Technology

There’s a new teaser for the first season of Super Pumped, Showtime’s upcoming anthology show about Silicon Valley startups that hit it big. As we saw in the teaser from December, season one will revolve around Uber and its former CEO Travis Kalanick, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The show’s first story will be based on the book that’s also named Super Pumped, which was written by New York Times reporter Mike Issac. It’ll follow the, in the trailer’s words, “wild, loud, cocky, shady, reckless, excessive, ridiculous, damaging, outrageous” story of Uber’s founder, who resigned from his role as CEO in 2017 after investors demanded change following a series of controversies. [embedded content] This new trailer contains some quotable moments, including one where someone asks “is this legal?” ...

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance, has an estimated net worth of $96 billion USD, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.  This is the first time Bloomberg has calculated his fortune, which would put him above Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, who’s worth $93.3 billion USD. It would also position him as the 11th wealthiest billionaire in the world under investors like Larry Ellison, Steve Balmer and Warren Buffett. Bloomberg says that Zhao’s fortune could be “significantly larger” than it estimates, as the index doesn’t take into account his personal crypto holdings, which include Bitcoin and Binance Coin. The outlet said that Binance generated at least $20 billion USD of revenue last year, based on an analysis of its trading volume and fees. “Crypto i...

Bitcoin on Monday briefly dipped below $40,000 USD and Ethereum sunk to just under $3,000 USD before leveling off later in the day. According to Coinbase, Bitcoin dropped to $39,650 USD at around 9:30 a.m. ET before climbing back up to about $41,700 by close of trading. Ethereum sunk to $2,929.60 in early morning trading before ending the day at $3,086 USD. These prices marked a major drop for both coins — Bitcoin hasn’t slid below $40,000 USD since August, while Ethereum has managed to stay above $3,000 USD since September. Overall, the crypto market was down by $0.92% on Monday, according to Coinbase.  CNBC pinned the price drop on investors looking to dump risky investments like cryptocurrency. Bitcoin started off the year with a six-day losing streak but stayed above the...

The Associated Press (AP) is preparing to sell its critically-acclaimed modern and historic photography as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on a new platform built by blockchain technology provider Xooa. AP’s first NFT collection will include photography from present and former photojournalists at the company and feature a selection of Pulitzer Prize-winning images. “For 175 years AP’s photographers have recorded the world’s biggest stories through gripping and poignant images that continue to resonate today,” said Dwayne Desaulniers, AP director of blockchain and data licensing, in a statement. “With Xooa’s technology, we are proud to offer these tokenized pieces to a fast-growing global audience of photography NFT collectors.” The NFTs will range across images of space, climate, war and variou...

Uber has quietly shut down its Apple Watch app, with the software now showing a message that instructs people to “please switch to the Uber mobile app.” The company is “no longer supporting the Apple Watch app,” according to the text, which ends with Uber apologizing for any inconvenience caused by the app’s discontinuation. There’s also a sad face emoji to drive that sentiment home. As noted by MacRumors, Uber hasn’t yet removed the Apple Watch app from its App Store listing, where it still gets its own tab and screenshots. Presumably, that will all be history once the company releases its next update to the iOS app. The Verge has reached out to Uber for more details, and if I had to guess, the company is likely to cite low usage as the main reason for its Apple Watch exit. Uber’s Apple W...

Take-Two Interactive just announced its intent to buy FarmVille developer Zynga for $12.7 billion in what could be the biggest acquisition in video game history. It’s an absolutely massive deal; to put it in perspective, the acquisition would be $5 billion more than Microsoft’s $7.5 billion purchase of the parent company of Skyrim maker Bethesda Softworks. You could throw in the money Disney paid for Lucasfilm and still have cash left over. So what is Take-Two getting for its money? Yes, big Zynga games like FarmVille, Words With Friends, and High Heels! will join Take-Two’s own roster of franchises that includes Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, and Civilization. But perhaps more importantly, Take-Two will now be able to use Zynga’s expertise building hugely popular free-to-play mobile titles so ...

