12Oct
vivo has become the official smartphone of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

The FIFA World Cup is a global football event starting to become more popular in the United States. No, this isn’t The Bears vs. The Rams, and this isn’t the NFL. The FIFA World Cup is the big game for what Americans call soccer. I won’t get into the arguments over that, but I now do call World Cup ball football.

As with any major sporting event, there needs to be a sponsor, and vivo has just become the official smartphone of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. vivo will showcase a handful of smartphones and devices during the World Cup, including the vivo X Fold+.

vivo will also launch the #vivogiveitashot campaign during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 to celebrate the event. The #vivogiveitashot campaign will give fans the chance to win various “official gifts,” here are the details.

vivo FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

vivo has become the official smartphone of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

Football has a broad fan base and profound cultural influence in the world. With the opportunity to sponsor the FIFA World Cup™, vivo hopes to enable more users to participate in the event, feel the passion of football, and convey unity and sportsmanship.

During the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, vivo will have

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11Oct
Put your iPhone 14 in Airplane Mode on rollercoasters to prevent 911 calls

With new phones come new features. One of the new features of the iPhone 14, Crash Detection, is supposed to call 911 in the event you are involved in a major automobile collision and can’t call them yourself. While the feature does appear to work well in testing and the real world, it also appears to be triggered by roller coaster rides.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, 911 was dispatched to Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati at least six times when they received emergency 911 calls. As the calls start out with “The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash…” they often result in emergency services being dispatched to check it out. Emergency services in other locations, like Six Flags in New Jersey, were also dispatched when they received these calls.

While many parks recommend not taking your device on the ride, many riders do, storing them in a fanny pack or their pockets. Of course, if the jolting and sudden stops of the rollercoaster trigger the iPhone 14 Crash Detection feature, the user can’t do anything about it until the ride is over — assuming they’re even aware that emergency services

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5Oct
XGIMI offering up to 20% discount to celebrate shipping 4 million projectors

Companies often mark success by the number of units shipped. XGIMI, a pretty solid projector manufacturer, is offering up to a 20% discount on most of its projectors to celebrate 4 million units shipped worldwide. The discounts aren’t live yet and will run starting next week, October 10, through October 16th.

XGIMI has a projector for almost every scenario, from small portable options to higher-end 4K ultra short throw devices. In all cases, the projectors run a version of Android coupled with pretty decent speakers. This provides consumers with a home theater in a box, allowing a quick and easy setup and native access to many streaming services including Disney+, YouTube, Prime Video, Spotify, and more.

We’ve reviewed a few XGIMI projectors in the past and they’ve all been pretty decent in specifications, performance, and especially price. In fact, a couple even received Top Pick Awards. Here’s what we had to say about them:

  • AURA: “If you’re looking to up your home theater game and are after a 4K UST laser projector, the XGIMI AURA is a great model that you should consider, lack of native Netflix support aside. With plenty of ports, great quality onboard sound, and Android TV
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4Oct
The Focal Bathys is the company’s first wireless Hi-Fi ANC headphones

I love Focal headphones; they are hands down some of the best you can get anywhere and well worth your money. Focal has always been a premium audio brand, and if you’ve never tried a pair of the company’s high-end headphones, you’re missing out.

Now, the company is getting in on the wireless ANC market with its first Hi-Fi ANC headphones, the Focal Bathys. The Bathys uses Bluetooth 5.1, multipoint, or wired connections, thanks to its USB-DAC mode. Created with patented Focal technology, the Aluminum-Magnesium speaker drivers are made in France and deliver detailed, precise sound reproduction.

Here is a rundown of the Focal Bathys engineering, design, and innovative features.

Focal Bathys

Focal Bathys Feature Image Techaeris-min

Engineering

To meet the growing needs of the headphones market (wireless, portability, etc.), Focal spent over three years working to adapt its knowledge to the world of “active” headphones and to prove Focal can equip them with high-fidelity sound.

Bathys: the brand-new Focal headphones blend high-fidelity sound with Bluetooth® technologies and Active noise cancellation.

  • Drivers: Focal patented technology, Made in France
    • Aluminum/Magnesium ‘M’-shaped dome speaker drivers
  • USB-DAC mode – delivers a resolution of up to 24 bits / 192kHz for an uncompromising listening experience, thanks to the
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1Oct
PRS announces three new PRS Pedals

I am a PRS (Paul Reed Smith) fan, with five hanging on my walls. All of them are from the PRS SE family, as their Private Stock series is way out of my price range, but I digress. PRS has been making guitars since the mid-’80s; still an infant compared to other brands.

But the company’s founder is still alive and well and taking PRS into a new market, stomp boxes. The company announced its new PRS Pedals yesterday, and they look fantastic. The new made-in-the-USA PRS Pedals include Horsemeat, Mary Cries, and Wind Through The Trees.

Here’s how the company describes its new line of stompboxes.

PRS Pedals

Horsemeat – Transparent Overdrive

We developed the Horsemeat transparent overdrive pedal to enhance your sound without coloring your tone. Horsemeat adds harmonic midrange richness and overdrives without cutting out your high notes, giving you more headroom. It features a complete EQ section so you can dial in your tone and has a wide range of gain on tap. Depending on the setting, Horsemeat can be used as a clean boost, straight overdrive, or even enhance your amplifier’s distortion by slightly pushing the front end of the amplifier’s preamp section.

