Tech Boys

Air Company , a startup that turns carbon dioxide into things like perfume, vodka , hand sanitizer and aviation fuel, is now on the U.S. Defense Department’s payroll, so to speak. The JetBlue and Toyota-backed company struck an up-to $65 million deal to help the Air Force capture CO2 and turn it into “sustainable” aviation fuel on base. Air Company said the carbon will initially come from industrial facilities — which is how the startup currently makes fuel at its “pilot plant” in Brooklyn, New York. But the startup also has its hands in direct air capture , which is “part of the technology that Air Company would be building out on site,” a spokesperson for the firm said. The goal is not for Air Company to supply fuel but to provide the Air Force with tech to make the fuel itself. The company called this “harm reduction” to “avoid fuel transportation as a target for explosives.” “The contract is tiered out over the next several years,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch, and Air Compa...

Matthew McConaughey was reportedly receiving $10 million a year to serve as the "creative adviser" of Salesforce. Rich Polk/Getty Images Salesforce reportedly struck a deal with the actor Matthew McConaughey, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company reportedly agreed to pay McConaughey $10 million a year to serve as creative advisor and TV pitchman. McConaughey starred in an ad Salesforce ran during the 2022 Super Bowl donning an astronaut suit.  Salesforce has already slashed thousands of workers from its ranks this year .  But the cloud-based software company may still be paying millions to harness the star power of actor Matthew McConaughey.  Salesforce reportedly agreed to pay McConaughey $10 million a year to serve as its "creative advisor and TV pitchman," The Wall Street Journal said Tuesday, citing people familiar with the arrangement.  However, it's unclear what the terms of the contract are or when the contract even began. Repres...

Mammoth, a recently launched Mastodon app that’s trying to make it easier on users who want to join the decentralized social web, has a notable financial backer. The company confirmed that its leading pre-seed investor is Mozilla, a proponent of the open web, who invested in the company’s first general round alongside others, including Long Journey Ventures and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff. The company has a unique founding story as well. The app was originally built by iOS developer Shihab Mehboob, the creator behind a number of apps including the whimsical music app Vinyls and the Twitter client Aviary 2 . The latter was impacted by Elon Musk’s Twitter API changes which put an end to third-party Twitter clients , prompting Mehboob to turn his attention to the decentralized and open source Twitter alternative Mastodon. Mammoth was the result of those efforts, but it has since been acquired by the company that’s now running the project, led by principal developer Bart Decrem. Now, t...

Google announced that it’s rolling out Pixel Watch fall detection starting today. Like the Apple Watch feature of the same name launched in 2018, Google’s version also uses motion sensors and algorithms to determine if you’ve fallen and need help. However, Google says it won’t accidentally call emergency services for winter sports accidents, as the Apple Watch’s crash detection has done. If the Pixel Watch detects a possible fall and a lack of movement for about 30 seconds, it will vibrate, emit an alarm and display an onscreen message checking on you. If it wasn’t a bad fall, tap the “I’m OK” button to dismiss the alert; tap “I fell & need help” if you want it to call 911. Otherwise, the sound will continue for about a minute and grow louder in its final seconds. If you still haven’t responded to the alert by then, it will contact emergency services automatically, playing them an automated message requesting help at your location. (You’ll also have the option of speaking to th...

Just months after acquiring Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is now distracted by the newest shiny object: AI chatbots. According to a new report from The Information, Musk is looking into creating an artificial intelligence research lab in order to develop his very own version of OpenAI's incredibly successful ChatGPT. The billionaire has reportedly already reached out to AI researchers for the project.​​ Igor Babuschkin, a former senior AI researcher at Google's Deepmind, is one such person that Musk contacted to lead his AI chatbot vision. Babuschkin confirmed to The Information that he had not yet agreed to work for Musk's project. While there are not many details yet about Musk's potential AI project, the billionaire has been quite vocal with his criticisms of ChatGPT. Musk himself co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but has since completely cut ties with the company. He left OpenAI's board in 2018. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) "Ope...

Emily Kramer is well known in the marketing world, both for her professional expertise and her voice. The entrepreneur was Carta’s former VP of marketing, and made headlines in 2020 when she filed a lawsuit that accused the company of gender discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and of violating the California Equal Pay Act. Now, three years after the lawsuit was first filed, Kramer says the “matter was resolved.” Filings show that the settlement came a month ahead of the case’s impending trial date.. She declined to comment further. “It definitely impacted where I am now in the sense that this was an inflection point,” said Kramer, who is one of many former Carta employees with a legal embroiled in legal battles with the company. “I want to do something on my own terms, and I want to do something that I think matters and can have an impact. And I want to invest in companies that I think care about DEI.” Enter MKT1 Capital, a venture firm that Kramer is building along...

