Technology

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How culture drives foul play on the internet, and how new “upcode” can protect us From Bored Apes and Fancy Bears, to Shiba Inu coins, self-­replicating viruses, and whales, the internet is crawling…

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. This week I covered some exciting new research. Two teams reported that they used brain-computer interfaces to help people who had lost their ability to speak…

Instant grocery delivery startup Zepto has raised $200 million in a new funding round at a valuation of $1.4 billion, it said Friday, at a time when most other firms in the category have either died or are struggling. The funding makes Zepto the first Indian startup to attain the unicorn status this year. StepStone […]

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. If you haven’t heard about friend.tech this week, you’re probably living under a rock. But that’s ok, we dove deep into the hype.

Asia’s fintech realm is experiencing an unparalleled boom, combining rich traditions with futuristic technology, setting the stage for a global financial metamorphosis.

Starbucks is testing a new way for customers to pay for their favorite beverages — without even having to pull out their phone. The company confirmed an internal test of “scanless pay,” a new contactless checkout method that would leverage a Starbucks app’s user’s current geolocation to identify them in the drive-through lane so they […]

Sony Interactive Entertainment (basically the PlayStation wing) today announced plans to acquire Audeze. The Orange Country, CA-based firm is best known for its high-end headphones, targeted at gamers and audio producers. Sony has confirmed the deal with TechCrunch. In a release announcing the news, the companies are quick to note that operating under the Sony […]

X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has a new initiative aimed at luring smaller businesses to advertise on its platform. The company announced on Wednesday it would offer a one-time ad credit of $250 to select businesses when they spend $1,000 or more on new ad campaigns over the next 30 days. In its […]