Technology

The Staples Center, home to Los Angeles sports teams including the Lakers, Clippers, Kings, and Sparks, is getting a new name: “Crypto.com Arena.” Yes, Crypto Dot Com Arena. The cryptocurrency exchange paid more than $700 million for 20-year naming rights, according to the LA Times, making it one of the largest such deals ever. Staples paid $100 million for the rights for 10 years in 1999. The logo will reportedly be revealed on Christmas Day for the Brooklyn Nets’ game with the Lakers, and Staples Center branding should be phased out by June. “In the next few years, people will look back at this moment as the moment when crypto crossed the chasm into the mainstream,” Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek tells the LA Times. “This is just such a brilliant move from the guys at [venue owner] AEG, b...

Beats has announced its new limited-edition Beats Flex Bluetooth earphones in collaboration with Fujiwara Hiroshi‘s fragment design. The release marks the brands’ second year of partnership, following the black-on-black Powerbeats Pros back in January. The limited-edition Beats Flex features a black tonal finish with white “FRGMT” and thunderbolt logo branding on the volume control module and microphone. The Earbuds are magnetic with auto-play/pause, and four ear tip options are offered for a personalized fit. Performance highlights from the Beats Flex include a Flex-Form cable, built-in mic with wind reduction for clarity, 10-minute fast fuel charging for 1.5 hours of playback, connectivity power by the Apple W1  chip, 12 hours of total listening time, Class 1 Bluetooth, a custom aco...

Apple told The Verge last week that it would be rolling out a software update to iPhone 13 devices to make it easier to replace their screens without breaking Face ID, but it didn’t specify when that update might arrive. Fortunately, we may not have to wait long, as repair experts say they have successfully completed the easier screen swaps on iPhone 13 handsets running the iOS 15.2 beta. Before the update, keeping Face ID working after swapping the screens also required moving over a microcontroller from the original phone to the new one. Doing so is a complex process, and having to do it for every iPhone 13 that needs a new screen could make things difficult for indie repair shops. (You can read all about the issue in an article from iFixit.) But on an iPhone 13 loaded with the iOS 15.2 ...

The latest trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home has arrived, bringing with it some big surprises for Spider-Man’s latest MCU outing. If you’re trying to go into the latest adventure of the web-slinging hero without spoilers, you’ll probably want to skip hitting play here (or reading the rest of this post). Spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home below: As revealed in the first trailer, No Way Home picks up right where Far From Home left off: with Peter Parker’s secret identity as Spider-Man revealed to the world, something that Peter tries to enlist Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) assistance in rectifying. Magical multiverse hijinks ensue. Things appear to go wrong, though, resulting in appearances from a plethora of Spidey rogues from Sony’s past Spider-M...

Brian Grossman had 20 years of experience in the healthcare space — but his firm, PFM Health Sciences, invested $96 million in Theranos anyway. On the stand, he explained that his firm had relied on Elizabeth Holmes’ information about Theranos, as well as financial models provided by the company, to make the call. Taken as a whole, Grossman’s testimony in US v Elizabeth Holmes was damning. Unlike the investors from family offices, he’d visited Theranos’ facilities, had his blood drawn, and sent emails with extensive due diligence questions. He had experience in healthcare. He’d checked out Walgreens’ public statements about the company. But because he’d relied on Theranos’ representations of its technology, he was misled — and he singled out Holmes as being the source of much of the mislea...

After releasing a fleet of gaming products geared toward Xbox and PC, Razer is finally giving the PS5 a little love with two new Kaira wireless headsets, the $99.99 Kaira and the $199.99 Kaira Pro. They aren’t carbon copies of the Xbox versions, either. Razer made a color palette swap to a white / black colorway, and there’s leatherette covering the ear cups, as opposed to a piece of breathable mesh fabric. But that’s not all. The more expensive Kaira Pro is the only one of the two models to have HyperSense haptics, which will deliver jolts of vibration to make your games and other content more immersive. Razer recently announced that this feature’s coming to the new (and similarly priced) Kraken V3 Pro that is also made to support PlayStation consoles, in addition to PC and the Nintendo S...

