Million

Even Ellen has an NFT

How much would someone pay for the digital rights to an autographed copy of a selfie — featuring talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and a crude stick-figure drawing of a cat? We’ll soon find out — because Ellen is about to drop her very own NFTs next week, as first reported by Variety, quite possibly… Read more

CDC committee backs Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine

The United States should resume use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for all adults, an independent advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today. There is a small risk of a rare type of blood clot in women under 50, and health officials should warn patients of that… Read more

Shareholders push Amazon to reveal its plastic footprint

A group of shareholders has asked Amazon to disclose how much of its plastic packaging winds up in the environment. The retail giant’s plastic pollution could damage the company’s reputation or lead to financial penalties from regulatory action or clean-up costs, according to the shareholder proposal. So they’d like to see a report published by… Read more

TSMC Builds Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant to Fight Droughts

Home News (Image credit: TSMC) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. already owns some of the world’s most sophisticated semiconductor production facilities that use the latest equipment to build advanced chips using leading-edge process technologies. According to a Nikkei report, by the end of the year the company will also own a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant that… Read more

Call of Duty: Warzone pulls a Fortnite with the launch of its new map

After launching a little over a year ago, Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the most popular free-to-play titles right now, with 100 million people playing the battle royale shooter. Following a nuclear missile that destroyed the game’s map, the in-game city of Verdansk is back with a new map set in the year… Read more

Snapchat now has more users on Android than iOS

Snap has finally reaped the benefits of building a fully functional Android app. The company announced in its earnings report today that its user base mostly uses Android instead of iOS. That overall user base continues to grow, too. During the first quarter of 2021, Snapchat reached 280 million daily active users, an increase of… Read more

Congress resurrects push to allow thousands more autonomous vehicles on the road

Robot cars are back in the spotlight on Capitol Hill after previous efforts failed to pass comprehensive legislation allowing more autonomous vehicles on the road. US Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and John Thune (R-SD) plan to introduce an amendment to a funding bill that would grant federal regulators the power to exempt tens of thousands… Read more

Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red’s biggest game ever, despite its disastrous launch

Despite Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous and bug-filled December 10th launch, the title was “the largest game in CD Projekt Red’s history,” the studio said on Thursday (PDF). The game sold 13.7 million copies in 2020, according to CD Projekt Red. We already had a pretty good idea that Cyberpunk 2077 has been a major financial success… Read more

College student sues Proctorio after source code copyright claim

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against the remote testing company Proctorio on behalf of Miami University student Erik Johnson. The lawsuit is intended to “quash a campaign of harassment designed to undermine important concerns” about the company’s remote test-proctoring software, according to the EFF. It’s the latest legal battle for the… Read more

The Competitor

How Nick ‘Nickmercs’ Kolcheff battled his way to the top of Twitch The first thing you see is his forehead, because Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff is hunched forward and focused on his on-screen opponents. (Gamer stance, for the initiated.) The second thing you see is his crosshair begin to make its way, unerringly, to an opponent’s… Read more

EA announces new Battlefield mobile game launching in 2022

The Battlefield series is headed to mobile devices. The hugely popular shooter franchise will make its debut on smartphones and tablets in a new game that’s set to release in 2022. The game will be developed by Industrial Toys in partnership with longtime Battlefield developer DICE, which is owned by Electronic Arts. “Make no mistake,… Read more

Call of Duty: Warzone now has 100 million players — as does Apex Legends

In the battle royale of battle royale games, there doesn’t need to be a single winner. Call of Duty: Warzone now has 100 million players, the same number Apex Legends achieved just a week ago. They can share a victory royale with Fortnite, with its 350 million-plus players (as of May 2020), as well as… Read more

Apple targeted in $50 million ransomware attack resulting in unprecedented schematic leaks

Apple has been targeted in a $50 million ransomware attack following the theft of a trove of engineering and manufacturing schematics of current and future products from Quanta, a Taiwan-based company that manufactures MacBooks and other products for Apple. The leak, first reported by The Record, was carried out by REvil, a Russian hacking group… Read more

What we’re learning from the rare cases of COVID-19 in vaccinated people

Among the more than 75 million people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States by the second week of April, there were only 5,814 reports of coronavirus infections — a staggeringly low number that shows just how effective the shots are. Because the vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective, some breakthrough infections were inevitable and… Read more

Hackers Threaten to Leak Apple Product Data if Ransom Goes Unpaid

Home News (Image credit: Shutterstock) We might learn more about Apple’s latest products sooner than expected. BleepingComputer has reported that a cybercrime group called REvil is threatening to leak “stolen product blueprints” unless it’s paid a $50 million ransom by April 27. The report was published mere hours after Apple revealed a completely redesigned iMac… Read more