The open source standard called Matter makes sure that your devices play nicely. Here’s how it could change how you shop for and use them.
Trick Out Your Two-Wheeler With These 33 Bike Accessories
Everything you need to turn your bicycle into a killer commuter, errand bike, or freedom machine.
6 Free Ways to Practice Sign Language Online
You don’t need to spend any money to start learning American Sign Language (ASL) with these resources.
Government record keepers and watchdogs worry that use of Wickr and other auto-deletion apps may help CBP and other agencies sidestep transparency requirements (NBC News)
NBC News: Government record keepers and watchdogs worry that use of Wickr and other auto-deletion apps may help CBP and other agencies sidestep transparency requirements — In October, Laurence Brewer, the chief records officer of the National Archives and Records Administration …
How Apple’s rumored subscription programs for iPhone and other hardware may work, and why the company may expand its financial services (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: How Apple’s rumored subscription programs for iPhone and other hardware may work, and why the company may expand its financial services — Apple’s in-the-works iPhone hardware subscription service will squeeze more revenue from its giant user base. Also: The company is building …
Unpacking Terra’s design for its algorithmic stablecoins and how partial collateralization using bitcoin reserves could impact its price stabilization mechanism (damsondao/P — Mirror)
damsondao / P — Mirror: Unpacking Terra’s design for its algorithmic stablecoins and how partial collateralization using bitcoin reserves could impact its price stabilization mechanism — As Terra climbed crypto market cap rankings at the start of 2022 while most of the market dumped or stalled …
How to Save Money on Gas
Doing a double-take at the pump? These tips can help ease and appease some of that sticker shock.
Blockchains Have a ‘Bridge’ Problem, and Hackers Know It
Blockchain bridges are a crucial piece of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which makes them prime targets for attacks.
The Future of NFTs Lies With the Courts
As the first cases involving NFTs hit the dockets, courts will decide questions around ownership, art, and commerce.
Interview with Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, who says the government’s crypto donation platform has raised $70M+ as of April 1 (Kollen Post/The Block)
Kollen Post / The Block: Interview with Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, who says the government’s crypto donation platform has raised $70M+ as of April 1 — Quick Take — The Block spoke with Alexander Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation.
Deepki, a Parisian provider of an ESG data intelligence platform for real estate, raises a €150M Series C round co-led by One Peak and Highland Europe (Megha Paul/Tech.eu)
Megha Paul / Tech.eu: Deepki, a Parisian provider of an ESG data intelligence platform for real estate, raises a €150M Series C round co-led by One Peak and Highland Europe — The Paris-headquartered startup offers a SaaS platform for real estate investors, owners and managers to improve the ESG performance …
Dan Huttenlocher ponders our human future in an age of artificial intelligence
What does it mean to be human in an age where artificial intelligence agents make decisions that shape human actions? That’s a deep question with no easy answers, and it’s been on the mind of Dan Huttenlocher SM ’84, PhD ’88, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, for the past few years. “Advances […]
You Need a Password Manager. Here Are the Best Ones
Keep your logins locked down with our favorite apps for PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, and web browsers.
Samsung Says It Will Let You Fix Your Own Galaxy Phone
Plus: new integrations for Android and Windows, and Instagram chats get an upgrade.
Fake Cops Scammed Apple and Meta to Get User Data
Plus: Lapsus$ teens hit with charges, Wyze’s security screwup, and Russia’s cyber rampage.
Apple’s hardware categories are now gaining record new users after a 2017/2018 strategy change that let product groups independently update major product lines (Neil Cybart/Above Avalon)
Neil Cybart / Above Avalon: Apple’s hardware categories are now gaining record new users after a 2017/2018 strategy change that let product groups independently update major product lines — During Apple’s “Peek Performance” event held last month, the company announced not only a brand new Mac category with the Mac Studio …
Zipline, Flytrex, and Alphabet’s Wing, which have started commercial drone deliveries in the US, say they are encouraged by the FAA’s evolving regulation (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: Zipline, Flytrex, and Alphabet’s Wing, which have started commercial drone deliveries in the US, say they are encouraged by the FAA’s evolving regulation — Drone companies have been cleared to expand their operations across the U.S., in cities as well as rural areas, at the same time their tech […]
When people say ‘people’ online they may mostly be thinking about men
An analysis of 630 billion words published online suggests that people tend to think of men when using gender-neutral terms, a sexist bias that could be learned by AI models
Our Favorite Language Learning Apps (and Online Courses)
Learning a new tongue? It’s a worthy pursuit, and these WIRED-tested services can help.
