Technology

TikTok has begun testing out six new in-app mini-games. The initiative appears to arrive as part of a larger gaming pilot that began about a few weeks ago. According to a report from TechCrunch, TikTok has been working on the pilot with game developers such as Vodoo, Nitro Games, FRVR, Aim Lab and Lotem. TikTok creators may stumble across the mini-games while uploading a video to the platform. The option to link a video to a mini-game is shown alongside the same list where users can add a hashtag, tag a location or write a video description. “We’re always looking at ways to enrich our platform and regularly test new features and integrations that bring value to our community,” a TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch. “Currently, we’re exploring bringing HTML5 games to TikTok through integrat...

Instant photo printers are sort of the quieter, less-cool sibling of instant cameras, but they’re arguably more practical. They don’t quite tap into the nostalgia-fueled fun of pulling out an Instax camera at a party, but they’re a more versatile means of getting to the final product: a real, live photo print you can touch and feel. In an age where virtually all of our photos live in digital storage on our devices or on social media feeds, a physical print is kind of magic. There are plenty of ways to turn the photos on your phone into physical prints, but most of them involve waiting for shipping or finding a kiosk in a brick-and-mortar store, both of which are terrible prospects. Mobile photo printers eliminate the wait — they’re small enough to be carried in a purse or a bag so they can...

There’s a lot to be said for an app with one singular function, and that’s what makes the Tab app so magical. Unlike other bill splitting apps like Splitwise, which lets you split and track any type of expense, the Tab app exists to only split meal bills among a group of people. That’s it — that’s all it does. I was first introduced to the app by my friends when I lived in New York City. After many dinners and debates over who ordered an extra side of fries, who got three beers instead of two, and who just had an hors d’oeuvre in place of an entree, we were fed up with doing basic math so the five or six people at the table could each pay their fair share. Thus, we transitioned to the Tab app. Its appeal came from the ease of signing up new guests, selecting the items we ordered, and calcu...

Tomb Raider’s movie rights are up for grabs. According to a report from TheWrap, the Amazon-owned MGM waited too long to create a sequel to its 2018 Tomb Raider film, freeing up the rights for the next Hollywood studio that wants to take a stab at creating an adaption of the long-running video game franchise. Several studios are currently engaged in a bidding war to snap up the Tomb Raider rights, TheWrap reports. And since the license come with no obligation to retain the same cast and crew, the next Tomb Raider film could be a total reboot that passes the Lara Croft baton to yet another actress. The 2018 Tomb Raider stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, and was met with mixed reviews that criticized its weak portrayal of the series’ titular archaeologist. As we noted in our review at the ...

Just days after the Pixel 6A’s launch, Google’s rolling out an update to fix an issue preventing users from unlocking the bootloader and performing mods, according to a report from Android Police. The change is bundled within the Pixel 6A’s first update, which Google just started releasing last week. In short, a bootloader is a piece of software that loads the operating system (OS) on a device when it turns on. Gaining access to the bootloader on Android can give you full control over your OS in a process known as rooting. It also allows you to install modded versions of Android, called ROMs. While some phone-makers and carriers don’t let you unlock your device’s bootloader, Google does things differently. It lets you dive right in on Pixels that aren’t tied to a specific carrier (which ar...

Apple has made macOS very good at handling drag and drops. For example, I often pull a picture right out of the Photos app or Safari and drop it into iMessage or Slack. One thing that’s always slowed me down, though, is moving around more traditional files, like PDFs or other documents. But then I learned that quite a few apps, including many of the built-in ones, have a quick shortcut to get at the file you’re viewing. Using this shortcut (which is officially called the proxy icon), you can easily do things like upload a PDF you have open in Preview to Google Drive without having to go looking for the file in Finder. Here’s how it works: Nary a Finder window was opened.GIF of someone dragging a file from Preview to a Safari window with Google Drive. The trick is using the title bar, which...

Ever expanding on its list of technological products to make its users’ lives more convenient, Xiaomi has now introduced the latest electric scooter to join its commuting range. Named the Electric Scooter 4 Pro, the new model builds on top of its predecessor with enhanced features to give you both additional speed and range. While the majority of its design language remains similar, the latest offering has now been upgraded with a new motor that can push out a maximum power output of 700W. Paired with a 12,400mAh battery, it’s now capable of reaching speeds of up to 25km/h in its Sports mode and 45km in range when put in Eco mode. The entire package weighs just 17kg thanks to its aerospace-grade aluminum body construction but will hold up to 120kg in passenger capacity. Its size has been s...

ASUS has just introduced its Zenfone 9, the latest generation of its flagship smartphone series. Designed with a more compact form factor in mind this time around, the new Zenfone 9 carries a 5.9-inch AMOLED display running at up to a 120Hz refresh rate to give you better comfort when you’re using it with just one hand. A high-grip textured case also gives you better control when you’re on the move, while a 4,300mAh battery and 30-watt charging give you more usage with less downtime. The internal specs of the phone are also impressive, with ASUS equipping its latest model with Snapdragon’s 8+ Gen 1 chip series, up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 256GB of storage, and a newly-designed cooling system to keep things working as efficiently as possible. You’ll also get a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 camera ...

Blue Origin has just announced the latest launch date for its next crewed spaceflight, currently scheduled in four days’ time. The NS-22 mission will mark the 22nd launch for the company’s New Shephard rocket system and its sixth with a crew. Most significantly, it’ll achieve a series of firsts, highlighted by the participation of mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien, who will become the first person to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, the bottom of Marian Trench’s Challenger Deep, as well as the Kármán line, which marks the border between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. Entrepreneur Mário Ferreira and engineer Sara Sabry will become the first Portuguese and Egyptian people to venture to space, with the rest of the crew rounded out by YouTube channel Dude Perfect founder Coby Cotto...

China’s uncontrolled Long March 5B rocket reentered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, landing somewhere near Sarawak, the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The US Space Command confirmed the rocket’s reentry at 12:45PM ET, but it remains unclear where its debris landed. In a translated post on Weibo, China’s Manned Space Agency said the rocket reentered near the same area, and that most of it burned up on its way down. Uncertainty about where the rocket would land rippled across the globe On July 24th, China used a Long March 5B rocket to launch a lab module to its unfinished Tiangong space station. Unlike most rockets, the Long March 5B thrusts its first stage into orbit when delivering its payload. This piece, which is over 100-feet-long and weighs over 22 tons, orbits...

Netflix is suing Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the duo behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical over copyright infringement, as first reported by Deadline. The streaming giant filed the complaint in a Washington, DC district court just days after Barlow and Bear held a live, sold-out show dedicated to their Bridgerton-inspired album. After Bridgerton’s 2020 debut, Barlow and Bear began creating music based on the Netflix original series and promoting the endeavor on TikTok, where it quickly gained popularity. As fans requested more content, Barlow and Bear soon had enough to create a 15-song album that went on to win a Grammy in April, a first for music originating on TikTok. On July 26th, Barlow and Bear held a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, featuring live performances ...

I spent a week with the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa on my bedside table, and I’m still unsure why this product exists. A digital alarm clock you can control with your voice, the $69.99 Essential is a smart speaker combined with a traditional LED alarm clock. But it’s not a particularly “smart” smart clock, and there are plenty of excellent smart alarm clocks out there, even some made by Lenovo. This is not one of them. The only use case I can see for the Essential is if you specifically want an Alexa voice assistant by your bed, don’t want a display with a camera in it (all Echo smart displays have cameras on board — a bit dodgy in a bedroom), and want a larger LED clock than what’s offered on the excellent, camera-less Echo Dot with Clock ($60). If you are flexible on any of t...