Technology

On Tuesday, the White House officially threw its support behind a bill pushed by Tiger King star Carole Baskin to restrict exotic animal ownership. In a statement, the Biden administration said that the Big Cat Public Safety Act “would build on existing laws that protect big cats like tigers, cheetahs, jaguars, and other wild animals living in captivity in the United States” and “limit ownership of these animals to zoos, sanctuaries, universities, and agencies.” The measure — introduced by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — would formally ban the cub petting industry of lions, tigers, and other big cats featured in Netflix’s hit Tiger King documentary released in 2020. As highlighted in the show, private zoos regularly host events where park-goers are allowed to ...

When we last spoke with Everrati CEO Justin Lunny, his UK-based restomod company that converts iconic cars to electric vehicles was expanding into the US market. Since then, the company set up headquarters in Calabasas, California, and in April, it partnered with Irvine-based manufacturer Aria Group to work on state-side electric conversions of Porsches and other prestige vehicles. Now Aria Group is helping build the first Everrati Porsche in California, and the owner of that car is a major investor: former Nest CEO Matt Rogers. Rogers’ car is a Porsche 911 (type 964) wide body, similar to his father’s that he has fond memories of riding in as a kid. Since then, he promised himself that he’d get one, too, but only if it were electric. The once Apple engineer left Nest in 2018 and has since...

Summers are now so brutally hot that the US government created a new website, heat.gov, to help Americans stay safe during dangerous heat spells. It features maps that show current heat conditions across the country and provides other tools and resources to help people beat the heat. The main goal of the website is to prevent heat-related illness and death by sharing up-to-date information on extreme heat. Heat kills more people in the US than any other weather disaster. Often, it disproportionately harms vulnerable pockets of people, including children, older people, and communities of color who live in urban and formerly redlined neighborhoods designed in a way that traps heat. “We don’t have to accept this. Right? This doesn’t have to be this way,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo sa...

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is reportedly facing an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over whether it allowed users to trade unregistered securities, according to a report from Bloomberg. The SEC’s probe hasn’t yet been made public. Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that the SEC started taking a closer look at Coinbase’s practices after the exchange added over 100 additional tokens to its platform, including Dogecoin, the joke cryptocurrency based on the Shiba Inu meme. These types of coins typically do well after they’re first listed, but they’re very volatile, and their value typically evaporates over time. This investigation is separate from the SEC’s case against former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, his brother, Nikhil Wahi, and ...

It’s easier than it has ever been to add someone as a friend on your Nintendo Switch account with just your phone now that you can input a friend code into the Switch Online mobile app and send a request. An update in March made it simple for people to copy their code from the app to share it with others. Now you can more easily expand your friends list when you don’t happen to have your Switch handy. The updated version of the mobile app on iPhone / iPad or Android (version 2.2 or higher) also allows you to share your friend code as a URL for someone else to click on so they can send a request or a QR code so they can get there just by using their camera. The Nintendo Switch Online app on Android, where you can copy and share your friend code directly, as a URL or as a QR code. You can al...

The Meta Quest 2 (formerly known as the Oculus Quest 2) is about to get $100 more expensive, bringing the price for the 128GB model to $399.99 and the 256GB model to $499.99. According to a post from Meta, the price change for the almost two-year-old headset will take effect “starting in August.” As much as I hate to recommend buying things under pressure, you should probably act fast if you’re hoping to get your hands on one before then. It seems likely that scalpers and their armies of bots are about to have a heyday with the models that are currently for sale at the old price. You can pick them up from places like Meta’s official store, Best Buy, Amazon, GameStop, Target, or Walmart. This is a hefty price jump for what was one of the best deals in gaming for years, and it comes at a tim...

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the perfect game to get you through the annual summer drought of video game releases precisely because it is a game that seemingly goes on forever. By the time you finish it, it’ll be well into November, just in time to pick up Game of the Year shoo-in Skull and Bones or whatever little game Sony Santa Monica’s got going on that will surely be of no consequence whatsoever. I’m not even sure the game can be finished because, at 25 hours in, it’s still throwing new mechanics and tutorials at me that increasingly complicate an already complicated game. That said, I’m strangely compelled by its combat, which makes it feel like an MMORPG, and its nigh-incomprehensible story. Half the time, I don’t know what’s going on, mechanically or narratively, but I’m enjoying it. ...

Instagram’s leader wants you to know that the company is going to keep leaning into video. In a short video this morning that seems like it’s aimed at No. 2 Instagram user Kylie Jenner, Instagram head Adam Mosseri lays out bluntly that the app is going to keep shifting away from its photo roots. “I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is gonna become video over time,” Mosseri said. There’s a lot happening on Instagram right now. I wanted to address a few things we’re working on to make Instagram a better experience. Please let me know what you think pic.twitter.com/x1If5qrCyS — Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) July 26, 2022 The app will continue to support photos, but Mosseri says the move away from them is driven by user behavior. Sharing and viewing of videos is growing...

Russia announced it has decided to withdraw from the International Space Station partnership after 2024, the Russian state news site TASS reported. Yuri Borisov, the new head of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, reportedly told President Vladimir Putin the news during a meeting on Tuesday. “Vladimir Vladimirovich, you know that we are working within the framework of international cooperation at the International Space Station,” Borisov said, according to a translated report from TASS. “Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision [on] leaving this station after 2024 [has] been made.” “Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners” The decision seemingly reaffirms statements made by Borisov’s recent predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, ...

Another one of Meta’s social experiments is shutting down. It’s called Tuned, and if you’re like me, this is probably the first and last time you’ll ever hear of it (via TechCrunch). Tuned launched in 2020, back when Meta was still Facebook, as an app designed for couples looking to connect even when they’re apart. The app comes from Meta’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team, which develops experimental apps and services. Through Tuned, couples can privately share their thoughts and moods as well as send notes to one another. There are also games that couples can play to get to know each other better, in addition to Spotify integration for exchanging music. As noted by TechCrunch, Meta has started notifying Tuned users that the app is shutting down on September 19th. That’s also the cu...