Technology

CLOT and luxury audio brand Bang & Olufsen have collaborated on a new limited-edition portable Beosound A1 speaker. The project brings a new beat that celebrates the vitality and continues CLOT’s mission of bridging the East and West. “Bang & Olufsen and CLOT share a passion for modern craftsmanship and premium materials. CLOT’s goal of bridging cultures through experiences and sensations to a new generation resonates with our own mission to design sound that sparks the senses for the ultimate listening experience,” sais Christoffer Poulsen, SVP of Product Management & Brand Partnering at Bang & Olufsen. The partnership draws from the life force of blood and the origin of the name CLOT, which was inspired by Jamaican reggae music that the brand’s founder and Creative Direct...

Elon Musk said Monday at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO summit that he doesn’t think the United States needs the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill — or any government subsidies, for that matter. “Just delete them all,” he said. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said during the interview that he’s concerned about the federal deficit. “We’ve spent so much money.. the federal budget deficit is insane,” he said. “I would say… can the whole bill. Don’t pass it, that’s my recommendation,” Musk said. Musk pointed out that Tesla has been selling its electric cars for more than a year in the US without the $7,500 federal tax credit, without taking a demand hit. Most other automakers, save for General Motors, are still eligible for the credit. [embedded content] The Build Back Better portion of...

A filing just revealed an SEC investigation into the plans for a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) named Digital World Acquisition Corp. to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and start trading on the Nasdaq, so what’s next for the would-be social media/regular media giant? Naturally, TMTG has just announced a splashy new hire as its CEO, recruiting Congressman Devin G. Nunes. A supporter, and defender of Trump, Nunes served on the House Intelligence Committee as it investigated allegations Russia helped the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Yes, that’s also “I sued Twitter for letting Devin Nunes’ Mom and Devin Nunes’ Cow insult me” Devin G. Nunes. The congressman plans to leave the US House of Representatives — where redistricting may have made his curren...

Halo Infinite’s campaign launches on Wednesday, but after your first trip through the story, you won’t be able to replay missions without starting all the way over, Microsoft confirmed to Polygon. It’s a significant omission, since it means you won’t be able to get collectibles you miss the first time around. It also means Infinite is the first Halo game without a way to go back and easily replay a chapter. That might not always be the case, though, as developer 343 Industries wants to add the feature down the line, the studio told The Verge. “We haven’t announced a date but that is being worked on,” 343 Industries associate creative director Paul Crocker said in an interview. “We want to have replay that works well, and when you have a more open game, it gets a lot trickier,” he said. “So...

Samsung Electronics has announced an internal reorganization of its businesses with several changes to leadership. The company will have two new CEOs overseeing two divisions: Device Solutions, which is the semiconductors business, and a new SET Division that includes mobile, TVs, and consumer electronics. It’s the biggest change to Samsung’s structure since 2017, when the company appointed three leaders for three separate divisions. Jong-hee (JH) Han, the head of the Visual Display business, is also now a co-CEO with responsibility for the SET division. Samsung credits him with having led the company to the top position in TV sales worldwide for 15 years running and says he is “expected to strengthen the synergies among the different businesses in the SET Division and help drive new busin...

Looking ahead to its ultimate goal of landing humans on Mars, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has now unveiled a new concept image of what its Mars-bound Starship would look like. Taking to Twitter to showcase the company’s designs, Musk posted a picture of what appears to be two slim, silver rockets docked at a launch pay in preparation of an upcoming journey into the final frontier along with the caption “We will soon make these real” and a follow-up explaining that they’re “Starships to Mars.” While a manned mission to the red planet remains years away, progress continues to take place with the CEO revealing earlier last week that the construction of orbital launch pads for its Starships at Cape Canaveral has already begun. The new developments probably don’t come as a surprise following Musk’s co...

The global chip shortage has claimed yet another camera from Sony’s lineup. This time, Sony is suspending orders for the ZV-E10, a mirrorless vlogging camera that the company released in August, as reported by Digital Photography Review. Sony announced the camera’s suspension in a post on its website, noting that it will no longer sell the ZV-E10 on its store or through any of its distributors for the time being. “With regard to digital imaging products, parts procurement is delayed due to the effects of global semiconductor shortages,” a translation of Sony’s notice reads. This is far from the only device that Sony has temporarily discontinued this year Unfortunately, this is far from the only device that Sony has temporarily discontinued this year. In November, Sony stopped selling the A...

On Monday, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced his Earth Fund’s latest round of grants: $443 million to be spent primarily on land conservation and restoration and efforts to reduce environmental burdens on marginalized communities. This year, the fund has pledged more than $3 billion for similar initiatives. In 2020, Bezos promised to funnel $10 billion — about 5 percent of his current net worth — toward tackling climate change this decade. From the beginning, the Bezos Earth Fund has faced criticism From the beginning, the Bezos Earth Fund has faced criticism, particularly from some grassroots environmental groups. At first, Bezos primarily funded big-name environmental groups with historically white leadership and comparatively large budgets rather than supporting more Indigenous and pe...

Japan is proposing new restrictions that would only allow banks and wire transfer services to issue stablecoins, first reported by Nikkei Asia. Stablecoins are a type of digital currency that’s pegged to an external asset, like a fiat currency, gold, or other investments, in an attempt to keep the coin at a stable price. Tether is one example of a stablecoin, and it’s no stranger to controversy. In October, it was fined $41 million for old claims that each token was backed 1-to-1 by its cash reserves — according to the CFTC, “Tether reserves were not ‘fully backed’ the majority of the time.” This follows similar plans to regulate stablecoins in the US The country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans to introduce the legislation in 2022, following similar plans to regulate stablecoins in...

Google is releasing an update for its Pixel Buds A-Series wireless headphones, which will add a bass slider, a loudness compensation setting for better bass and treble response at low volumes, and a nice connectivity improvement (via Droid-Life). Given that the buds are only $99 (or free, if you got them with a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro preorder), it’s nice to see Google adding new features through software updates. As we learned earlier today, the Pixel Buds will be getting more control over the bass response. The buds had a “bass boost” option before, but now you’ll be able to turn up the bass using a four-step slider — and you can even turn it down a notch if that’s what you prefer. The Pixel Buds A-Series can fall back if they can’t connect to the last-used device Google also says that if the P...

Solar Ash is a visually stunning though mechanically uninteresting game that I tried and failed to fall in love with. I thought it’d be easy to love or at least somewhat like a game made by the same folks who developed Hyper Light Drifter and published by the company that underwrote indie darlings Kentucky Route Zero and What Remains of Edith Finch. But after a couple hours of grav-boosting my way through colorful but sterile environments and beating on the same handful of enemies, Solar Ash just couldn’t hold me — and that’s a shame since most things with Ash in its name are pretty neat. In Solar Ash, you play a voidrunner tasked with saving your planet from the black hole that’s slowly sucking in your homeworld like my dog thinks will happen to him whenever I fire up the Hoover. The big ...

When I reviewed the 15-inch Galaxy Book Pro 360 earlier this year, I concluded that it was great — but that its somewhat unique combination of a 15-inch OLED screen, integrated graphics, and a stylus at a fairly premium price point made its audience fairly specific. The package it offers is somewhat unusual in the 15-inch space. The 13-inch Galaxy Book Pro is clearly the laptop I was looking for. Like many of Samsung’s Galaxy Books, this device has a thin and light chassis, a standout screen, and excellent battery life. Unlike many other Galaxy Books, it doesn’t come with significant compromises for those benefits, and it doesn’t cost a fortune — my test unit is $999. It comes with many of the benefits that we’d expect from a premium business laptop, but also with a consumer-accessible pri...