Avatars are officially coming to WhatsApp. The customizable, expressive characters, which are already available on Facebook and Instagram, can now be used as profile pictures on the messaging service or sent in the form of one of 36 custom stickers. The process of customizing the cartoony virtual characters is similar to Apple’s Memoji, except WhatsApp’s…
Monthly Archives: December 2022
Enlarge / Fire TV on the Amazon Echo Show 15. (credit: Amazon) Amazon’s Echo Show 15 versatile smart display now has a more mainstream purpose: streaming TV and movies. Amazon pushed a free software update today that grants the Echo Show 15 with Fire TV capabilities, and newly purchased devices will be able to stream…
Aleksey Melkomukov / Unsplash A perfect mix of chemistry and engineering has produced microscopic robots that function like specialized immune cells—capable of pursuing pathogenic culprits with a specific mugshot. The pathogen in question is Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), which can impact dairy cows’ milk production. These bacteria also make toxins that cause food poisoning…
Originally announced earlier this year, appliances giant Dyson has officially unveiled the full specifications for the upcoming Dyson Zone – the company’s first wearable purifier and advanced noise-cancelling headphones. Reportedly the product of five years of research, the Dyson Zone combines two unique product offerings for the company as both its first foray into audio…
When Dyson announced its Zone noise-canceling and air-purifying headphones earlier this year, the company kept some details close to its chest. Specifically, Dyson didn’t announce pricing or availability, nor did it say much about battery life. On Wednesday, it shared that information. Let’s begin with the detail everyone wants to know. When the wearable arrives…
Dyson’s experimental headphones and air purifying mask combo will go on sale in China in January 2023, followed by a rollout to the UK, US, Ireland, Hong Kong and Singapore from March. First announced in March this year, the Dyson Zone concept is a unique one – we even got to try out the device…
Credit: Tom William Chapman Given the original announcement for the Dyson Zone was around April Fools Day, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it might have been some elaborate joke. But it is real and it is coming, with Dyson now confirming a starting price and period of availability for its first ever wearable. If…
Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto) Today, as Amazon dealt with a site-wide outage impacting thousands of customers, the District of Columbia attorney general, Karl Racine, filed a lawsuit against the online shopping giant for deceiving its customer base. In a press release, Racine said that Amazon still needs to pay for tricking DC…
Enlarge / An attempt to reconstruct what northern Greenland looked like about 2 million years ago. (credit: Beth Zaiken) When once-living tissue is preserved in a cold, dry environment, fragments of its DNA can survive for hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, DNA doesn’t even have to remain in tissue; we’ve managed to obtain…
Enlarge / A health care worker exits the emergency room at Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus, New Jersey, on December 11, 2020. (credit: Getty | KENA BETANCUR) The New Jersey health department has fined a state hospital $63,000 after police discovered a stockpile of 39 firearms—including an illegal assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine—stashed in…