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Citing long-term costs and “recent economic events,” smart home hub maker Wink has announced in a blog that it’s switching to a mandatory $5 per month subscription starting May 13. And as you might expect, the response from users has been less than thrilled. In fact, some have taken to social media accusing the company…
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday lined up to throw their support behind Shelley Luther, a Dallas salon owner who’s attracted headlines for violating Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide order close businesses as the coronavirus spread across the state. Luther’s rebellion reached its peak last month when she attended a public protest and, citing the financial strain…
Earlier this week, Apple announced a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro with updated components and a new Magic Keyboard. But if rumors are true, it seems Apple has a bunch of other gadgets it could announce at a moment’s notice. The latest rumors come from Jon Prosser, who claims that Apple is preparing to release a…
To discourage cheating, high schools and colleges limit what gadgets can be brought into an exam, and they require students to use very basic calculators if math is involved. But that doesn’t mean cheating is impossible, it just requires considerably more effort, like upgrading a dumb Casio calculator with a secret screen, wifi, and even…
The White House has refused to release CDC guidelines that were developed to give schools and businesses across the United States a better idea of what they should do to maintain health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report from the Associated Press. The news comes as several states make plans…
Sony’s WF-1000XM3s raised the bar for noise canceling capabilities on wireless earbuds, but a lack of waterproofing and a $230 price tag limited where they could be used. Wearing them on rainy days or during sweaty workouts just wasn’t worth the risk. But Sony’s new WF-SP800N earbuds not only pair noise-cancellation with IP55 water resistance,…
Axl Rose, the lead singer of legendary 1980s rock band Guns N’ Roses, is currently squabbling with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Twitter about the coronavirus pandemic. Why? Because that’s our reality here in the year 2020. Just spin the giant wheel of pop culture references, political incompetence, and dystopian sci-fi scenarios to figure…
Now that many of us are working from home, there has been no shortage of remote conference call bloopers during this pandemic. Between people walking around in their underwear to unfortunately timed unmuted mics, and the plague of Zoom bombers crashing college classes to rake in YouTube views, these viral moments are at least entertaining…
Uber announced this week that it’s cutting 3,700 roles as the coronavirus crisis pummels its ride-share business and that of its competitor Lyft. An Uber spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that the layoffs will affect roughly 14 percent of the company’s employees. According to a memo CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sent to the Uber team, the eliminations…
Since its inception, Facebook has been ruled more or less like an autocracy, with its majority shareholder, who also happens to be CEO, reigning supreme. As Facebook chronicler Steven Levy wrote in Wired earlier this year: “At Facebook, Zuck’s word is law.” But after 16 years of absolute authority, Mark Zuckerberg will soon see some…
Sonos has been busy these past few months. The company announced it’s phasing out ‘legacy’ devices and plans to roll out a new app in June, not to mention that it also launched a new radio service. But all of these announcement lacked one crucial element: new hardware. The first next-generation Sonos product is the Arc…
Qi wireless charging has become the de facto wireless charging standard for gadgets like phones, earbuds, and more. However, just this week, the NFC Forum approved a new low-power wireless charging specification to help make it easier to charge smaller gadgets or IoT devices. The new standard is simply called the Wireless Charging Specification or…
When GDPR rolled out across the European Union back in 2018, the sweeping legal framework pledged to bring consumer privacy and protection to the forefront. In the years since then, we’ve seen the adtech industry at large do its collective darnedest to undermine these laws at every turn, and largely get away with it, thanks…
As a very ugly standoff between legacy theaters and legacy studios plays out in real time, Disney appears to be treading lightly around the sensitive issue over how studios will handle releases now and in a post-covid-19 future. Last week, remarks by NBCUniversal executive Jeff Shell about releasing new premiere films on demand even after…
Democratic lawmakers unveiled new legislation Wednesday aimed at drastically expanding the federal government’s resources devoted to the targeting and prosecution of child predators, developing new technologies to identify child sexual abuse material online, and funding leading community organizations that work to prevent children from becoming victims. “Nothing is more heinous than sexual abuse of child,…
Even though Covid-19 may have forced Google to cancel its annual developers conference, Google still has a major Android event planned for this spring. In a new video on the official Android Developers channel on YouTube, Google posted a teaser for its Android 11 Beta Launch Show scheduled to take place online on June 3.…
You can spend as much money as you want to customize a mechanical keyboard and install the fanciest switches, but it will never sound as satisfyingly clackety as this setup by Jatin Patel who built an unusual contraption that recreates the sounds of an old-school mechanical typewriter. The first iteration of Patel’s creation simply featured…
There are a few things to know about Samsung’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong and how his family runs the company—he does not make frequent media appearances, apologies are rare, and family succession is a given. But in a press conference on Wednesday, Lee not only publicly apologized for his role in a bribery scandal involving…
Two years ago Microsoft made one of its best laptops, and my favorite budget computer, the Surface Go. The $400 Windows 10 tablet was absolutely not the fast computer in its price range, and it had a much smaller screen than the competition, but it also felt like the kind of perfect do anything device…
Fitbit was one of the first tech companies to convince people that wearing a continuous heart rate sensor on your wrist was a good and useful thing to do. But in the years since releasing its first heart rate-tracking band, Fitbit has fallen behind when it comes to advanced health features. For instance, Apple put…
