Новости за 15.01.2022

You might not be thrilled that face masks are a part of daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they could soon be useful for more than protecting others and yourself. Researchers at Northwestern University (including battery-free Game Boy creator Josiah Hester) have developed a "FaceBit" face mask sensor that can track a wide range of health data from inside an N95 mask. The magnetically-attached unit can gauge your heart rate using the subtle head movements from blood pumping, and can detect... Читать дальше...

If you're on Humble Bundle and use a Mac or a Linux computer, you may want to download all the games you can from the service's Trove before the month ends. Starting on February 1st, the Mac and Linux versions of the games in the Humble Trove will no longer available. The Humble Trove is a catalog of over 70 DRM-free games that you can access, so long as you have a Choice subscription. A few days ago, Humble announced that it's simplifying its subscription service by offering a single $12 monthly... Читать дальше...

Apple employees may have to stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines if they want to avoid significant hassles. The Verge says it has seen internal email revealing that Apple will require corporate and retail staff to offer proof of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots if they want to enter offices or stores from February 15th onward. Once an employee is eligible for a booster, they'll have four weeks to get it and provide evidence.

FedEx jets might soon pack defensive weaponry. NBC News and Reuters report FedEx has asked the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to equip an upcoming fleet of Airbus A321-200 aircraft with an anti-missile laser system. The proposed hardware would disrupt the tracking on heat-seeking missiles by steering infrared laser energy toward the oncoming projectiles.

The murmurs of an iPad Pro with wireless charging are growing louder. 9to5Macsources claim Apple is moving forward with an update to its pro tablet that would include MagSafe wireless charging, but not necessarily how you'd expect. Rather than using a previously reported all-glass back (like most recent iPhones), the new iPad Pro could instead charge through an enlarged glass Apple logo built into a metal back. It would charge more quickly than an iPhone (expected given the iPad's added power... Читать дальше...

If the efforts of the 10,000-plus people who developed and assembled the James Webb Space Telescope are any indication, the age of the independent scientist are well and truly over. Newton, Galileo, Keppler, and Copernicus all fundamentally altered humanity's understanding of our place in the universe, and did so on their own, but with the formalization and professionalization of the field in the Victorian Era, these occurences of an amatuer astronomer using homebrew equipment all the more rare. Читать дальше...

Google may have to rethink its non-disclosure agreements following a long-running lawsuit from an anonymous worker. According to The Washington Post, a California Superior Court judge has ruled that Google's employee confidentiality agreements violate state labor laws. Terms banning the employee from discussing his job with potential employers amounted to a non-compete clause and were thus illegal in the state, the judge said.

Tesla has once again quietly pushed back its Cybertruck's release to next year, according to Reuters. The automaker will reportedly begin the electric truck's production by the end of the first quarter of 2023 instead of this year. While Tesla has yet to formally announce the delay, the Cybertruck's order page removed a previous reference to production in 2022. The design section of the page previously read "You will be able to complete your configuration as production nears in 2022." Now, the... Читать дальше...

If you made the resolution to tidy up more regularly in 2022, a robot vacuum can help with that. And for those that hate cleaning, investing in a robot vacuum with self-emptying functionality can make it so you rarely have to interact with the machine. Two of iRobot's higher-end models with clean bases are on sale at Wellbots right now when you use the code ENGADGET250 at checkout — both the Roomba s9+ and the Roomba j7+ will be $250 off, bringing them down to $850 and $600, respectively. Those are great deals... Читать дальше...

Apple is once again honoring regulations requiring it to allow alternative payment options in the App Store, although this one is highly specific. As Reutersreports, Apple confirmed it would comply with orders from the Netherlands' Authority for Consumers and Markets forcing it to allow third-party payment systems in Tinder and other locally-offered dating apps. The regulator determined on December 24th that Apple had abused its market power by requiring its in-app purchasing platform, and gave... Читать дальше...

The post-Spider-Verse revolution feels alive in 2022’s animation slate

Fox News host and right-wing commentator Dan Bongino won't be able to upload anything to his YouTube channel for a week, according to Forbes and The Hill. The website has temporarily suspended his account over COVID-19 misinformation, specifically for saying masks are useless in preventing the coronavirus' spread. YouTube updated its rules in 2020 to prohibit "content about COVID-19 that poses a serious risk of egregious harm." It doesn't permit videos with medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities... Читать дальше...

Yet another service has kicked sex workers off its platform. According to Motherboard, Linktree, a tool that allows you to share multiple links with one URL online, has given sex workers the boot overnight and without warning. Banned users have taken to social networks like Twitter to announce that their accounts were banned "for inappropriate use" and didn't even get an email or any kind of notice about it. Some were reportedly billed for the service, which costs $9 per months for the Pro tier... Читать дальше...

The hacker behind the ransomware attack that took down the Colonial Pipeline last year has been apprehended by Russian authorities, according to US officials.

Google has begun rolling out the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro’s latest update following a delay in December. As may you recall, the company “paused” the release of the OTA after there were reports of the software causing calls to drop and disconnect. The issue was such that Google took the nearly unprecedented move of removing the associated factory images for that update from its developer website.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as well as several states, including New York, Tennesse and North Carolina, are reportedly investigating Meta’s virtual reality division in relation to potential anti-competitive behavior. According to Bloomberg, the FTC and involved state attorneys general began interviewing third-party developers last year to find out if the company has put them at a disadvantage when they’ve tried to compete against its own software.