Cool Stuff Found

Nanoleaf Lines Improve Decor Possibilities in Smart Lighting

Jeff Butts ·

Nanoleaf has been offering unique possibilities for blending smart lighting with home decor for years. Its latest product lineup, Nanoleaf Lines, gives you even more ways to light up your space. Each segment is 11 inches long and provides up to 20 lumens of brightness. You can set the lights to more than 16.9 million colors, and each segment has two color zones. This allows you to easily blend your color palette within your design. You can configure your Nanoleaf lines to sync with your music or Mac’s display. Nanoleaf Lines supports Apple HomeKit and also works as a Thread border router, allowing you to extend the reach of your smart home network without additional hubs. The starter kit, retailing for $199.99, comes with 9 light lines, a controller, a power supply, and everything else you need to get started. Expansion packs provide you 3 more light lines for $69.99. The smart lights are available for preorder now, with shipping expected in late November 2021.

Link

North Vancouver Plans to Use Electricity From Bitcoin Mining for Heat

Andrew Orr ·

The city of North Vancouver in Canada is planning to use electricity created by Bitcoin mining to heat houses.

The technique will involve using MintGreen’s Digital Boilers, which recover more than 96 per cent of the electricity used for bitcoin mining to heat commercial and residential buildings.

Operating at full capacity 365 days a year, the bitcoin miner will be able to heat 100 residential and commercial buildings in the city, situated in the hills north of Vancouver.

Link

Facebook is Going to Change Its Name Next Week

Charlotte Henry ·

Facebook is going to change its name next week, The Verge reported. It’s not going to be re-adding a ‘The’ but rebrand in order to reflect Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a ‘metaverse’.

A rebrand could also serve to further separate the futuristic work Zuckerberg is focused on from the intense scrutiny Facebook is currently under for the way its social platform operates today. A former employee turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen, recently leaked a trove of damning internal documents to The Wall Street Journal and testified about them before Congress. Antitrust regulators in the US and elsewhere are trying to break the company up, and public trust in how Facebook does business is falling.

Link

The MacBook Pro May Not Get a Cellular Model Until 2024

Andrew Orr ·

For now, photographers and other people in the field will have to tether their MacBook Pro to their iPhone to actually upload their content.

Apple’s 5G laptop strategy right now is to tell you to buy an iPhone. The math is pretty simple: Qualcomm’s modems, which Apple has a deal to use at least through 2022, are a big cost on Apple’s ledger both financially and politically. Sure, Apple could price Qualcomm-packing laptops so it makes a profit, but the company doesn’t want to be even more dependent on its longtime frenemy as a supplier.

Link

VSCO Officially Launches New Film Effects to Members

Andrew Orr ·

I spotted the new FX toolset a few days ago, and on Tuesday VSCO is officially rolling it out to members of its VSCO X subscription service. These remind of of Mextures, an editing app I used for a a couple years. I don’t use that app anymore but I do look forward to the grain textures in VSCO FX. I had complained about its regular grain tool for a while because it’s too uniform. But these new grain textures look more realistic and film-like, if that’s your style.

Built from actual film stock, these new Texture presets create a Dust, Grain and Scratch overlay for your photos and videos. These subtle effects allow you to add another dimension to your creativity. There are 19 photo and 9 video Textures available.

Link

Polygon Partners With DraftKings on NFTs and Web3 Technology

Andrew Orr ·

Polygon and DraftKings have “formed a strategic agreement” to adopt NFTs and Web3 technologies with DraftKings Marketplace.

To participate in the marketplace, users can browse listings on the marketplace’s website. Preseason Access Collection NFT drops by Autograph of iconic athletes featuring Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, and Derek Jeter, were sold out almost immediately since the launch of the platform in August.