Technology

Wow, November 2nd. Can you believe it’s Christmas already?! In all seriousness, though, we do have a lot of presents for you today. Specifically: Three! exclusive! announcements! Also, if you don’t know me yet — hey! I’m Aria, Ashley’s Hot Pod sidekick. I publish mostly on Fridays for our Insider audience, which is another great reason to subscribe over there. I’m in for Ashley today, as she traverses the depths of hell, aka moves across NYC. Now, guided by my trusting hand, let us go! To the news! EXCLUSIVES BBC brings exclusive podcasts abroad As of today, Apple has another big partner for its paid podcast channels: BBC Studios. And unlike other subscription products, which mostly offer perks like ad-free listening for existing audiences, this channel will give US and Canadian listeners ...

Amazon Music first put podcasts on its platform last year, and now it’s launching its first feature built around them. The service plans to roll out automatically generated, synchronized transcripts on both iOS and Android in the US starting today, meaning the transcripts will match the audio you’re hearing, and you can toggle around them to jump to specific parts of the audio. The transcripts are interactive and can be viewed full-screen or on top of the album art within the app. For now, the transcripts are only coming to certain Amazon Music and Wondery shows, along with partner programs that have worked with Amazon on the feature, like This American Life and Crime Junkie. (The third-party launch partners include American Public Media, Audiochuck, Cadence13, The New York Times, Stitcher...

Mozilla is updating the homescreen on its Firefox mobile apps to help you more easily jump back to pages you had viewed recently. With Firefox 94, which will be available Tuesday, you’ll be able to see things like your last open tab, recently-viewed bookmarks, and recent searches grouped by topic right on the mobile homescreen. You can get an idea of what it looks like in this image from Mozilla: The new Firefox mobile homescreen.Image: Firefox Firefox 94 is also giving Android users the ability to tailor Pocket recommendations that show up on the homescreen by selecting different story topics they are interested in. According to a screenshot shared by Mozilla, topics include things like technology, health, food, and science. This feature isn’t yet available for iOS users, Mozilla says, th...

The US Treasury Department is urging Congress to pass legislation that would require stablecoins to be issued by banks subject to federal banking laws in a new report (.pdf) from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, a panel headed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The report recommends legislation that would guard against stablecoin runs, address concerns about payment system risk, and address additional concerns about systemic risk and economic concentration of power. A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency typically backed by a fiat currency like the US dollar or the Euro, though it may also be backed by a basket of investments; the “stable” part comes from how the coin is pegged to its backing. Stablecoins are used mainly as payment vehicles and don’t fluctuate wildly ...

The anonymous scammers behind the Squid Game cryptocurrency have officially gone dark from the project and have made off with approximately $2.1 million USD. According to CoinMarketCap, the price for the SQUID token peaked at $2,861 USD before it fell to $0 USD. Gizmodo describes this incident as a “rug pull” by crypto investors, where crypto creators cash out quickly “and drain the liquidity pool from the exchange.” The SQUID cryptocurrency only surfaced last week but many investors called out the red flags online, citing a website that showcased wrong spelling and grammatical errors as well as a three-week-old website that was not updated. Others also pointed out that the currency’s Telegram channel, allegedly set up by the scammers, did not allow comments, which is an immediate red flag...

Facebook recently mistakenly verified a fan page for Elon Musk as the tech mogul’s own official account. The Verge reported that the fan account had 153,000 followers but at the time of reporting, the page has been taken down. To clarify, the page had clearly stated that it was a fan page in its “About” section, “Musk owns a Tesla Roadster car 0001 (the first one off the production line) from Tesla Motors, a company in which he is an early investor. The Roadster is a battery electric sportscar with a 220 mile range. This is a fanpage, uploading tweets etc from him” Additionally, in its “Page Transparency” section, it reads that the “Page manager location is Egypt,” and not in the U.S. where Musk is based. While the page only had 11 posts and only features reposts of Musks’ tweets, its...

