Technology

Microsoft is starting to test a new firmware update for existing Xbox One, Xbox Elite 2, and Xbox Adaptive Controllers today that will bring some important improvements to existing hardware. The biggest addition is the ability to quickly switch between paired devices on an Xbox controller, and Microsoft is also adding Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) to improve input latency on older controllers. This new firmware update includes Bluetooth Low Energy support for compatible controllers. Most of Microsoft’s existing Xbox One controllers include Bluetooth support for use on smartphones or PCs, but the controllers connect to Xbox consoles through the Xbox Wireless protocol. This new firmware will now make it easier to switch between the two, allowing the controllers to remember your Bluetooth phone...

As cool as videoconferencing hardware can look, it’s often exorbitantly expensive — the $2,000 Series One Desk 27 for Google Meet being a perfect example. Luckily, alongside that expensive Meet machine, Google also announced its “Designed for Google Meet” program and a more affordable first entry, the Rayz Rally Pro. It’s a $200 Nest Mini-like phone speaker that doubles as a microphone for Google Meet calls. The Rayz Rally Pro comes in a gray-tone fabric-covered body that looks a bit like Google’s smart speakers but with a phone dock carveout. The speaker dock comes in two varieties: a Lightning connector iPhone model and a Google Pixel version that should work with any USB-C phone. Both versions can work as a Bluetooth speaker, omnidirectional microphone, and 20W passthrough fast-charging...

Walking up to a podium in San Francisco this summer, Kevin Paffrath grabs the microphone. “Hodl that AMC,” he says with a smile, gazing out at the few dozen or so people, predominantly young men, attending the rally, a reference to the “meme stock” moment from earlier this year. Paffrath, better known as MeetKevin on YouTube, is running to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in California’s recall election this month. It’s rare that a gubernatorial candidate would lead off a speech with such a painfully online reference, but that’s part of Paffrath’s appeal. He’s branded himself as the candidate for the r/wallstreetbets crowd — and so far, it’s working. As of publication, he’s the top polling Democrat at 8 percent. Since 2017, Paffrath has made YouTube videos full-time from his home in Ventura, strea...

Walking up to a podium in San Francisco this summer, Kevin Paffrath grabs the microphone. “Hodl that AMC,” he says with a smile, gazing out at the few dozen or so people, predominantly young men, attending the rally, a reference to the “meme stock” moment from earlier this year. Paffrath, better known as MeetKevin on YouTube, is running to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in California’s recall election this month. It’s rare that a gubernatorial candidate would lead off a speech with such a painfully online reference, but that’s part of Paffrath’s appeal. He’s branded himself as the candidate for the r/wallstreetbets crowd — and so far, it’s working. As of publication, he’s the top polling Democrat at 8 percent. Since 2017, Paffrath has made YouTube videos full-time from his home in Ventura, strea...

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase seems to have some issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a planned feature that lets people lend cryptocurrency through its platform. In a Medium post on Tuesday, Coinbase’s chief legal officer wrote that the regulatory agency threatened to sue the company if it launched the feature. Coinbase’s CEO posted a Twitter thread on Tuesday evening saying that the SEC wasn’t clear about what it wanted. According to Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, the company told the SEC about its new Lend feature as a courtesy but didn’t anticipate pushback, based on his impression that similar features exist on other platforms. However, according to Armstrong, the SEC informed the company that the lend feature would be considered a security, meaning it wo...

Fitness company Whoop has a new tracker that squishes five LEDs, four photodiodes, a pulse oximeter, skin temperature sensor, and more into a package that is 33 percent smaller than its predecessor — all while still offering five days of battery life. But a particular change to the tracker’s battery chemistry is one of the biggest reasons Whoop was able to do all this in the first place. The change was pioneered by a Silicon Valley company called Sila Nanotechnologies, which was co-founded in 2011 by Gene Berdichevsky, one of Tesla’s earliest employees. And it’s one that, if it scales up, could help break some of the biggest limitations currently facing lithium-ion technology. On paper, it’s a simple change: the battery’s anode is now made of silicon instead of graphite, which allows for g...