Mostly known for its standout steam-powered toaster and other lifestyle offerings, BALMUDA has now introduced its debut smartphone. The Japanese company first announced that it would be looking to expand beyond its signature appliances back in May and it has now fully entered the smartphone market with the “BALMUDA Phone.” Created in partnership with Kyocera, the Android device features a compact profile with a 4.9-inch display with a 1080p resolution, 48-megapixel rear camera, 8-megapixel front-facing camera and fingerprint sensor. Complete with 5G connectivity, the BALMUDA Phone is powered by a Snapdragon 765 processor outfitted with 6GB of RAM, 128GB internal storage and 2,500 mAH battery capacity. Currently exclusive to Japan, the Balmuda Phone will be available with plans through Soft...

Reality Labs, a division under Facebook‘s new parent company Meta, is working to develop haptic gloves that will allow you to feel objects in the metaverse. The team has been working on the concept for seven years and has made breakthroughs in soft robotics and microfluidics, the company said in a press release. A video has also been released showing how the tech will work. The video shows clips of researchers using the gloves to catch a ball, move objects, shake hands, bump fists and even have a thumb wrestle. “Imagine working on a virtual 3D puzzle with a friend’s realistic 3D avatar,” the company said. “As you pick up a virtual puzzle piece from the table, your fingers automatically stop moving as you feel it within your grasp. You feel the sharpness of the cardboard’s edges and the smo...

Instagram has rolled out its badges feature to users in the United States, expanding the pool of creators that can now get paid for their Live content. The company started testing the feature last October before expanding it to approximately 50,000 users. Viewers on Instagram Live can purchase badges in increments of $0.99, $1.99 and $4.99. In return, badge owners receive a thank you message and their comments and questions will receive increased visibility for the duration of the Live. Badge owners will also appear in a list available to the creator for up to 90 days. Beginning today, users over the age of eighteen with more than ten thousand followers can apply for the feature within the Instagram app. To be considered, they must additionally have a professional account—meaning one ...

On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Google critic and competition lawyer Jonathan Kanter to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, marking yet another progressive win in antitrust enforcement under the Biden administration. Kanter has a long history representing tech companies, like Yelp and Microsoft, in lawsuits accusing Google of anti-competitive behavior. Now that he’s been confirmed, Kanter will lead several Justice Department competition cases against big tech, including a monopoly lawsuit against Google alleging that the company maintains an illegal monopoly in the digital ads market. “Throughout his career, Kanter has [sic] been a leading advocate and expert in the effort to promote strong and meaningful antitrust enforcement and competition policy,” the White House said in...

Uber is bringing back shared rides with a new name: UberX Share. The revamped carpooling product is available first as a pilot in Miami. Uber suspended its Uber Pool carpooling feature in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the company promised earlier this month that it planned to bring shared rides back. Uber prices have gone way up recently, so a carpooling option allows the company to offer cheaper costs that could make taking an Uber a more popular transportation option. On an UberX Share ride, you’ll only ride with one other person (in addition to the driver) during your trip. Everyone in the car must wear a mask, even if they are all vaccinated. UberX Share rides will have a 5 percent discount, and you’ll get Uber Cash if another person is picked up during your trip...

Nvidia’s $40 billion proposed acquisition of the Brtish chip designer, Arm, will undergo an even more in-depth investigation by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as reported by CNBC. A notice on the UK government’s website confirms that Nadine Dorries, the UK’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, ordered the CMA to launch a Phase 2 investigation. The probe will take place over a 24-week period and will scrutinize potential national security risks and competition concerns associated with the acquisition. The CMA completed its Phase 1 probe in August — which you can now read in its entirety as a PDF — with CMA’s chief executive Andrea Coscelli commenting that “NVIDIA controlling Arm could create real problems for NVIDIA’s rivals by limiting their access...