Technology

DJ and sneaker aficionado Bobbito Garcia and designer/director Omar Acosta have teamed up to release their first sneaker NFT. The collaborative NFT was created to celebrate the 126th anniversary of Puerto Rico’s flag on December 22. Presented as a 3D animated sneaker, the collaborative effort features four NFTs that were designed by Garcia and Acosta, in addition to a special fifth edition that features artwork from the La Borinqueña comic book series. A portion of the proceeds from the comic-book-inspired NFT will benefit Afro-Boricua grassroots programs in Puerto Rico through the La Borinqueña grants program. “We’re both Puerto Rican, so naturally we wanted to pay homage to our flag’s anniversary this month with our debut creation,” said Garcia in a release. “The ARO1 model is where snea...

Three-time NBA Champion and Golden State Warrior star Steph Curry has officially dropped a surprise NFT to commemorate breaking the all-time NBA three-point record. Curry has been steadily getting more and more involved in the NFT world. It is only fitting that Curry has debuted his very own NFT on such a historic occasion. Proceeds of the NFT sale are set to benefit Curry’s foundation, Eat. Learn. Play., and features artists Floyd Norman, Disney‘s first Black animator, and Andrea McDonald, a recent college grad who is an aspiring corporate pilot. 100% of the profits will directly fund the Oakland community and the fight to end childhood hunger and provide youth with quality education and a safe place to play and be active. 2,974 pieces of the NFT will be released in honor of the record-br...

World renowned audio brand Bowers & Wilkins is making ‘True Sound’ its mission: finding ways to allow people to experience music exactly as the artist behind it intended. Imagine sound so clear you can hear the reverberations of individual guitar strings; the tails of synths as they drift off into the digital ether; every exposed, pure and unprocessed vocal, cutting through the cigarette smoke of a pokey, makeshift production studio. Listening to music through any of the brand’s audio products is intended to be like experiencing it first-hand. That industry-leading engineering talent has led Bowers & Wilkins to become the main provider of loudspeakers for the prestigious Abbey Road Studios, as well as several others, for the past 40 years. From Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut and Radioh...

Peloton has removed a viral ad starring Chris Noth, the actor who plays Mr. Big in HBO Max’s Sex and the City and its sequel series And Just Like That, after Noth was accused of sexual assault. Peloton says it’s stopped promoting the videos until it “learns more” about the accusations. In a story published by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, two women alleged that Noth assaulted them in 2004 and 2015 respectively. One of the women said that “seeing that [Noth] was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me.” She added: “For so many years, I buried it,” but decided it was time “to try to go public with who he is.” Noth has denied the allegations against him and claims the sexual encounters were consensual. “Every single sexual assault accusation must be taken seriousl...

Nintendo has expanded its Expansion Pack for the Switch, adding five new Sega Genesis titles to the most expensive tier of its online subscription service. Those titles are Altered Beast, ToeJam & Earl, Dynamite Headdy, Sword of Vermilion, and Thunder Force II. The Expansion Pack subscription tier costs $49.99 annually for an individual subscription or $79.99 for a family membership (compared to $19.99 / $34.99 for a regular Switch Online subscription). For the extra cash, subscribers get access to larger back catalog of games. Both tiers include classic NES and Super NES titles like the The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario World while the Expansion Pack adds games from the Nintendo 64 (like Super Mario 64) and the Sega Genesis (known as the Sega Mega Drive outside of North America). Ot...

FedEx is the first customer to receive electric delivery vans from General Motors’ new EV-focused company BrightDrop. The logistics giant says it will integrate the EVs into its fleet starting in 2022. BrightDrop, which is GM’s new dedicated electric delivery van spinoff, said it delivered five of its larger-sized EV600 delivery vans to FedEx, the first in a planned 500-vehicle order. The EV600, which went into production last fall, has 600 cubic feet of cargo space, can travel up to 250 miles on a full battery, and has a gross vehicle weight of less than 10,000 pounds. The vans were delivered to FedEx’s facility in Inglewood, California, where they will be housed and maintained. FedEx plans to begin deploying BrightDrop’s vehicles on the roads making deliveries in Los Angeles starting in ...