T-Mobile appears to be blocking some iPhone users from enabling iCloud Private Relay, a feature that lets you hide the websites you visit from third parties, according to a report from 9to5Mac. Private Relay is still in beta in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, and it isn’t turned on by default. You have to go into your iPhone’s settings to switch it on, which is where some T-Mobile customers have noticed a strange message popping up. As shown in the above tweet, the user is presented with the message, “Your cellular plan doesn’t support iCloud Private Relay. With Private Relay turned off, this network can monitor your internet activity, and your IP address is not hidden from known trackers or websites.” In a reply to that tweet, the user shows what happens when you click the “Learn More” button below...

Two LAPD officers who were fired from their jobs in 2017 for playing Pokémon Go while on duty have had their appeal for reinstatement denied by a California judge. The officers’ squad car video camera showed the two officers, Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell, ignored a request for backup to play the game, according to court documents. The pair were stationed near a robbery in progress, and after the responding officers put out a call for backup, Lozano and Mitchell seemingly ignored the call and left the area. When asked later why they hadn’t responded to the call, the two officers said they were in a loud area and couldn’t hear their radio. Lozano and Mitchell’s supervisor was skeptical of their explanation and checked the in-car recording system (commonly known as a dashcam), which reveale...

Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike is stepping down as CEO of the company, he announced in a blog post on Monday. Executive chairman Brian Acton will serve as acting CEO until a replacement is found. “Every day, I’m struck by how boundless Signal’s potential looks, and I want to bring in someone with fresh energy and commitment to make the most of that,” Marlinspike wrote. “I now feel very comfortable replacing myself as CEO based on the team we have.” The company has met with several CEO candidates “over the last few months,” Marlinspike wrote, but the search remains ongoing. Founded in 2014, Signal has grown into one of the most trusted and robust apps for encrypted messaging. The service has more than 40 million monthly users and is regularly recommended in security guides. Established as...

Genetics testing company 23andMe received Food and Drug Administration clearance for its prostate cancer risk test, the company announced today. It’s 23andMe’s third clearance for a cancer risk report — the company also has tests for genes that predict breast and colorectal cancer risk. The test screens for a specific mutation on the HOXB13 gene linked with an increased risk of developing prostate cancer. Men with the mutation, the G84E variant, have around a three-fold higher chance of developing prostate cancer than men without, one study found. Around one in 70 people of European descent have the variant, according to a statement from 23andMe. The prostate cancer risk report is not yet available to 23andMe customers, the company said. Customers will be able to choose whether or not they...

Apple appears to have quietly discontinued the Beats Pill Plus, with the portable wireless speaker no longer appearing on either Apple or Beats’ websites, as spotted by 9to5Mac. Originally released in 2015, the Pill Plus was the first speaker released under the Beats brand since the music company was purchased by Apple for $3 billion back in 2014. A more refined version of the original Beats Pill speaker, the Pill Plus was an Apple-ified version of the original product, with sleeker monochromatic color options and the addition of a Lightning port for charging. Apple and Beats would continue to go on to build out Beats’ lineup of headphones over the intervening half-decade, with products like recent Beats Fit Pro or Powerbeats earbuds, both of which feature the same H1 chips and software in...

App Store developers have earned more than $260 billion since the store launched in 2008, according to a Monday press release from Apple. Apple said last January that developers had earned more than $200 billion since the launch of the App Store, so the new figure shared Monday indicates developers earned $60 billion in 2021. The iPhone maker also said that spending on the App Store between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in 2021 grew by a double-digit amount, though it didn’t specify exactly what that number might be. While the new numbers suggest that the App Store continues to be a big moneymaker, developer unhappiness with the store is high at the current moment. Many developers have taken issue with what they see as restrictive store policies, particularly the 30 percent cut Apple ta...