Technology News for Monday 2nd August 2021

29 new stories

Aug 02nd 2021

1. How to join missed group calls on WhatsApp

Domain: businessinsider.in

WhatsApp recently added a new feature that makes it easier for users to join group calls even after it's started. This feature solves a lot of problems. First, if you drop off a WhatsApp group call someone has to add you back. It's the same case with missing ...

2. Super Nintendo World's Donkey Kong zone may already be under construction

Domain: theverge.com | Companies: Nintendo

Super Nintendo World, the Super Mario-themed area of Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, finally opened back in March after multiple delays, and Nintendo may already be working on expanding the park. As noted by VGC, social media posts from recent ...

3. Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse already sucks

Domain: wired.co.uk | Companies: Facebook

The Zuckerverse is coming. Just over a week ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced, in a long interview with The Verge, that his social network is readying itself to become “a Metaverse company”. First floated in Neal Stephenson's 1992 sci-fi novel ...

4. An Australian buy-now, pay-later company will be Square's largest-ever acquisition

Domain: fortune.com | Companies: Twitter

Square Inc., the digital-payments platform led by Twitter Inc. founder Jack Dorsey, agreed to buy Australian buy-now, pay-later company Afterpay Ltd. for $29 billion in its largest-ever acquisition. The all-stock offer values Afterpay shares at A$126.21 each, ...

5. Nothing Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Which wireless earbuds win?

Domain: tomsguide.com

Apple's effort hardly needs an introduction. It's arguably the most recognizable pair of premium in-ear headphones in the world, and deservedly a member of the best noise-cancelling earbuds club. But if you're in the market for a new pair, should you stick with ...

6. Zoom reaches settlement in class-action lawsuit over 'Zoombombings': Do you have money coming?

Domain: usatoday.com

According to documents detailing the proposed settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, Zoom will pay $85 million to go toward a fund for participants in the class-action suit. As part of the ...

7. LiveWebinar Pro makes it simple to launch webinars and video sessions without all the headaches

Domain: venturebeat.com

In the wake of COVID, you may have noticed a sharp increase in the number of webinar invitations you've received. That's no coincidence because while the uptick in virtual engagement events was fueled during the pandemic, they're sticking around now for ...

8. Jackson 8-year-old's lemonade stand helps families of Faster Horses tragedy

Domain: mlive.com

JACKSON, MI -- Kayla Murdock's 8-year-old daughter, Faith, knew she had to help when she heard about the three men who accidentally died at the 2021 Faster Horses Festival. Murdock, of Jackson, said Faith took her phone while she was asleep and made ...

9. Square shares tumble after announcement of $29B deal to buy Afterpay

Domain: nypost.com

Shares of Melbourne-based Afterpay, which are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney, soared almost 20 percent on the news. “Square and Afterpay have a shared purpose,” Square's CEO Dorsey ...

10. Masks and covid-19: Explaining the latest guidance from the CDC and other experts

Domain: washingtonpost.com

Furthermore, while the authorized coronavirus vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and death from the delta variant, data suggests that fully vaccinated people with breakthrough infections — which are still considered ...

11. Nier: Automata and Ghostrunner lead August's PlayStation Now additions

Domain: eurogamer.net

Creator Yoko Taro's second Nier outing - which follows the dystopian travails of androids 2B and 9S - is as richly atmospheric and dizzyingly inventive as its predecessor, mixing Platinum's tried-and-tested hack-and-slash action with ample genre-busting ...

12. Fans Dismayed Niantic Removed Pokémon Go Safety Measures Despite Delta

Domain: kotaku.com

One of the most popular pandemic-inspired changes to Pokémon Go was the doubling of the distance from which players could interact with gyms and Pokéstops, making those features easier to access without venturing out into the wild. Yesterday, with ...

13. Real-life SpongeBob and Patrick found side by side on seafloor. But they likely don't get along.

Domain: livescience.com

Real-life versions of cartoon best friends SpongeBob Squarepants and Patrick Star were sitting side by side at the bottom of the sea when marine researchers spotted them. Controlling a remotely operated vehicle, the scientists discovered the square(ish) ...

14. Square makes 'game-changing' play for Afterpay in big bet on buy-now pay-later wave

Domain: marketwatch.com

Square Inc. plans to acquire buy-now pay-later (BNPL) operator Afterpay Ltd. in what one analyst sees as a “game-changing” $29 billion deal that will help Square participate in a fintech wave that has transformed the payments experience in Afterpay's native ...

