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If that drawer full of neglected, outdated gadgets in your desk happens to include a Kindle, Jaap Meijers has come up with a clever way to put it back into service. His girlfriend, an avid reader and English literature teacher, wanted a clock for their living room, so Meijers hacked an older model Kindle to…
China has an army of internet censors who comb through the web and block information that the government doesn’t want its people to see. But the job of the censors is about to get easer if Google has its way. The tech giant is planning to release a new censored version of its search engine…
A recent review by UK cybersecurity firm Sophos in partnership with cryptocurrency firm Neutrino has concluded that the crew—or possibly one extremely proficient black hat hacker—behind the SamSam ransomware attacks have rolled in at least $5.9 million in ransom payments, according to BleepingComputer. Ransomware works by encrypting a targeted system and demanding payments, usually in…
Coinciding with a national “we won’t be complicit” day of action aimed against US Immigrations Customs and Enforcement (ICE) approximately 100 protesters gathered in Midtown to pressure tech companies, which in recently months have drawn criticism for providing infrastructural support to the agency. Beginning around 5:30 outside Microsoft’s offices across from the Port Authority, demonstrators…
DC organizers are angry after Facebook took down what it said were 32 pages and accounts engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on Tuesday, as one of the events was a local-backed counter-rally to the upcoming August 12th white supremacist “Unite the Right 2.0” rally in the nation’s capitol, DCist reported. The Unite the Right rally…
Less than a week after a damaging report exposed substantial flaws in facial recognition technology marketed to law enforcement by Amazon, five Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the commercial and government use, and potential abuse, of the technology. In a letter Tuesday, lawmakers raised concerns about the use of facial recognition and…
Facebook wants to prove to lawmakers and the public that it’s working diligently to combat political disinformation and foreign election meddling, and on Tuesday, the company revealed it recently shut down a network that appears to be mirroring the kind of activity Russia is accused of orchestrating in the run-up to the 2016 election. In…
At a glitzy event near Times Square on Tuesday, Sony unveiled its new lineup of Bravia flagship TVs. (The company literally pulled a veil off of them, according to an eyewitness account from this blogger.) The new TVs are collectively called the Master Series, and the screens are designed to offer image quality that’s comparable…
Some of the top genomic-testing companies have agreed to abide by a new set of guidelines when sharing consumers’ DNA information with law enforcement and other third parties. Companies 23andMe, Ancestry, Habit, Helix, and MyHeritage released on Tuesday a guide, “Privacy Best Practices for Consumer Genetic Testing Services,” which the companies plan to follow moving…
Nerf ranks up there with Lego, Hot Wheels, and Barbie, as one of the most recognizable brands in the toy industry, but can you have just as much fun pinging your co-worker with foam ammo fired from one of its competitor’s products? I went hands on with two Nerf alternatives: the Adventure Force Commandfire and…
HAL 9000 is the original suspicious digital assistant. Before we invite Alexa, Google, and Siri into our lives to surveil our every action there was 2001: Space Odyssey’s HAL, an AI so murderous it’s a wonder anyone saw its actions and thought, “you know, not all of this is bad.” But despite the fact that…
Surveillance drones are headed indoors. Two technology companies say they are partnering to develop a fully automated drone security service designed to work inside. From takeoff to landing, the drone system, a joint venture between U.S. and Germany-based Skysense and Avansig, a Spanish technology company, will work automatically to detect “potential security threats or breaches,”…
While Google hasn’t made a phone with a notch (at least not yet), the folks over in Mountain View have been working on adding support for sensor cutouts into the next version of Android. And in a recent Android Developers Blog post, Google described in greater detail what it’s doing to enhance the functionality of…
When you think of jetpacks, your first thought is probably an image of some fun, care-free piece of pop culture like The Jetsons or James Bond. Or maybe even the Super Bowl. But jetpacks were serious business for the U.S. military in the 1960s. And, believe it or not, there were plenty of futuristic ideas…
A Republican candidate for a House seat in Virginia would like everyone to know that an old Instagram post of his featuring a drawing of a very nude and very well equipped Bigfoot does not signify his erotic interest in cryptids. Per Vox, Fifth Congressional District candidate and retired Air Force intelligence officer Denver Riggleman,…
Over a series of public hearings, Congress has demonstrated a staggering level of incompetence regarding technology that would convince an ordinary observer that these people shouldn’t be in charge of tech-focused policy. But a new list of 20 proposals compiled by Senator Mark Warner actually gets the ball rolling for a conversation on how to…
First it was the Kindle that allowed the world to enjoy its romance novels without fear of public embarrassment. Next, Google will let everyone browse the web in the privacy of virtual reality with its Chrome browser and Daydream VR headset. Chrome is now available for the VR platform, bringing the dream of a web…
Have you ever seen a kid take a marker or crayons to a phone or iPad? If so, you might be able to imagine what it was like to see kids of the 1950s drawing all over the fantastic new technology of the day: television. But in at least some cases, this wasn’t a horrifying…
It’s been a weird month for DJI. The Chinese drone giant had planned a big press event on July 19 but postponed it at the last minute. Now, several leaked images showing three new DJI drone models are floating around the internet. They all appear to be part of the Mavic family, and damn, do…
Based on the timing of last year’s Pixel 2 launch, we’re still a solid two months away from confirming whatever Google has planned for 2018. But that isn’t going to stop internet sleuths from trying to dig up any info they can. Over the weekend, two leaks popped up that could have some interesting consequences…
