About: blatcho

Apple, Sonos, Sony, and more of our favorite audio brands are having huge sales this cyber week. We’ve even found discounts on record players.

Keep caffeinated this holiday season with some of our favorite beans, espresso machines, and grinders.

Gas prices are still high, and bikes are still fun. Here are our favorite discounts on everything you need to get your two wheels on the road.

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review: A look at OpenAI’s Minecraft bot, which has learned to complete complex tasks in Minecraft after being trained on 70K hours of video of people playing the game  —  Online videos are a vast and untapped source of training data—and OpenAI says it has a new way to […]

Eudora Wang / DealStreetAsia: Shanghai-based eRoad, which offers a cloud-based HR management service with a focus on payroll, raised a ~$140M Series D, after raising an ~$84M Series C  —  Chinese human resource technology firm eRoad on Tuesday announced the completion of its Series D funding round at 1 billion yuan …

Think Washington lawmakers have what it takes to tackle the volatile world of cryptocurrencies? Neither do they.

Even when it’s wrong, it’s hilarious—but you still have options.

Self-described “computer musician” Holly Herndon explains why AI vocal clones can help give fellow artists sovereignty over their work.

Reuters: Elon Musk claims “all-time high” new Twitter signups, averaging 2M+ a day in the last seven days till November 16, up 66% YoY, and ~8B daily user active minutes  —  Nov 27 (Reuters) – Twitter Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has said that new user signups to the social media platform are at an […]

R.T. Watson / Wall Street Journal: How live-action YouTube kids channels Vlad and Niki, Like Nastya, and Kids Diana Show, with a total of ~300M subscribers, are building global franchises  —  Vlad, Niki, Diana and Nastya party on yachts, ride in Ferraris and travel the world.  Their massive audience of fellow kids can’t get enough.

Debjyoti Roy / Livemint: New Delhi-based diabetes management app BeatO raised a $33M Series B led by Lightrock India, with Flipkart and others participating  —  Diabetes management app BeatO has raised $33 million in its Series B round of funding led by impact investor Lightrock India.

“The human body is just engineered so beautifully,” says Shriya Srinivasan PhD ’20, a research affiliate at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, a junior fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, and former doctoral student in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. Both a biomedical engineer and a dancer, […]

The retailer started its holiday sales early this year, but it’s still going strong, with deals on soundbars, iPads, and games.

Chase away the winter blues with discounts on hiking and camping gear, wearable fitness gadgets, and more.

Upgrade your viewing experience this holiday with these steep discounts on WIRED-tested home theater gear.

Heather Vogell / ProPublica: Source: the US DOJ is investigating whether rent-setting software made by RealPage is facilitating collusion among landlords to drive up rental prices  —  The DOJ will examine whether RealPage helped landlords coordinate rent increases.  Questions also swirl around a 2017 merger deal with its largest competitor.

June Yoon / Financial Times: An in-depth look at the US sanctions on China’s chipmakers and worries over their impact on inflation and rising costs for Western manufacturers and customers  —  The advice “dig two graves, before you set out” applies to anyone bent on revenge.  An old aphorism is hardly going to divert …

Ira Dugal / Reuters: Reserve Bank of India declines a payment aggregator license for Paytm parent One 97, asking it to comply with foreign direct investment guidelines and reapply  —  India’s banking regulator has declined a payment aggregator licence for the One 97 Communications Ltd (PAYT.NS) …

A deep dive into the science of staying alive underwater.

Today—and every day—support stores in your community. Here are our hometown favorites we think you’ll like too.

Destiny’s Sword tasks players with not just efficacy in combat, but also managing the mental health of their squad, and it’s backed by science.

Gené Teare / Crunchbase News: Analysis: AI startup funding has been around 9%-10% of global VC investment in recent years, led by robotics, autonomous vehicles, and enterprise software  —  Editor’s note: In this four-part series, we explore the impact of artificial intelligence startups on multiple sectors.

South China Morning Post: Inside Zhengzhou’s “iPhone City” lockdown, where China’s zero COVID-19 policy, related propaganda and fears, and Foxconn’s missteps led to the worker riots  —  In a widely cited anecdote about the power of the Chinese workforce, a manager at an iPhone factory was once able …

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World: Experts and employees detail Uber’s struggles in Pakistan as it discontinues service in five cities, cuts spending, and faces increased competition from inDrive  —  Fierce local competition in the ride-hailing sector and economic uncertainty have forced Uber to scale back its presence in South Asia.