Hookup culture has become an accepted style of human connection. Sure, wanting to have sex with no strings attached has always been a thing, but proudly searching for it is way less taboo than it was when your parents were dating. Finding the right person for a casual hookup, however, isn't as easy as one would hope. With so many dating sites and hookup apps to choose from, it's hard to decipher which platform is the best option for a night of safe and shameless fun. To help you navigate the world of casual sex, we've rounded up the best hookup apps, plus some tips to help you get started. What is hookup culture? The term "hookup culture" refers to casual sex or uncommitted sexual encounters — you know, good old-fashioned consensual sex just for the sake of it. Dating apps and sites have certainly helped bring society firmly into its hookup culture era. "If having sex was once taboo, not having it is today," says Washington Post columnist Christin...

A detailed view of the corner flag inside the stadium prior to the Premier League match between Manchester United and Norwich City at Old Trafford. Getty/Catherine Ivill Manchester United stock fell as mush as 13.5% after a report suggested that it's worth billions less than the club's owners are seeking.  A Financial Times analysis indicated that United's value is likely to be around $1.6 billion.  However, the team's owners want at least $6 billion, per The Athletic. Shares of Manchester United fell as much as 13.5% on reports that one of the world's biggest soccer clubs may be worth billions less than its owners are seeking . US-listed shares hit an intraday low of $19.80 but pared losses and were down 9% at $20.87, indicating a market cap of $3.43 billion. Prospective bidders have been lining up to buy the company with multibillion-dollar offers. The club's owners, the Glazer family, reportedly want at least $6 billion, per The Athletic . But an ...

Astroscale , a company that’s developing technology to service satellites and clean up orbital debris, has closed another round of funding and widened its investor pool to include a space enthusiast billionaire and a major Japanese manufacturing multinational. The Series G round comes in at more than $76 million, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $376 million. The new investors include Yusaku Maezawa, the billionaire behind the private spaceflight project “ dearMoon ” and the first private Japanese citizen to visit the International Space Station, as well as Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Mitsubishi Corporation, Development Bank of Japan and FEL Corporation. Separately, Astroscale also announced a new partnership with Mitsubishi Electric to jointly develop and manufacture satellite buses for Japanese national security constellations. The buses will be outfitted with an Astroscale docking plate, so that the buses can be docked with and moved in the event that ...

Amazon is adding new features to the Kindle Scribe . A new update gives the e-reader / digital notebook new brush types, including a fountain pen, marker and pencil — each with five thickness settings. The new tools respond to various pressures and angles, and you can use them anywhere you can write on the device. The update is scheduled to roll out today. The Scribe update also enhances notebook organization, now letting you create subfolders you can move in and out of standard folders. After receiving the update, you’ll see a new “+” option when viewing a folder; press that to add a subfolder. To move one, tap on the three-dot contextual menu when viewing a folder or subfolder, select “move,” and drop it someplace new. Amazon Finally, the update adds the ability to navigate to specific pages. You can do that by clicking on the three-dot menu, selecting “Go to page,” and typing the page you want. The Kindle Scribe arrived last November. In Engadget’s review, Cherlynn Low found...

Like many other PC and phone manufacturers, Lenovo is at MWC Barcelona this week, sharing details about what it has in store for the rest of the year. The company’s 2023 lineup includes refreshed ThinkPad laptops and ThinkCentre monitors, but perhaps the most interesting announcement involves the IdeaPad Duet 3i. Lenovo is updating the Windows 11 2-in-1 to add a larger 11.5-inch IPS panel with a 2,000 x 1,200 resolution, 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and 400 nits of peak brightness. The new model also has upgraded 5-megapixel and 8-megapixel front and rear-facing cameras and an N200 processor from Intel. The four-core, four-thread processor features a boost clock of up to 3.7GHz. You can configure the IdeaPad with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It also comes with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, and with the option to pair the device with a stylus, Lenovo says the IdeaPad Duet 3i is perfect for students. The 2-in-1 will arrive in Europe later this year and cost €4...

Back at CES, Lenovo showed off a huge portfolio of new devices including a true dual-screen laptop and a desk lamp that doubles as a webcam . But now, Lenovo is back at Mobile World Congress with a few more refreshed notebooks and tablets headlined by two interesting updates to the ThinkPad Z family. Designed to be ideal companions for hybrid workers, the new ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2 and Z16 Gen 2 feature an all-AMD setup. You’ll be able to choose from a range of Ryzen 7000 processors and even an optional Radeon 6650M graphics card on the larger Z16, along with up to 64GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. However, for people who are constantly hopping on and off video calls, the ThinkPad Z13 and Z16’s new communication features might be the bigger draw. That’s because in addition to new full HD webcams, you’ll also get support for Wi-Fi 6E and Dolby Voice-enabled microphones, so you should look and sound good on Zoom meetings. But my favorite new feature is the TrackPoint Quick Menu that ...

Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images; iStock; Rebecca Zisser/Insider Kseniya Kharchenko and her then 5-year-old son fled Kyiv a day after the start of the invasion. Since then the single mother has fantasized every day about returning to her country and family. Kharchenko is among 8 million Ukrainians who have been made refugees by the war. The sky over Ukraine was streaked with missile smoke as bombings began and troops advanced in a ground invasion , as Kseniya Kharchenko packed what she could carry in her Volkswagen Golf and —with her then 5-year-old son in tow — began searching for a safe place to escape the war just a day after the Russian invasion began on February 24 last year. "When the bombs started falling, we didn't know when they will stop — and whether they will stop or not — and how it will all go," Kharchenko told Insider, describing the fear she felt when she chose to leave the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Her parents stayed behind. As did some of her ...

Twitter has laid off at least another 50 employees, according to a report from The Information and posts on social media from former workers. And apparently not even Elon Musk loyalist Esther Crawford, the chief executive of Twitter payments who oversaw the company’s Twitter Blue verification subscription, was spared, according to Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer . Alex Heath of The Verge also confirmed that Crawford and most of the remaining product team were laid off this weekend, leading many to speculate that Musk is cleaning house to redecorate with a new regime. Recall that Crawford had been swept up by Musk’s hardcore takeover of Twitter last year, even boasting on the platform about sleeping at the office to handle round-the-clock demands from her new boss. When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork https://t.co/UBGKYPilbD — Esther Crawford (@esthercrawford) November 2, 2022   The layoffs came this weekend after...

Aubrey Plaza wasn't born into wealth and learned a lot from watching her parents' example of grit. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Aubrey Plaza said getting famous hasn't changed the way she thinks about her personal finances. In an interview with WealthSimple , she described her humble beginnings and paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. Even though her dad now works in finance, she still doesn't know much about money, she said. Aubrey Plaza became a household name soon after her turn as fan-favorite deadpan character April Ludgate on " Parks & Recreation ," and later became just as well known for her serious acting chops after her performances in the gritty indie " Emily the Criminal, " and on the second season of popular HBO series " White Lotus ." Sitting down with WealthSimple for their "Money Diaries" series, the now "White Lotus" star took on a taboo subject: Money. "People have weird relationships with ...

For at least the fourth time since he said the company was done with layoffs , Elon Musk is reportedly cutting more of Twitter’s workforce. According to The Information , the social media website laid off “dozens” of employees on Saturday evening. The outlet put the number of affected staffers at approximately 50, a number Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer later said was likely much higher. “Hearing that the Twitter layoffs last night were well above 50 and hit multiple departments including engineering,” Schiffer tweeted on Saturday , subsequently adding that product manager Esther Crawford was among those Twitter let go on over the weekend. Crawford’s departure is notable for a few reasons. Outside of Musk himself, she was one of the most recognizable faces at “Twitter 2.0.” She led the company’s Twitter Blue redesign and oversaw work on its upcoming payments platform. At one point, she even shared a photo of herself sleeping on the floor of Twitter’s office. Look, you're gonna f...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis celebrate his victory over Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Charlie Crist during an election night watch party at the Tampa Convention Center on November 8, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. Octavio Jones/Getty Images Ron and Casey DeSantis  got married at  Walt Disney World  in 2009, Insider first reported. The couple opened up about their nuptials for the first time in a Sirius XM Patriot radio interview. The Florida governor admitted the choice wound up being "kind of ironic." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened up publicly for the first time about how he and his wife, Casey DeSantis, ended up exchanging their vows during a fairy tale wedding at Walt Disney World Resort — only to engage in a brutal battle with the family-favorite company 13 years later.  In an interview with Florida first lady Casey DeSantis , the Republican governor confirmed Insider's November 2022 reporting about the wedding , which ha...

Earlier this week, Windows 10 mistakenly prompted some users to upgrade to Windows 11 , despite the fact their computers did not meet the operating system’s minimum requirements. Twitter user PhantomOcean3 was among the first to notice the error after Windows 10 displayed a full-screen notification telling him he could install the software on a system that only had 2GB of RAM. Windows 11 free upgrade being offered to unsupported Windows 10 devices/VMs? Screenshots from a Windows 10 22H2 VM that does not meet the Windows 11 system requirements, big ones being TPM (none) and RAM (2 GB) pic.twitter.com/VNNswgMLiC — PhantomOcean3💙💛 (@PhantomOfEarth) February 23, 2023 “Some hardware ineligible Windows 10 and Windows 11, version 21H2 devices were offered an inaccurate upgrade to Windows 11,” Microsoft states in a support document spotted by The Verge . “These ineligible devices did not meet the minimum requirements to run Windows 11. Devices that experienced this issue were not a...