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At Google I/O 2018, Google announced that its digital assistant was getting upgraded with more natural-sounding speech in addition to six new alternate voices. Then, Google promptly scared the hell out of everyone by using the Google Assistant’s new skills to mimic a real voice so well, people on the other end of a phone…
Privacy and anti-monopoly advocacy groups launched the Freedom from Facebook campaign on Monday, demanding that the Federal Trade Commission force the social media giant to break up into four separate companies. Sensing a moment of weakness, activists hope to establish stronger privacy protections and cross-platform communication. After spending years ignoring privacy concerns and the potential…
Ossic, the company developing the Ossic X over-ear headphones designed primarily for virtual reality headsets, has ceased production after failing to deliver pre-orders to crowdfunding backers and is shutting down “effective immediately.” While Ossic blames lack of demand for its niche product (in addition to manufacturing difficulties), the company sure did raise a lot of…
Tesla is actually doing it. The electric car maker is starting to abide by open source software licenses that it had previously ignored, and releasing the code it’s sat on for over six years, according to Electrek. Tesla’s super smart cars, specifically the sporty Model S sedan and Model X SUV, incorporate a lot of…
It’s hard to define the concept of perfection. Philosophers have debated the meaning of perfection for centuries, wondering aloud whether it can ever truly be achieved. But we here at Gizmodo believe that we have finally found it. This video, posted to Twitter on May 19, 2018 A.D., is perfect. Make sure you watch this…
If you carry around an iPhone as your smartphone of choice then the Apple Watch is hands-down the best option for a smartwatch, for the seamless integration if nothing else. But what about the rest of us? You’ve got more options than you might realize for a companion wearable, and we’re going to get into…
I never thought I’d see the day, but vaping—the bejeweled fedora of nicotine delivery methods—is starting to seem a lot less ridiculous. Or, at least, somewhat less ridiculous. Juuling teens are still reliably funny. But at the same time, there are real, credentialed doctors out there making a case for vaping as a viable alternative…
Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify in front of at least eight members of the European Parliament on Tuesday about privacy, security, and election interference. The Facebook CEO’s testimony was originally planned to take place behind closed doors. But after pressure from European leaders, that testimony will now be broadcast live on the web. Antonio…
Just hours after a 17-year-old killed 10 people at a high school in Texas on Friday, Dan Patrick, the Lt. Governor of Texas, said that maybe schools should have fewer entrances and exits. But yesterday he explained that there are a lot of other things to blame than just doors. For instance, Facebook, Twitter, and…
Google found itself in an uncomfortable position Sunday night, as 60 Minutes placed a magnifying glass on the company that accounts for 90 percent of all search traffic and asked if it is operating as a monopoly. Following the broadcast, Yelp and TripAdvisor announced a new initiative designed to restore more diverse local search results…
TeenSafe, a service used by parents to monitor the online behaviors and phone activity of their children, allowed tens of thousands of accounts to leak online after failing to properly secure their servers. According to a report from ZDNet, the so-called “secure” activity monitoring app left at least two of its servers hosted on Amazon’s…
If you’ve been holding off on joining Tinder because it carries the stigma of being an app for hookups, have no fear: a new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found no one on Tinder is actually having sex. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) surveyed more than…
Workers at a National Health Service hospital in the United Kingdom were reprimanded for their role in an extremely narrow data breach that exposed the personal information of exactly one person: Ed Sheeran. According to the BBC, two medical staff workers at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, England accessed the health records of the famous singer…
Nearly two dozen people were injured in an explosion and resulting fire that occurred at a chemical plant near Houston, Texas Saturday morning, according to KHOU-TV. The explosion at the Pasadena, Texas facility owned by Kuraray America—a plastic fabrication company—took place at around 10:43am local time when a valve malfunctioned due to an over-pressurization of…
Deutsche Telekom—a multi-billion telecommunications company that owns T-Mobile, another multi-billion telecommunications company—is getting ready to throw its weight around in order to prevent a small business in England from using a shade of pink in its logo. The BBC reported lawyers from the T-Mobile parent company opposed a trademark application made by Brighton-based technology company…
Apple has begun removing applications that use the CallKit framework from the Chinese version of its App Store after the nation’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology moved to more strictly enforce recent cybersecurity regulations, per a report in 9to5Mac. According to 9to5Mac, Apple has begun warning developers that they must remove CallKit integration from…
It can be difficult to figure out what to do with your old electronics when you’re ready to move on from them, but here is one thing you should definitely not do: throw them in the trash. Discarded devices powered by lithium-ion batteries are basically fire bombs waiting to explode on unsuspecting sanitation workers. According…
At Google I/O earlier this month, CEO Sundar Pichai showcased an experimental Google Assistant feature called Duplex which can make routine phone calls on your behalf. In one striking demo, the digital assistant called a hair salon and scheduled an appointment with an employee at the other end in a voice punctuated with the vocal…
Escaping the isolated and oppressive regime of Kim Jong Un’s North Korea requires a harrowing effort, but even getting out of the country may not be enough to escape its reach. New research from McAfee suggests hackers in North Korea are targeting defectors with malware-infected Android apps. The cybersecurity firm reported this week that it…
Tidal, the streaming music service that seems to have been doomed since launch, is investigating a possible data breach following allegations that the company has been artificially inflating its subscribers and streaming numbers for platform exclusives. Music Business Worldwide reported the company has enlisted the help of an “independent, third-party cyber-security firm” to look into…
