Ultra 12/256GB = 1349S22 Ultra 12/512GB = 1449 pic.twitter.com/QRnfrhkzTz — Roland Quandt (@rquandt) January 22, 2022 Quandt claims the S22 will start at 849€ (~$963), the S22 Plus will set you ba...

If you’ve connected your bank account to financial apps like Robinhood, Acorns, Venmo, American Express, Coinbase, and Credit Karma, you may be entitled to some cash, according to a report by Fast Company. Plaid, the financial service these apps (and 5,500 others) use to link your bank account, has settled a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of collecting more financial data from users than necessary. The suit also alleges Plaid obtained users’ bank login information “through its user interface, known as ‘Plaid Link,’ which had the look and feel of the user’s own bank account login screen.” In reality, users were inputting their information “directly to Plaid.” Plaid denies these claims and says it was transparent with its customers. Plaid has been ordered to pay $58 million to aff...

Apple has extended its deadline requiring online group and event apps to comply with the company’s in-app purchase policy once again, as announced in a post on the company’s developer’s blog (via 9to5Mac). Apps in this category can now use alternate payment options until June 30th, allowing them to skirt Apple’s 15 to 30 percent cut the company takes out of in-app purchases. “In 2020, we chose to support apps and developers that needed to adapt services from in-person to digital as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Apple writes in the post. “Given the recent resurgence of COVID and its continued impact on in-person services, we’ve extended the most recent deadline.” Apple first deferred its rule targeting group event apps in November 2020 Apple introduced changes to its in-app purchase p...

Spoilers ahead for And Just Like That… and Billions. Peloton really can’t catch a break. Not only did rumors it’s temporarily suspending production of its connected bikes and treadmills send the stock plunging on Thursday, but — in a plot twist worthy of the big screen — a second TV show character has been shown having a heart attack while riding a Peloton. This comes just over a month after a beloved character from Sex and the City was killed off after a workout on one of the company’s bikes. Mr. Big’s ghost rides again to haunt Peloton In the season six premiere of Billions (available in an early release via streaming, including for free on YouTube, ahead of the show’s usual Sunday night time slot), the character Wags’ Peloton ride is interrupted by EMTs who tell him he’s having a ...

On Thursday, the European Parliament voted to approve the initial draft of a bill that aims to curb Big Tech’s invasive advertising practices (via Bloomberg). The Parliament adopted the draft with 530 votes of approval, 78 against, and 80 absentations. The Digital Services Act, which was first introduced in 2020, will prevent platforms, like Google, Amazon, and the Meta-owned Facebook, from using sensitive information, such as sexual orientation, race, and religion for targeted ads. It will require services to give users the ability to easily opt out of tracking, and pressures platforms to remove illegal content and products online, including hate speech or counterfeit goods. “With a huge majority, the European Parliament adopted the Digital Services Act,” Dutch politician and Parliament m...

CIYCE has just released its affordable gaming headset on Kickstarter. The 7.1-surround sound Evolution headset features 30 ms latency, is compatible with smartphones, the Sony PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Mac/PC, has active noise canceling, and is the world’s first headset that can connect via three methods — Type-C + USB, 3.5mm, and Bluetooth5.1. The headset also features removable ear pads (it comes with both synthetic leather and fabric covers), four ANC mics, and two ENC/call mics. The chat microphones are hidden inside the headset’s RGB LED housing that’s made to look like an alien’s head. Designed by gamers, the CIYCE Evolution can be backed now over at Kickstarter for $78 USD. In other tech news, mastermind JAPAN and COTODAMA reconnect for Lyric Speaker Box release. Read ...