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Signal, the popular and trusted encrypted messaging app, might not be available in the U.S. should a certain bill make it through Congress. The EARN IT Act, introduced into the Senate last month by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, aims to revise the “framework governing the prevention of online sexual exploitation of children,” and…
Following a ransomware attack against foreign exchange company Travelex earlier this year, the company reportedly paid a hefty, multimillion-dollar sum to hackers in the form of hundreds of bitcoin. Citing a source familiar with the details of the transaction, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the London-based company paid hackers 285 bitcoin for a…
Dr. Anthony Fauci has become a guiding light in a chaotic time. As Americans look for leaders and find nearly all of them lacking, the calm director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has become a beacon. His words carry weight absent nearly all the politicization that has come to define America’s…
The coronavirus pandemic has already been wrecking release schedules for everything from blockbuster movies to new operating systems. But now, even something that’s been helping people stay connected in this time of social distancing is running into issues: emoji. In a recent blog by the Unicode Consortium (the organization responsible for approving new emoji), the…
A court in Hong Kong largely upheld a ban on face masks at illegal assemblies on Thursday, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic—though it also found that bans at legal assemblies or allowing police to demand that people remove their masks violates the special administrative region’s constitution, per the Guardian. The bans were implemented under colonial-era…
Internet service providers have waived late fees and overage charges for customers to help ease the economical impact of covid-19, and some have even gone so far as to offer free internet for homes with students. But Charter, parent company of Spectrum, has loaded its free internet offer for K-12 and college students with so…
As Amazon struggles to meet the extraordinary demand for deliveries amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the company has instituted several policies intended to curb the spread of covid-19 among its warehouse workers. But positive cases continue to crop up in warehouses full of employees risking their health to continue showing up for work each day.…
This is Sick Days, a series documenting how jobs are changing during the coronavirus pandemic, as told by workers themselves. This week, we hear from some entertainment professionals, a credit union worker, a nanny and part-time baker, and more. If you’d like to submit a story, use this Google form and provide as much detail as…
The ventilator shortage in the U.S. and across the globe is a huge problem and everybody knows it. It’s led to state governors bidding against each other for extra ventilators and forcing hospitals to get creative amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. While plenty of companies like Dyson and Apple are working to help…
On the same day jobless claims in the U.S. surpassed 16 million, business review and recommendation mainstay Yelp announced it would be downsizing—by a lot—citing the economic downturn amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Local restaurants, gyms, and bars that rely on foot traffic have been some of the hardest-hit over the past weeks of public…
Microsoft put on one of the most exciting tech conferences in recent history last fall when it showcased Windows 10X alongside dual-screen devices including the Surface Duo and Surface Neo. Unfortunately, due a to number of recent complications, it seems both Windows 10X and the Surface Neo have been delayed and won’t make their original…
LouAnn Dagen, a 66-year-old woman in Michigan, spent days pleading for help from her Amazon Echo Show before she died of covid-19 on April 4, according to a new report from local NBC affiliate WFLA. Dagen lived at a nursing home where at least 31 residents and five staff have tested positive for the new…
Microsoft 365 is, as its name suggests, the new subscription bundle from Microsoft that replaces Office 365. It takes the emphasis away from Microsoft’s office suite just a little bit, but it’s tough to tell at first glance if this is a service designed for everyone or if it’s just for small business operators and…
Alabama no longer plans to deny ventilators to people with cognitive disabilities if hospital equipment becomes scarce, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Alabama’s plan, originally published in 2010, would have taken away life-saving ventilators from people with intellectual disabilities if there were not enough to treat all covid-19 patients…
WeWork has bailed on April rent on some of its locations as the beleaguered coworking space company goes into a financial spiral amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from Bloomberg. Citing sources at the company, Bloomberg wrote that it has reached out to some landlords to open discussions on “rent abatements, revenue-sharing…
There are a lot of people hyped for a videogame that hasn’t even come out yet. Some are so hyped that they’re willing to part with thousands on dollars on a limited edition RTX 2080 Ti to show their super fandom. There’s a bunch of Ebay auctions going on at the moment for Cyberpunk 2077…
Following extensive reporting on egregious security failures, video conferencing company Zoom is now being sued by a shareholder over allegations of fraud and overstating the security protocols in place on its service. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, plaintiff Michael Drieu—on behalf of individuals who…
Update: HBO told Engadget that HBO Now still stay on 2nd and 3rd-Gen Apple TVs until May 15th. HBO Go will be available for a few additional months, but HBO did not give a precise date of when those users will lose access. HBO made this decision to “provide impacted users more time to make any…
A devoted troop of boob patrollers has sunk a lot of time into reporting boobs on Twitch over the years, aided largely by Twitch’s Delphic “attire” guidelines. Until now, attire was to be “publicly appropriate for the context, location, and activity” of the broadcast and, more confusingly, appropriate for a “mall” setting. This has opened…
Well, that was fast. Google has made Stadia free for the next two months. No charges—just a handful of games, including Destiny 2, absolutely free to anyone with a Gmail account and a supported web browser or phone. Technically, Stadia has been kind of free up until this point. Anyone can download the Stadia app…
