Tech Boys

Spotify’s success with its year-end review known as Wrapped , designed for social sharing, may be pushing the company toward building more social experiences directly into its mobile app. The company for many months has been testing different iterations of a “friends activity” tab on its mobile app, and investors have now taken notice. During the streamer’s Q4 earnings call earlier today, the company was asked to clarify some details about its social plans. Though Spotify CEO Daniel Ek declined to comment on the specific feature the investor asked about, he didn’t shoot down the idea of Spotify becoming a more social platform. Instead, he replied that social could become “a meaningful driver of creating an even stickier and more engaging experience” for the company. The exec was answering an investor question about Spotify’s recent tests of a “Friends tab” which appears in the app’s bottom navigation bar for some subset of Spotify’s users. Though only an experiment at present, the te

343 Industries and Halo may be here to stay despite Microsoft's mass layoffs , but that doesn't mean it's business as usual for the franchise. Bloomberg sources claim 343 is effectively restarting Halo development between multiple changes that include the loss of "at least" 95 jobs, including directors and key contractors. Notably, the studio is reportedly switching to Epic's Unreal Engine after both a leadership shuffle and struggling with its aging in-house platform (Slipspace) — it's even breaking from its familiar story-driven gameplay, according to the tipsters. The 343 team is understood to be using Unreal for an unannounced game, nicknamed "Tatanka," developed with the help of long-time ally Certain Affinity. It was originally built as a battle royale title but might "evolve" into other forms, the sources say. While some at 343 are supposedly worried Unreal might affect how Halo feels to play, Slipspace's glitches and har

Developed at MIT CSAIL , SoFi is a soft robotic fish designed to study the underwater world and better understand the organisms living in it. We spoke with PhD student Levi Cai to discuss how it works and the impact the technology could have as we seek to uncover more about our oceans. from Mashable https://ift.tt/0oMuYOc via IFTTT

UPDATE: Jan. 31, 2023, 2:00 p.m. EST This story has been updated to include new deals on pet tech, toys, and more. BEST PET TECH DEAL: The Whistle GPS tracks your pet and can also give you valuable health and activity insights — $77.42 $149.95 (save $72.53) BEST PET TOY DEAL: The Game from Fable Pets is a multipurpose feeder, toy, and enrichment game all in one small package — $44 $55 (save $11) BEST PET DNA KIT DEAL: The Embark Dog DNA kit will give you a breed breakdown and health risk report on your pup — $159 $199 (save $40) Got a pandemic puppy or a quarantine cat? You're not alone. Tons of people are still adopting new pets — and finding out that the cost of buying toys, beds, treats, and pet tech adds up quickly. To keep you from spending your entire paycheck on your four-legged friend, we compile a list of the best pet deals every week so you can be the best pet parent ever, even if you're on a budget. Pet tech deals Opens in a new tab C

"The world feels a lot scarier than it used to, and kids are experiencing a lot of anxiety and stress," said Stew Friedman, a professor emeritus at The Wharton School. Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images This story orginally published on April 13, 2022 and was updated on January 30, 2023. Like many working moms, my workweek is calibrated with militaristic precision. I know exactly how long I can devote to each meeting and task and still have the bandwidth to do the afternoon soccer carpool, cook dinner, and help with homework at night. Which is why last Wednesday threw me off my game.  I was on a tight deadline, but my mind was preoccupied with my younger daughter. She'd told me about some social dynamics at school that I didn't like the sound of, so I'd scheduled a parent-teacher conference. Over Zoom, her teachers and I had a constructive — albeit emotional — conversation.  Once that meeting finished, I had another over Zoom with my team, all while my deadline loo

The Russian government has blocked another encrypted email provider, according to a Russian digital rights organization and the email provider. Last Wednesday, Roskomsvoboda, which describes itself as “the first Russian public organization active in the field of protecting digital rights and expanding digital opportunities,” reported that an unknown Russian state organization ordered the block of Skiff , an email and cloud service provider launched last year . Since then, Skiff’s chief executive Andrew Milich shared evidence of the block with TechCrunch. The block against Skiff comes three years after Russia blocked similar email encrypted services Proton Mail  and Tutanota , showing that President Vladimir Putin’s regime is decidedly clamping down on encrypted communication services that allow its citizens to conduct conversations that are harder to spy on. The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment. The Russian government’s censorship author

