Technology

Sony has announced an expansion of its 360 Reality Audio platform, bringing the 360-degree music format to more devices and media as well as offering new creation tools. 360 Reality Audio uses object-based spatial audio technology to place instruments or vocals around the listener’s head in a virtual sound field. Now, Sony is expanding the audio tech into video. The company says it’s working with record labels and service providers to start streaming video content with 360 Reality Audio later this year, and the first example will be a live performance from Sony-signed artist Zara Larsson next week. You’ll be able to watch through Sony’s Artist Connection mobile app at 5pm ET on January 11th. Sony is releasing two new 360 Reality Audio-compatible speakers this spring, the SRS-RA5000 and SRS...

Pokémon has an illustrious history of beautifully bizarre merch including a human-sized Metapod sleeping bag or a Ditto chair, but this giant Gengar plushie might be the best yet. It’s cute, sure, but it’s also incredibly practical. Just roll out its roughly 170cm-long tongue and you’ve got yourself a compact futon for sleeping on. There’s even a cozy little space in its open mouth for your head. But this Gengar isn’t just a novelty mattress replacement. No, it’s capable of so much more. Tired of reality? Shove your head in the Gengar’s mouth. Need an impromptu blanket? Use the Gengar’s tongue. When you’ve got a giant Gengar with a long-ass tongue, the sky’s the limit. Be not afraid.Image: P-Bandai.jp Gengar is here to help with nap time.Image: P-Bandai.jp The title of the product listing ...

Tesla is now taking orders for a cheaper Standard Range version of the Model Y. The new variant, whose availability was reported by Electrek, has a cheaper starting price of $41,990 compared to $49,990 for the Long Range model. The discount comes with a lower EPA estimated range of 244 miles rather than 326 miles, and rear-wheel rather than all-wheel drive. Alongside the new cheaper Model Y version, Tesla is also selling a new 7-seat option for a $3,000 premium. The version has a third seating row, which can be folded flat along with the second row for cargo storage. The Standard Range option was originally announced with a 230-mile range Tesla originally announced the Standard Range version of the Model Y back at the car’s announcement in March 2019. At the time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said ...

Kohler has revealed a new smart bath that lets you use an app, or your voice, to fill up the water. That by itself seems pretty handy to me, but depending on which model you buy, you can elevate your bathing experience by changing the color of lights around the tub or even adding some fog. You’ll also be able to establish preset routines to turn on features in a certain order so you can set your bath exactly the way you want it. For example, you can have the tub fill itself up to a specified level and a certain temperature, and once that’s done, add some fog or turn on some aromatherapy, all with a voice command to Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. Take look at the Stillness Bath for yourself in this footage provided by Kohler. I gotta say, it seems like a really relaxing tub. If you wan...

Online-only bank Simple is shutting down, its parent company announced in an email to customers Thursday. BBVA USA, which acquired Simple in 2014 for $117 million, said it would be transitioning Simple customers to BBVA accounts but did not provide details about when the change would occur. BBVA USA was acquired by Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank in November. In the email to users, which many shared with The Verge, BBVA said the decision to close Simple was a strategic one and said customers did not need to take any immediate action. There is no immediate impact to your accounts at Simple and nothing you need to do at this time. Since your deposits are already housed at BBVA USA, they will remain in FDIC insured accounts there, up to the applicable limits. In the future, your Simple account will...

For years, police have been warning about the dangers of crowdsourced detective work — but on Thursday morning, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of Washington, DC decided to do just that. In the wake of an unprecedented mob attack on the Capitol building, the MPD has released an open call for help identifying subjects. The department has circulated a digital booklet featuring 26 pages of faces from the attack, with a hotline number for anyone who can help identify them. The FBI has made a similar request, although neither agency has produced any arrests as a result of the photos. The alarming nature of the attack, combined with the failure of Capitol Police to detain or process the intruders, has led to a nationwide digital manhunt. The event was captured in hundreds of photos, vid...

The list of companies and agencies discovering that they’ve been affected by the SolarWinds hack is still growing, and they’re working with a big unknown: how far the hackers got into their systems. The federal judiciary system is likely now one of them (via The Wall Street Journal), and it isn’t taking any chances. It’s worried enough that court workers will now have to physically deliver sensitive documents, despite the ongoing pandemic. The judiciary’s new procedures sound rather intense: Under the new procedures announced today, highly sensitive court documents (HSDs) filed with federal courts will be accepted for filing in paper form or via a secure electronic device, such as a thumb drive, and stored in a secure stand-alone computer system. These sealed HSDs will not be uploaded to C...

TikTok will remove videos of President Trump’s speech inciting supporters to mob the US Capitol on Wednesday, saying they violate the company’s misinformation policy. TikTok will still let people post “counter speech” videos that dispute incorrect claims, however, and will let videos remain on the platform if they condemn violence or if they’re posted by news organizations. TechCrunch was the first to report the news. “Hateful behavior and violence have no place on TikTok,” the company said in a statement. “Content or accounts that seek to incite, glorify, or promote violence violate our Community Guidelines and will be removed.” TikTok is also blocking certain hashtags related to the riots, such as #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty, like it did with other hashtags that represented electi...

On October 15th, FCC chairman Ajit Pai promised that the FCC would “move forward with a rulemaking” to clarify the “meaning” of Section 230, the all-important internet law that protects free speech online. Apparently, Pai never got around to that — and less than three months later, he no longer plans to, either, explaining he’s short on time. “[T]here’s simply not sufficient time to complete the administrative steps necessary in order to resolve the rule-making. Given that reality, I do not believe it’s appropriate to move forward,” he tells Protocol. The reason he’s short on time is pretty simple: he’s stepping down on January 20th, when Joe Biden becomes President of the United States. But he might also be giving up because the idea that the FCC had the power to do such a thing was laugh...

Earlier this week, we reported that Google could be working on an updated Nest Hub that had Soli technology, and a report from 9to5Google now suggests that it could be for something unexpected: sleep tracking. If you aren’t familiar, Soli is Google’s radar technology used to detect gestures and human presence. It was first introduced in the Pixel 4 (which was discontinued in August), and while it isn’t in any of Google’s current Pixel devices, it’s now showing up in smart home devices, like the Nest Thermostat. So there is precedent for Google including the tech in its smart home devices. And the Nest Hub already looks a bit like an alarm clock, and because it doesn’t have a camera built-in, it may be more accepted into the bedroom for sleep tracking. But I still have a couple of questions...

Just about any account you own on the internet is prone to being hacked. After numerous widespread breaches through the past few years, tech companies have been working together to develop a standard that would make passwords a thing of the past, replacing them with more secure methods like biometric or PIN-based logins that do not require transferring data over the internet. But while those standards are still being adopted, the next best way to secure your accounts is two-factor authentication, or 2FA. This a process that gives web services secondary access to the account owner (you) in order to verify a login attempt. Typically, this involves a phone number and / or email address. This is how it works: when you log in to a service, you use your mobile phone to verify your identity by ei...