Hasta La Gadget!

Median rent in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas has risen by more than 19% over the past year, according to one analysis. Inflation also rose by 7.5% from a year earlier.

Following months of reports, Google has confirmed its battery-equipped Nest Doorbell and Cam devices won’t charge when they’re subjected to extreme cold weather. “At temperatures below freezing, the lithium-ion battery in your Google Nest camera or doorbell won’t be able to charge,” the company said in a recently published support document spotted by 9to5Google.

According to Google, the battery versions of the Nest Doorbell and Cam can operate at temperatures as low as minus four degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius), provided their batteries have power left. That said, those cells won’t charge at temperatures below the freezing mark. What’s more, Google warns they may drain faster than usual in cold weather, with battery life potentially halved when the devices are near their operating limit.

The company recommends you bring your Nest Doorbell or Cam indoors in those situations. The warmer the battery gets, the faster it will charge, according to Google. You can look to the Home app to know if you should take your devices inside. The software will display a notification that says “Charging paused” or “Charging slowly,” with a lengthy estimated charging time, when cold weather is negatively affecting them.

One other thing to note is that freezing temperatures may impact your Nest devices even if they’re wired to your home’s electrical system. That’s because the Nest Doorbell still draws on its battery for power even when it has an electrical connection. At temperatures below the 32 degrees Farhenheit mark, the trickle charge coming from the wire won’t help the battery. And once it dies, you’ll need to bring the device inside to charge it once again. By contrast, the Nest Cam can operate with an empty battery as long as it’s wired to your home, but should you lose power and the battery is dead, it won’t work anymore until you charge it again. In short, if you’re cold, there’s a good chance your Nest device is too. Bring it inside for a break from the desolate winter. 

A spokesperson for the singer said he was “hugely disappointed” and will no longer perform Sunday in Las Vegas as planned.

NFT marketplace OpenSea is investigating a “phishing attack” that has left more than two dozen of its users without access to some of their most valuable digital tokens. On late Saturday evening, panic hit the platform when someone stole hundreds of NFTs.

Over several hours that afternoon, the attacker targeted 32 accounts and obtained 254 tokens, according to a spreadsheet compiled by Blockchain security service PeckShield. Among the stolen NFTs are tokens from the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Azuki collections. One estimate by Molly White, the creator of the Web3 is Going Great blog, pegged the haul at 641 Ethereum (approximately $1.7 million at the time of this article).

“We have confidence that this was a phishing attack,” said Devin Finzer, the co-founder and CEO of OpenSea, in a tweet posted early Sunday morning. “We don’t know where the phishing occurred, but we’ve been able to rule out a number of things based on our conversations with the 32 affected users.”

According to Finzer, OpenSea determined its website was not a vector for the attack, nor did someone exploit a previously unknown vulnerability in the platform’s NFT minting, buying, selling and listing features. “Interaction with an OpenSea email is not a vector for attack,” said Finzer. “In fact, we are not aware of any of the affected users receiving or clicking links in suspicious emails.”

We’ve reached out to OpenSea for comment.

As noted by The Verge, the attack likely took advantage of an aspect of the Wyvern Protocol. Many Web3 platforms, including OpenSea, use the open-source standard to underpin their contracts. One Twitter thread suggests those targeted in the phishing campaign may have signed a partial agreement that allowed the attacker to transfer the NFTs without any Ethereum changing hands. Linking to the thread, Finzer said it presented a scenario that was “consistent with our current internal understanding” of the situation.

While there’s still much about the attack we don’t know, what is clear is that it couldn’t have come at a worse time for OpenSea. On Friday, the company introduced a new smart contract and asked people to migrate their assets. It has also been the subject of recent controversy, first starting with an employee who resigned for using insider information to profit on NFT drops and then more recently over the prevalence of tokens that are fake, plagiarized or spam on its platform. 

2021 was a big year for superhero movies, particularly for Marvel and its webheads. In addition to the massive, nostalgia-fueled juggernaut Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Hardy and his massive chompers chewed up Venom: Let There Be Carnage to sizable box office success. The conversation surrounding both films was if…

Read more…