Tech Spite

Netflix has confirmed that Top Boy, the British gangster drama it rebooted in 2019, will end after a third and final season.  The drama, which ran for two seasons on British broadcaster Channel 4 before being dropped in 2014, has just debuted its second season on the streamer.  Top Boy stars Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson (better known to some as rapper Kano) and is set in the heart of London on the fictional Summerhouse estate. It follows partners Dushane and Sully, two notorious drug dealers who, despite a wish to lead honest lives, are corrupted by the promise of increased wealth and respect in their borough.  The show's first two seasons aired on Channel 4 in 2011 and 2013 before Netflix came in 2017 with a reboot, a decision that was partly helped by the presence of rapper Drake as one of the show's executive producers.  Netflix launched the show's new season, which they referred to as its first, with the Channel 4 era then referred to as Top Boy: Summer...

The administration will use its security-related powers to encourage mining raw materials for batteries. But a sustainable fix will take years. from Wired https://ift.tt/Af9DJrH

Newly discovered code on Twitter’s TweetDeck site points to the company possibly making TweetDeck an exclusive feature to Twitter Blue subscribers.  TweetDeck is a (currently) free platform that lets desktop users scroll through multiple timelines of different accounts, topics, or hashtags at once. Big proponents of the feature are media workers and businesses with multiple PR accounts that search for trending topics and interact with other Twitter users. The rumor mill was started up when Twitter user @wongmjane, an established tipster, posted that the company is filling in a new TweetDeck signup page, advertising an ad-free experience as a big selling point.  Previously, Wong posted that code gates on the TweetDeck app may ask for a Twitter Blue subscription in the future, and redirects a user to the signup page if they aren’t subscribed.  Twitter has been teasing “a new & improved” TweetDeck for a while now, implying that upon launch, the app will be reworke...

Apple is reportedly working on a multi-year plan to develop its own payment processing technology and infrastructure in an effort to further build out its portfolio of financial products. As reported by Bloomberg , the move would allow the iPhone maker to reduce its reliance on outside partners but it could also enable the company to expand its payment features beyond the US. According to people familiar with the matter that spoke with the news outlet, the multi-year plan would bring a number of financial tasks in-house including payment processing, risk assessment for lending, fraud analysis, credit checks and other customer-service functions like handling disputes. Since Apple is reportedly investigating the idea of launching its own hardware subscription service , being able to run credit checks and risk assessments before providing customers with devices makes a great deal of sense. Future financial products Although Apple already offers a credit card as well as peer-to-p...

The second-gen Echo Buds offer great sound, battery life, and seamless integration with the company's voice assistant. from Wired https://ift.tt/t7MSZK3

When Samsung announced back at CES 2022 that its new 2022 QLED TVs would include an NFT marketplace, more than a few eyebrows were raised. For some, it represented a major shift in how NFTs are purchased and consumed… for others, well, it marked another venture down a lucrative rabbit hole that could set a bad precedent for the industry. Whatever your current outlook on Samsung’s NFT project is, the company has announced that it’s doubling down on the venture with a new partnership with Nifty Gateway.  Nifty Gateway, in case you’re not in the know about NFTs, is a digital art online auction platform - basically, the place where people go to buy and sell NFTs. Once you obtain one from Nifty Gateway, you can then display it right on your TV. For NFT lovers, having the ability to buy, trade, sell and display their wares right on their Samsung TV is going to be a groundbreaking opportunity - but as with NFTs themselves, there could be some risk in Samsung’s new investment. Are n...

As long as gaming laptops have existed, there have only been two companies that have produced GPUs for them. Nvidia and AMD have had an iron grip on the market for years, and now Intel Arc mobile graphics processors are finally here . I don't know if an Arc 7 GPU is going to be faster than an RTX 3080 Ti – it probably won't – but since it's Intel at the helm, I at least know it's going to result in a good experience.  To be clear, while Intel has said that laptops using its Arc 3 graphics are available now, I have not even seen one in person, so all I have to go off of is the information that Intel has provided. I'm not exactly in the business of trusting internal benchmarks, and neither should you.  But let's be honest, while AMD and Nvidia both make mobile graphics solutions, the best gaming laptops on the market are using a combination of Intel processors and Nvidia graphics. AMD Navi started to chip away at Team Green's dominance, but Intel can hit ...

Although a bit later than initially expected, the US Department of Defense ( DOD ) has announced that it plans to award up to $9bn in cloud infrastructure contracts in December of this year. Following the controversy surrounding its now canceled Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure or JEDI contract, the Pentagon announced its new Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability ( JWCC ) initiative back in November of this year. Unlike with the previous JEDI contract, the US military will now rely on multiple cloud providers as opposed to just a single one. Although Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and other cloud providers competed to win the $10bn JEDI contract, in the end the Pentagon awarded it to Microsoft before deciding to cancel it altogether . In a recent call with reporters, Pentagon CIO John Sherman explained that the US military's timeline was a bit too bold which is why it will now be wrapping up bidding for the JWCC initiative in December. When JWCC was first announced in July of l...