15. This is the Pixel 6, Google's take on an 'ultra high end' phone

Domain: theverge.com | Companies: Google

Rather than releasing all the details on its new Android phones, Google is instead putting the focus on the new system on a chip (SoC) that will be inside the new Pixels. It's called the Tensor SoC, named after the Tensor Processing Units (TPU) Google uses in ...

16. Here's exactly when Apex Legends Season 10 begins

Domain: inverse.com

Like with Seasons 8 and 9, the Apex Legends Season 10 will be released August 3 at 1 p.m. Eastern. The precise release time was included with the update's patch notes released just a few hours before.

17. The nit in Square's acquisition of Afterpay

Domain: fortune.com

Square's $29 billion acquisition of buy-now-pay-later company Afterpay makes a whole lot of sense. Because making four $75 payments is easier to stomach than one big $300 cut in the wallet, companies offering such installment plans entered hyperdrive ...

18. Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth will double to 80Gbps, Intel accidentally confirms

Domain: 9to5mac.com | Companies: Intel

Future Macs will benefit from Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth of 80Gbps, according to a photo accidentally tweeted by an Intel exec. This isn't a complete surprise – Intel's director of I/O said back in March that the company was expecting to roughly double the ...

19. Google's Pixel 6 phones will come with a chip designed by the search giant

Domain: cnet.com | Companies: Google

Like most Android phone makers, Google has long relied on Qualcomm's SOCs to power its devices. But designing its own processor to serve as the brains of the device allows Google to better customize the chip for the features it deems most important.

20. Amazon's smart soap dispenser has a timer to ensure a 20-second hand wash

Domain: cnet.com | Companies: Amazon

The device automatically dispenses soap as an LED timer ticks down, according to the product page on Amazon. In addition, the gadget features variable dispensing, meaning the farther your hand is from the nozzle, the more soap you'll get. The dispenser also ...

21. Twitter adds third-party signup with Apple or Google

Domain: theverge.com | Companies: Apple, Twitter, Google

Currently, there doesn't appear to be a way to link your Apple or Google account to an existing Twitter account, so third-party login is (at least for the moment) limited to accounts created using the feature.

22. Twitch to test new Stream Display Ads that will continue to show streams during advertisements

Domain: dotesports.com

Twitch is listening to community feedback from the UserVoice forum on advertisements that detract from watching their favorite streamers and will start testing a new type of ad that won't override a broadcast. Stream Display Ads (SDAs) are 10-second display ...

23. 8BitDo launches new Xbox media remotes

Domain: venturebeat.com

The new generation of gaming consoles are great at playing games, but they are also excellent media devices. And peripheral manufacturer 8BitDo is launching two new Xbox media remotes to help unlock some of that potential. The company announced the ...

24. Rainbow Six Siege's Extraction event begins tomorrow

Domain: pcgamesn.com

The Containment event takes place entirely in a reworked version of the Consulate map that has been overrun by Rainbow Six Extraction's Chimera Parasite. The attacking team is tasked with destroying the nest inside Consulate, and the player-controlled ...

25. GTA Online's New Update Has Fans Walking In Circles For Days

Domain: kotaku.com

Los Santos Tuners, Grand Theft Auto Online's latest big update, has given Rockstar's MMO-lite a Fast and Furious vibe. But now that the tire smoke has cleared, many are frustrated by the amount of grinding needed to unlock everything. And some are ...

26. The next generation of global payments: Afterpay Square

Domain: techcrunch.com | Companies: Dana

Dana Stalder is a partner at Matrix Partners. The former commercial chief (Product, Sales and Marketing) at PayPal, he now leads fintech investing at Matrix Partners, where he also invests in consumer marketplaces and enterprise software.

27. Basically All of Samsung's Upcoming Devices Just Revealed in New Leaks

Domain: gizmodo.com | Companies: Samsung

We have a little more than a week until Samsung Unpacked, but that hasn't stopped leakers from sharing images showing what the Korean tech giant has planned for the event. New pictures have surfaced that offer an even clearer look at the Galaxy Z Flip 3, ...

28. Twitter for iOS officially gains support for Sign in with Apple

Domain: 9to5mac.com | Companies: Apple, Twitter

After beta testing the feature last month, Twitter for iOS is now officially rolling out support for signing in with Apple. This means you can now create a Twitter account with your Apple ID for increased privacy. Evidence of Twitter's work on adopting Sign in with ...

29. Google's Pixel 6 phones are coming with a chip the Apple rival designed in-house

Domain: cnet.com | Companies: Apple, Google, Samsung

Google unveiled on Monday the newest generation of its flagship phone line, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, to compete in a crowded field dominated by Apple and Samsung. The 5G phones, which will launch in the fall, are powered by a new system-on-chip that ...