Those who plan on watching the second season of Netflix’s The Witcher can look forward to plenty of epic monster battles, character development, and Henry Cavill staring broodingly into the middle distance. But season 2 also reveals a lot about the broader world that The Witcher takes place in — or more accurately, the many worlds. Specifically, this darker and more serious chapter in the epic fantasy saga zooms in on a seminal event in the Witcher lore known as the conjunction of the spheres. During the conjunction, which took place approximately 1,500 years before the events of the show, a bunch of different spheres of reality collided with one another, causing elves, dwarves, humans, and monsters to all get mixed up together on the same continent, much to their mutual discontent. While ...

On top of Amazon‘s introduction of Shaquille O’Neal and Melissa McCarthy to its catalog of Alexa celebrity voices, Santa Claus now joins the list as the newest virtual assistant exclusively this holiday. A fitting Secret Santa gift for friends and family, the latest voice option features seasonal greetings to classic Christmas carols such as Jingle Bells and the 12 Days of Christmas. Other jolly commands include asking Santa about his reindeers, his favorite food, news in the North Pole, and more festive questions alike. Alexa users can also find out what presents they’re getting by asking, “Hey Santa, am I naughty or nice?” While Santa can’t help with shopping, lists, reminders, or skills, he can set timers or even give advice and crack jokes. With a simple request, “Alexa, enable ‘Hey Sa...

adidas Originals has officially made its debut NFT collection, confirming its journey Into the Metaverse. In tandem with Web3, adidas has made its first NFT drop created with NFT pioneers Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney and the team behind PUNKS comic. Starting on December 17, the adidas NFTs called Into the Metaverse will be available for purchase and owners will then receive exclusive access to various adidas Originals experiences and products. With the NFTs acting as an access pass to in-virtual land experiences as well as free collaborative merchandise, owners will be able to access virtual wearables for the blockchain-based gaming world, The Sandbox. Physical products, which are co-branded with the aforementioned trio of collaborators, include a hoodie, tracksuit and gmoney’s iconic oran...

In an effort to compete against Twitch, mobile social media platform TikTok is now testing a streaming app designed for desktops. Named TikTok Live Studio, the service allows users to broadcast not only from their computers but also their gaming consoles or — as usual — their mobile phones. Unfortunately, for the time being, you aren’t able to set a browser window as a source for your stream or add moderators into your channel, but you’ll still be able to access different aspects like viewer comments, gifting, or filter things through keywords. The program is still in its very early stages of development right now, so you can expect plenty more features to come in the future, no doubt bringing it closer in line with Twitch. For now, TikTok says it only gave access to a few thousand users, ...

There used to be a joke that every game was turning into a Fortnite-style battle royale, and here to make that bit a reality is Babble Royale, a new Scrabble-style competitive online multiplayer game from designer Frank Lantz’s Everybody House Games (best known for Universal Paperclips and Hey Robot). Despite the fact that it feels like a joke meant to clown on Fortnite, PUGB, and other last-person-standing games in the genre, Babble Royale is very much a real game, currently available on Steam in early access for both PC and Mac. Players parachute their beginning tile down into a grid (yes, actually), claiming a spot for themselves to start building words (as you would in Scrabble or Bananagrams) to expand outwards and eliminate other players. As you explore the map, you can spell your wa...

School districts across the United States are cancelling classes on Friday, December 17th due to reports of threats that are supposedly being made on TikTok. Districts in California, Texas, Minnesota, and Missouri have said they plan to close down Friday in response, according to the districts and local media reports. Elsewhere, districts have said they plan to have heightened police presence or have emailed parents to say they’ve been investigating the allegations. But so far, there’s little evidence that the threats are credible — or even exist. The districts and local police departments largely say they’ve heard about a trend referencing the possibility of shootings or bombings on December 17th, but it’s not clear how many have seen a specific threat or a threat against their schools in...