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Sports came to a screeching halt with the onset of covid-19, but as the NBA looks to resume the 2019-2020 season at Disney World on July 30, it looks like the Oura Ring may be a part of plans to keep players safe. On Tuesday, the National Basketball Players Association sent a memo—which was originally…
Those of us who’ve become overly-dependent on snacking to alleviate boredom while working from home are going to have a rough transition back to office life. Munching on Doritos and popcorn during meetings isn’t exactly ideal office etiquette, so a Japanese company is developing edible notepads that help make your impulsive nibbling more discrete. Ainz…
It was May 2015, and the Hotel Surya in Varanasi, India, was hosting “Inner Awakening,” the flagship spiritual training program of Paramahamsa Nithyananda. To his followers, he is a god incarnate, “His Divine Holiness Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam,” the living avatar of Shiva, or, as one devotee put it, “the only reviver of authentic Hinduism…
Major U.S. airlines have imposed newly strict policies about face masks this week, requiring almost all passengers to wear face coverings or risk a ban on future flights, according to an announcement from the airline industry trade group Airlines For America. Airlines already required the use of face masks, but some people have not been…
The BIOS (or Basic Input/Output System) is what kicks into gear when you turn on your computer: It’s the most fundamental level of software there is on your machine, checking that all the system components are working and in the right place, and loading up the main OS. The BIOS is vital to the smooth…
T-Mobile insisted that its dreaded $26.5 billion merger with rival Sprint was all about job creation, saying the two companies would have 11,000 more employees by 2024 than they were expected to as separate entities. But now that the deal’s closed, hundreds of former Sprint employees working under the merged brand will be terminated, TechCrunch…
Google has booted fringe libertarian/conspiracist page Zerohedge from its AdSense platform over user comments and warned crackpot haven the Federalist that it could face the same fate, NBC News reported on Tuesday. The Federalist, which has postured itself as a haven for ideological outcasts of all stripes to post things that are definitely not deranged…
A basic measure to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus is to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and another person. But this becomes tricky in the tight quarters of a commercial aircraft, particularly for flight crew who may be required to make their way through aisles to service passengers.…
Bose seemed like a company that had a slightly different, incredibly interesting vision for augmented reality. It was different from other tech companies’ approaches—Bose put AR in its Bose Framessunglasses, but it wasn’t like the AR glasses or headsets that are already on the market. In lieu of holographic images superimposed on the real world, Bose’s…
Three years ago, long after the rise (and fall) of Flash, Adobe announced that its once-ubiquitous multimedia platform was finally going away. But Adobe never provided a specific date for when Flash would reach its end-of-life. Now we know: Adobe Flash is going to officially die on December 31, 2020. While younger folks should be…
Based on requirements and procedures detailed in a Federal Communications Commission report published last week, SpaceX might not have good enough broadband service to qualify for phase one of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction in October. In fact, the FCC thinks it’s unlikely that any low-Earth orbit satellite company will be able to meet…
As handy as a built-in trackpad is, there are many laptop users who absolutely despise the option. To them, a mouse is still the only way to push a cursor around, and for those times when they have to travel, the surprisingly tiny CheerPod packs an impressive amount of functionality into a pocket-friendly device that’s…
I must confess, my first thought about Quibi was, “Quibi is a really stupid fucking name.” How do you even pronounce it? Is it like, kwih-bee, kwee-bye, kwi-bee? What does Quibi even mean? I still don’t know the answer to most of these questions, but thanks to a Wall Street Journal report, I now know…
Matt Denton was one of the clever engineers responsible for designing and building the functional BB-8 robots and puppets used to film the most recent Star Wars trilogy. But online Denton is probably better known for his clever use of 3D printing to supersize Lego Technic sets, which now includes a functional go-kart he can…
Figuring out how much power you need to keep all your components fed and happy is usually the last part of building your own PC. It can also be the most confusing. Every component takes a different amount of power, and the bigger and faster your PC, the more power you need. The latest Intel…
The future is streaming and payment plans, and it is also a maelstrom of antitrust disputes. This is to say that the mutiny against Apple is making a little headway: the European Commission has announced two antitrust investigations into the iron rule of the App Store and Apple Pay. The first investigation examines the App…
Amazon is debuting a new software that will send its warehouse employees real-time visual cues about their physical proximity to other workers, one of the company’s latest initiatives in response to covid-19—a problem the company has been struggling to address in its facilities. Called Distance Assistant, the system will be deployed in high-visibility areas and…
As more states and cities explore reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, Apple and Google have struggled to keep up with the flood of third-party contact-tracing apps in their respective app stores. Now, New York Attorney General Letitia James is urging both companies to impose stricter protections for consumers. James has sent letters to each company…
There are now more reasons than ever to hide faces and protect the privacy of people and bystanders in photos and videos being shared to social media. But some approaches are more effective than others, as researchers from Duke University have demonstrated with a new tool that can perfectly reveal faces that have been obscured…
After releasing a line of new outdoor lights earlier this year, Philips Hue has returned with some new lights better suited for indoor use including an updated Lightstrip Plus and Hue Bloom lamp, along with a new 1600 lumen bulb which is now the brightest smart light out of Hue’s entire portfolio. Following the launch…