Dec 24
Don’t pay the retail price for cold weather clothing. Here’s where to buy snow boots, gloves, puffer jackets and more.
Dec 24
Prioritizing certain initiatives over others is hard, but that could be what it takes to save Build Back Better.
Dec 24
I joked about LG’s unusual TVs earlier this week, but I’ll take it back. Those were fine. Sensible, even. That’s because a Meiji University professor in Japan has unveiled a prototype screen called “Taste the TV”. The prototype sends electrical signals to 10 flavor canisters that spray flavors on a film overlay for those willing to lick. Creator Homei Miyashita thinks of the device as less of a taste-at-home device, and more as a tool for food professionals, like chefs and sommeliers.
The prototype is, yes, a little icky, despite the hygienic film that can be treated between tastings. According to Reuters, Miyashita is already discussing spin-off applications for the spray tech, like applying pizza or chocolate flavors to a slice of toasted bread. Don’t tell him about Nutella.
Your daily TMA will be taking a few days off for the holidays, but we’ll be back next Wednesday. Have a great weekend!
-Mat Smith
Japan’s latest life-sized Gundam statue is almost complete
The robot’s head has just been attached.
Ikedaya Karuta via YouTube
Fukuoka is the latest home for a 1:1 scale Gundam robot statue, following the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam that was installed in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. This one has a new color scheme, thanks to the creator of Gundam, and stands 81.3 feet tall. It’s a twist on Amuro Ray’s Nu Gundam from the Gundam one-shot, Char’s Counterattack. Yes, it looks a little like Gundam Wing Zero, but Amuro’s mech came first.
The first text message is now a $150,000 NFT
Vodafone will donate the proceeds to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Christian Hartmann / reuters
International phone network Vodafone has turned the first text message into a non-fungible token (NFT) and subsequently a nice sum of money. It sold at a Paris auction house this week for €132,680 ($150,000) worth of Ether. The company will donate the proceeds to the United Nations Refugee Agency to support forcibly displaced people. It’s also pretty timely: the first message was a simple line of text saying, “Merry Christmas.”
The anonymous auction winner will receive a copy of the communication protocol for the SMS, a certificate of authenticity and a digital frame that displays an animation of a phone receiving the message. Better than a Ghost Recon skin.
More companies cancel CES 2022 attendance in person
Including Lenovo, Google and Intel.
Lenovo follows Amazon, Meta, Twitter and show sponsor T-Mobile in backing away from CES 2022. All four said they would not attend in person due to concerns related to the new COVID-19 omicron variant. And while they’re all important names in tech, they’re not a hardware player in the same way Lenovo is. The PC maker often launches or reveals its newest hardware at the Las Vegas show. Intel and Google have also announced they won’t have a physical presence at the event.
Amazon warned workers that its busy season could make them feel suicidal
“They talked about how a lot of workers feel this way.”
Amazon is hitting the end of its busiest season of the year. It’s also when its workers are under the greatest strain, frequently required to clock mandatory overtime hours and are often not allowed to schedule vacation days. It also coincides with the hiring of a deluge of temporary workers, with a projected 150,000 added this year.
According to an internal email viewed by Engadget, and interviews with several current or former associates, it’s also a time of year when Amazon expects some number of its workforce to take out their stress on their colleagues, or on themselves. Read on for the full report.
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How the pandemic supercharged the creator economy in 2021
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ finally embraces standalone storytelling in its fourth season
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Amazon will remind workers about their rights following an NLRB deal
Dec 24
“That wax figure of Rihanna is a hate crime,” one observer tweeted.
Dec 24
Many passengers jumped into the river to escape the fire, which left at least 39 people dead and 72 injured.
Dec 24
Listen, we all know that driving while using your phone is a bad idea and against the law, but for some reason, Tesla thought it was a good idea to introduce a feature called “Passenger Play” that basically allowed games to be played through the infotainment display.
Now, to be fair to the company, they do prompt users to make sure they aren’t the driver when games are launched, but it’s not a very difficult thing to do to lie and say you’re the passenger. This is why the NHTSA has announced plans to investigate the company over the feature, which might also explain why Tesla is now playing nice and has decided to disable the feature.
In an upcoming software update to the car, Tesla will no longer allow users to play games in the car while it is moving. Prior to “Passenger Play”, Tesla had a safety feature that disabled gaming while the car was in motion and that games could only be played while the car was stationary and in park.
So basically with this new update, Tesla is rolling back the feature to what it was before. Games can still be played, but will now be locked when the vehicle is in motion. You could argue that this feature is meant to keep passengers like kids entertained during the ride, but as per the NHTSA’s notice, they were concerned that it could end up being a distraction for drivers.
Tesla Update Will No Longer Allow Users To Play Games While Driving
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Dec 24
A few months ago, Apple released its latest major iOS update in the form of iOS 15. One of the things Apple has going for it that Android phone makers don’t is that the adoption of iOS updates is usually a lot faster. While that is still true of iOS 15, it appears to be adopted at a very sluggish rate compared to previous updates.
This is according to data from Mixpanel in which they discovered that as of the 20th of December, 65.3% of devices were running on iOS 15. This sounds a lot compared to Android, but when you compare it to iOS 14, within roughly the same timeframe, iOS 14 was installed on 80.9% of iPhones.
What’s interesting and a bit odd about this is that for the past three iOS updates, Apple has not dropped older iPhones from the support list. This means that dating back to iOS 13, devices like the iPhone 6s have been supported until now, which means that even more users should be rushing to install the latest update.
However, it is possible that over the years with various bugs spotted in the early releases of updates, iOS users have grown more cautious over time and have held back from rushing to update the moment it is released. 65% is still very respectable in the given timeframe, but definitely not what it used to be, but more than likely we expect to see those numbers rise as we move into 2022.
iOS 15’s Adoption Rate Is Trailing Very Far Behind Its Predecessors
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Dec 24
While all these huge tech giants are competing against one another, they obviously have one common interest and that is to keep the industry progressing. This is why despite their differences and rivalry, many of these tech companies have actually banded together to form the Internet Association.
However, it appears that the nine-year old group will be shutting down by the end of the year. For those who are unfamiliar, the Internet Association is a collection of various tech giants in the industry such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Apple, and more. Through this group, these tech companies would lobby the US government regarding various things involving tech.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the rivalry between the companies involved in the group have gotten too much that some have pulled out, and the remaining members no longer see the need to be part of the group. For example, a source told ArsTechnica that Microsoft is one of those who no longer saw value in its involvement with the group, especially since they were paying as much as $1 million a year in membership fees.
We’re not sure if the disbanding of the group will have any negative effects on the tech industry in the US as a whole, but either way it looks like the group will be shutting down by the end of 2021.
The Internet Association Will Soon Be No More
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Dec 24
One person is in custody and police were looking for another suspect in a shooting at the Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, about 15 miles west of Chicago.
Dec 24
New York Cutting Back On Times Square Crowd For New Year’s Eve Over COVID Spike
Posted in: Today's ChiliEveryone will also have to be fully vaccinated and masked under new rules announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
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