Technology

“SpaceX, Tesla, and I own Bitcoin,” Elon Musk said at a Bitcoin conference today. Though Tesla no longer allows people to pay for cars using Bitcoin, the automaker hasn’t sold its Bitcoin, he said. “We’re not selling any Bitcoin, nor am I selling anything personally or nor is SpaceX selling any Bitcoin.” In addition, Musk disclosed that he owned Ethereum and — unsurprisingly — Dogecoin. The price of Ethereum, which was already rising today, rose further on the disclosure. Dogecoin rose early in the panel to almost 21 cents, before dipping to about 19 cents by the end of the panel, according to Coindesk data. Musk spoke at a panel with Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and payment company Square, and Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of ARK Invest. “I might pump but I don’t dump.” In February, Tes...

Twitter is working on new upvote and downvote reactions for tweets to accompany the usual options to retweet and reply. Twitter confirmed it was testing the feature for a small group of users on iOS, and it’s already been spotted according to multiple tweets from users that are part of the test group. Twitter writes that iOS users may see upvote and downvotes in several different styles (up and down arrows, a heart icon and a down arrow, and thumbs up and thumbs down icons) and that it’s testing the feature to “understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them.” Currently votes are not public. Some of you on iOS may see different options to up or down vote on replies. We’re testing this to understand the types of replies you fin...

Grammy-nominated singer Khalid has a new album coming out, and the first single, “New Normal,” is as smooth and breezy as a summer afternoon, which is weird because the video that accompanies the track is pretty much a venture capitalist’s dream come true. The video depicts a futuristic utopia full of skyscraper gardens, autonomous vehicles, drone deliveries, and smart homes. Khalid’s video is brimming with real products from real companies, not generic versions — a sign that the singer maybe had some input from Silicon Valley in crafting his love letter to our surveillance capitalist nightmare of a future. The video depicts a futuristic utopia full of skyscraper gardens, autonomous vehicles, drone deliveries, and smart homes You know things are off to an interesting start when Khalid, roc...

Optimist — the film company backing GameStop‘s working-titled The Meme Economy — will officially begin production on a cryptocurrency documentary, titled Ethereum: The Infinite Garden, after financing the film in only two days, according to Deadline. In just over 48 hours, the production company managed to raise roughly $2 million USD in the form of Ethereum (ETH) last week through crowdfunding on the platform Mirror. Donors received producing credits and NFTs done up by digital artist pplpleaser, depending on the amount given. Those who shelled out at least one ETH (equivalent to approximately $1,800 USD) received an NFT, titled “Bloom,” while the 20 highest patrons were sent an animated iteration of the movie’s poster. Though the value of cryptocurrencies are known to be unstab...

Real Nifty has launched an NFT minting service that allows anyone to create an NFT for the things they want to buy. Dedicated to innovating NFTs to be used for real-life experiences, the new service, titled “Real Nifty Wish,” takes NFTs beyond the realm of digital assets and content and facilitates interactions with celebrities and artists. The way Real Nifty Wish works is fairly simple: prospective NFT consumers can fill out a form detailing their wish, who they want it from, name their bid price (in Ether) and mint the NFT either off chain or on the Ethereum blockchain, which typically ranges in cost from $30 USD to $100 USD. From there, the Real Nifty team will reach out to the celebrity or artist to tell them they have an outstanding wish from a fan. The celebrity has a 30-day window t...

More than a year after its initial launch, Clubhouse has officially moved out of its beta phase, ditching its signature invite-only model for a more inviting structure that now allows any user to join a public livestream, follow Clubhouse links and hop into a creator’s community at any time. Those currently on the waitlist will be added to the platform in the coming weeks, while new users will be able to automatically join beginning Wednesday morning. “The invite system has been an important part of our early history,” Clubhouse founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth said in a blog post. “But we’ve always wanted Clubhouse to be open. Everyone in the world should have access to meaningful conversations. And the best rooms on Clubhouse are the ones where you meet people from far outside your s...

Amazon’s Alexa devices are ambient computers, not the kind you use all day. When you do ask your Echo a question or glance at your Echo Show’s diminutive screen, the voice assistant only has a brief chance to impress. Today, Amazon is announcing it’s going to give more of those opportunities to third-party developers — including brand-new widgets and featured skill cards that might take up a chunk of your smart speaker’s precious real estate. Here’s what to expect from those and everything else the company’s announcing at its Alexa Live event today. As you can see in Amazon’s mockup above, widgets look pretty much as you might expect. In a blog post, Amazon describes them as “rich, customizable, glanceable, self-updating views of skill content” where you can check items off a to-do list or...

Instagram is adding a new option to automatically translate text in story posts, the company announced today. Now, when the service detects a foreign language in a post, it will display a “See Translation” option on the top left of the screen, which users can tap to see a translation at the bottom. Instagram says the new translation feature will be available globally, and currently supports over 90 languages to make sharing content with an international audience easier. The feature, whose development was previously reported by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, means there’s now parity between Instagram stories and traditional posts. In 2016, Instagram added automatic translations to comments, captions, and user bios but failed to include the feature with stories which launched a month lat...

Olympic athletes in Tokyo continue to test positive for COVID-19 by the dozens, the United States gymnastics team left the Olympic Village for a hotel in an attempt to avoid the virus, and the chief of the games’ organizing committee said there could still be a last-minute cancellation. Still, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the Tokyo Olympics could “inspire” and “bring the world together.” “It is my sincere hope the Tokyo Games succeed,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday. He said it was impossible to expect zero cases of COVID-19, and that the most important thing would be to isolate people, contact trace, and stop the virus from spreading. “Beyond competition, medals & records, the #Tokyo2020 Games bring the nations ...

Clubhouse is going wide. Co-founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth announced today that the app is no longer invite-only. Around 10 million people are currently on the waitlist, a spokesperson confirms, and they’ll slowly be added to the app over time. (Essentially, millions of users won’t be added today, but seemingly, if you attempt to sign up anew, you’ll be able to do so.) Along with the news, Clubhouse showed off a new logo, as well as a new app icon: Justin “Meezy” Williams, rapper 21 Savage’s manager. “The invite system has been an important part of our early history,” a blog post about the changes says. “By adding people in waves, welcoming new faces each week in our Wednesday Orientations, and talking with the community each Sunday in Town Hall, we’ve been able to grow Clubhouse in ...

Lyft customers in Miami will be able to hail a robotaxi from Argo AI, an AV startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen, by the end of the year, the companies announced Wednesday. Next year, riders in Austin, Texas, will be able to do the same. It’s the latest move to make more autonomous vehicles available for public use after initial predictions about the wide-scale availability of AVs failed to materialize. For years, Ford promised that it would launch a full-scale autonomous vehicle business, including robotaxis and driverless delivery, by 2021. That later got pushed to 2022, with the automaker citing delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. It also said it would use a purpose-built autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals to power its commercial ambitions, which it has yet to re...

Zoom is furthering its ambitions to be your go-to app for virtual meetings and events by making Zoom Apps and Zoom Events widely available starting Wednesday. Zoom Apps are third-party integrations that will show up right in your Zoom call. There will be more than 50 apps available, including apps like Asana, the Pexels backgrounds app, or even games like Heads Up. If you’re on the latest version of the Zoom client, you’ll be able to install apps from a new Apps tab you’ll see on the toolbar during Zoom calls (though your company administrator may need to enable them). Zoom’s events platform, Zoom Events, offers features to help you host robust virtual events. For example, you can make a hub that provides details about the event and set up a chat in the hub. You’ll also be able to sell tic...