Amazon is lifting its mask mandate for fully vaccinated warehouse workers in the US (via CNBC). The company reportedly sent out a notice to operations employees, stating that vaccinated workers are no longer required to wear masks starting November 2nd. Masks will still be required if state or local laws mandate them, however. Amazon will continue to evaluate its COVID-19 safety measures “Vaccines are universally available across the US, and vaccination rates continue to rise, which enables the ability to return to our previous mask policy,” the notice reads (via CNBC). An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that the company will be lifting its mask mandates for vaccinated employees and emphasized that Amazon will continue to evaluate its COVID-19 safety measures, adjusting its guid...

Apple is reportedly working on a new iPhone and Apple Watch feature that detects if you’re in a car crash and dials 911 automatically. The current plan is to roll out such a feature next year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Google’s Personal Safety app on Pixel phones already includes a feature to call for help when it detects car crashes, just like connected car services in modern vehicles do, including GM’s OnStar, Subaru’s Starlink, and Fiat Chrysler’s Uconnect. Many cars on the road today are not equipped with any connectivity features, so getting crash detection on an iPhone too means more drivers can get the help they need in an accident as long as they have one in their pocket or mounted to their dash. The rise of unsafe smartphone usage in cars made way for integration syste...

Tesla has launched a new at-home wall charger that works with other electric vehicles, as spotted by Electrek. The new Level 2 wall charger was quietly added to the company’s online store on the same day it started allowing non-Tesla EVs to charge at Supercharger stations in the Netherlands — the first step in a much larger plan to open up access to Tesla’s charging network around the world. The new charger uses a standard J1772 connector, not Tesla’s proprietary one, meaning it should work fine with other electric vehicles in North America. It’s competitively priced, too, at $415 (though it has to be installed by a professional electrician). Tesla says it can charge at up to 9.6kW and is designed for both indoor or outdoor installation. It’s basically a reworked version of the “Gen 2” Tes...

Chris Pratt’s next big role has been revealed: he’ll voice Garfield in a new animated film based on the famous comic strip cat, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Pratt does have big shoes (paws?) to fill, as he’ll be following Bill Murray’s take on Garfield from Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. Additional details on the new movie are light, though, and we still don’t know exactly when we’ll be able to hear Pratt as Garfield scarf down some lasagna. THR does report that Garfield creator Jim Davis will serve as an executive producer, though. The surprising revelation that Pratt will play Garfield follows another huge Pratt Cast(ing): Nintendo announced in September that Pratt will voice Mario in the Mario movie debuting December 2022. Nintendo also shared that movi...

While the tech industry continues to struggle with chip shortages, it would be reasonable to assume that Apple‘s mechanical products would be the hardest to get it. However, The New York Times recently reported that Apple’s most back-ordered release is in fact its $19 USD Polishing Cloth. For those that want to purchase the cloth on Apple’s website, the wait time is currently 10 to 12 weeks, meaning the product will arrive sometime early next year. The 6.3-by-6.3-inch square cloth is made with “soft, nonabrasive material” and was originally designed specifically for the nano-texture glass on the Pro Display XDR screens found on the next-gen Mac Pros. While $19 USD may seem like an exorbitant price to pay for a polishing cloth when similar alternatives are available for a fraction of the pr...

The trademark applicants of “Meta” are supposedly open to selling to Mark Zuckerberg for the rebranding of Facebook — but for a price. Speaking to TMZ, Meta PC founders Joe Darger and Zack Shutt shared that while their petition is yet to be granted, they are willing to stop their application for a price of $20 million USD. Darger and Shutt’s company has been operating for over a year and filed to trademark the word “Meta” for “computers, laptops, tablets, software and more items relating to tech” back in August, and while $20 million USD may seem excessive, the pair pointed out that they will be required to completely rebrand Meta PC if Zuckerberg pays. Zuckerberg has yet to respond to Darger and Shutt’s offer. The Facebook founder announced the social media platform’s rebranding...