We Are Never (Ever, Ever) Going Back to the Office

JULY 29, 2020 Everything worth knowing in tech today, July 29, 2020. You're just a few minutes away from being the smartest one in the room Zoom conference tomorrow.      ⏰ Today's Big Stories... in 30 Seconds Today We Watched, Read, and Listened to (so you don't have to): 63 Articles, 4 Podcasts, 22 Press Releases, 562 Tweets, & 2 YouTube videos 1. Google Plans to Keep Employees at Home through 2021  Google is one of the companies that sets the tone for the rest of the industry. Now that they're publicly deciding to keep their employees safe and at home through summer 2021, smaller firms can justifiably do the same. Now everyone can continue to wear pajamas to their Zoom meetings. 2. Amazon Streamlines the Alexa App Finally, your Alexa app will get more personalized. There's a new home screen with streamlined navigation for Amazon's skills, with the third-party stuff moved.  If you're new to Alexa, you'll get more tips and help on using the darn thing, and you can even use the app hands-free, like a mini Echo device.  3.CES Bites the Bullet and Goes Virtual for 2021 It seems like a weird dream, but CES took place in person just this past January. Now, though, with a storming pandemic going on, the organizers have announced that the annual consumer gadget frenzy of a conference will take place virtually at the beginning of 2021. Stay home, stay safe, learn about gadgets.     🎱 By the Numbers Getting together is so last year, sadly Data: Statista CES is the number two tech conference in the world, coming in at only 70,000 fewer attendees than a similar European event. Now that CES is virtual, it will be interesting to see how the numbers fluctuate across the whole list of events. Where will you be in 2021? 🤓 Nerd Out "And you thought satellites were only for the Internet." -Jerri Ledford, Content Analyst The ancient "lost" city of Tanis (made popular in the first Indiana Jones movie) was uncovered in 2011 by the work of archaeologist Sarah Parcak. Her innovation was using high-resolution satellites from NASA to uncover surface abnormalities that are hard to see while on the ground. The Mummy's got nothing on Dr. Parcak.  (Share on Twitter) 💎 You Know You Want It  Get your Tetris (back) on Image: Analogue Surely you're as excited as we are to see this slick new Game Boy hardware emulator, right? What if we told you it's not from Nintendo, either, and may eventually support other consoles like Game Gear and Atari Lynx? You'd probably head right to the preorder page like we did, yeah? Sadly, that won't happen until August 8, but it's still something we want.   🚀 Facing the Future 'I'll see you in my dreams' could get very real Imagine a future where you can not only record your dreams for others to see, but also influence them in a direction you like? Want to fly like Superman? Visit with your favorite historical figure? You might be able to someday thanks to MIT researchers' new "Targeted Dream Incubation" technology that combines an app and a wearable. Hello, Ghandi!     🗞 Extra! Extra! We've got you covered with the best in daily tech news! See the latest on our site or follow us on Google News. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Have something you'd like us to write about? We're always open for suggestions. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the Tech Today newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here . A Dotdash Brand 1500 Broadway, 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10036 2019 Dotdash • All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.   [View in Browser]

Qualcomm promises to get you 100% in 15 minutes (That’s longer than an iPhone 6 battery lasts)

JULY 28, 2020 Everything worth knowing in tech today, July 28, 2020. You're just a few minutes away from being the smartest one in the room Zoom conference tomorrow.    "Welcome to the new Tech Today! Keeping up with the technology world is more than a full time job and who has time for that (besides us)? We're doing the hard work for you by cutting through the noise and making sense of what's important so you can focus on your life, not your news feed.   Coming at you 5 days a week. Starting now."   -- Your Lifewire News Team ⏰ Today's Big Stories... in 30 Seconds Today We Watched, Read, and Listened to (so you don't have to): 79 Articles, 2 Podcasts, 12 Press Releases, 324 Tweets, & 5 YouTube videos 1. Qualcomm Promises a Fully-Charged Phone in 15 Minutes  Honestly, we're all used to waiting for our phone batteries to charge... well, slowly. Usually overnight. Qualcomm, though, has just announced a brand new charging system that could net you 50 percent charged in a measly five minutes, or—gasp—a full charge in 15. 2. Photoshop for iPad Inches Closer to Fully-Featured Status Adobe promised a "full" version of Photoshop for the iPad, but it still has a ways to go. The app just updated with two new high-end features, though, including refine edge and rotate canvas, that brings working on the iPad a little closer to the desktop experience.  3. WhatsApp, Multiple Phones, One Number—Finally Currently, you can only use WhatsApp with one phone number on one phone. It's a way to keep your identity verified, but it's also annoying if you use more than one device. The feature is still in beta on Android, but it could mean a change is coming for us all, and soon! 🎱 By the Numbers WhatsApp on the rise Data: Statista A huge number of folks seem to like using WhatsApp for messaging. The Facebook-owned app has more active users than literal Facebook Messenger, while the end-to-end encryption probably doesn't hurt, either (it sure isn't the user interface, ugh). Whatever the reason, WhatsApp continues to be the choice for a massive number of people.  🤓 Nerd Out "Truth is always stranger than fiction" - Rob LeFebvre, Senior News Editor Naughty Dog's massively successful video game The Last of Us (parts 1 and 2) shows off a unique zombie apocalypse fueled by the parasitic fungus Cordyceps—a zombifying fungus that actually exists! Yikes. We'll take the shotgun, please. (Share on Twitter) 💎 You Know You Want It  LEGO and Nintendo: a match (literally) made in your living room Image: LEGO You love LEGO. You love Nintendo. Why not build a Nintendo out of LEGOs? Once you stress out over the instructions for this 2600-piece set of '80s nostalgia, you'll have LEGO versions of the NES, its iconic controller (with press-able buttons!), an insertable copy of Super Mario Bros., and a tiny TV. If you're a die-hard Nintendo fan, you've already made plans to buy this ahead of its August release and cleared a space on your shelf. 🙈 Wait, What? Shoutout to all the dads who keep swiping up It's very possible you've been told to engage your iPhone's multitasking screen and swipe up as a way to save battery life. Or maybe you're just worried about apps doing "stuff" in the background. What if we told you that neither of those things are true? Would you stop doing it? We really hope so. Oh, Android users? Same goes for you. 🗞 Extra! Extra! We've got you covered with the best in daily tech news! See the latest on our site or follow us on Google News. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Have something you'd like us to write about? We're always open for suggestions. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the Tech Today newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here . A Dotdash Brand 1500 Broadway, 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10036 2019 Dotdash • All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.   [View in Browser]