Technology

In an effort to make cryptocurrency trading more accessible, crypto exchange platform Coinbase will soon allow customers to directly deposit their paychecks as cryptocurrency in their accounts. Customers using the service will be able to select what percentage of their paychecks they wish to deposit into their digital wallets, and deposits can be made in both USD or a cryptocurrency of your choosing. The feature is currently only being offered to those in the U.S., and Coinbase hasn’t revealed any plans at the moment to extend coverage globally to other regions. On top of now being able to deposit your paycheck, the company has also announced the expansion of its Visa debit card designed for crypto traders. All Coinbase customers in the U.S. will be able to sign up later this fall for the ...

Earlier this week, Epic Games CEO announced on Twitter that the company will not be touching NFTs any time soon. Tim Sweeney claims to be skeptical of the digital space’s problems with scams and cites these issues for his hesitancy. Evidently, this sparked a slew of discussions in the thread with some holding strong opinions in favor of NFTs. Sweeney later clarified his perspective on NFTs, saying that to him, owning an NFT holds similar value to liking an image on Twitter. The CEO is very clear on his position, pushing away any claims that might suggest that Epic Games is entering into the NFT world. Though there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the use of NFTs in video games, Epic Games would fit the mold of being a company that might venture into the virtual world, especially wi...

Facebook on Monday announced its plans to invest $50 million USD into building out the metaverse — a term used to describe virtual, interactive spaces in the digital world. The two-year, $50 million USD investment, titled the XR Programs and Research Fund, will go toward global research and program partners “to ensure these products are developed responsibly.” Facebook describes its plans for the metaverse as a place where users are “able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more.” It explains that the metaverse doesn’t refer to one single product built by one company, but rather a shared global space. “Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not,” the company said, adding that many of the products it is investing in “will only be ...

Apple on Monday rolled out its 3D Maps feature to iPhone users in London, Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The feature is part of Apple’s latest iOS 15 software update released last week and offers a major update to the company’s Maps app. The new 3D Maps transforms neighborhoods, commercial districts, buildings and more rendered in a three-dimensional experience, and includes landmarks like Coit Tower in San Francisco, Dodger Stadium in LA, the Statue of Liberty in NYC and Royal Albert Hall in London. In addition, a special nighttime mode now lights up these points of interest in a moonlit glow that activates as dusk, displaying them in even more grandeur on Maps. The route planning and driving experience on the new Apple Maps has also been enhanced, providing more road detai...

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Activision Blizzard have settled a lawsuit over the games company’s allegedly pervasive sexual harassment and discrimination. The news follows an EEOC suit filed Monday in California court that was based on a three-year investigation including cooperation from the games publisher. As part of the settlement, Activision Blizzard will create an $18 million fund to compensate employees who claim damages. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Activision Blizzard was in settlement talks with the EEOC, and the company said in a statement that it was “actively engaged in continued discussions with the EEOC.” In its complaint, the EEOC says it notified the company of its findings on June 15th after launching an investigation in Sep...

Ford and South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation will spend a combined $11.4 billion to build several new factories in the Tennessee and Kentucky focused on the development and production of electric vehicles and the batteries that power them. The new facilities represent the first new plants built by Ford, completely from scratch, in over 50 years. The Tennessee plant will be a “mega campus” that houses a vehicle-production facility for Ford’s F-series pickup trucks and a battery assembly division, while the twin factories in Kentucky will manufacture lithium-ion batteries. “This is show, not tell time” The facilities won’t come online until 2025, but Ford CEO Jim Farley says the investment signals the seriousness with which the company is taking its commitment to EVs. The new cam...

Can’t get a new graphics card for your PC? You might be tempted to blame bots, scalpers or cryptocurrency miners for that — but AMD CEO Lisa Su is downplaying the impact of crypto at the 2021 Code Conference today. When asked about how big a deal crypto is for the chipmaker, she told the audience that it’s a rather small part of AMD’s business, called it “a pretty volatile space,” and suggested that it shouldn’t be a focus for AMD going forward either. That’s not a particularly surprising stance for several reasons. First, what upside there was for GPU makers like AMD and Nvidia has drastically shrunk — GPU prices have slowly been dropping amidst China’s cryptocurrency crackdown, which only got stronger this past week as China’s central bank officially banned cryptocurrency transactions en...

It’s difficult to remember now, but in August 2020 there was a deeply surreal episode wherein Microsoft proposed acquiring some portion of TikTok in a complicated deal as the Trump administration was threatening to come down hard on the platform. Ultimately, TikTok turned Microsoft down just a day before Oracle came in with an entirely different kind of deal and the whole thing dissipated. Speaking today at the Code Conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the whole ordeal was the “strangest thing I’ve ever sort of worked on.” In terms of the value of such a deal for Microsoft, Nadella said he “was kind of intrigued by it,” before trying to move right along with a laugh, deadpanning after a pause “and then I guess the rest is history.” Kara Swisher pressed him for the story and Nadella...

Google is killing its older Android TV remote. The move follows the company’s launch of its long-awaited Google TV remote app last week. The company confirmed to The Verge that the Android TV remote app will take a bow after the Google TV remote app — which can be used for other Android TV OS devices as well — is widely available. Android Police earlier reported the remote news. “We’re making the experience of using your phone as a virtual remote control faster to access and easier to use by upgrading the UI and integrating the feature directly into the Android mobile OS as well as the Google TV app,” a spokesperson said. “After the new remote feature is widely available, the Android TV remote app will no longer be supported and available for use.” To use the remote, the Android TV OS tele...

Fitbit’s newest fitness tracker, the Fitbit Charge 5, is now available for purchase. The $179.95 tracker offers a number of improvements over the Charge 4, including a slimmer design and a bright color screen. But in my review, I had some frustrations with the software and the lack of any sort of physical button. And you should know that two of the new tracker’s headline features, an ECG app and the ability to give a new Daily Readiness Score, aren’t available just yet. Those are arriving in the coming months, Fitbit says. Fitbit is also announcing new features coming to some of its devices for people who subscribe to its Fitbit Premium service, which costs $9.99 per month. Snore and noise detection is now available for all Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 users who are Fitbit Premium subscribers,...

On Monday, Tim Sweeney tweeted that Epic isn’t touching NFTs, in a public response to what was presumably an NFT pitch. He cites the space’s problem with scams as the reason for his hesitancy, which sparked some discussion in the comments (as strong statements about crypto tend to do). Sweeney has since clarified his views on NFTs a little, saying that, to him, owning an NFT is about as valuable as liking an image on Twitter and calling into question whether NFT ownership is actually non-fungible. While Sweeney’s publicly made his position clear, it’s not likely to stop him from getting a wave of NFT pitches, which you can see for yourself by searching “@TimSweeneyEpic nft” on Twitter. It’s understandable why people try, though — Fortnite has made billions through the sale of virtual objec...

During this year’s Code conference, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos shared a significant haul of data about some of the streaming giant’s top titles — a rare move for a company that traditionally holds numbers close to the chest. In one slide, shared while Sarandos was speaking on the Code stage with Kara Swisher, Netflix shared numbers about how many accounts viewed its top 10 films and series based on the number of accounts that watched at least two minutes of the title during the first 28 days it was on Netflix. Image: Netflix/Code The first season of Bridgerton led its top series list with 82 million accounts having viewed the title, followed by part one of Lupin and The Witcher, with 76 million accounts having watched each. Extraction led its top films list with ...