Technology

For the first time, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has agreed to testify in front of Congress over the app’s potential dangers and negative impact on young people. Mosseri is expected to appear before the Senate panel the week of December 6 over a series of hearings regarding the protection of children from online scenarios. Mosseri’s appearance comes after this year’s hearing with Meta‘s global head of safety, Antigone Davis and former employee turned whistle-blower Frances Haugen. Davis’ concerns regarding Instagram and Facebook’s effects on teenagers, particularly young girls have caused quite a stir amongst the public, politicians, as well as regulators. Earlier this September, Davis shared with congress that the company ran a research that confirmed that Instagram was in fact co...

The Pentagon has officially established a task force specifically to deal with UFO sightings. Named the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, the new task force succeeds the previous Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force from the U.S. Navy and will focus on detecting and identifying UFOs within American airspace. Its establishment follows from a report back in June when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that out of 144 “unidentified aerial phenomenon” sightings, only one case was solved, with all other cases having too little data for proper determination. “Incursions by any airborne object into our [Special Use Airspace] pose safety of flight and operations security concerns, and may pose national security challenges,” an official ...

After the recent announcement renaming of Staples Center to Crypto.com Arena, the news has now caused Crypto.com‘s currency, CRO token, to increase approximately 70% in value. The cryptocurrency company, which is based out of Singapore, is expected to shell out $700 million USD over 20-years for the renaming of the building. This is expected to be the greatest deal of its kind in history. Forbes recently reported that the value of CRO has gone up at least 69.9% since last week’s announcement. It reportedly ” hit an all-time-high of $0.7984 on Sunday…making it the 13th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.” At the start of the month, CRO was only trading for just $0.2097 USD. CoinShares International’s chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors recently commented on the upward movement sta...

There is never a better time to dive into the smart home than Black Friday and its close cousin Cyber Monday. Traditionally, tech deals on home gadgets are huge this time of year, plus, it’s the only time you’ll find real bargains on gear from some of the smaller companies, such as Eve, Level, and Nanoleaf. Whether you’re thinking about dipping a toe into this home automation shindig with a smart speaker or maybe a connected door lock, or want to bolster an already impressive smart home setup, it’s worth investing some cash this holiday season. Also, if you just want to upgrade your home cleaning routine or have a way to check in on Fido now that you’re back at work (the separation anxiety is real), this is a good time to get a great bargain on smart cameras, robot vacuums, and even a smar...

Pinterest has settled a lawsuit brought against it by shareholders who claimed that the company’s workplace discrimination against women and racial minorities hurt its reputation, according to NBC News. The company reportedly agreed to spend $50 million on improving its diversity and equity, and will let former employees talk about racial or gender discrimination they experienced, even if they were bound by a non-disclosure agreement. Other financial details of the settlement weren’t disclosed. The lawsuit was filed against the company’s executives in November 2020, with shareholder claiming that the company was acting irresponsibly by doing nothing to address “widespread claims of race and gender discrimination.” The complaint also accused the company’s CEO of “surrounding himself with ye...

As of last Thursday night, ConstitutionDAO found itself in possession of around $49.8 million it wasn’t able to spend. The group’s organizers only had a mandate to spend the crowdfunded money on one thing — a rare copy of the US Constitution that they failed to win at auction — so instead of trying to get community approval to use the money toward some other goal, they instead began the process of returning the funds to backers. Returning that much money has been a tricky process, though. Backers have to manually request refunds, so even a week later, tens of millions of dollars are still sitting in ConstitutionDAO’s pockets. And because all of the money was collected in Ether, and sending funds over Ethereum incurs high transaction costs, getting money back has become an expensive proposi...

It has been less than a year since NBA Top Shot served as an introduction for many sports fans into the world of NFTs, and now the NFL is lining up a similar arrangement. In September, the league announced a partnership with the company that runs Top Shot, Dapper Labs, and now we know the name of the service that will distribute the video highlight clips that make up the “Moments” that become NFTs: NFL All Day. This effort is separate from the Ticketmaster-powered NFTs that the NFL is tying to selected games this season (like the Lions’ annual Thanksgiving appearance on national TV), but launching the branding now doesn’t feel like a coincidence. There will be many blockchain and NFT discussions amongst family members on Thursday, between these NFL promotions and even the Macy’s parade. NF...

Blizzard says that the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that were overwhelming its servers with coordinated traffic are over, and that you should be able to log into Battle.net again. During the almost hour-long Wednesday evening attack, you may have experienced serious issues trying to get onto the online service underpinning Overwatch, Call of Duty: Warzone, Hearthstone, Diablo’s online features and more. Blizzard stated that the issue was caused by a DDoS on its verified customer service Twitter account, and additionally in a “Breaking News” item you may have seen in the PC Battle.net client if you tried to sign on during the attack. [#BNet] We are currently experiencing a DDoS attack, which may result in high latency and disconnections for some players. We are actively work...

Another day, another interesting gadget making the rounds on the internet — this one is a very tall (aspect ratio-wise anyway) portable monitor with an 8.8-inch display running at a resolution of 420 by 1920. It’s called the Elsonic EK-MD088, and while its size, shape, and built-in stand make it intriguing, it also raises the question: what would you even use such a narrow monitor for? And are there better ways to spend your 14,800 yen (around $130 US dollars)? Gizmodo points out the most obvious use case for such a tall screen: it seems tailor-made for endlessly scrolling through Twitter or Instagram, keeping the gloom of the internet ever-present off to the side of your work. Honestly, that seems like a great way to destroy your brain — when I first saw it, I immediately thought that it’...

Amid the ongoing global chip shortage, Samsung has announced plans on Tuesday to build a $17 billion USD semiconductor factory in Taylor, Texas over the next three years. The company already manufactures chips at other locations throughout the country, including one nearby in Austin. This new site, however, will measure more than 5 million square meters, making it the investment Samsung has ever made in the United States. Construction is expected to begin in 2022 to have the facility completed sometime in the second half of 2024. “As we add a new facility in Taylor, Samsung is laying the groundwork for another important chapter in our future,” said Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung’s Electronics Device Solutions Division. “With greater manufacturing capacity, we will be able to b...