Tech
TikTok Banned on New York City Government Devices
New York City has prohibited the use of TikTok on all government-issued devices, following a directive by NYC Cyber Command after a security assessment that deemed the app a potential threat due to its ownership by the Chinese company, ByteDance.The ban follows and mirrors those issued in New Jersey, Ohio, Texas and Georgia, all of which cited similar reasoning for their bans.This isn't entirely new news, as the state of New York and the U.S. House of Representatives had previously banned the app on government devices in 2020 -- however, it is an elevation of those same bans as it now affects all government-issued devices under both State and City jurisdictions.The Biden administration has also been applying more pressure on TikTok, urging the platform to disassociate from its Chinese owne...
BAPE® Teams Up With ASUS On Its First-Ever Laptop Collab
Continuing its 30th-anniversary celebrations, BAPE® takes its collaborations into the tech realm, partnering with ASUS to launch an exclusive bundle for its high-performance laptop, the ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED.The Vivobook S 15 OLED BAPE® Edition sees eye-catching aesthetic upgrades such as a photo-light-etched design that blends the brand’s iconic camo print and BABY MILO® character, applied to the laptop’s exterior and trackpad, as well as a co-branded stainless steel logo tag on the lid. To create this intricate pattern, ASUS uses a meticulous craft that includes 20 design techniques as well as 14 separate colors on the product and packaging to achieve its unique texture and finish – channeling the artistic legacy of both brands.Arriving in silver and blue or black and green colorways, ...
The New York Times blocks OpenAI’s web crawler
/ The NYT’s robot.txt page that controls how it appears to automated bots built to index the internet now specifically disallows OpenAI’s GPTBot. a:hover]:text-black [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-e9 dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray-63 [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-13 dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63″>A snippet of the NYT’s robots.txt showing that the company has disallowed GPTBot.
Tell every PC gamer you know: Dough, formerly Eve, is ready to issue refunds
/ ‘We’d be glad to get our negative brand perception out of the way.’ a:hover]:text-black [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-e9 dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray-63 [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-13 dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63″>Eve’s promised products, circa 2020.a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white”>Bonus round How does Dough explain my buggy monitor? Dough claims that after surveying 12,000 customers, “we have only gotten 126 people to respond with firmware issues that affect using their monitor as expected.” That’s a lot of qualifiers. What happened to those who bought the QHD 144Hz monitor that Dough nev...
B&O’s BeoVision Harmony TV Is Now Available in 97-Inch
Bang & Olufsen has expanded its BeoVision Harmony offerings with a 97-inch model — the largest screen size the brand has ever released.Featuring an OLED display that boasts 3840 x 2160 pixels and 4K resolution, the 97-inch TV screen is not only spectacular in size, but also the show it puts on. When not in use, the TV rests behind a luxurious-looking wood and aluminum cabinet, sleekly designed to incorporate into living spaces. When it’s “showtime,” the 2.15-meter-wide TV emerges from behind in a swift yet elegant unfolding action — all at a touch of a button.To heighten the immersive viewing experience, B&O also recommends pairing the BeoVision Harmony with a set of Beolab 28 speakers for sharper stereo, and an even more powerful bass output.Priced at $63,000 USD, the 97-inch opti...
Elon Musk Says X Will Remove Block Feature
X, formerly known as Twitter, will be allegedly removing one of the platform's prominent features. According to a message the platform's owner Elon Musk posted on X, users will lose the ability to block other accounts on the app.Musk took to the platform to share the following response to an X user's question: "Is there ever a reason to block vs mute someone?"Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023It makes no sense— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023While Musk deems the block feature to "make no sense", he is proposing a more effective mute feature. Musk garnered support from Twitter's former founder Jack Dorsey on this initiative, who responded to Musk's initial post with "100%. Mute only". In a following post, Musk responded t...
