NFTs entered the mainstream through the art world, as collectors paid headline-grabbing sums for digital works. And now there’s a growing number of Web3-first startups, including Catalog, Royal, and Sound.xyz, betting on the music industry carrying the next big NFT wave. Case in point: DoomsdayX, a new Web3 studio focused on developing tools and experiences to connect music fans and artists. DoomsdayX, a sister company to video production outfit Doomsday Entertainment, announced today a $
SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 is betting on digital therapeutics—apps that function like medicine. The Japanese investment conglomerate led a $75 million funding round in San Francisco-based Big Health, which uses mobile apps to treat sleeplessness and anxiety. The investment may be indicative of the kinds of digital therapeutics companies that are likely to receive investment in the year ahead. Founded in 2010, Big Health has taken a well-regarded psychological treatment called cogniti
Forget about new iPhones, Web3, and augmented reality headsets. The most exciting tech product category in 2022 is the lowly laptop. Once thought to be on the decline in both sales and importance, laptops are suddenly cool again. It turns out that if you’re working from home, having a decent full-featured computer is pretty important. While this isn’t a new revelation—worldwide PC shipments are up 34% from 2017, according to International Data Corp.—laptop makers are
Character-based NFTs have become a status symbol for owners who regularly use their animated creatures as avatars on social media. Sure, it’s signaling access to a community (and a level of cachet given how much these NFTs can go for), but that’s usually all it is.
Welcome aBored @Eminem pic.twitter.com/uvKKql8Dmh — NFT (@NFT) December 31, 2021
However, some NFT holders, namely those in the Bored Ape Yacht Club, are at the forefront of what could be the next wave in the sp
Last year on the music gear trading site Reverb, the most sought after instrument (both new and used) was a little white synthesizer called the OP-1, made by the Swedish tech developer and design house Teenage Engineering. It was the second year in a row that this honor belonged to the OP-1, which debuted a decade ago and remains Teenage Engineering’s centerpiece product. The OP-1 put Teenage Engineering on the map in music tech circles, and sales of the device powered the company’
Microsoft’s Windows 11 has been out for a few months now, and it’s got plenty of helpful features. Here’s a look at some that aren’t so obvious at first but can save you a ton of time each day. Right-click the Start button for a secondary menu Yes, there’s a revamped Start menu that we’ve all used to launch programs, but the little-known right-click trick makes digging into submenu after submenu to tweak various settings a thing of the past. As you may h
Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu cryptocurrencies might soon have some new competition from an unlikely source: Walmart. That’s because the big-box retail giant may soon have a new product to offer its millions of loyal customers—its own cryptocurrency. As CNBC reports, Walmart filed several new trademarks last month that heavily suggest the company has plans to get into the cryptocurrency game. On December 30, 2021, Walmart filed applications for several trademarks, two of which a
Yubo, the video-based social media platform aimed at Generation Z, has launched a program letting popular streamers earn in-app rewards. Called the Pixel Reward Program, and launched in December, it allows people who create engaging streams to receive Pixels, which are essentially trading-card-style images available for purchase on the platform, from their fans. When they receive the Pixels, they also get 30% of the purchase price in YuBucks, Yubo’s internal currency, which can be used to
Indoor dining establishments across the world are getting battered by the ongoing omicron wave of the pandemic, but new data from SevenRooms—which makes software for restaurant reservations—indicates that the damage is not nearly as dramatic as it was when COVID-19 first struck. As omicron became the dominant strain in North America, restaurant reservation trends definitely reflected fresh hesitance among would-be diners, with cancellation rates jumping 16.6% in December and Januar
New data from parental control app Bark shows that suicidal ideation among teens is up significantly from last year. The data is in keeping with other statistics, including metrics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which revealed that teen girls in particular were showing up in hospital emergency rooms at a far higher rate during the pandemic than before. While the trend is disturbing, doctors say there are ways to combat the rise. It’s not just about COVID-19-related s