Lapsus$ and the group behind the SolarWinds hack have utilized prompt bombing to defeat weaker MFA protections in recent months. from Wired https://ift.tt/hB2EYDw

Microsoft has set the date for its Build 2022 developer conference, May 24-26, and decided, for the third year in a row, to make it all-virtual. While Microsoft's desktop operating system, Windows, is often the star of the show, Microsoft Build is the Redmond, Washington-based company's chance to unveil updates across a wide array of software products, services, and development tools. There's also usually a theme. At Microsoft Build 2021 , it was about Tech Transformation and the responsibility technology has in shaping the future. Aside from "Designed for development" and "What's next in tech," the Microsoft Build site offers no hints about what to expect. It does outline, though, one change: market-specific experiences for France, Germany, Latin America, and the UK. The FAQ goes into a tiny bit more detail, explaining: "New for this year, experience market-specific content and connection opportunities for France, Germany, Japan, Latin Am...

Through its Graviton server chips, AWS is leading the way when it comes to cloud computing providers adoption of Arm-based processors according to a new report from the market research firm TrendForce . As corporate demand for digital transformation including AI and high-performance computing has accelerated in recent years, this has led to increased adoption of cloud computing services. In order to improve service flexibility, cloud service providers have begun introducing Arm-based servers and TrendForce believes Arm architecture in data center servers will reach 22 percent by 2025. As companies have begun to diversify their cloud workloads over the past few years, the market has started paying more attention to the benefits Arm architecture processing can provide to data centers. In its report , TrendForce explained that Arm-based processors have three major advantages. They can support diverse and rapidly changing workloads at scale while being cost-effective, they provide ...

If you've been looking for an opportunity to upgrade your original Nintendo Switch , or even buy the hybrid console for the first time, here's your chance to do so while saving some money in the process. Right now, Amazon AU has brought the price of the Nintendo Switch OLED down to an all-time low on its site, with the console's AU$539.95 RRP slashed to just AU$449 – that's a saving of AU$90.95! It's worth noting that AU$449 price point applies only to the white version of the Nintendo Switch OLED. That said, the neon version of the console has received a smaller discount, and is currently available for AU$489. This isn't the cheapest price we've seen on the Nintendo Switch OLED – it was down to AU$424.15 on eBay during Afterpay Day, but this price isn't too much more if you missed out on that deal. Nintendo Switch OLED (white) AU$539.95 AU$449 (save AU$90.95) Nintendo's updated Switch OLED console is rarely discounted, which makes ...

My OnePlus 9 Pro battery is so swollen it split open the case. I discovered this potentially dangerous situation by accident when I noticed the one-year-old Android phone sitting imperfectly in its carbon-fiber case. Absentmindedly, I reached over and pushed one corner of the phone down, trying to reseat it. It popped back out. After a few attempts, I removed the case and discovered the truth: The battery had expanded and split the chrome case along one long-glued seam, creating, in one area, a quarter-inch chasm. "Not again," I thought. A few years ago, a Google Pixel 3 XL that I mostly keep on a Pixel charging stand by my bed appeared to jump off the charger of its own accord. It turned out that the battery has expanded so much that the case no longer sat flush with the charging base. I eventually sent the phone back to Google and got a replacement; at least that phone was more than a few years old. But I reviewed the OnePlus 9 Pro just over a year ago. At the time, ...

This 600-horsepower, 373-mile EV boasts a light show worthy of Knight Rider's KITT and is the first production car with retractable lidar for self-driving. from Wired https://ift.tt/CdIpivx

The iPad Air 5 , launched in March, was a surprising jump up in terms of power from the Air 4 , touting the same Apple M1 chip that newer iPad Pro models use, but something about it didn't sit right with me. At first I thought it was that Apple was presenting it as a device for creatives when it didn't have the specs to match - but something caused me to change my mind. We recently heard a leak about the new iPad for 2022 - that's the entry-level slate that Apple refreshes every year. This leak suggested that the device could get a big design update , possibly including the removal of the home button and a sizeable reduction in the bezel size, to bring it more in line with Apple's more modern tablets. If this information is true, Apple is bringing its last family of tablets in line with its new design, which it's slowly been rolling out to its different iPads for the last few years.  This design matches the specs of these tablets, and suits them well for busi...

Security experts are growing concerned about the potential implications of the EU's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the effects it could have on WhatsApp and other secure messaging services . For those unfamiliar, the DMA aims to reign in big tech platforms in Europe so that smaller companies can better compete with Meta, Google, Microsoft and others. As part of the new bill, large tech companies with a market capitalization of over €75bn and a user base of more than 45m in the EU would be required to create products that are interoperable with smaller platforms. While this will likely be fine for online collaboration tools and office software , there are a number of security risks for messaging services like WhatsApp that included end-to-end encryption as part of their offerings. TechRadar needs you! We're looking at how our readers use VPNs with different devices so we can improve our content and offer better advice. This survey shouldn't take more than 60 seco...