Apple’s sci-fi drama Invasion ramps up the tension in season 2
/ Things get off to a fast start as the show mixes human drama with classic sci-fi tropes. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Image: Apple Invasion was a curious addition to the sci-fi TV landscape when it debuted in 2021. For much of its runtime, it barely felt like science fiction at all. We all knew something alien was happening — it’s right there in the show’s title, after all — but the story was much more focused on the human-level drama going down as the world steadily succumbed to the invading forces. The result was a show that started very slowly, though things did eventually...
Amazon’s Fire TV Channels adds a sidebar and more free streaming content
/ Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming TV app is getting content from Funny or Die, GameSpot, Honest Trailer, and more. a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Image: Amazon Amazon is updating its recently launched Fire TV Channels app. The free, ad-supported streaming platform has a new sidebar that lets you navigate through different categories of content along with a new slate of shows. Fire TV Channels first launched in May with a lineup of free shows, live news, music videos, and sports from over 400 different providers, such as ABC News, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, America’s Test Kitch...
Leica’s Limited-Edition “Leitz Auction” M6 Camera Is Armored With Real Wood
Leica is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its official auction house, Leitz Photographica Auction with an exclusive camera release.Presented in a special design, the Leica M6 Set “Leitz Auction” is outfitted with real wood armoring featuring a cross-cross grid pattern and crafted from walnut veneer. Accentuating the textured body, the main metal parts are doused in a glossy black paint finish.The iconic Leitz Logo comes in solid gold, which was specially applied by a Germany-based goldsmith. To echo the golden logo, details like the Leica M6 imprint as well as the ISO selector wheel markings at the back of the camera also come in a gold tone.On top of that, the Cemra is equipped with the Noctilux-M 50 f/1.2 ASPH. lens, complete with a body cap, as well as a lens cap and hood.Limited to ...
Samsung Releases Powerful Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra Tablet
Samsung has released its latest flagship tablet, the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, a pricey but high-powered Android device geared towards prosumers and professionals alike.For most people, tablets equate to convenience: the form factor lends itself to most users' lifestyles, they're lightweight, versatile, and can be controlled with nothing but your hands. The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is all of these things and comfortably goes up against Apple's iPad Pro with premium features that include a huge 14.6" screen, up to 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage, and a seemingly never-ending 11,200mAh battery. As tablets have become more powerful and manufacturers have begun marketing their higher-end devices as laptop replacers, where does Samsung's latest offering sit?Depending on how you look at it, the Samsung Galaxy...
Tumblr Rolls Out a Very Twitter-Like Update to Its Interface
Tumblr has unveiled a revamped navigation system for its web users, with a lot of the features feeling reminiscent of the X app, formerly known as Twitter.The social platform shared that after a month-long testing phase and subsequent refinements, the change aims to enhance the platform's user experience by making it more intuitive and easy to navigate for both new users and long-time devotees.This redesign addresses one of Tumblr's key concerns, clarity. "When adding something new to Tumblr in the past, we’d simply add a new icon to our navigation with little further explanation," the platform recently shared, adding that it "Turns out no one likes to press a button when they don’t know what it does."As a solution to this, Tumblr has added text labels where ever there was space to do so ...
Apple Is Reportedly Designing an ‘Apple Watch X’ and Home Depot Has a $4k USD Smart Door in This Week’s Tech Roundup
This week, the tech industry was hit with the latest in AI: word of a new content moderation system developed by OpenAI. GPT-4 LLM is in development as a software tool designed to take the burden of harmful content moderation off of human employees but apparently, not replace them entirely.On the product side, House of Marley released a new turntable crafted entirely out of sustainable materials. Apple, meanwhile, is rumored to be working on a special edition “Apple Watch X,” while Home Depot now carries a $4,000 USD smart door.Below, Hypebeast has rounded up the top tech stories of the week so you can stay up to date on trends in the industry.OpenAI Is Developing an AI-Powered Content Moderation SystemOpenAi is engineering an AI-powered content moderation system. The tech company bills it...
