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Of all the days of the year, April Fools’ is the most cursed day on the internet. Cringey branded memes, inconvenient pranks, and annoying social media scares—this age-old tradition is now the day when anyone looking to preserve their sanity should just log off. But in 2019, Microsoft has emerged as a hero among tech…
Facebook and Instagram will finally ban white nationalism and white separatism on their networks in a move that will be implemented next week. The decision, first reported by Motherboard but announced by Facebook on its website, comes after the social media giant spent years splitting hairs about the difference between white nationalism and white supremacy.…
The European Union is likely to enact new regulations that will require all new cars sold in Europe and the United Kingdom after May 2022 to come with technology that will force cars to slow down or brake when exceeding the speed limit. The move is expected to save thousands of lives each year but…
I will admit it—I fangirled over Oprah. Not to her face. She was some 30 feet from me, on stage in a long flowing Colonel Sanders getup that very few people could pull off (Oprah did). I fangirled over Alfre Woodard and Jason Momoa, too. I thought about how short Steve Spielberg looked on stage,…
Several years and several billions of dollars after first getting Silicon Valley investors excited about virtual reality all over again, you’ll finally be able to walk into a store and buy a Magic Leap headset as starting next week, AT&T flagship stores in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco will start carrying the Magic Leap One…
Australia has revealed for the first time that the country conducted a remote cyberattack against ISIS commanders in the Middle East to disrupt communications, all coordinated with Coalition fighters on the ground. Offensive cyber operations are typically the kind of thing that governments around the world keep pretty quiet. But Mike Burgess, Director-General of the…
Life has never been better for those wanting to get some quality television programming beamed towards their eyeballs: Channels like HBO, Showtime, and many others are now available in all kinds of formats on all kinds of apps, including whatever it is that Apple is rolling out later this year. So for those of us…
Last year, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that Donald Trump (a man whose unhinged tweeting has ranged from boosting neo-Nazi propaganda and slamming critics to worrying the military about nuclear war) could not block critics on Twitter, finding his feed is a public forum and that blocking his haters amounted to a violation of…
The European Parliament approved a massive, sweeping overhaul of online copyright rules on Tuesday, leaving the extremely controversial Articles 11 and 13 untouched on as the EU Copyright Directive cruised through the legislative body. According to a report on TechDirt, they may have done so in part because several members of the European Parliament cast…
A Southwest Airlines jet of the Boeing 737 Max line grounded after two catastrophic crashes was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Florida’s Orlando International Airport on Tuesday en route to a facility in California, where it was scheduled to be stored in the western Mojave Desert, the Wall Street Journal…
On Monday, the UK’s Office of Data and Statistics released a report that found 1.5 million of that nation’s workers are at “high risk” of losing their jobs to automation. “In 2017, out of the 19.9 million jobs analysed in England, 7.4% people were employed in jobs at high risk of automation,” the report notes.…
Evidently recognizing that we are collectively living through a robocall hell at present, Arkansas lawmakers have advanced a bill that would allow those responsible for robocall spoofing to be charged with a felony. This is no small issue. A January Hiya report found that 26.3 billion robocalls were made last year to phone numbers in…
The fifth generation of mobile communications—or 5G for short— has the potential to profoundly impact the way we use our phones and other devices. However, in the run up to the launch of these newfangled networks, carriers are getting incredibly petty about about their messaging, especially when it comes to what their competitors are saying.…
Phillip Hudok claims the state of West Virginia is violating his religious beliefs by requiring him to get a biometric drivers license. The Christian West Virginia man garnered local attention on Monday afternoon when he arrived at the Elkins Department of Motor Vehicles wearing Native American attire, reports local NBC/ABC affiliate WBOY. In 2008, West…
By now, we’re all familiar with Apple’s marketing speak about how its products will change everything. It trotted out similar language at its services event yesterday when introducing the Apple Card, its credit card with Goldman Sachs. But now that we have the facts, is it actually worth getting an Apple credit card? Eh. Let’s…
Months after beefing up its secret shopper program here in the U.S., Juul is launching a similar effort in Canada in an effort to keep its products out of the hands of vaping teens. Juul announced it would be working with a “well-established secret shopping service provider” to ensure that retail locations where its products…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued orders to seven major broadband providers on Tuesday seeking wide-ranging information about how the companies collect and profit from the personal information of their American customers. The orders compel the disclosure of internal documents in what’s known as a 6(b) study, which also includes dozens of questions concerning the…
In the immediate aftermath of a horrific act of violence, it’s disturbingly easy to watch the gruesomeness unfold on social media—even if you don’t want to. We witnessed this inevitability during the Christchurch attack this month, as videos of a gunman opening fire in two mosques were uploaded at breakneck speed to Facebook, YouTube, and…
Compared to all the electronics that power the tiny computer in your pocket; battery technology is downright disappointing. Not only does your smartphone need charging every day, but in a few years, its battery will be barely able to hold a charge at all. So how long will your device last? Researchers at Standford University…
In an effort to retain its contractor labor force, as well as expand its core business, Lyft has plans to open repair garages to service its drivers’ cars. Sure, why not. The first of these repair centers opened today in San Fransisco—a company blog post does not state where exactly—with 34 more locations planned by…