A report broke last week about a new iPhone subscription service - according to Bloomberg, Apple is working on a way to get iPhones in your hands, without you having to pay a hefty one-off fee (or giving loads of money to cell companies). This would apparently start with iPhones, but roll out to other Apple devices later down the road, and would let many more people get their hands on an iDevice, since it's easier to break down the cost into monthly payments, rather than see it as one huge lump sum. However since TechRadar's team covered the news when it broke last week, I've been unable to stop scratching my head (no, it's not headlice) - I just don't understand what's happening here. It's already a service The main question I kept asking myself is: "isn't that already a thing?". It is. Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program lets you pay monthly to get your hands on a new iPhone - it starts at $30 or equivalent for the iPhone 13 mini , an...

AI researchers at Nvidia have developed a way to covert a handful of 2D images into a 3D scene almost instantly by using ultra-fast neural network training alongside rapid rendering. Known as inverse rendering, the process leverages AI to approximate how light behaves in the real world to turn 2D images taken at different angles into 3D scenes. Nvidia's researchers applied their novel approach to a popular new technology called neural radiance fields or NeRF for short. The result, which the company has dubbed Instant NeRF, is the fastest NeRF technique to date and it is more than 1,000 times faster in some cases. The neural model used takes just seconds to train on a few dozen still photos though it also requires data on the camera angles they were taken from. VP for graphics research at Nvidia, David Luebke provided further insight between the difference between NeRF and Instant NeRF in a blog post , saying: “If traditional 3D representations like polygonal meshes are akin ...

Documents shed some light on how Okta and its subprocessor Sitel reacted to a breach, but they don’t explain the apparent lack of urgency. from Wired https://ift.tt/2lTWqOI

If you want the privacy of paper money, you need something that leaves no paper trail. from Wired https://ift.tt/hbwm7Da

Intel’s Core i9-12900KS processor is set to launch on April 5, just over a week away. The 12900KS will debut at the Intel Talking Tech event which will be streamed on Twitch at 12pm PT in the US (that’s 8pm UK time), during which expert PC builders will show off their skills putting together a number of machines, presumably around the new Alder Lake chip. Join us as we build 4 PCs with industry experts and talk about the 12th Gen processor family features and its newest member!📅 April 5, 2022⌚ 12PM PT & 3PM ETTune in here: https://t.co/c2XGOm9PJC pic.twitter.com/Cs2Gl9oVQr March 26, 2022 See more Intel bills the ‘KS’ version of its flagship – which essentially uses the best-performing 12900K silicon, capable of being pushed to higher clock speeds – as the ‘world’s fastest desktop processor’ based on the fact that it’s capable of boosting up to 5.5GHz. That’s impressive, of course, but that speed can only be hit on a single-core over a limited period of time, with the ...

The 2022 Oscars ceremony has come and gone – and there's lots to discuss in the wake of this year's Academy Awards. Unsurprisingly – and that's putting it lightly - that Will Smith-Chris Rock incident is dominating the headlines, and there's bound to be plenty more discussion about it in the days to come. Meanwhile, the Zack Snyder fandom continued to show their devotion to the director's back catalog, with Army of the Dead and Zack Snyder's Justice League landing wins – sans trophy – in the Fan Favorite Movie and Most Cheer-Worthy Twitter-Oscar Awards. Amid all the noise surrounding the Smith-Rock altercation and Snyder film discourse, though, CODA's shock Best Picture win has largely been overlooked.  The Apple TV Plus movie, which features a predominantly Deaf cast, saw off critically-acclaimed flicks including Dune , King Richard , and West Side Story to secure the coveted gong. And, despite what else went down on the night, the significance of...

If you’ve been holding out for the iPad Pro (2022) then you might have to keep holding out for quite a while longer, as the latest information on the slate suggests that it won’t be landing for at least around six months. That’s according to Mark Gurman (who has a good track record for Apple information) in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Gurman claims that the next iPad Pro will likely land this ‘fall,’ meaning between September and November. That would probably mean a launch alongside the iPhone 14 range and the Apple Watch 8 , both of which are expected to land in September – though it’s possible that Apple will hold two events during that period, like it did in 2020. In any case, whenever it does arrive, the iPad Pro (2022) will apparently feature an M2 chipset. This will reportedly have the same octa-core CPU as the M1 found in the iPad Pro (2021) range, but potentially with more GPU cores, along with speed and efficiency improvements, due to being made on a 4nm pro...

One of the great things about movies is how they can show us possible gadgets and other forms of technology that make us wish they exist in real life. Over the years, these gadgets have amazed us on the screen, allowing us to at least have a peek at the future that we hope we might get. Check out the best Netflix TV shows this month The best part is that even if some of these gadgets don’t exist in real life, some people are already working on making it a reality. For example, it may probably take years to build a real-working lightsaber, but we wouldn’t hesitate to purchase one whenever that time has come. For now, have a read at some of the best movie gadgets we want in real life. DeLorean (Back to the Future) (Image credit: Universal) It’s not a gadget, but the flux capacitor that runs inside this DeLorean is what makes time travel possible (as conceived by the great Doc Brown). Of course, it’s an engineering feat, and while the flying version is a fan favourite, we ...