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Big tech companies haven’t been immune to the economic challenges of the global pandemic, but those hardships haven’t been borne equally. A New York Times report reveals that while Google has recently added some perks for full-time staff to make working from home easier, it’s also rescinded job offers for “several thousand” temporary and contract…
You step outside, finding the usually bustling streets peaceful and empty. Despite a weather forecast pushing 80 degrees, the air is refreshingly cool. And while your schedule is filled with work, errands, and work that’s basically just one big errand, in this little moment you have no responsibilities at all. What is this strange magic?…
The White House taunted Twitter on Friday by reposting Donald Trump’s tweet calling for the outright extrajudicial slaughter of Americans protesting police brutality in Minneapolis, which the social media site on Friday hid behind a label for “glorifying violence.” Twitter has now responded by doing exactly the same thing to the White House account. In…
Not every app on your phone has to be a jack-of-all-trades hub that covers everything from smart home devices to text messaging. Sometimes apps can just do one simple job and do it very well to earn a place on your home screen. These are some of our current favorites. 1. Hurry Hurry is a…
CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his camera crew were arrested Friday morning by Minnesota state police live on television in the aftermath of a protest over the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of local police. In footage broadcast live on CNN, Jimenez can be heard calmly requesting orders from the police…
President Donald Trump sent out a tweet overnight encouraging violence against protesters in Minneapolis who are demanding justice for the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man whose life was taken by a white police officer, as captured on video by a bystander. Twitter has placed a warning on Trump’s tweet, acknowledging that it…
Souls: Much like content, Twitter harvests them, they’re monetizeable, and closely associated with hell. Grimes, a member of the Cyber Baby–Elon Musk trio, is putting her soul to work by auctioning part of it, in the form of a legal document, to the highest bidder. She told Bloomberg that at first she was planning on pricing…
The facial recognition org Clearview AI—which you might know as the firm that secretly harvested the photos of millions of people from their social media profiles before pawning said photos to law enforcement—is officially facing a lawsuit from the Illinois-based branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, per a blog post issued from the organization…
On Thursday, Donald Trump escalated his inane, frothing, and mostly one-sided feud with Twitter and other social media companies he has accused of silencing right-wing voices online to a dangerous, legally questionable new level. Trump signed an executive order Thursday afternoon that purports to radically alter foundational principles of the modern internet, specifically by tasking…
As HBO pivots to whatever it’s trying to achieve with its messy new streaming service Max, Apple. appears to be shopping for content and talent to help make it a standout giant in quality streaming—a new HBO Now if you will. You know since AT&T seems intent on killing the real one. Apple always wanted…
It shouldn’t have taken a global pandemic and subsequent quarantine to inspire a way to easily watch the same show at the same time with our friends and family remotely, but it did. Hulu is now the first major streaming service to offer a group chat feature on its platform so you can watch the…
In a press releasethis morning, Jason Ronald, Director of Program Management for Xbox Series X, said that the company’s next-gen console will launch with thousands of compatible games—going all the way back to the original Xbox—all thanks to backwards compatibility. Not only that, but many of those games will also get a significant performance boost,…
A lot of bullshit has been circulating about 5G lately, specifically as it relates to the novel coronavirus. To be very clear: There is no evidence that the rollout of 5G is at all connected to the origin or spread of covid-19. But that hasn’t stopped dozens of attacks on cell towers, the proliferation of cockamamie…
Last year, HP released one of the world’s highest resolution VR headsets in the HP Reverb, but sadly, it was only really intended for use by enterprise customers. But for the new Reverb G2, HP partnered with Valve to create an upgraded HMD meant for both business and home users alike. Featuring a built-in display…
Since the outbreak of covid-19, Google has been working to suppress ads from profiteers peddling low-quality, high-cost PPE and health elixirs, trying to get their hands on stimulus checks and credit card information. The company started a covid-19 task force which has prioritized, among other things, thwarting unemployment benefits scams. It’s made some noticeable changes:…
Have you been laid off or furloughed? 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? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as much detail…
Deciding what to watch on a weekend is now an endless scroll through what’s new on Netflix rather than a quick check of movie times at your local theater. While it can be tricky to find out what’s streaming and where, and what’s new and coming soon on all the streaming platforms, there are a…
Chinese state news outlet Xinhua has introduced a new social media character in an effort to counter criticism of China in English-language media during the coronavirus pandemic. The cartoon character is called Terry-cotta, who explains that using face masks during a pandemic is good, that China isn’t hoarding PPE, and that Americans are very thankful…
General Electric is no longer in the light bulb business, the company announced on Wednesday. GE said that its 129-year-old lighting unit—which was formed in 1892 from the merger of Thomas Edison’s Edison General Electric Company with two other firms—will be sold off to smart home manufacturer Savant Systems in a deal with undisclosed terms.…
Elon Musk was set to launch humans (NASA astronauts) into space today, but the flight was delayed due to weather. The next potential windows are this Saturday and Sunday. We don’t know how that’s going to go. But look at this suit! It looks like car upholstery. It looks like Tron. It looks like a…
