Technology

If you’re hunting for an Xbox Series X, you might want to check your email inbox. Microsoft has been emailing out special links over the past week to the Microsoft Store, that let you directly order an Xbox Series X bundle. Microsoft says it has a “limited supply of Xbox Series X bundles” that are available to “valued Microsoft customers” in the US. The emails are addressed to Microsoft Store customers, and bundles are available on a first-come and first-serve basis. Microsoft is limiting orders to one bundle per order, or two bundles per 30-day period. The links to order a bundle are unique and tied to a Microsoft Account, and don’t always guarantee that stock is available for a purchase. Microsoft has been offering Xbox Series X bundles (with a game and extra controller) to “valued Micro...

WhatsApp’s web version has been updated with a built-in custom Sticker Maker, which lets you turn ordinary images from your computer into stickers that can be sent via the messaging service. To access it, click the paperclip (attachments) icon, select Sticker, and then pick an image to upload. As well as WhatsApp’s web version, the feature is also coming to its Desktop apps in the next week. Once uploaded, images can be edited to turn them into the perfect sticker. An outline can be drawn around a picture’s subject to cut out the background, and images can also be cropped (though always in a square aspect ratio). Emoji, text, and additional WhatsApp stickers can also be layered on top of your sticker creations. Being able to make your own stickers on WhatsApp is nothing new, and there are ...

Last year, you’d be forgiven for not knowing what an NFT was, but as the world of crypto continued to grow so did the non-fungible token realm, and now Collins Dictionary has crowned “NFT” as its word of the year. Coming in second place was “cheugy,” before “climate anxiety” took third place. From fourth to tenth, we find “crypto,” “double-vaxxed,” “hybrid working,” “metaverse,” “neopronoun,” “pingdemic,” and finally, “regencycore.” According to Collins, “NFT” has witnessed a “meteoric” rise in popularity this year, growing 11,000% in usage in 2021. As The Guardian notes, Collins chose this abbreviation because it is a “unique technicolor collision of art, technology, and commerce… that has broken through the Covid noise.” Collins’ learning managing director Alex Beecroft adds, “It’s unusu...

Metaverse developer Republic Realm has successfully sold The Metaflower Super Mega Yacht for 149 ETH (approximately $650,000 USD), making the digital yacht the most expensive NFT asset in The Sandbox. The Sandbox is currently one of the leading metaverse games boasting collaborations with brands and personalities such as adidas, Atari, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Binance, Snoop Dogg, The Smurfs, DeadMau5 and others. Republic Realm has developed a series of “Fantasy Islands” on the platform consisting of 100 private islands. The collection of islands, which consist of villas built on top of NFT land, sold out in under 24 hours, and has a current floor price of  63.9 ETH (approximately $280,000 USD). The record-breaking Metaflower Yacht is an extension of the Fantasy Islands development and i...

Apple is planning to partner with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for the production of its own 5G modems for future iPhones, according to a new report in Nikkei. Apple is said to be planning to use TSMC’s 4nm process node, which hasn’t yet been deployed for any commercial product; the modem is apparently being designed and tested at 5nm before moving to mass production in 2023 at 4nm. Apple’s switch to modems of its own design is widely expected to happen in 2023, and TSMC is the natural manufacturing partner. Qualcomm, which is the dominant player in the industry and produces modem components for the entire iPhone 13 lineup, recently said that it expects to account for just 20 percent of iPhone modem orders in two years’ time. Apple bought Intel’s 5G modem division in 2019, foresh...

Televisions are ugly. A 55-inch television creates about 1,300 square-inches of eyesore when not in use. Many don’t care, but my spouse does, which meant living with a tiny TV for longer than I care to admit. Ultra-short throw projectors are often marketed as TV replacements. They’re small by comparison, yet capable of projecting a large image when placed just inches from the wall. But UST projectors capable of a big bright 4K HDR image have always been prohibitively expensive. So, long story short, we bought a 55-inch OLED TV while in Covid lockdown. But now there’s a newcomer: the all-in-one Xgimi Aura is a 4K HDR ultra-short throw laser projector with integrated sound system that runs Android TV and is capable of tossing 2400 lumens onto my white walls for $2,499. That’s not cheap, but ...

Funko Pop is teaming up with ViacomCBS for its latest “Digital Pop” NFT collectibles, with a new series of blockchain-based cards featuring classic Star Trek characters. Funko’s “Digital Pop” NFTs aren’t a new thing: they’ve been around since July, and the new Star Trek ones are just the latest incarnation. And as is the case with the other Digital Pop sets, certain specific rare NFTs cards will also include a free physical Funko Pop figure too, which is a potentially nice bonus. But there’s something uniquely depressing about Star Trek NFTs specifically, given the utopian ideals of the Federation and the very intentionally post-scarcity world in which the franchise is set. Thanks to the ubiquity of advanced technology like replicators (gadgets that can instantly materialize any item out o...

Who added the Schering-Plough and Pfizer logos to the Theranos-produced lab reports that investors received? Why, none other than Elizabeth Holmes. “This work was done in partnership with those companies and I was trying to convey that,” she said on the stand today. She added the logos before sending the memos to Walgreens, which Theranos would later partner with. Holmes wasn’t trying to fool anyone, she said. “I wish I’d done it differently.” “I wish I’d done it differently.” Holmes spoke slowly as she confessed. The testimony, given on her third day of questioning by her defense team, sounded polished. Rehearsed. It was the most confident she’d sound all day. Those documents have been a major part of the case against Holmes in her trial for wire fraud. Investors testified that they thoug...

It seems our prediction that a Lord of the Rings-themed “JRR Token” cryptocurrency was destined for the fires of Mount Doom was accurate — the World Intellectual Property Organization (or WIPO) has declared that it violated a trademark belonging to the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien, and ordered that one of the project’s web domains be transferred to that estate (via the Financial Times). If you’re unfamiliar with JRR Token (not Tolkien), here’s the lore — it was a cryptocurrency project that drew heavy inspiration from The Lord of the Rings. Its tagline was “The One Token That Rules Them All,” its website featured Tolkien-esque imagery of rolling hills and wizards, and there was even a promotional video featuring an actor from the movies making Hobbit puns and claiming that the token was...

Apple has filed a lawsuit against the maker of Pegasus spyware, the Israeli-based technology firm NSO Group. The company announced the news of the lawsuit on Tuesday, responding to alleged surveillance abuses carried out against Apple users by NSO Group. According to Apple’s complaint, NSO Group has “sophisticated, state-sponsored surveillance technology that allows its highly targeted spyware to surveil its victims.” NSO Group’s Pegasus can be downloaded on most phones running iOS and Android and allows for various forms of exploitation and surveillance, including reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords and location tracking. Apple describes attacks in which NSO Group or its clients had created Apple IDs to send malicious data to devices, which then enabled hackers to ...

Chris Pratt’s voice as Mario is “phenomenal,” says one of the men who has the most to gain if that’s true. But Pratt likely won’t be putting on Mario’s familiar fake Italian accent for the majority of the film. When asked to defend the casting of Chris Pratt (a white American man best known as the Guardians of the Galaxy’s Star-Lord) as Mario (a denizen of the Mushroom Kingdom previously voiced by a white American man of French descent attempting to sound like an Italian plumber from Brooklyn at the request of the character’s Japanese creators, just so we’re clear), producer and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri suggested to TooFab that it’s OK because: Meledandri himself is an Italian American. Charlie Day, the actor playing Luigi, “actually comes from Italian heritage,” so they’re covere...