Technology

Hiroshi Fujiwara has been on a hot streak with collaborations with luxury brands — like his more recent BVLGARI and Maserati projects — and now he enters the tech world with a limited-edition MSI notebook. Part of MSI‘s Creator project, the Z16 performance laptop is aimed at “Slashies,” basically multi-hyphenated creators with multiple professions and eclectic career paths. Taking in Hiroshi Fujiwara’s expertise in design, music, fashion, and art, the Z16 receives a makeover that’s heavily influenced by fragment‘s design ethos. The laptop itself boasts a GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU, a 1,000-nit TRUE PIXEL 16:10 Mini LED display, an RGB SteelSeries keyboard, an Intel 11th-gen core i9 processor, and a military durability rating of MIL-STD-810G. Distinguishing this from the rest of the laptops ...

LG, the company that maintains an entire lineup of “party speakers” adored by muscle-y guys who buy beer in buckets, is back with a subdued model. The LG Xboom 360 (model RP4) speaker has a design that still says “party,” but with a more wine-from-a-box aesthetic. The portable 360-degree speaker has a 29Wh battery that lasts for up to 10 hours between charges. The speaker can supply up to 120W of power to its 5.25-inch woofer and 2-inch horn tweeter when plugged into the wall, and accepts audio over Bluetooth, USB, or Aux-in sources. The integrated light has ambient, nature, and party presets, and can be further customized in the companion app. It’s available in your choice of beige, burgundy, black, or green fabric coverings. A speaker for party-people who drink watermelon through straws....

As of today, Bitcoin is an official currency of El Salvador alongside the US dollar, after the Central American country became the first to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender. At three minutes to midnight local time, the country’s populist president Nayid Bukele tweeted that the country was about to “make history” with the move, after previously confirming that it had purchased 400 Bitcoins, the equivalent of around $20.9 million at today’s prices. Supporters argue the move will make it cheaper and easier for migrants to send money home to El Salvador, which is important given such remittances account for over 24 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to figures from the World Bank reported by CNBC. There are also hopes the move could improve citizens’ access to f...

Apple could have a new version of its iPhone MagSafe charging puck on the way. A new FCC listing for a “Magnetic Charger” first spotted by blogger Dave Zatz shows an accessory with a new model name (A2548) that looks otherwise identical to Apple’s existing charger (A2140). The new charger has been tested with a variety of devices including four marked as “New Phone,” which almost certainly correspond to Apple’s anticipated iPhone 13 models. There aren’t too many hints about what’s new in the official FCC documents. 9to5Mac notes that it’s been tested with all four existing iPhone 12 models (marked as “Legacy Phone”) as well as the four unannounced devices, which suggests this new MagSafe charger should be compatible with both generations. And there’s also a diagram showing the puck being u...

TikTok’s users now spend more time each month watching content than YouTube users, according to a report from app analytics firm App Annie. In the US, ByteDance’s app first overtook YouTube in August last year, and as of June 2021 its users watched over 24 hours of content per month, compared with 22 hours and 40 minutes on Google’s video platform. In the UK the difference is even more stark: TikTok overtook YouTube in May last year and users there now reportedly watch almost 26 hours of content a month, compared to less than 16 on YouTube. The figures only include viewership on Android phones, however, so may not be representative of mobile users as a whole. But caveats aside, they show the extent of TikTok’s meteoric rise over just a few short years, and are even more impressive given th...

O.MG has introduced its newest offering, a malicious Lightning to USB-C cable that was hand-made to look and feel exactly like a regular Apple cord from the outside. The new O.MG cable is capable of delivering payloads and detecting keystrokes on standard operating systems, smartphones and tablets, allowing hackers to view usernames, passwords, and other inputs from over 2KM away. A geofencing feature further allows the user to trigger or block malicious payloads based on the device’s physical location, and disarm or self-destruct when it falls out of scope. Additional features boast an easy-to-use interface, one-click payloads, remote Wifi access, and a scriptable Websocket. A special Keylogger Edition cable is able to store up to 650,000 keystrokes and detect inputs from detachable keybo...

El Salvador will officially use Bitcoin as its national currency tomorrow alongside the U.S dollar. In anticipation of the momentous move, the country has just bought 400 Bitcoins worth approximately $21 Million USD at the time of purchase. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele‘s proposal for the use of Bitcoin as an “unrestricted legal tender with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction,” was approved by a supermajority in the Salvadoran Congress back in June. Prices in the country will soon be expressed in BTC and most merchants and stores in the country will begin to accept crypto. According to a state press release, the new legislation will grant permanent residency and certain tax incentives to those who start Bitcoin-related ventures in the country, and citizens in the country wh...

The private email service Protonmail is drawing harsh criticism from its users after providing IP information linked to a French activist who used the service, as first reported by TechCrunch. The data was requested as part of a broader investigation into a group of climate activists who have occupied a number of apartments and commercial spaces in Paris. While the members of the group are anonymous, one had used the address “jmm18@protonmail.com” in online postings. As a result, French police sought to identify any persons linked to the account. “The prosecution in this particular case was very aggressive” Because ProtonMail is based in Switzerland, it is not subject to French or EU requests. But the company is still subject to requests from Swiss courts, where French police where able to...

According to Deadline and Variety, Phoebe Waller-Bridge has decided to leave Amazon’s upcoming Mr. and Mrs. Smith series. She was originally set to co-star alongside Donald Glover, but the Hollywood publications report that creative differences between the two have led the Fleabag creator to depart the production. Her exit is described as amicable, and Glover will remain onboard while Waller-Bridge’s role will be recast. Amazon’s Mr. and Mrs Smith series, based on the 2005 film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, was scheduled to go into production in 2022; in addition to her co-starring role, Waller-Bridge also originally planned to executive produce the series along with Glover. The two previously appeared together in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Their pairing for Mr. and Mrs. Smit...

California is poised to pass a new bill pushing back against the productivity measurement algorithms allegedly used in Amazon fulfillment centers, as recently reported by NPR’s Morning Edition and The New York Times. The bill passed California’s lower legislative chamber in May, and the upper chamber is expected to vote on it next week. If passed, the bill would place new transparency requirements on automated quota systems, and block any such systems that could endanger the health and safety of workers. Introducing the bill in July, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) cited a Verge report that found “hundreds” of Amazon warehouse employees had been fired for failing to meet productivity quotas at a single facility in Baltimore over the span of just over than a year. Associated doc...

Amazon is apparently preparing to launch its own branded televisions. According to new reports, the tech and e-commerce giant has been developing TVs for the past two years and it aims to release them in the U.S. as early as October. The project was helmed by the research and development team that was responsible for both the Kindle and Echo, and will reportedly be powered by the company’s very own Alexa. Despite its own production, it has also been suggested that the first series of TVs Amazon will release later this year were designed and made by third-party manufacturers like TCL, and there’s no release window yet for their own designed models. There’s currently also no pricing information regarding the Amazon TVs, and the company hasn’t officially announced anything yet either, so thos...

The global semiconductor shortages are reportedly not ending any time soon. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Toshiba has expressed concern that the chip shortages could last another two years, despite previous projections from Cisco that it’d continue for just another six months. “The supply of chips will remain very tight until at least September next year,” said Toshiba’s Takeshi Kamebuchi, who overlooks the production of semiconductors. “In some cases, we may find some customers not being fully served until 2023.” “We usually receive orders weeks and months in advance, but we currently face increasing inquiries for half a year into the future and beyond,” he added. “Long-term contracts piling up like this is new to us.” Industries all across the board are affected by the s...