RuPaul and Trixie Mattel during the finale of "RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars" season 3. VH1 Drag culture has centuries of history behind it, from Ancient Greece to the Harlem Renaissance. LGBTQ historians and experts explained the origins of drag to Insider. Here's a guide to drag culture in the US and how what it means today. An art form. A political statement. A source of entertainment. A communal activity. Drag has many functions and a rich history that goes back centuries. But what is it, exactly, and what isn't it? Insider spoke to historians to find out everything you need to know. Is drag the same as cross-dressing? Drag is the act of highlighting and emphasizing various feminine and masculine features, and it provides an avenue through which people can both subvert and celebrate gender expressions.  Drag often gets conflated with cross-dressing, but the two are not synonymous, said Melanie Walsh, a psychology professor at the University of New

Welcome back to  Equity , the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. I’m back, I’m drinking an iced Americano maybe because I miss Alex, maybe because I just feel different today, and I’m ready to start our week together. Here’s what I got into on today’s Equity Monday: Big tech: Marqeta’s nine-figure acquisition of a two-year-old fintech , and which bucket of deals I think it falls into – complete with a comparison of this deal and a hypothetical McDonald’s acquisition. Plus, Stripe’s whole 12-month timeline thing and my edit for your incoming thought pieces.  Big idea: My latest Startups Weekly column is all about the latecomer advantage . I talk about the idea, and its nuance, in the context of building startup rivals. Big innovation: We end with a look at Atomos, which landed $16 million to tug vehicles through space , and a bright spot of an analysis, coming from the TC+ world, on Black Web3 founders.  As always

If you’ve been reading Engadget for a while, there’s a good chance your high school education involved using a scientific or graphing calculator during math class. Your old calculator might even be sitting in a desk drawer somewhere collecting dust. If you can't find it, the Internet Archive’s latest project is here to help (via Ars Technica ). With the help of the team behind the Multi-purpose Emulation Framework (MAME), a project that has spent the past 25 years creating software that can emulate all sorts of gadgets, the archive now offers emulated versions of some of the most popular calculators of the past few decades. In all, The Calculator Drawer features 14 different models for Internet Archive visitors to noodle around, including the venerable Texas Instruments TI-81 from 1990. Not every calculator of note from the past 25 years is part of the collection. For instance, you won’t find the Casio fx-7000g, the world’s first graphing calculator, on the list, but if you

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates endorses retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly during the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Kelly's confirmation to be Secretary of Homeland Security on Capitol Hill on January 10, 2017. AP Photo/Cliff Owen Putin sees Ukraine as part of his "destiny" to "recreate the Russian Empire," said ex-Defense Secretary Gates. "He is obsessed with retaking Ukraine. He will hang in there," Gates said on Sunday on NBC News. The US and other military allies are sending tanks to Ukraine to aid the country against Russia's advances. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it's his "destiny" to recreate the Russian Empire, according to former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. During a Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Gates said that Putin had made it part of his vision to retake old territories to recreate Russia's former geographic sphere of influence. "Puti

Over the weekend, Nintendo shared a surprise trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie . The 30-second clip shows additional footage from a scene that was first featured in the trailer Nintendo released last November . More importantly, it marks our first chance to hear Seth Rogen’s take on Donkey Kong. After Mario dons his cat suit, first introduced in 2013’s Super Mario 3D World , Rogen’s Donkey Kong starts laughing. “You got the cat box! I’m sorry,” the ape tells his one-time nemesis before turning serious. “Now you die.” 🐱 #SuperMarioMovie pic.twitter.com/GcgIPZyLV3 — The Super Mario Bros. Movie (@supermariomovie) January 29, 2023 With Sunday’s trailer, Nintendo has now offered fans a chance to hear the entire ensemble cast of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, including Chris Pratt as Mario, Jack Black as Bowser and Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach. Following the release of the film’s second trailer, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto said Nintendo redesigned Donkey Kong's model for the f

SNL's Weekend Update rounded up quite the mixed-bag of news this week, including a proposed TikTok ban, Chipotle burrito sales, and cheese-induced nightmares. SEE ALSO: SNL's cold open makes Merrick Garland a whip-cracking legal hero and nods to Tyre Nichols Co-hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost went all in on the internet's trending topics, including the state of AI chatbots. They simultaneously roasted the de-facto TikTok lobby and last year's abortion ban in Texas, nailed musician Kanye West for thinking of himself as both "Jesus and Hitler", and even questioned the world's oldest living dog. The two traded joke after joke for the rest of the sketch, and, as always, made sure to remind viewers that the jokes and reality have become pretty blurred. from Mashable https://ift.tt/iscltyf via IFTTT

