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I used to laugh at my neurotic friends who used screen protectors. You probably know the type of person I’m referring to. This person will refuse to unbox a new phone, tablet, or even a laptop without having first bought a case and an avalanche of other protective accessories. When it comes to screen protector…
As part of its ambitious bid to be your go-to streaming service for virtually everything, Plex this week announced the addition of a new, free TV feature with more than 80 channels available at launch. Launched as Live TV, the feature actually comprises a collection of pre-programmed, continuous channels rather than the over-the-air streams of…
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez plans to file an amendment that would bar any part of the U.S. military from spending federal funds to operate accounts on any “video game, esports, or live-streaming platform,” Vice reported on Wednesday. At the same time, prominent civil rights groups have demanded service branches immediately reverse bans of users…
Considering Facebook’s, um, questionable track record on all things privacy, you’d think the company would learn to stop leaning into the phrase when rolling out new products that promise to be safe and secure when the company actually means they’re safe and secure from everyone except, y’know, Facebook. None of this stopped the company from…
Usually when companies make major changes to their services, a little advanced notice is a good thing. Unfortunately, when AT&T recently began sending out emails telling customers that their phones would no longer work on its network when AT&T phases out support for 3G, the carrier forgot to include one important detail: Its 3G network…
As part of a series of security updates to G Suite announced this week, Google says it’s piloting a new standard for email authentication that will display a company or brand icon next to email that Google has verified as legit—a measure that may help curb phishing and other malicious activity from bad actors. With…
According to a public letter from the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, the federal group responsible for the security of the banking system, banks are now allowed to hold cryptocurrencies. This doesn’t mean you’ll be stacking Sats in an FDIC insured account at Chase. Instead, banks will be allowed to offer cryptocurrency wallets and “hold…
Buried deep within a leaked 79-page draft of the Democratic National Committee’s 2020 platform are promises to “recommit” to net neutrality and bridge the digital divide once and for all. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders had already outlined similar plans in a joint task force document that was recently released, but…
When Uber sold off its e-transportation offshoot, Jump, earlier this year, the company was left with hundreds of employees that needed to be let go, and tens of thousands of electric bikes that, well, also needed to be let go… directly into the trash. See, apparently when the e-scooter giant Lime took Jump off of…
Workplace messaging software company Slack is accusing Microsoft of monopoly behavior in an antitrust complaint filed today to European Union regulators. Unsurprisingly, the accusations hinge on the same practice that helped make Microsoft rich in the first place. Bill Gates, Windows, innovation, yes, yes, OK—undoubtedly Microsoft had a lot to contribute to the early years…
The hype behind Apple’s rumored augmented reality headset and glasses just won’t die. Every few weeks, almost like clockwork, some sort of Apple AR rumor or news makes its way through the tech blogosphere, even as other smart glasses and AR companies are capsizing left and right. This has always irked me, but it wasn’t…
If you’ve ever shopped for office furniture, you’ve undoubtedly drooled over Herman Miller’s fancy chairs, and then turned away in disappointment at their Dyson-like pricing. Still a staple of well-funded startups, the furniture maker now assumes that gamers who’ve already spent thousands on a spec’d-out PC are happy to spend just as much on a…
When should Twitter have banned QAnon, the conspiracy theory that has thoroughly convinced people, mainly Trump supporters, of an omnipresent threat of Satanic child abusers? Was it when Reddit banned their QAnon subreddit for making “violent threats” in 2018? Was it when a group of armed Arizona veterans stormed a homeless encampment thinking they’d uncovered…
Despite companies desperately trying to come up with reasons to add a screen to every appliance in your house, your fridge and toaster probably work just fine the way they are. And while a drill with a touchscreen also seems like complete overkill, the creators of the xDrill have at least come up with some…
For the longest time, one computer has been enough to do it all. But it’s never been easier to get a cheap computer, and a second machine can do everything from help you code across multiple platforms to run lots of taxing programs at once, or just give you a nice change of digital scenery…
President Donald Trump’s latest Facebook ad campaign uses a photo of protesters clashing with police, and suggests there will be “chaos and violence” if the president isn’t re-elected in November. Facebook users who see the new ad will probably assume the photo was taken in the United States sometime this year. In reality, the photo…
Federal Communications Commission chief Ajit Pai is urging that states impose caps on the price of intrastate prison phone calls—ones that existed on the federal level until Pai’s FCC abandoned them in court. Per Ars Technica, on Monday Pai sent a letter to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (a group of state utility…
An Al Jazeera reporter did not call White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany a “lying bitch” on Tuesday, despite claims to the otherwise by sizable contingent of pro-Donald Trump Twitter accounts. At a White House press conference late on Tuesday morning, Al Jazeera English reporter Kimberly Halkett asked McEnany whether the president was as focused…
Adding to TikTok’s litany of woes, the House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to prevent government employees from installing TikTok on government-issued devices—inching closer toward the transnational goal of eradicating the Chinese-owned company from the face of the earth. TikTok clapped back with the announcement that it’s going to add a ton of jobs to the U.S.…
As part of its hard-lean pivot to Podcast King, Spotify is now bringing video podcasts to its platform, complete with seamless multitasking support if you prefer to listen instead. Support for video podcasting will kick off with just a handful of Spotify’s programs, the company said Tuesday, including Book of Basketball 2.0, Fantasy Footballers, the…
