Technology

Crosby, Stills & Nash are back on Spotify, five months after the supergroup abandoned the platform in protest of Joe Rogan’s spread of COVID misinformation. The group will donate streaming profits to COVID-19 charities for “at least a month,” according to Billboard. The musicians’ return to Spotify marks a quiet and relatively unglamorous end to their protest, which has largely had the effect of boosting Rogan’s subscriber numbers, if the podcaster is to be believed. Crosby, Stills & Nash originally announced back in February that they would pull their music in solidarity with sometimes-bandmate Neil Young, who kicked off a series of artist protests of Spotify when he removed his music and published an open letter criticizing the company for its support of Rogan. “I am doing this b...

Amazon has launched its first “micromobility hub” in the UK with the aim to swap “thousands” of polluting delivery trucks with electric cargo bikes — and, in some cases, walking. The project is intended to help Amazon achieve its climate goals to have 50 percent of its deliveries be carbon neutral by 2030. Starting in the London borough of Hackney, the company says that it will deliver 1 million packages a year using walking and electric cargo bikes, in addition to deliveries that are made with electric vans. Delivery workers on foot and e-bikes will help displace “thousands” of traditional van trips, Amazon said. E-bikes will help displace “thousands” of traditional van trips The carbon neutral trips will take place within a tenth of London’s ultra low emissions zone, in which vehicles ar...

Minecraft has been updated with a tribute to the popular streamer Technoblade, whose death from cancer was announced by his family last week. The splash image for Minecraft in the game’s launcher now features a pig wearing a golden crown — a callout to Technoblade’s Minecraft character, a royal pig-man wearing a bejeweled crown. The Minecraft team tweeted on Friday that the team was ”heartbroken over the loss of Technoblade,” writing that he “brought so much joy” to the game’s community. We have been trying to find the words, but all of us here at Minecraft are heartbroken over the loss of Technoblade. He meant so much to our community and brought so much joy. He will be missed dearly. ️ — Minecraft (@Minecraft) July 1, 2022 Technoblade was a hugely popular Minecraft streamer, with ...

It just got way easier and more convenient to remotely watch Amazon Prime Video’s TV shows and movies together with your friends. The service’s “Watch Party” feature has received a much needed expansion from the limited use cases where it worked before — on Fire TV devices, desktop web browsers, and the Prime Video mobile app — and it now supports non-Amazon streaming devices, smart TVs, and Xbox / PlayStation gaming consoles. TechCrunch first reported on the expansion. Watch Party allows for up to 100 people with a Prime subscription to view content at the same time. The host is able to play, pause, skip, and fast forward or rewind for the group, and everyone can chat about what they’re watching. For now, Amazon’s Watch Party feature remains available only in the US. “An error message is ...

Apple will be bringing a new update to CarPlay that lets users pay for gas. The company originally teased the feature at WWDC earlier this month. Now, energy company HF Sinclair has shared its plans to roll out the feature at gas stations across the United States. Speaking to Reuters, HF Sinclair revealed that users would be able to buy gas via an app in CarPlay instead of having to get out of the car and pay. Through the app, users will be able to hand-select their pump and gas. HF Sinclair currently operates over 1,600 gas stations, making this a major move for Apple in the automotive space. The app hasn’t been launched just yet, and the energy company said that it plans to release more details over the next few months. The new feature may arrive with the iOS 16 software update, coming t...

Formula One driver Zhou Guanyu likely wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for the partially closed titanium device that formed a protective layer around the cockpit of his race car. Zhou credited the protection device, known as a halo, for saving his life after a horrific crash during the first lap of Sunday’s British Grand Prix, according to CNN. “I’m ok, all clear. Halo saved me today,” Zhou tweeted Sunday, along with a selfie. “Thanks everyone for your kind messages!” Zhou was one of several drivers involved in the turn one crash, which saw his Alfa Romeo flipping over and skidding across the track before crashing into the fencing. The halo, which forms partial protection around the cockpit, prevented Zhou from sustaining serious injuries. According to CNN: Zhou’s car ended up wedged ...

One of the best ways to restore space to your computer or phone — or to fix a problem that may have been caused by a temporary file screwing up the works — is also one of the simplest: to clear the browser cache. However, unless you’ve been instructed sometime in the past to clear your cache, you may be unaware of this otherwise invisible feature. Here’s how to clear your cache on the major browsers and on your Android or iOS devices. We’ve also included instructions on how to clear the data for a single site if you need to. Chrome Check the cached images and files box. Click on the three dots in the upper right corner On the desktop version, select More Tools > Clear Browsing Data… On the mobile app, select Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data Make sure the...

Chevy’s first foray into non-fungible tokens was a non-fungible dud. The automaker netted zero bids for its first NFT during an auction last month, even though the digital drawing came with a free 2023 Corvette Z06, according to Corvette Blogger. The NFT, which depicts a lime green Corvette Z06 blasting through a cyberpunk landscape, was created by artist Nick Sullo, who goes by xsullo online. The winning bidder would have also received a unique “Minted Green” Corvette Z06, which will be the only car painted in that color, and an option code RFN, which will “forever associate” the car with the NFT auction. And the Corvette’s VIN number will be in binary because NFTs are digital and computers use binary and you get it. But alas, there was no winner to ascribe to the blockchain, because migh...

Happy Fourth of July to our listeners in the States. Decoder is only a year old, but we’ve decided a Decoder tradition is that every summer, we’re going to do an episode about the outdoor grill industry, which is gigantic and growing. Last year, I talked to Roger Dahle, the CEO of Blackstone Products, a griddle company that blew up on TikTok and actually went public a few months after we talked. This year, I’m talking to Jeremy Andrus, the CEO of Traeger, which makes beloved wood pellet smokers with all sorts of features — the high-end models even have cloud connectivity so you can control them from your phone. Traeger also recently went public; the company says it will book between $800–850 million in revenue this year. The Traeger story is fascinating: the company was around for 27 years...