How Does a Newt Cross the Road? With Lots of Human Help
Brigades of volunteers are coming to the rescue of thousands of Pacific newts that perish each year as they migrate to their breeding grounds.
Europe’s Biggest Lithium Mine Is Caught in a Political Maelstrom
Europe wants to source EV materials within its own borders. But fierce opposition ahead of the elections in Serbia shows locals don’t trust mining companies.
How Binance, which trades on its own exchange and plays a number of roles that pose conflicts of interest, remains mostly unaccountable to its customers (Washington Post)
Washington Post: How Binance, which trades on its own exchange and plays a number of roles that pose conflicts of interest, remains mostly unaccountable to its customers — On May 19, 2021, Francis Kim thought he had hit it big. The Australia-based entrepreneur had been dabbling in derivatives trading …
A deep look at the benefits of content moderation in open forums, and how it can support free speech by creating spaces where more people feel free to talk (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)
Mike Masnick / Techdirt: A deep look at the benefits of content moderation in open forums, and how it can support free speech by creating spaces where more people feel free to talk — Obviously over the past few years there’s been all of these debates about the content moderation practices of various websites.
In a memo, EVP and CPO Panos Panay says Microsoft is moving Surface Duo OS, SwiftKey, Phone Link, and Microsoft Launcher under a new dedicated Android division (Zac Bowden/Windows Central)
Zac Bowden / Windows Central: In a memo, EVP and CPO Panos Panay says Microsoft is moving Surface Duo OS, SwiftKey, Phone Link, and Microsoft Launcher under a new dedicated Android division — A new ‘Microsoft Android’ division houses Duo, SwiftKey, Launcher, and more. — What you need to know
Washington State Passed a Contentious New Gig Worker Law
Uber and Lyft have legally cemented the independent contractor status of ride-hail drivers. Now other states are on the horizon.
Amazon Staten Island Workers Unionize in Historic Win
Thousands of workers beat the odds and voted to become the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the US.
The Wheel of Time Isn’t for Every Fan
Amazon’s new series, based on Robert Jordan’s books, stumbles a bit in its adaptation and won’t please every reader.
Interview with GoPuff co-founder Rafael Ilishayev, on why the company acquired BevMo, breaking into the California market, responding to drivers’ demands, more (Sam Dean/Los Angeles Times)
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times: Interview with GoPuff co-founder Rafael Ilishayev, on why the company acquired BevMo, breaking into the California market, responding to drivers’ demands, more — When an East Coast startup called Gopuff paid $350 million for BevMo in November 2020, it wasn’t immediately clear …
Bitcoin mining company PrimeBlock plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a $1.25B valuation; PrimeBlock generated $24.4M in Q4 2021 revenue (Aoyon Ashraf/CoinDesk)
Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk: Bitcoin mining company PrimeBlock plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a $1.25B valuation; PrimeBlock generated $24.4M in Q4 2021 revenue — The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. — Bitcoin miner PrimeBlock confirmed its plan to go public through a merger …
The Discord servers of some NFT projects, including BAYC, were compromised on Friday as part of a phishing scam seeking to trick users into “minting” fake NFTs (Edward Ongweso Jr/VICE)
Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE: The Discord servers of some NFT projects, including BAYC, were compromised on Friday as part of a phishing scam seeking to trick users into “minting” fake NFTs — This isn’t the first hack of Discord-based crypto communities, and it’s not likely to be the last.
Holograms might speed up diagnosis of urinary tract infection
By sending light through urine it’s possible to generate a hologram that can reveal the presence of bacteria or other signs of disease
Martin Wikelski interview: Tracking animals reveals their sixth sense
A network of 100,000 animals connected by trackers and watched from space could explain extraordinary animal behaviour and help forecast volcanic eruptions, extreme weather and emerging diseases
Building Healthy Habits When You’re Truly Exhausted
Getting enough sleep and eating right will help other habits stick.
Your “Autism Awareness Day” Might Be Excluding Autistic People
Here’s how to celebrate — not alienate — your autistic employees.
