Technology

Tegic has just released its updated Block 30 portable battery pack. With their purpose of designing “sexy” power banks, separating its phone chargers from the sea of products that look the same, the Block 30 not only looks great but has the latest charging technology built inside. The Block 30 features a 30W fast charge in and out (USB-A/USB-C), a large 10,000mah capacity, and a full CNC aluminum body. One of the key design elements is the exposed circuit board via the tempered glass window. The board shows six LED lights that display the status of your charge. Those interested in this industrial, palm-sized power bank can head over to Tegic to pick one up for a price of $69 USD. In other tech news, NVIDIA reveals that part of its CEO’s keynote presentation was deepfaked. Read Full Article

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has revealed on his social media platform that he’s “trying” out Bitcoin mining through a third-party company named Compass Mining. Replying to a thread involving other Bitcoin miners, Dorsey said that he’s “trying mining with [Compass Mining],” a service that not only hosts and operates but also supplies cryptocurrency mining machines for individual customers who prefer not to go through the trouble of building and maintaining their own mining computers themselves. According to CNBC, the initial hardware costs come in at around $8,200 USD, and miners subsequently earn a profit of roughly $33 USD per day. The move into Bitcoin mining for Dorsey comes after the tech CEO showed great enthusiasm and faith in the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency, going so far a...

If there’s one company I trust to do a good job with utterly ridiculous computer ideas, it’s Asus. Last fall, the company worked with cyberpunky fashion designer Acronym to make possibly the weirdest-looking gaming laptop I’ve ever seen (the ZPHYRS G14 ACRNM). This year, it’s partnered with popular DJ Alan Walker to create a less avant-garde, more musical version of the same device. This is the Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Edition, a laptop for gamers, DJs, and (ideally) gamer DJs. The insides of this laptop are nothing ROG fans haven’t seen before. There’s only one configuration, selling for $1,999.99, which includes an AMD Ryzen 5900HS processor and a low-end GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, as well as a QHD 120Hz screen, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. So, just to be clear, this isn’t re...

NVIDIA recently revealed that consumers have already witnessed some of its “Omniverse” technology. Elaborating that the reveal took place back in April during its GTC 2021 conference, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang could be seen speaking in it what appeared to be his kitchen. The big surprise was discovered from NVIDIA’s Connecting the Metaverse video where they explain that everything from the cabinets, stove, cooking utensils, and even screws were built into the “Omniverse.” Using a mixture of tools like Photoshop, After Effects, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine, Blender, and Autodesk Maya, close to 8,000 objects were fit into the scene. There were even Easter eggs hidden inside the deepfake scene like an NVIDIA coffee grinder, Tao olive oil, and a LEGO Jensen Huang. Combined with a GC version ...

IKEA will sell renewable energy generated from solar and wind parks to Swedish homes By paying a fixed monthly fee for a STRÖMMA subscription service plus variable rates, users will get certified clean electricity to power their homes and track their usage through a mobile app. Any surplus energy can be sold back to IKEA to promote a reduction in electricity usage. In addition to the energy subscriptions, the home furnishing giant also offers solar panels in 11 markets. When it comes to the expansion of clean electricity sales to other countries, the company hopes to let people in all Ingka Group markets “use and generate more renewable energy” through their energy services by 2025. For more tech news, Twitter is testing a new tool for reporting misinformation. Read Full Article

Facebook announced plans to delay employees’ return to the office until 2022 earlier in August, but CNBC writes that some Facebook contractors employed by Accenture have been working in person since a week before. This might not be a surprise as The Verge previously reported that some of Accenture’s contractors in Texas were instructed to return to office work as early as October 2020. A Facebook spokesperson tells The Verge that the 2022 return to office plan applies to a majority of all full-time and contingent office employees in the US, regardless of if they’re employed by Facebook or a contracting firm: “While the majority of full-time employees and contingent workers for Facebook continue working from home, some have returned to offices that have reopened at reduced capacities with s...

Microsoft is redesigning its Paint app in Windows 11. The app will be updated with a new command bar that borrows most of the same options and tools as what exists in the ribbon interface for Paint on Windows 10. It’s the first major update to Paint in years, and it even includes a dark mode. Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices, Panos Panay, teased the new Paint redesign on Twitter today. The teaser video includes a brief look at improvements to the font picker, brushes, and a dark mode for Paint. The tools look a lot more usable now, with a quick picker that shows all the different brushes and their effects. Microsoft’s font tool for Paint also floats now, with options for size, alignment, and more. There doesn’t appear to be options for layers, but this is the first major update to P...

Netflix is beginning to roll out support for Apple’s spatial audio feature on iPhone and iPad, the streaming giant said to 9to5Mac on Wednesday. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the rollout to The Verge, saying that the rollout begins Wednesday and that users should expect to see it over the next few days. You may have it already — some users on Reddit are reporting that it’s working for them. Apple’s spatial audio, which you can only take advantage of with the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max on an iPhone or iPad, is designed to make you feel more immersed in what you’re listening to with an impressive surround sound effect. If you want to give spatial audio a shot and don’t have it on Netflix yet, you can try it out on other services like Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, or HBO Max. In the future,...

Half a decade ago, dronemaker DJI realized its miniature aerial steadicams might be handy to carry around on foot — but it’s not the only company monopolizing on the shrinking tech. Rival FeiyuTech now has a DJI Pocket competitor that ups the ante by letting you detach the entire motorized gimbal, so you can stick a lightweight self-balancing camera to your car, helmet, wrist, or any magnetic surface up to three feet away. It’s called the FeiyuTech Pocket 2S, and it’s on crowdfunding site Indiegogo right now for $399, or a little less if you take advantage of its early bird discounts. [embedded content] According to the company, the camera shoots up to 4K footage at 60 fps with a Sony IMX 317 sensor, and can do up to 3 hours of continuous recording at 1080p. While you only get a square vid...

An analyst that closely follows Apple product developments believes that the next installment in the iPhone series is slated for release in September. Spotted by MacRumors, a note to investors from an analyst at Wedbush Securities, Daniel Ives, details that the iPhone 13 is set to launch in the third week of September. “Our recent Asia supply chain checks for 2H put iPhone builds between 130M-150M,” the investor note seen by MacRumors said. “The iPhone 13 appears to represent 35%-45% of iPhone builds in Q3, this positive outlook gives us enhanced confidence that 2021’s launch timing will be “normal”. From a timing perspective, we believe the current iPhone 13 launch is slated for the third week in September.” Breaking down the estimated time frame further, Forbes estimates that pre-orders ...

Twitter is updating its API v2 so that developers can look up its Spaces social audio rooms, the company announced Wednesday, which could allow them to share information about Spaces more easily outside the Twitter app. Twitter has been rapidly improving Spaces, but before now, you could only see them on Twitter’s own apps. But starting Wednesday, “all developers using the new Twitter API v2 will be able to look up live or scheduled Spaces using criteria like Spaces ID, user ID, or keyword,” Twitter says, which sounds like it means that a developer can use that information to point you to a Space from within their own app. You can still only attend a Space on Twitter, though This doesn’t appear to mean that developers will be able to let you listen to or attend Spaces inside their apps, ho...