The weather is getting colder, which means it’s a great time to warm things up inside.

Snag deals on Nintendo Switch, Playstation, and Xbox consoles and accessories.

Need a new Apple Watch, MacBook, or iPhone case? Now’s the time to snag one at a discount.

Michelle Toh / CNN: The UK government asks its departments to stop installing Chinese surveillance cameras at sensitive sites, after calls to ban devices from Hikvision and Dahua  —  Hong Kong CNN Business —  Hikvision, a leading Chinese surveillance company, has denied suggestions that it poses a threat …

Christiana Loureiro / The Block: Report: several US states are investigating Genesis Global as part of an inquiry into interconnectedness of crypto firms, securities laws violations, and more  —  – States including Alabama are looking into crypto firms and whether they violated securities laws.

Todd Shields / Bloomberg: The FCC imposes a ban on equipment from Huawei and ZTE, camera providers Hikvision and Dahua, and radio maker Hytera, citing “a risk to national security”  —  US regulators imposed a ban on electronic equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., continuing a years-long effort …

Attacks on Ukraine’s power grid took all 15 of the nation’s nuclear reactors offline for the first time ever. Russia also retains control of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power station in Europe

Having drones on strings attached to a person could provide a more realistic simulation of interacting with physical objects in virtual reality

Three questions to ask before appointing one.

Done well, these partnerships can boost growth, shareholder value, and societal impact.

Limited budget? These affordable gizmos are WIRED favorites, and now they’re even cheaper.

Kit out your home with wireless multi-room audio. These discounts end on November 28.

Whether you need a new coffee maker or Smart Home gadget, here are the best Black Friday discounts on brands like All-Clad, KitchenAid and Honeywell.

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: Musk says Twitter will start manually authenticating accounts starting next week, with blue check marks for people, gold for companies, and gray for governments  —  Elon Musk says that Twitter’s check mark program could return on Friday, December 2nd, with a new procedure to verify individual identities …

Ana Paula Pereira / Cointelegraph: IMF calls for more crypto regulation in Africa, says 25% of countries in sub-Saharan Africa have regulated crypto and two-thirds have imposed some restrictions  —  FTX’s collapse is one of the reasons why countries in the region should adopt regulation, noted the monetary fund.  —  120 Total views

Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: Germany-based Temedica, which offers a health data insight service to pharma companies, raised a €25M Series B extension, bringing its total Series B to €42M  —  Aimed at offering a complete and total understanding of medical patient care realities, Munich-based Temedica …

We’ve found discounts on bedsheets, weighted blankets, and sound machines to help make bedtime a little sweeter.

Every television deserves a row of speakers to call its own. These are our favorites.

It’s the best all-ages movie in years—and it’s ready to stream. Watch it this week with your own cartoonish family.

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post: Twitter plans to restore next week suspended accounts that haven’t “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam”, after 72.4% of 3M+ voted yes in Musk’s poll  —  The Twitter chief says he will reinstate accounts suspended for harassment, abuse and misinformation beginning next week.

Kris Holt / Engadget: Google’s Project Zero reported five security flaws in devices with Mali GPUs in the summer, but Samsung, Xiaomi, Google, and others are yet to release patches  —  Google has disclosed several security flaws for phones that have Mali GPUs, such as those with Exynos chipsets.

Luke Plunkett / Kotaku: Mercedes plans to charge $1,200 per year for “Acceleration Increase” in its EVs; Volkswagen, Toyota, and GM have all trialed similar subscription-based features  —  Mercedes are charging $1200 a year for an “Acceleration Increase”  —  For a few years now some car companies …

Filmmakers used an AI to swap the faces of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong for those of actors to protect the protestors’ identities while maintaining their facial movements and emotional expressions

Building on the CRISPR gene-editing system, MIT researchers have designed a new tool that can snip out faulty genes and replace them with new ones, in a safer and more efficient way. Using this system, the researchers showed that they could deliver genes as long as 36,000 DNA base pairs to several types of human […]

Your mixed emotions are telling you something. Listen to them.

Research finds seven variables that impact a campaign’s effectiveness.