Technology

Airbnb announced on Thursday that the “vast majority” of its employees will be allowed to work remotely, and won’t have to take a pay cut if they move away from the cities surrounding the company’s offices. Airbnb is implementing the change after it had “the most productive two-year period” in its history while working remotely, according to a Twitter thread from Brian Chesky, the company’s co-founder and CEO. It is worth noting, however, that it also laid off a quarter of its workforce during that time. Airbnb is also making other remote work policy changes. According to its announcement post, employees will also be able “live and work in over 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location,” as long as they keep a permanent address on file. The company will also periodically have...

Epic Games has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop Google from removing independent music storefront Bandcamp from the Android app store — which Google has apparently threatened to do because Bandcamp is using its own billing system instead of paying Google an app store fee. Bandcamp, which Epic acquired in March, has used its own billing system on Android since 2015, and was able to do so because of rules exempting digital music from having to use Google’s billing system, according to a blog post from Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond. “However, Google is now modifying its rules to require Bandcamp (and other apps like it) to exclusively use Google Play Billing for payments for digital goods and services, and pay a revenue share to Google,” Diamond says. Under Goog...

Google’s office collaboration tools Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings will now show a warning banner when you open potentially malicious files from the web, the search giant has announced. This banner already appears when dodgy files are accessed from within Drive, as well as from suspicious links within separate Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings files. The broader rollout should help protect users in a wider range of situations. Confusingly, Google’s January 20th announcement post said that the banner already appeared when opening Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings links. However, the company tells us this was a typo, and that it should instead say that the banner appears on “links from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings” files. Scammers have used Google files to get malic...

In the age of aesthetically pleasing morning routines, a cheap electric coffee maker can feel a bit dated — something to begrudgingly use at the office rather than a gadget that brings joy to your kitchen. And while I love the fancy coffee gadgets that require a manual, multi-step ritual, there’s one thing that makes me turn to a standard Mr. Coffee machine every morning: its dead-simple “brew now” button that instantly starts the process of getting caffeine into my body. The single-button operation means I don’t have to navigate the complexities of brewing temps or ratios while I’m still half-asleep. I just press it, it lights up, and the machine gurgles to life, heating up water and pushing it up a tube onto the coffee grounds I’ve added to it. The only decision I have to make is how muc...

Following last year’s successful debut collaboration, Hong Kong-based lifestyle label CASETiFY and Anwar Carrots are reuniting for a second accessories link-up. Drawing inspiration from farm-fresh crops, the collection invites streetwear and tech fans alike to cop iPhone accessories adorned by the brand’s carrot signature, Farmer Bunny and friends and the label’s “That’s an awful lot of Carrots” slogan. Featuring Anwar Carrots himself in the lookbook, the collection features the Impact Case, Ultra Impact and leather case styles in both orange and green, with accessories available for the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel Series. The full Carrots x CASETiFY collection is set to drop in the near future, with a waitlist available to sign up for soon via the CASETiFY webstore. In other n...

Interactive rowing machine company Hydrow has teamed up with renowned artist Alex Echo to create a trio of limited-edition rower designs, each of which come with an associated unique NFT. Since its inception in 2017, Hydrow has offered a unique rowing experience that allows users to access interactive, on-demand rowing classes from the comfort of their own home. Now, alongside Echo, the pair present three striking designs that are available to buy now. Titled “The Four Elements”, “Water” and “Platinum Jubilee,” each design will be signed and numbered by Echo, making each machine a one-of-a-kind. Available exclusively from Selfridges, Oxford Street, London, 20% of each sale will be donated to Parkinson’s UK, a neurological condition Echo himself was diagnosed with seven years ago. [embedded...

On Thursday, Activision Blizzard Inc. shareholders almost unanimously approved the company’s $69 billion USD sale to Microsoft with 98% of votes cast at the Special Meeting in favor of the takeover bid. Microsoft announced its plans to buy Activision for $95 USD per share, an approximately 24% premium over Activision’s current share price, in an all-cash transaction on January 18. If the deal is completed, it will go down in history as one of the largest mergers in U.S. history and solidify Microsft as the world’s third-largest gaming company. “Today’s overwhelmingly supportive vote by our stockholders confirms our shared belief that, combined with Microsoft, we will be even better positioned to create great value for our players, even greater opportunities for our employees, and to contin...

The e-bike market is in the midst of a boom. According to reports, the industry is tipped to generate almost $54 billion USD by 2027, with an annual growth rate of around 12.27% between now and then. Despite some of cycling’s biggest names well and truly cornering the market from the outset, a few smaller startups have still been able to make their mark, no less so than Belgium startup Cowboy. Founded in Brussels in 2017, Cowboy is a label on a mission to transform urban mobility by creating beautifully designed, lightweight and user-friendly electric bicycles. Following the successful launch of its C4 and C4-ST models, the brand soon gained further recognition when it was awarded the Best of the Best Red Dot Design Award midway through last year. Now, as Cowboy continues to evolve, HYPEBE...

The Bethesda.net game launcher is giving up the ghost as of May 11th, so Bethesda is allowing anyone who has purchased games on their exclusive platform to migrate their purchases to Steam. The launcher and your library will remain accessible after May 11th, but Bethesda has recommended that users begin the process as soon as possible. In the process of migrating your games, Bethesda has noted that your entire game library and wallet will be accompanied by all of your saved games — meaning that you shouldn’t have to worry about losing your 500-plus-hour playthrough of Fallout 76. However, we’d recommend backing up those files wherever applicable before you start the process. Bethesda.net logins will still be a thing, however, and your credentials will remain unchanged for titles that requi...

A report released last week contends that Amazon uses voice data from its Echo devices to serve targeted ads on its own platforms and the web. The report, produced by researchers affiliated with the University of Washington, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and Northeastern University, said the ways Amazon does this is inconsistent with its privacy policies. Titled, “Your Echos are Heard: Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Amazon Smart Speaker Ecosystem,” the report concludes that Amazon and third parties (including advertising and tracking services) collect data from your interactions with Alexa through Echo smart speakers and share it with as many as 41 advertising partners. That data is then used to “infer user interests” and “serve targeted ads on-platform (Echo devices) as well as off-p...

Snap isn’t the only social media company with smart glasses and an expanding hardware portfolio, but what’s separating its approach from Meta? While announcing Pixy, a $229 drone that takes off from your hand to capture selfies, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel spent some time explaining his decision to focus on experiences built for the real world instead of the virtual metaverse. “The reason why we don’t use that word is because it’s pretty ambiguous and hypothetical,” he told The Guardian. “Just ask a room of people how to define it, and everyone’s definition is totally different.” “Just ask a room of people how to define it, and everyone’s definition is totally different.” Spiegel also told The Verge’s Alex Heath that companies making metaverse pitches “are really talking about something that doe...

As part of his pitch to raise funds to acquire Twitter, Elon Musk apparently “floated” the idea of cutting jobs at Twitter to improve its bottom line, according to a Bloomberg report. “While nothing is set in stone — and Musk himself had no access to Twitter’s non-public financials at the time — he specifically mentioned job cuts” during discussions with banks, the report says. The Washington Post reported that Musk discussed making “efficiencies” at the company in the conversations with bankers, “which could include job cuts.” There are still a lot of uncertainties about what Twitter will look like under Musk’s ownership, assuming the $44 billion deal announced Monday goes through as expected. So far, the best indication of what he wants to do with the platform comes from his own words in...