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A series of security reports published over the weekend have raised serious concerns about Microsoft’s transparency in the wake of a recent data breach. On Saturday, TechCrunch reported that hackers had gained access to the company’s email service after compromising a customer support account. Microsoft has confirmed that a people using MSN.com, Hotmail.com, and Outlook.com…
Compared to other apps, Facebook can seem downright antiquated. One blogger described it recently as “a dopey website that sucks to use and look at.” Facebook seems to be aware of this problem, and is now reportedly testing an interface tweak that’s so aggressively dumb I sincerely hope they go for it. Don’t like looking…
As a fire raged inside the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday, people across the world turned to livestreams to watch flames destroy the 850-year-old structure. But as some YouTube viewers watched live footage of the tragedy, they were also served information about an entirely different tragedy—the September 11 attacks. In May 2018,…
Facial recognition technology can target entire populations of a specific demographic, and in the wrong hands, can be used as a powerful tool for discrimination. In China, this isn’t a cautionary tale, it’s already happening. According to a report from the New York Times published on Sunday, the Chinese government is using a facial recognition…
It’s not uncommon for new technology to spawn a new sport: Drone racing has become hugely popular around the world, and Segway Polo is apparently still a thing. It’s now artificial intelligence’s turn to give us a new pastime, but will the sport it invented, Speedgate, take the world by storm, or will it be…
Engineers in Japan reached an important milestone today, as they began removing fuel rods from one of three reactors that experienced meltdowns in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Hard to believe, but it’s been eight years since the catastrophic Tōhoku earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011. The resulting 15-meter-high (49-foot) tsunami…
Internet privacy laws are coming fast and furious in the EU. For those who also feel Online has impaired their sense of time or ability to form new memories, GDPR passed less than a year ago, widely-protested copyright directives passed a vote last month, and the UK put forth broad measures to regulate social media…
Following reports of problematic braking that in some cases resulted in rider injury, Lyft is pulling its recently acquired network of e-bikes from service in three major cities. Those include Citi Bike in New York, GoBike in San Francisco, and Capital Bikeshare in Washington. “After a small number of reports and out of an abundance…
It was wet, it was windy, and in less than three hours, I think I had experienced the entire gamut of bone-chilling Chicago weather: rain, sleet, and snow. And I did it all to finally get a taste of those sweet super fast 5G speeds on a real, live functioning network. While my short time…
Time is moving on, as it tends to do, and iTunes—a media suite that made its debut in 2001, almost two decades ago—is potentially on Apple’s chopping block. This year’s macOS refresh has been being tipped to feature separate apps for TV, music, podcasts, and ebooks, with iTunes maybe hanging around, Internet Explorer-style, for legacy…
The challenge of trying to draw anything even partially recognizable using just two spinning knobs has somehow made the Etch A Sketch a popular toy for almost 60 years now. Some artists have managed to master the unique medium with endless hours of practice, but Martin Fitzpatrick opted to hack together a shortcut instead, resulting…
Twitter is home to some of the vilest neo-Nazis, racists, and homophobes on the planet. But don’t even think about discussing the one topic that’s apparently taboo on the platform: Piracy of TV shows. Twitter deleted numerous tweets over the weekend that linked to news stories about some TV episodes that had leaked online. And…
There might be some contrarian physiologist I’m neglecting here, but it does not feel controversial to say that, among people who study exercise, there is 100 percent consensus re: working out being good for you. Yet for those of us who have adjusted to feeling physically awful all the time, “good for you” might not…
President Donald Trump this morning offered some branding advice for American aircraft manufacturer Boeing. And while the advice wasn’t necessarily bad, it was strangely passive-aggressive. “What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features,…
Wow, it’s finally here: The last season of HBO’s Game of Thrones premieres tonight. In a matter of mere minutes, viewers will have the chance to re-experience the magical world of Westeros, spending a final few episodes in the company of fan favorites like Dragon Owner, The Explosion Doer, Grizzled Conscience Man, Zombie McHugenstein, Sword…
Sources say Apple is spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and may exceed half a billion dollars in total funding, for its upcoming Arcade game subscription service, the Financial Times reported this weekend. While the company’s plans to move into streaming television and films (as well as news partnerships) have drawn the lion’s share of…
Facebook and its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp experienced widespread outages on Sunday for the second time in the past month (and the third time this year), with issues reported starting at around 6:30 a.m. ET and extending until around 9:00 a.m. ET. Per Bloomberg, Facebook and Instagram domains ceased to be accessible by users during…
Law enforcement queries of Google’s massive mobile device Location History database, which employees call Sensorvault, has “risen sharply in the past six months,” the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing sources at the company. It’s not clear how often police ask Google to produce results from the database, which can be used to narrow…
Hackers have stolen data from “several FBI-affiliated websites” and are distributing it, TechCrunch reported on Friday, with details on “thousands of federal agents and law enforcement officers” now floating around on the web. According to TechCrunch, the hackers identified and exploited flaws on three websites associated with the FBI National Academy Association (FBINAA), a group…
There’s a good chance that like millions of Americans, you’re currently procrastinating on filing your taxes despite the fact Tax Day is less than 48 hours away. That makes sense. After all, technology gave us e-filing, thereby enabling all of our worst impulses to leave this very important legal obligation to the absolute last second.…