Rep. George Santos in the House chamber. Andrew Harnik/ AP Photo Pedro Vilarva, who met Santos in 2014, said he lived with Santos' wife unaware that the pair were married. Vilarva said that he had no proof of whether or not the marriage between Santos and his wife was real. Vilarva also agreed with the statement that Santos was a pathological liar. An ex-boyfriend of Republican Rep. George Santos said he had no idea the congressman was married when they first started dating — even after moving in together with Santos and his then-wife in her apartment. Pedro Vilarva, who was 18 in 2014 when he met Santos, described the living situation in an interview with Insider on Friday. Santos, who is now openly gay, was 26 at the time and married to a woman. "When I moved to New York, I was living in her apartment. I lived for a whole month in her apartment. For me, they were friends. They knew each other, we all used to go party together, we went to events together," Vil

How much storage you decide to configure the Galaxy S23 with could be a more meaningful decision than with some of Samsung's past phones. According to frequent Samsung leaker Ice Universe (via Android Police ), the 128GB variant of the base model S23 will make use of a UFS 3.1 chip instead of Samsung’s newer UFS 4.0 standard. Consumers will need to pay extra for the 256GB version if they want the company’s latest storage technology. Ice suggests the reason for this is that Samsung doesn’t produce a 128GB UFS 4.0 chip. Samsung has made big claims about UFS 4.0 since announcing the standard last year. The company says the new chips are twice as fast as its older UFS 3.1 memory. UFS 4.0 offers sequential read and write speeds of up to 4,200MB/s and 2,800MB/s, respectively. The new silicon is also 46 percent more power efficient, an upgrade that could lead to longer battery life on phones that make use of the technology. I’ll note here Ice Universe’s information isn’t definitive.

As the video of the brutal police beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police continues to circulate online, many are feeling a range of emotions, from anger and sadness to frustration and fear. The tragic incident has sparked widespread outrage and calls for justice, with protests breaking out in major cities across America in the aftermath of bodycam and surveillance footage being released to the public by the Memphis Police Department. While it is important to stay informed, and engage with issues of police brutality and racial injustice, it is also crucial to take steps to protect yourself and your loved ones from the emotional stress that can come from consuming too much news and social media. Nichols, 29, was brutally beaten by five Memphis police officers during a traffic stop on Jan. 7 , just minutes away from his home where he stayed with his mother and step-father. Nichols would pass away three days later after succumbing to his injuries. The officers responsible for Nichols

Migrants from Mexico, Venezuela and Central American countries stage a protest outside the United States Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico on Monday, January 9, 2023. (Photo by Carlos A. Moreno/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Migrants have expressed serious concerns about the issues on the US border control mobile app, according to the AP. They were reportedly instructed to make an appointment on the app to request asylum. However, the tech challenges have left some without hope, the AP reported.  Migrants hoping to gain entry into the US at the Southern border are reportedly growing frustrated with the host of technical issues plaguing a new border control mobile app that is supposed to expedite asylum appointments.  Many migrants at the Southern border have been grappling with numerous error messages or being prevented from logging in altogether while trying to set up an appointment on the CBPOne mobile app, The Associated Press reported Saturday. "It freezes and it stay

Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on December 8, 2021 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images Prosecutors claim SBF contacted multiple current and former employees earlier this month. The DOJ asked the court to stop him from contacting employees via encrypted apps like Signal. Bankman-Fried's lawyers accused prosecutors of misrepresenting the message in a response filed Saturday. Prosecutors have asked the federal judge overseeing the case against FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried to prevent him from contacting current or former employees after allegations of potential witness tampering. In a letter filed Friday in federal court, the Department of Justice claimed that Bankman-Fried contacted FTX's current general counsel, among others, using the encrypted messaging app Signal. "I would really love to reconnect and see if there's a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resou

Hey, party people, it’s Kyle, continuing to step in for Greg to write Week in Review as he spends time with his newborn. Dunno about y’all, but it’s been a week . I’m dead tired and thankful it’s over. But because the news never sleeps, I’m rallying with the help of a fourth cup of coffee. Wish me luck. I’ve talked your ears off about it at this point, but I’m under contractual obligation (not really, but still) to mention TechCrunch’s upcoming Early Stage 2023 event in Boston on April 20. The one-day summit on startups will include advice and takeaways from top experts, plus opportunities to meet fellow founders and share your own entrepreneurial experiences. Don’t miss it. On the subject of travel, it’s not too early to start thinking about this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which will take place in late September in San Francisco. Tickets aren’t available just yet, but they will be in the near-ish future. Sign up here for updates. With the call to actions out of the way (phe