Le Journal

Betterment, a financial app, sent a sketchy-looking notification on Friday asking users to send $10,000 to Bitcoin and Ethereum crypto wallets and promising to "triple your crypto," according to a thread on Reddit. The Betterment account says in an X thread that this was an "unauthorized message" that was sent via a "third-party system." Here's the notification that some people got, per a screenshot in the Reddit thread (some reported getting a similar notification over email, too): We'll triple your crypto! (Limited Time) Bryan: Betterment is giving back! We're celebrating our best-performing year yet by tripling Bitcoin and Ethere … Read the full story at The Verge.

Amazon could be taking another, even bigger swing at physical stores, this time with a Walmart-like supercenter. On Tuesday, the Orland Park Plan Commission in the Chicago suburb Orland Park, Illinois voted 6-1 to approve Amazon's proposal to develop 35 acres of land for a 229,000-square foot retail center, as reported by The Information. The development would include a brick-and-mortar supercenter selling groceries, general merchandise, and prepared foods. It would also double as an Amazon fulfillment center, like a department store with an Amazon warehouse in back. Customers would be able to pick up Amazon orders there, as well. The pr … Read the full story at The Verge.

X is suing music publishers and their trade group, the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA), accusing them of attempted coercion in their ongoing battle over licensing, as reported earlier by The Hollywood Reporter. The Elon Musk-owned platform accuses music publishers of colluding with the NMPA to "coerce X into taking licenses to musical works from the industry as a whole, denying X the benefit of competition between music publishers." In the antitrust lawsuit filed on Friday, X claims that the NMPA and music publishers "weaponized" the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) with requests to take down allegedly infringing conte … Read the full story at The Verge.

The splitR Auracast transceiver can attach to an iPhone’s MagSafe spot. One of the issues holding Auracast back from wider mainstream use is some companies' lack of support for the Bluetooth technology - Apple being a prime example. With iOS having 58 percent of the market share in North America and nearly 28 percent worldwide, a decision by Apple to enable native Auracast support would potentially put millions of Auracast devices into the world with a firmware update. As of yet, Apple has made no comment on Auracast, and I'm not hopeful that we'll get one anytime soon. But the audio technology company Atitan thinks it has the solution. It's developing a small disc-shaped transceiver - the splitR - that can att … Read the full story at The Verge.

Google rolled out emoji reactions to personal Gmail accounts a little over two years ago, and I completely forgot about it until now - probably because the option is hidden within a small, smiley face icon beside the Forward button. But now, Google is bringing emoji reactions to all Workspace users by default on February 9th, reminding me of their existence (and all the times I could've replied with a "thumbs-up" instead of a full-blown message). Selecting the inconspicuous smiley face button displays a range of emoji you can use in place of a written response. If your recipient is another Gmail user, they'll see your reaction at the bottom … Read the full story at The Verge.