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After the proposal received unanimous support from the city council, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan last Friday signed in local ordinance 119799, the seemingly unimpeachable purpose of which was to impose “premium pay” for gig workers delivering groceries during the ongoing pandemic. Not even a week later, the city is being taken to court by Instacart,…
While Samsung still hasn’t officially announced the Galaxy Note 20, Samsung’s Russian website may have just let the cat out of the bag by inadvertently posting photos of the Note 20 featuring an enchanting copper finish. Unfortunately, it’s still a bit unclear if this is actually the Galaxy Note 20 or not, though it seems…
In honor of the Tenth Anniversary of Social Media Day, influencers have issued a declaration of independence and the formation of an autonomous trade association, hereby known as the American Influencer Council. Founding members—most with over one million followers, all casually flawless—influence in such areas as parenting products, professional development, brand consulting, and beauty. With…
In recent builds of Chrome for Android, Google provided a hidden option that allowed users to force dark mode onto websites that would normally feature bright white backgrounds. Sadly, based on updated settings from the Canary build for next version of Chrome (86), it appears Google is dropping support for forced dark mode entirely. While…
Designers often rely on their smartphones for snapping a quick photo of something that inspires them, but Pantone has found a way to turn their smartphone into a genuine design tool. As part of a new online service, it’s created a small card that can be used to accurately sample real world colors by simply…
A lifelong obsession with technology has left me with drawers full of gadgets, many of which I don’t even remember buying. But the very first? That memory remains crystal clear. It was a Sony, one of the company’s first truly pocket-friendly portable TVs, and it remains one of my favorite gadgets of all time. The…
Lizmarie Oropeza imagined that when her 17-month old foster son, Caden, hit his milestones—pointing, learning to walk, speaking his first words—his biological family would be able to celebrate alongside her. Then coronavirus hit. In Oropeza’s home-state of Connecticut, visitation between families and children in the child welfare system has come to a halt under stay-at-home…
If you’re addicted to Spotify and haven’t murdered your significant other or roommate during lockdown, good news—the company announced today that it’s launching its $13 Premium Duo plan in the U.S. and 55 other markets. You might remember that Spotify started piloting this plan in March last year in five markets, and from the looks…
We’ve got more emojis at our fingertips than ever before, but are your friends, relatives, colleagues, and favorite chatbots seeing the colorful cartoon symbols you think they’re seeing? There are several different reasons why emojis can get lost in translation between apps, devices, and platforms, and here we’ll explain how to stop it from happening.…
President Donald Trump wants to know where Fox News co-founder and frequently accused sexual harasser Roger Ailes might be hiding during these difficult times. The answer, of course, is that Ailes died in 2017. But that didn’t stop Trump from apparently trying to summon the Fox News icon’s ghost through the magic of Twitter on…
Vizio is clearly courting gamers with its new collection of 4K TVs, out now, that feature all the essentials needed for next-gen consoles, including HDMI 2.1—crucial for TVs with high refresh rates—in addition to HDR and 4K. You’ll have to wait for the company’s highly anticipated OLED units until a little later this year. Generally,…
A month after Amazon released its flagship third-person shooter/MOBA/battle royal/what the heck even is this game, Crucible, the company has unreleased it due to copious amounts of negative feedback. “Starting tomorrow, Crucible is moving to closed beta,” said the Crucible team in a blog this morning. All current players will automatically be included in the…
A right-wing social media app that’s billed itself as a “free speech” alternative to Twitter is quickly proving itself to be even more restrictive than the alternative apps its users routinely accuse of censorship. Parler, which reportedly gained a half-million new users this month, banned a slew of people over the weekend, prompting CEO John…
Dr. Anthony Fauci has assured us that things are going to get a lot worse for everyone if certain states don’t start taking the pandemic seriously. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 [cases] a day if this does not turn around,” he testified to the Senate Committee on Health, Education,…
For better or worse, there’s a good chance your current love life owes something to automation. Even if you’re just hooking up with the occasional Tinder fling (which if you are, no judgment), you’re still turning to Tinder’s black-box algorithms to pick out that fling for you before turning to more black-box algorithms to pick…
For the last three years, YouTube TV has been the affordable alternative to pricier live TV streaming services, such as Hulu and AT&T TV. But that price gap just vanished. YouTube TV is jumping from $50 a month to $65 due to the “rising cost of content,” the company announced in a blog post. You’ll…
Months of free time and loads of untapped ingenuity has resulted in competitively-challenged hackers coming up with clever ways to use technology to dominate various sports. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if Cornhole officially falls into that category, but either way, Michael Rechtin’s managed to upgrade the game to ensure victory to…
It seems like Facebook is really trying (for real this time, guys!) to get a handle on its fake news problem. Today the company announced a major change to the way it prioritizes news articles in your feed. Instead of prioritizing news content that has the most engagement, the social media giant will now show…
After months of rumblings from the Trump administration claiming the use of Chinese networking equipment posed a risk to the U.S., today the Federal Communications Commission officially designated both Huawei and ZTE as threats to national security. In a statement released today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, “With today’s Orders, and based on the overwhelming…
Last Friday, it was reported that Canadian smart glasses startup North was on the verge of being snapped up by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Today, it’s official. North announced the acquisition on both Twitter and in an official blog. Details regarding the terms of the sale were scant, though a Globe and Mail scoop from…
