You can finally buy Lego’s Braille Bricks

[ad_1] Building with Lego bricks has stayed a formative and important practice for kids around the world, partly because it’s so easily enjoyed by anyone, regardless of location, language, or ability. Now the company has made its Braille Blocks, a learning toy for children with visual impairments (or who just want to learn the script) … Read more

Friend.tech hype grows, Tornado Cash founders go for a spin and FBI’s monitoring North Korean hackers

[ad_1] Welcome back to Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe here. Follow me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto news, memes and more. If you haven’t heard about friend.tech this week, you’re probably living under a … Read more

Starbucks is experimenting with ‘scanless checkout’ for drive-through users

[ad_1] 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 … Read more

Social media giants urged to tackle data-scraping privacy risks

[ad_1] A joint statement signed by regulators at a dozen international privacy watchdogs, including the UK’s ICO, Canada’s OPC and Hong Kong’s OPCPD, has urged mainstream social media platforms to protect users’ public posts from scraping — warning they face a legal responsibility to do so in most markets. “In most jurisdictions, personal information that … Read more

Sony is buying gaming headphone maker, Audeze

[ad_1] Sony Interactive Entertainment (basically the PlayStation wing) today announced plans to acquire Audeze, the company has confirmed with TechCrunch. The Orange Country, CA-based firm is best known for its high-end headphones, targeted at gamers and audio producers. The hardware is often priced into four-figures, but the company earns consistently high marks from reviewers and … Read more