Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Smart rings are a tricky thing to get right. Tech companies have a hard enough time miniaturizing all the necessary sensors into a watch, let alone a ring. That’s why the Motiv Ring was compelling when it launched in 2017—it stuffed three days of battery life, heart rate monitoring, and your usual step and activity…
It’s simple folks: Don’t sit on your phone. Or do, and end up like an Ohio man who claims his three-week-old iPhone XS Max exploded and set his rear ablaze. The man, who only wishes to be known as J. Hillard, told iDrop News that he noticed a strange smell coming from his phone in…
About two seconds before dropping a selfie in PopSugar’s Twinning app, a web app that generates your celebrity look-alike based on a user-uploaded selfie, I hesitated. “I work for a tech website,” I said to myself. “I know better than this.” But in the end, my desire to affirm my likeness for Troye Sivan won…
Speculation about Nokia’s next flagship phone swirled this fall after leaks revealed a wild-looking rear-camera setup complete with five separate lenses. Nokia doesn’t seem quite ready to release any official details about the rumored Nokia 9 PureView, but a new, high-res video shows why it might be the first noteworthy smartphone of 2019. Discovered by…
It’s almost 2019. And if you’d rather stay home tonight, we’ve got some great live video streams that will put you in the middle of the New Year’s action. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you don’t have to go out and spend a ton of money tonight for something you’ll regret by sunrise.…
One of the darkest aspects of our technologically advanced world is how new advancements are inevitably used to sexually exploit people online. Perhaps few know this better than Scarlett Johansson. Speaking to the Washington Post for a story about the rise of deepfakes and how they are being used to harass women online, the actor cut…
When rapper Soulja Boy dropped his line of game emulator consoles, the internet arched a collective eyebrow. This, we knew, probably would not end well and lo, less than a month after launch, both the SouljaGame Handheld and SouljaGame console have been pulled from the rapper’s online store. In a tweet, Soulja Boy says that…
Apple wants you to use your iPad or your iPad Pro like a proper computer: But how do you go about doing that? And does it actually work? Here are the apps, software tweaks, and accessories you need to turn your Apple tablet into a makeshift laptop—and some of the annoyances you’re still going to…
Lawrence “Larry” Roberts, one of a small handful of people who can truly be called the grandparents of the internet, died of a heart attack on December 26 at his home in Redwood City, California. He was 81 years old. In the late 1960s, Roberts was manager of the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA…
You might have noticed the Japanese zombie horror film, One Cut of the Dead, is currently available for free on Amazon Prime both here in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It’s not supposed to be. The film, distributed by Third Window Films, is due for a theatrical release in the U.K. in…
Well, we did it. In spite of everything, we made it through 2018, a year that felt eternal. Even the last week of 2018 was trying it with that “super blood wolf moon” bologna. There were definitely some fantastic comics and great movies, though—including Bird Box, our review of which you definitely shouldn’t miss. There…
Amazon is reportedly looking to expand Whole Foods stores across the country, including in suburban areas, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. News of the rumored expansion comes after Amazon acquired the grocer last year. The Journal said the move would bolster Amazon’s two-hour delivery offering, Prime Now, and bring Whole Foods stores to areas…
A cyberattack affected newspapers across the country and delayed the Saturday editions of several prominent publications, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. Malware affected the Tribune Publishing network and papers that share the same production platform, according to the Times, including its own paper and the San Diego Union-Tribune. The attack is believed to have…
Nancy Grace Roman, a former NASA executive who is often described as the “mother” of the Hubble Space Telescope, has died at 93. Roman, a longtime employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was the first woman to hold an executive role at the agency, the Associated Press reported. After getting her Ph.D. in…
Thousands upon thousands of people are expected to pack into New York’s Times Square for the annual New Year’s Eve ball drop, as they have for more than a century. But this year will mark the first that the city’s officials will deploy drone technology as part of its increased security. The measure will be…
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, the nation’s top telecommunications regulator, has ordered mobile providers to shut down all 3G and 4G services until midnight on Dec. 30, effective immediately, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday. The mobile blackout comes on the eve of a major national election on Sunday that has resulted in violence and crackdowns…
Google has had a lawsuit in Illinois over its facial-recognition software thrown out, with a judge dismissing the case on the grounds that the plaintiff in the case did not suffer “concrete injuries,” Bloomberg reported on Saturday. The ruling puts to rest one of three lawsuits against major tech companies for alleged violations of the…
The partial government shutdown now certain to stretch through into the new year will have sweeping effects, from stalling important scientific research to vast economic impacts. But according to the Washington Post, the partial shutdown could also affect an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into social media giant Facebook in the…
Tesla announced two new additions to its board on Friday: Kellogg alum Kathleen Wilson-Thompson and Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison, who has described himself as a close pal of Elon Musk. The two join the board as part of the settlement Tesla and Musk reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over…
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission tweeted Friday that consumers should be on the lookout for a phishing scam disguised as a routine email from streaming giant Netflix that appears to have been making the rounds for months. FTC Consumer Education Specialist Colleen Tressler surfaced the scam in a blog post on Wednesday with a screenshot…
