Technology

Wyze has officially launched a new pay-what-you-want subscription tier for its lineup of home security cameras called Cam Plus Lite. In a forum post, the company explains that Cam Plus Lite includes Person Detection, which alerts you when it detects a human being rather than just motion, as well as cloud recordings that are limited to 12 seconds in length, with a 5 minute cooldown period between them. Users can choose to pay as little as $0 a month for the new tier. Wyze also says it’s removing the 32GB microSD card size limit on its cameras, and is adding new rewind and skip buttons to make it easier to scrub through locally-saved footage. Regarding subscriptions, Wyze started experimenting with its pay-what-you-want model for its person detection feature back in 2020, hoping (correctly) ...

Lime’s next-generation electric bikes are finally making their North American debut. Nearly a year after announcing its plans to spend $50 million on a major e-bike expansion, the San Francisco-based micromobility company says it will deploy the first wave of new bikes in Washington, DC, starting this week. Lime says the new bikes are significantly improved over the ones currently in service, which the company inherited from Jump after acquiring the bike-share company from Uber in 2020. The $50 million investment will largely go toward designing, manufacturing, and assembling its next-generation bike, which start rolling out this year. The new model comes with a more powerful 350-watt motor and a swappable battery capable of up to 25 miles of range. 350-watt motor and a swappable battery c...

Logitech’s Litra Glow is a small LED light that’s designed to illuminate you while you’re sitting at your desk. It’s designed primarily with content creators like Twitch streamers or YouTubers in mind, but should work just as well for smartening you up on a Zoom call. In other words, it looks like a competitor to Elgato’s $129.99 Key Light Air, but at a more affordable $59.99 (€69) price point. It’s not an identical accessory. Rather than having a large desk stand, the Litra Glow comes with a small mount to balance it on top of a monitor. It looks like it might be less versatile than the Key Light Air’s stand, but it could be more convenient if you want to reduce desk clutter. Power is provided via a USB-C port on its back. The light can be mounted on a monitor, and has physical hardware c...

This pandemic has more people working from home than ever before, but it’s not all lollipops and daffodils. While there may have been some early excitement about not commuting or being breathed on by Chet the Xerox Tech, an actual home office can be downright depressing and / or uncomfortable. I should know. As someone who has freelanced for the great majority of the last decade, I’ve worked from home nearly that whole time — even when home was a camper van for more than five of those years. Yes, that was a tight space for a home office, but those constraints led me to refine my WFH game to keep my body healthy and my mind at least partially sane. Here are some of the tips (and items) that made the biggest difference for me. Desk setup If you only do one thing on this list, make sure your ...

Located in the Western Pacific Ocean, the Republic of Palau is an archipelago of over 500 islands and home to just over 18,000 inhabitants. While traditionally known for its beautiful natural landscapes and pristine dive sites, a new development has brought the small island nation into focus. Palau’s President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. has just signed a major agreement putting into motion a digital residency program that will grant “all global users” the chance to apply for digital residency. The project is spearheaded by Paulo Alto-based Cryptic Labs and uses its Root Name System (RNS) to allow citizens from around the world to claim digital residency in Palau through blockchain. If accepted, the new digital residents can reap the benefits of residency without needing to physically reside th...

A federal judge says the US Federal Trade Commission can proceed with an antitrust lawsuit against Meta, formerly known as Facebook, after dismissing the suit last year. District of Columbia Judge James Boasberg said in an opinion released today that the FTC’s first complaint had “stumbled out of the starting blocks.” But a revised version, Boasberg said, makes the same arguments with facts that are “far more robust and detailed than before.” As a result, he’s denying Meta’s motion to dismiss and allowing the case to proceed, although he states that the agency “may well face a tall task down the road in proving its allegations.” The FTC may still face a “tall task” proving its claims Throughout the case, the FTC has alleged that Meta holds an unlawful monopoly in personal social networking...

The second union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama will begin on February 4th, according to a notice posted Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which you can read below. The election is a redo of the one that was carried out in 2021, the results of which were declared invalid by the regulatory agency after reports that Amazon had broken labor laws during the union drive. The election will be carried out almost a year after workers originally voted on whether to unionize Amazon’s BHM1 facility. The union lost that election nearly two-to-one but disputed the results, taking issue with a mailbox that employees feared Amazon had access to. The mailbox was installed by the USPS, at Amazon’s request, and at one point had a “privacy tent” put up around it, whi...

Has Apple taken action against apps that cloned the popular web game Wordle? They have now disappeared from the App Store, after several publications (including The Verge) called out a flood of copycats so blatant as to be named “Wordle” and that featured the same gameplay and UI, each taking advantage of the fact that developer Josh Wardle didn’t create an Apple app of his own. While we’re still seeing a few clones on the App Store, they don’t use the Wordle name. The clone apps had a spotlight shone on them today, when one developer started bragging about how many downloads his version of Wordle was getting. Following some intense backlash from the community, he set his account to private, but people had already started finding many other apps like it on the App Store. The search results...

Instagram users could soon have the ability to change the order of the posts on their grid. Leaker Alessandro Paluzzi recently shared that the social media platform is “working on the ability to edit the profile grid allowing you to rearrange posts in any order you like.” The screenshots shared on Twitter showed an “Edit Grid” button in the profile settings and the rearrangement of the grid posts, meaning that users’ grid could be shown in an order aside from chronological. The report arrives shortly after Instagram began testing the return of its chronological feed. CEO Adam Mosseri shared in a statement, “We think it’s important that you can get to a chronological feed, if you’re interested, quickly and see the latest that has been posted by the accounts that you follow.” Take ...

Golden State Warriors Point Guard Stephen Curry has invested in LinksDAO, a collective of golf enthusiasts and crypto collectors that are pooling funds to buy a golf course. “Welcome to LinksDAO @StephenCurry30,” the growing crypto project tweeted. Welcome to LinksDAO, @StephenCurry30 – See you on the 1st tee! ⛳️ — LinksDAO (@LinksDAO) January 10, 2022 On its website, LinksDao describes itself as “a global community of thousands of enthusiasts …. come together to create one of the world’s greatest golf clubs.” There are two tiers of memberships in the form of NFTs — a Leisure Membership and a Global Membership — which give members access to the community, governance and a range of other perks. In its roadmap, the group aims to acquire “one of the world’s greate...

Qudi debuted the world’s first emotional LED mask at CES 2022. The mask is made out of translucent glass eye goggles attached to a mouth coverage that contains 199 smart LED pixels. The mask features several modes showcasing different LED displays. In robot mode, the mask corresponds to speech and shows one of six emotions, including .ove, smiling, shocked, confused, angry or a cat face. It also reacts to yes or no head nodding movements. In equalizer mode, the mask responds to the volume of music being played, while in demo mode, the mask switches between 12 different built-in animations. Animations can be changed manually using either a touch button on the mask control unit or via the Qudi app. The first prototype covered only half of the face and contained 30 pixels, Qudi founder Mikhai...

Apple has long been rumored to be working on its very own mixed reality headset, but it now appears that the tech giant has no plans for the metaverse. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, the tech giant is steering clear of the concept completely, whether a self-created one or tapping into Meta’s iteration, calling it completely “off limits.” Instead, it’ll be focusing predominantly on gaming, communications and entertainment content, with past rumors indicating that it’d boast an impressive 8K resolution per eye and utilize more than a dozen “inside out” cameras to track movement. Reports also suggest a hefty price tag somewhere in the ballpark of $3,000 USD. While the device does sound like a little overkill for most casual users with that kind of pricing, it might not be entirely...