The Best Reusable Products We Actually Love
Ditch your single-use products and cut down on waste. Here’s some of our favorites, from water bottles to menstrual products.
Russia Inches Toward Its Splinternet Dream
For years, the country has been trying to create its own sovereign internet—a goal given new impetus by the backlash to its invasion of Ukraine.
I Finally Reached Computing Nirvana. What Was It All For?
Breakfast, it turns out. The answer is breakfast.
Three European food delivery stocks, Delivery Hero, Just Eat, and Deliveroo, lost a combined $23.7B, more than half their market value, in the first quarter (Henry Ren/Bloomberg)
Henry Ren / Bloomberg: Three European food delivery stocks, Delivery Hero, Just Eat, and Deliveroo, lost a combined $23.7B, more than half their market value, in the first quarter — In a market gripped by concerns over rising interest rates and soaring inflation, investors are avoiding European food delivery companies …
A look at the eclectic group of pro-crypto lawmakers in Washington, from libertarians to tech utopians, who were galvanized by the recent infrastructure bill (Kiran Stacey/Financial Times)
Kiran Stacey / Financial Times: A look at the eclectic group of pro-crypto lawmakers in Washington, from libertarians to tech utopians, who were galvanized by the recent infrastructure bill — A bipartisan mix of libertarians, business champions and tech utopians is uniting on legislation to help the sector grow
How homegrown courier services in French Polynesia are building their own online shopping service to fill the gaps left by e-commerce giants in remote islands (Tiare Tuuhia/Rest of World)
Tiare Tuuhia / Rest of World: How homegrown courier services in French Polynesia are building their own online shopping service to fill the gaps left by e-commerce giants in remote islands — E-commerce giants don’t reliably deliver to the remote islands of French Polynesia, so locals made their own online shopping service.
“Diverse people lead to diverse ideas”
Smells of steak, vegetables, and onions filled the air, the sizzle complementing sounds of laughter and music. Students from a variety of Black student groups on campus came together to mingle and relax, enjoying the nice spring weather and community. Surveying the scene with satisfaction was Devin Johnson, an aeronautical and astronautical engineering major and […]
Amazon Union Election Stalls As Ballots Are Challenged
The union trails in Bessemer as both sides fight over hundreds of contested ballots.
Biden Invokes the Defense Production Act to Fix the Lithium Shortage
The administration will use its security-related powers to encourage mining raw materials for batteries. But a sustainable fix will take years.
Amazon’s Alexa-Powered Wireless Earbuds Are Just $50 Right Now
The second-gen Echo Buds offer great sound, battery life, and seamless integration with the company’s voice assistant.
To avoid erroneously flagging CSAM, Meta’s training docs tell content moderators to “err on the side of an adult” when judging people’s age in photos or videos (Michael H. Keller/New York Times)
Michael H. Keller / New York Times: To avoid erroneously flagging CSAM, Meta’s training docs tell content moderators to “err on the side of an adult” when judging people’s age in photos or videos — The company reports millions of photos and videos of suspected child sexual abuse each year.
Researchers: an allegedly Russia-tied wiper malware, AcidRain, which shares similarities with the malware VPNFilter, was behind the attack on Viasat in February (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: Researchers: an allegedly Russia-tied wiper malware, AcidRain, which shares similarities with the malware VPNFilter, was behind the attack on Viasat in February — AcidRain is the seventh wiper associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine — Viasat—the high-speed-satellite-broadband …
New York-based Black Crow AI, which delivers predictive analytics to e-commerce retailers, raises a $25M Series A led by Imaginary Ventures (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: New York-based Black Crow AI, which delivers predictive analytics to e-commerce retailers, raises a $25M Series A led by Imaginary Ventures — In the pandemic era, where digital storefronts have become a matter of course for retailers, data analytics is proving its worth.
Russia claims ‘smart’ landmines used in Ukraine only target soldiers
Russia says its POM-3 landmines use artificial intelligence to distinguish between soldiers and civilians, though arms experts doubt if it really works
The magnetic slime that could retrieve accidentally swallowed objects
A robot made of magnetic slime with a custard-like consistency can navigate narrow passages, grasp objects and fix broken circuits.
Robot made of magnetic slime could grab objects inside your body
Slime that can be controlled by a magnetic field can navigate tight spaces and grasp objects, making it ideal for possible uses inside the body