Technology

While a portion of the world is currently recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, global shipping is still being largely affected, and Amazon is now prepared to spend billions in order to offset these delays during the upcoming holiday season. In a press release announcing the e-commerce giant’s Q3 2021 results, new CEO Andy Jassy says that Amazon will incur “several billion dollars of additional costs” due to various Coronavirus-related factors that have surfaced over the past year, including labor shortages, slow supply chains across the world, and more expensive shipping costs. “It’ll be expensive for us in the short term,” the Jassy said, “but it’s the right prioritization for our customers and partners.” That said, Amazon has still performed exceptionally over the past quarter, recordi...

Just as Bitcoin reached its all-time high of almost $66,000 USD a little more than a week ago, cryptocurrencies at large rode the wave, and now the world’s largest altcoin Ethereum has also set a new record high. Currently sitting as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, ETH saw an increase of 3.5% earlier today to reach an all-time high of $4,403.93 USD, surpassing its previous record of $4,379.62 USD back in May. Ethereum itself has long been the most used blockchain, with more than 3,000 decentralized apps — referred to as Dapps — running on the platform. The surge in value also coincides with the network’s latest Altair upgrade, which Ethereum 2.0 developer Preston Van Loon announced was successfully activated just earlier in the week. On top of ETH, other altcoins also ra...

Amazon wants to avoid holiday shipping delays as much as you do. The company said today that it plans to spend “several billion dollars” to avoid problems during the holidays, which might extend from product delivery issues to keeping items in stock. The money will be spent on increased pay for workers, heightened shipping costs, and mitigating supply chain issues. “It’ll be expensive for us in the short term, but it’s the right prioritization for our customers and partners,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said today in the company’s third-quarter earnings release. The big spending comes as both a promise and a warning. Amazon’s earnings disappointed investors with a significant dip in quarterly profits from last year. That’s largely due to increased spending across the board — the company spent $3...

Apple today posted strong earnings for its fourth fiscal 2021 quarter, reporting all-time highs for its services and Mac divisions. The company says it took in revenue of $83.4 billion, a year-over-year increase of 29 percent, and earnings per share of $1.24. That earnings number came in below Wall Street expectations of $84.85 billion. CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that supply chain constraints had a clear impact on financial results this quarter. “We had a very strong performance despite larger than expected supply constraints, which we estimate to be around $6 billion,” Cook said, attributing the supply issues to “the industry-wide chip shortages that have been talked about a lot and COVID-related manufacturing disruptions in Southeast Asia.” Apple expects an even greater loss from supply chai...

In the first leaked images of Facebook’s smartwatch, it’s clear: there’s a notch, which is the kind of thing people love to make fun of, and what appears to be a front-facing camera. In the photo, the watch’s screen is off, but the beady little camera eye is clearly visible. The photo, which was first reported on by Bloomberg, was found inside the company’s app for its Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses. The watch, referred to as “Milan” in the code, has a large display like the Apple Watch — but that smartwatch doesn’t have a camera. The picture today may not be a version that consumers ever see, according to Bloomberg. Still, it confirms earlier reporting about Facebook’s work. If this is the same watch as the one we reported on in June, there will also be a second, detachable camera. The fro...

TikTok is experimenting with a new tool that allows TikTok users to tip some creators directly on their profiles. According to a video of the tips feature shared this week by TikTok creator Jera Bean, who noticed the feature in-app and applied for approval, any money tipped to creators will go directly to that individual (meaning TikTok won’t take a cut). A screenshot of the application screen stated that in order to qualify for the feature, accounts must be in good standing on the platform, have at least 100,000 followers, meet an age requirement, and agree to TikTok’s tips terms. If creators meet these criteria, they can then apply for the tool — though it’s unclear whether everyone who applies will be approved. Based on a follow-up video from the same creator shared Thursday eveni...

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, held a presentation today where it announced its rebranding and showed off what it imagines the future of computing will look like — but amid all the fluff, it actually had some interesting tech demos. The first showed off its life-like Codex avatars and an environment for them to exist in, which the company says was rendered in real-time and reacted to real-world objects. Mark Zuckerberg also talked about the company’s work with neural interfaces that let you control a computer just by moving your fingers. We’ll discuss the demos in just a moment, but it’s really worth seeing them for yourself. You can check them out on the Facebook keynote archive or on Reuters’ YouTube stream if you prefer that interface. According to Meta, this is both a vi...

You’ve always wanted your very own Ghostbusters Proton Pack. Your options have been: find a cheap toy, 3D print, sand and paint your own, pay for someone to do it for you, start with a premade kit, or painstakingly build something even more intricate from scratch. Here’s a sixth way that might be the easiest and most cost-effective yet: pay Hasbro $400 for this incredible-looking thing: The pack at an angle, covered in lovely shiny bits.Hasbro Tactical shoulder and belt straps plus what looks like a lumbar pad. Hasbro says the Ghostbusters Plasma Series Spengler’s Proton Pack is based on 3D scans of the actual movie prop from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and it’s complete with lights, sounds (from both 1984 and 2021), a cyclotron you can open up and dismantle, a full set of straps so you can w...

After what seems like an eternity of leaks, teases, and two reveals, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are finally on sale. But Google seems to be running very low on inventory, as the company now offers waitlists so you can be notified of when the phone will be available again. Right at the top of the Pixel 6 Pro page on the Google Store, there’s a now banner advertising the waitlist. “Due to high demand, some Pixel 6 Pro models may be out of stock or have long delivery times,” the company says. “Get notified when they’re back in stock, or check out other authorized retailers who may have them available.” The banner includes buttons to join the waitlist and see other retailers where you can try to get the phone instead. After clicking the buy button on the Pixel 6 Pro page, I was also able to join wa...

Facebook (which is now called Meta) knows a lot of virtual reality headset owners hate logging in with Facebook. Requiring Facebook logins created bad blood almost immediately and even accidentally locked some people out of their Quest VR hardware in late 2020. And at today’s Connect keynote, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted the restriction might be ending. But his comments raised more questions than they answered, and we still don’t know exactly what they mean. Zuckerberg mentioned the changes while talking about work applications for VR. Here’s what he said: “As we’ve focused more on work, and frankly as we’ve heard your feedback more broadly, we’re working on making it so you can log into Quest with an account other than your personal Facebook account. We’re starting to test support for ...