The James Webb Space Telescope, humanity’s next big space-bound eye on the cosmos, has a new launch date of December 18th, NASA announced on Wednesday. It’s the latest among dozens of other delays for a telescope that was originally planned to go to space as early as 2007. The $8.8 billion observatory, named after NASA’s second administrator, is a tennis court-sized successor to NASA’s famed Hubble telescope. Its 18 hexagonal gold-plated mirrors will allow the spacecraft to view distant planets and the far reaches of the universe with a level of detail that far surpasses Hubble’s capabilities. Astronomers have been looking forward to the telescope’s launch for years, but its development has been set back by years of delays, development challenges, and cost overruns. NASA and Northrop Grumm...

In its ongoing effort to develop new privacy tools that will offer its users more control, Twitter is testing out a feature that enables accounts to remove a follower without blocking them, announced by the platform yesterday with a message from its support team. Users can now go to their list of followers and click the three dots next to a follower’s name. From there, a user is given the option to remove the follower. We’re making it easier to be the curator of your own followers list. Now testing on web: remove a follower without blocking them. To remove a follower, go to your profile and click “Followers”, then click the three dot icon and select “Remove this follower”. pic.twitter.com/2Ig7Mp8Tnx — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 7, 2021 This option streamlines the process t...

Razer’s new Basilisk V3 wired gaming mouse has arrived with more features than its predecessor, as well as a slightly lower price. It’s out now at Razer’s online store, Amazon, and Best Buy from $69.99, a $10 price drop from generation to generation. Its scroll wheel houses the biggest improvements, borrowing a trick from Logitech’s G502 Lightspeed and G502 Hero. A button positioned next to the Basilisk V3’s wheel can toggle between a staggered scroll mode that offers tactile feedback and a free-spinning mode that lets you sail down the page freely. There’s also an optional feature within Razer’s Synapse software that automatically switches between the two modes depending on the inertia of your scroll, engaging the free-spinning mode with lots of power or keeping it notched during more rel...

Apple, like many tech companies, has an intimidating employment agreement that it makes employees sign to protect its trade secrets. Though the agreement is in place to prevent workers from sharing internal details of Apple’s products and processes, it is unclear whether they can speak out about working conditions, according to a group of activists and Apple shareholders. Now, that group is pushing the company to add language that makes clearer exception for cases of workplace harassment and discrimination. Apple has refused. Last week, they filed a shareholder resolution to pressure Apple to make the change. “We approached Apple in good faith and encouraged them to take a leadership role here,” says Ifeoma Ozoma, who’s helping to lead the effort. “Their response was to use the same employ...

At this point, the Life is Strange formula is well established. Each game follows a young adult going through some kind of personal trauma, while also learning to deal with a newfound superpower, whether it’s time travel or telekinesis. So far it has worked in a few different flavors: the original felt a bit like an interactive Veronica Mars, while its sequel built on that with a bold and overtly political story. True Colors is the latest entry in the growing anthology, and it once again features a troubled kid with special abilities who’s struggling to keep it together. It also makes a big change by ditching the episodic format and releasing the complete story all at once Aside from that, it doesn’t mess with the formula much, nor does it make the daring narrative leaps of LiS2. Instead, ...

Sony announced that it will acquire UK-based studio Firesprite, the developers of The Playroom and The Playroom VR. It’s unclear what Firesprite might be working on in its new first-party capacity, but executives are already hyping what’s to come. “Firesprite’s ability to weave best-in-class gameplay with new technology is exceptional and I think fans will be excited about their creative vision for the future,” Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, said in a press release. Firespite was founded by staffers from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Liverpool studio, so there are already strong connections between the two companies. While Firesprite’s experience with The Playroom VR could suggest that the company is working on a game for Sony’s next-gen PlayStation VR headset, in an int...