Wind Through

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24Sep
Hardware quick look and test setup

Over the last year, I have researched solar power options for my house and road trips. When you jump in, you discover you will need solar panels, batteries, PWM or MPPT controllers, inverters, and other components. Once you get all the parts, you get to figure out diagrams, connect everything and then hope when you flip the switch, it doesn’t spark, arc, or start a fire. I would be a wild one if I didn’t say I was pretty intimidated by the task. Luckily for me and those of you who might be a bit daunted by the job, there are a few companies out there innovating and making things much more manageable. The first system we could get our hands on and start working with is the new EcoFlow Power Kit.

The EcoFlow Power Kit is one of, if not the first, plug-n-play modular power solutions. The Power kit has four components. However, you may only need two of the four to create a successful system for your needs. You have the Power Hub, the battery or batteries, the AC/DC distribution panel, and the console. Let’s take a quick tour of each component and then get to a quick

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19Sep
Cybersecurity experts weigh in on the Uber hack

The Uber hack has been a big news story this weekend as the company suffered a systems breach even extending to internal tools such as Slack. The hacker used the company’s Slack account to show employees adult images, and employees quickly stopped using the channel.

Uber was contacted about the hack, and a spokesperson offered this; “We are currently responding to a cybersecurity incident. We are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available.” Now, cybersecurity experts weigh in on the Uber hack and offer some insight.

Cybersecurity Experts On The Uber Hack

Cybersecurity experts weigh in on the Uber hack

Szilveszter Szebeni – CISO at Tresorit

“With a sophisticated website, even accounts with SMS or app-based 2FA protections can be hijacked and in turn, cause enormous losses to an organization. Losses may even be the complete loss of all IT infrastructure from one day to the next. The extent of Uber’s losses will remain to be seen; a lot of IT systems may need to be reconfigured from scratch. Protection of credentials is the top priority, especially for admin accounts migrating to FIDO2 authentication will greatly reduce risk.”

Abhay Bhargav – Founder and CEO at AppSecEngineer

“The Uber breach highlights

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17Sep
Web3 offers hope for the future of work

The evolution of the world wide web (Web3 incoming) has been quick in terms of general life-altering developments in human existence, but actually quite slow regarding how quickly technology has typically come to advance.

The first version of the web, or Web1, was launched in 1989. It was a read-only web that allowed for no user contribution. This version of the web was expected for 15 years until Web2 was launched in 2004.

Web2 was the first version that allowed for user contribution, which allowed for the creation of social media sites like YouTube and Facebook. While this version of the web has been the catalyst for massive technological and even relational advancement, it’s one that hosts a vast array of issues relating to privacy and autonomy. Since 2004, this is the web version we’ve been using. It’s obviously time for an upgrade.

Web3 is set to launch as early as this year and is geared with individual ownership in mind. It promises to remove the web from the hands of big tech like Google and Meta and to place it into the hands of individual users, giving ownership to the people.

Not only does Web3 promise a massive transfer

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15Sep
Canon announces the SELPHY CP1500 photo printer

While their use has been significantly dropped, the use of physical photos is far from dead. We’ve moved into a digital world, and the physical picture has been pushed to the back seat. But a large portion of users still wants a physical print. That’s why something like the Canon SELPHY CP1500 could be a popular device.

The Canon SELPHY CP1500 is a great idea for printing physical photos to frame and for scrapbooking and crafts. Canon says this new printer delivers long-lasting, durable, high-quality prints in less than a minute. They say that the photos will last the longest protected in an album, which I think is common sense.

In a stylish and compact design, the Canon SELPHY CP1500 photo printer is small enough to fit in a pocket or small purse. It can be taken on the go – using the included AC adapter or the optional battery (sold separately). Its diminutive size doesn’t make the CP1500 short on function, though.

Canon announces the SELPHY CP1500 photo printer

The printer’s standard print size is 4″ x 6″ postcard – printed in approximately 41 seconds2. With the purchase of the optional cassette (sold separately), it can also print card (2.1″ x 3.4″) and square label (2.1″

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12Sep
How to keep your network secure while gaming

Online gaming is the most popular new hobby that pits gamers versus gamers in action-packed battles! Every day, there are millions of gaming sessions happening in the world, with plenty of them staged live over the internet. New internet technologies have allowed gamers to branch out from their corner of the Earth to find worthy opponents who may not even speak the same language!

With so much activity happening over the internet, there is bound to be some trouble. Surely enough, many unruly characters are lurking in the dark web, ready to take what’s yours. Is there a way to combat this hideous foe? Yes, and you may find the answers to your burning questions here.

Create strong, unique passwords

The most important piece of advice anyone can give you about maintaining your safety online is to strengthen your passwords. Passwords are the key to your accounts, so keeping them safe is your top priority. Any unruly character can take your password and gain access to your accounts to do all sorts of nasty activities, including deleting the account itself! Passwords are the front line of defense in your networking security measures, so you should not take them lightly.

What

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