Technology

It’s been a crushing few days for the Terra project, in a week that has been unforgiving for cryptocurrency as a whole. Over the past few days, the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin, which is meant to maintain a dollar peg, uncoupled dramatically from the $1 mark and dropped to a low of less than 30 cents on May 10th. In the latest update to the saga, the beleaguered project put its entire blockchain on halt for around two hours on Thursday, freezing user funds until the blockchain was unpaused. The Terra blockchain was officially halted at a block height of 7603700.https://t.co/squ5MZ5VDK Terra validators have decided to halt the Terra chain to prevent governance attacks following severe $LUNA inflation and a significantly reduced cost of attack. — Terra (UST) Powered by LUNA (@terra_money) May 1...

EcoFlow is taking a detour from its usual pursuit of making big-ass batteries to launch this portable air conditioner that would give campers, RV roamers, and everyone living the van life more incentive to own a few of the aforementioned batteries. The EcoFlow Wave is a portable air conditioner it’s building that claims to have “the world’s most powerful cooling and the longest run time.” As you can see, based on the environment of the gentleman pictured above, the idea is that keeping cool isn’t just for places with permanent walls or, apparently, any walls at all. Image: EcoFlow The unit weighs 38.58 lbs by itself and 55.98 lbs with the 1,008Wh add-on battery attached. Unlike some earlier EcoFlow projects, this isn’t a Kickstarter, but it has a similar promotional hook, offering cheaper ...

This week’s episode of Paramount Plus’ Halo TV show is incredible in the strictest definition of the term. I literally cannot believe what I have witnessed. Spoilers for Halo follow Are you still here? Are you sitting down? OK. In the latest episode of Halo, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 fucks. He has sex with an undercover human Covenant spy after the two have bonded over their shared magical abilities surrounding the mysterious artifacts both the humans and Covenant have been after for most of the series. Apparently, the Master Chief is such a skilled lover that Makee, the Covenant spy, is all set to renounce her allegiance to humanity’s enemies. However, a series of misunderstandings and violent interactions with the UNSC leads Makee to change her mind about changing her mind, set...

Meta is continuing the Meta-fication of its brands by renaming Facebook Pay, its payment system available across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to Meta Pay. The change is set to happen “soon,” according to a blog post from Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies, and is the latest indication that the company formerly known as Facebook is all in on the metaverse. “We’re focused on enhancing the payments experiences we already provide with Facebook Pay where we’re seeing good adoption,” Kasriel wrote. “And with this, an emphasis on quality in the countries that we are already in, rather than expanding to new countries right now.” People in businesses in 160 countries use Meta’s platforms to make payments, according to Kasriel’s post. Meta is also l...

Astronomers have now captured the first image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, reports CNN. This feat marks a major milestone in the field of astronomy and physics as it represents the first visual confirmation of our galaxy’s supermassive black hole named, Sagittarius A*. The grounding image was captured by the new Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The black hole is about 4 million times the mass of the Sun and is just less than 26,00 light-years from Earth. Although light cannot escape black holes, the hot plasma that swirls around them emits radio waves, which allowed for the image to be captured. “These unprecedented observations have greatly improved our understanding of what happens at the very (center) of our galaxy, and offer new insights on how these giant bla...

It doesn’t come as a surprise after recent leaks, but today, Sony announced its latest flagship noise-canceling headphones, the WH-1000XM5. They cost $399.99, an increase from the prior 1000XM4s, and will go on sale May 20th. Sony says it has cranked up its already-fantastic noise cancellation to new highs by adding a second processor to the new headphones. The improvements are most noticeable in “mid- to high-frequency noise,” according to the company’s press release. That includes things like everyday city street noise and human voices. The 1000XM5s have a design that’s quite different from their recent predecessors. Sony has gone for a sleeker look, switching to a stem-style slider and moving the microphones (there are now eight of them) around the perimeter of the ear cups. The 1000XM5...

Sony has a brand new flagship set of noise-canceling headphones: the WH-1000XM5. And as much as we’ve ragged on Sony’s terrible product names before, I think that at least with the 1000X series, people get it: these have always been among the very best noise-canceling headphones you can buy. Sony’s been battling it out for years with Bose, and more recently Apple, to win over frequent flyers, commuters, work-from-homers, and everyone else who can’t go without noise cancellation. As more jobs shift to a hybrid work model, noise-canceling headphones have only become more essential for peace and quiet both at the real office and in your home office. The 1000XM5s have a fresh design, cleaner sound, and even better ANC than before. But they don’t really do anything new. Now priced at $399, they...

Mark Zuckerberg just shared a short demo video showcasing some of the capabilities of Meta’s upcoming high-end virtual reality headset, Project Cambria. While keeping the device itself cloaked, Meta highlights the upcoming headset’s ability to do high-resolution, full-color passthrough so that wearers can interact with virtual objects overlaid onto their real-life environments. The mixed reality experience is built using Meta’s Presence Platform, which was introduced last fall. Current Quest headsets are only capable of displaying passthrough content in shades of gray, but Project Cambria will have much higher resolution image sensors to make the real world look better inside the headset. [embedded content] Meta also posted this two-and-a-half-minute video highlighting its Presence Platfor...

Twitter is shaking up its top leadership. The first move came as consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour announced on Twitter that current CEO Parag Agrawal “asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.” Bruce Falck, the general manager of revenue and head of product for its business side, confirmed in a tweet that he was also fired by Agrawal. Now Jay Sullivan, who we spoke to in March about Twitter’s plans to add 100 million new users, will take over as both the head of product and interim head of revenue. addendum: taking inspiration from my good friend @kayvz I’ll clarify that I too was fired by @paraga — bruce.falck() (@boo) May 12, 2022 The New York Times reports that in an email to employees, Agrawal confirmed the departures,...

Morph Audio launches its latest customizable earbud collection, enlisting a diverse range of creatives from Seoul’s fashion and art scenes to lead its “Morph The City” campaign. The “Morph The City” campaign taps emerging personalities spanning the fashion, music, art and design scenes in South Korea, highlighting how they disrupt their surroundings using style. Through their artistic sensibilities, stylist Nara Kim, designer Hyoxxi, model Hyeokjin Eum and multi-hyphenate creative Hanseul Ha, interpret the new Morph Audio earphones as outlets of self-expression. Morph earbuds are customizable and feature a full range of swappable faceplates to elevate your look. The latest series delivers a premium audio experience, with clarity in the mid-range and punchy bass. Designed to block out unwan...