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Late last year, Intel sold off its smartphone modem business to Apple for around $1 billion, but that still left Intel with the problem of figuring out how to add 5G connectivity to its laptop and PC business. So in an effort to support next-gen connectivity, Intel has teamed up with MediaTek to bring 5G…
The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Thursday prohibiting federal workers from downloading TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app the White House has recently threatened to ban citing national security concerns. The ban, which specifically applies to government devices, was approved via unanimous consent. (There was no vote, but no senator objected to its passing.) A…
It can be hard to resist the impulse of sharing your fitness progress on social media. Who can say no to the dopamine rush of random people and friends cheering you on? You. That’s who. Don’t be the dingbat who advertises where you’ll likely be on a regular, reoccurring basis! This friendly reminder was sparked…
For the past few months, a lot of folks—this reporter included—have watched their favorite local bookstores, pizza joints, and coffeeshops get systematically gutted by the economic tumult that came with the current pandemic. Back in April, academics predicted that this economic carnage would result in over 100,000 of these sorts of small businesses closing their…
Apple has just announced the availability of the Public Beta for macOS Big Sur. This new version of macOS does away with a lot of the old and familiar design tropes associated with OS X and leans more heavily on touchscreen-style interfaces – a nod to the slow convergence of macOS and iOS. You can…
The U.S. Army says it will restore Americans’ God-given right to shitpost on its esports channel, the premier destination for watching your favorite former sniper shoot up digital Middle Eastern villages. First spotted by gaming consultant Rod Breslau, and reported by the Verge, the Army has decided to unban pesky anti-war Twitch commenters, with caveats…
If you’re a caring and attentive parent and/or obsessed with Satanic, ritualized child trafficking, you’ll be familiar with the concept of “grooming,” in which an abuser slowly convinces a child that his or her sexual advances are normal and acceptable, culminating in the unthinkable. This morning Sam Parker, a failed senatorial candidate from Utah, showed…
According to data released today by the Department of Labor, about 500,000 more Americans went on unemployment between July 11 and 18, pushing that number above 31 million in total. In economics, it’s sometimes the case that big number equals good. This is not such a case. Half a million is a grim improvement over…
Foldable smartphones don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. A leaked document obtained by 9to5 Google hints that not only is Google developing Android builds for a Pixel 5a, it’s also futzing around with a foldable Pixel and possibly two other devices. In all fairness, a foldable Pixel is not a new rumor. Last…
After attempting to rewrite the rules of the internet and poach TikTok, the Trump regime has concocted a bonkers plan to build a digital wall around the U.S. internet. This plan has it all: dictatorship, nationalism, paranoia, walls, bans, trade war, and extra-legal blustering that could pressure companies to do what he wants to get…
If you ever entertained your fellow students at school (while annoying teachers) with an impromptu performance involving twanging a metal ruler hanging off the edge of a desk, then you already have a firm grasp of how Dmitry Morozov’s latest creation works. It’s a synthesizer built around office supplies, and it sounds as unique and…
Fluorescence is typically associated with gases or liquids, but a team of chemists has conjured a new formula that gives solid materials that characteristic fluorescent glow. New research published today in the scientific journal Chem describes a newly developed material, dubbed SMILES, that can be transformed into a solid, crystalline state with an unusually bright…
Are you a frontline worker dealing with new stresses or irresponsible management? Is working (or not working) from home starting to take a psychological toll? How are you coping with reopening? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as much detail as…
It was less than a year ago that Google introduced the Pixel 4 and 4XL. In fact, it’s been just a little over 10 months. However, it appears that Google has already decided to discontinue its current flagship phones, with both devices out of stock in the U.S., per the Verge. That’s an awfully short…
The Blackstone Group will buy a majority stake in the genealogy website Ancestry.com in a deal worth $4.7 billion, according to a press release published Wednesday. Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, is the world’s largest landlord and Ancestry is the world’s largest genealogy website, with over 6 billion records on family history in the…
Facebook has finally done the least it could do, for the first time ever deleting a post by Donald Trump for spreading misinformation about the novel coronavirus. Twitter in turn restricted Trump’s re-election campaign account from tweeting at all until it deleted an identical post. Trump’s official Facebook account uploaded a series of clips from…
Southwest Airlines is reportedly scaling back its sanitation efforts between flights, with flight crew being told that sanitizing seat beats and armrests will not be part of this process. The airline said the new policy is focused on “optimizing” staff and shifting heavy cleaning to evenings. The airline told Gizmodo by email on Wednesday that…
The Iranian military accidentally sunk a target barge used as a mockup U.S. aircraft carrier in recent exercises while towing it back to port, according to a report by Forbes, causing a major sea-lane hazard. The barge in question was built around six years ago and originally explained as a prop for Airbus, a never-released…
Just about a week after Canon rolled out a full-on cybersecurity toolkitfor small businesses across the US, the fan-favorite camera company’s revealed that it’s suffered two pretty serious ransomware attacks that’ve resulted in at least 10 terabytes of company-wide data being held up for an undisclosed ransom. While Canon’s been pretty scant on the details…
There’s no shortage of people trying to make virtual reality gaming a more immersive experience. There are VR arenas where people strap on PC backpacks and play in a pre-programmed area. There are glovesand shoes, and even VR treadmills. Nothing seems to have that full immersion factor, though, either because the person playing still needs to sit…
