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Google’s quest to kill autoplay videos with sound has been a confusing ride over the last year. But last month, Chrome finally went all the way and started muting autoplaying videos on sites by default. Now, Google is changing the way its mute system works… again. In a blog post on Thursday, the Chrome team…
Google launched its Advanced Protection Program last fall to help secure the accounts of people who are especially at risk of being hacked. Advanced Protection allows journalists, activists, and election officials to lock down their email with hardware keys (a USB key for laptops and a Bluetooth key for phones) and requires users to go…
This weekend, the city of Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, was host to a record-breaking drone performance, even larger than Intel’s 1,218-drone performance during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics. And while drone maker Ehang Egret nailed the first showing, its second go-round a few days later wasn’t as smooth. And…
An Illinois bill permitting police surveillance drones at protests is igniting a fiery debate in Chicago. Introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the bill amends the Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act to permit police to fly surveillance drones over “large scale events” in Chicago. Though the bill itself references festivals and concerts, ACLU Illinois says the…
It’s been six months since the iPhone X release, and one thing holds true: It’s still expensive. However, as much as I hated myself for buying a $1,000 phone, and as much as I hated myself for loving it, spending half a year with the iPhone X has revealed some new truths. One, Jony Ive…
Plants don’t like to be touched. For these immobile organisms, it means they’re likely growing too close to a neighboring plant, and that their access to available sunlight is under threat. New research shows that touch-sensitive plants can communicate a warning message to their related neighbors, advising them to adjust their growth patterns accordingly. Plants…
New data reveals the global circulation of stolen identities is leading to major shifts in cybercrime worldwide, with developing countries cultivating newly formed internet-based economies responsible for a generous amount of fake and stolen account activity. Notably, as ecommerce markets in Latin America continue to expand, incidents of fraud are beginning to skyrocket. Stolen and…
It’s only been a few days since Oscar Mayer launched its horrendous “Bacoin” ad campaign, and a hero has come along in an attempt to kill it for good. Kirk Steele started a cryptocurrency called “Bacoin” a few years ago, and now he wants Oscar Mayer to cease-and-desist in conducting this viral travesty of a…
Planes are not designed for tall passengers. Even an hour-long flight can be uncomfortable when you’re twisted and contorted to fit in a seat. So watching an 11-hour flight from London to San Francisco take just four minutes in this spectacular cockpit timelapse makes me wish supersonic air travel was an everyday thing. This timelapse…
A disturbingly high percentage of industrial control systems (ICS)—the technology used to manage everything from water treatment plants to the International Space Station—are eminently vulnerable to malicious hackers, according to tests performed by a leading global security firm. Positive Technologies reported on Thursday that its researchers were able to penetrate 73 percent of industrial organizations.…
Amazon has a big middle finger today for all the affordable housing proponents out there. According to a Wednesday report in the New York Times, Amazon—Seattle’s largest employer with 45,000 staff in the city—has abruptly decided to halt a “huge” two-building, 7,000 employee expansion plan there after the City Council announced it was considering a…
Encrypted messaging app Telegram has already raised such a mind-boggling amount of cash from private investors that it’s scrapping its plans to carry out a broader initial coin offering available to the public, per the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, having already raised $1.7 billion from a prior ICO round involving “fewer than…
On Tuesday, Oakland passed a new ordinance regulating the use of surveillance devices by the city. While it’s not the first municipality in the nation to do so, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are saying Oakland’s ordinance is the strongest one yet. The bill is scheduled for a…
Phishing attacks, which sucker unsuspecting users into clicking malicious links or giving up their login credentials, often rely on domain names that appear similar to a site they’re trying to imitate. For example, an attacker might register a domain like faceb00k[.]com and use it to steal users’ Facebook credentials. Unless a user is carefully examining…
Back in 2012, a Reddit user posted a map claiming to show the longest straight line that could be traversed across the ocean without hitting land. Intrigued, a pair of computer scientists have developed an algorithm that corroborates the route, while also demonstrating the longest straight line that can be taken on land. The researchers,…
Last year, it was revealed that thousands of ancient artifacts had been illegally smuggled out of Iraq for Hobby Lobby, an arts and crafts store. It was one of the strangest stories of all time, but it now has a happy ending. Today, U.S. officials finally returned roughly 3,800 artifacts back to Iraq. The bizarre…
Toshiba has devised a feasible new way to use the laws of quantum mechanics to send secure messages using present-day technology. Now it just has to build it. There are plenty of ways that companies and scientists are attempting to integrate the weird effects of quantum mechanics into everyday technology. One potential use is a…
An Air National Guard c-130 cargo plane on Wednesday crashed near Savannah, Georgia, killing at least five on board, authorities said. The plane was on a training mission when the accident occurred at roughly 11:30am local time. The Associated Press reported that between five and nine passengers were on board, reportedly National Guard members from…
Why are there so many songs about rainbows, but so few typefaces that evoke the iconic pupils of Kermit the Frog? Thankfully for Muppet fans, we now have at least one: Kernit. Kernit is a loveably bizarre, psychedelic typeface available for free in two styles: bold and outline. According to its creators, the designers at…
On Wednesday, Cambridge Analytica employees learned that its parent company, the SCL Group, was shuttering the business, with American-based workers directed to return their keycards immediately, according to documentation reviewed by Gizmodo. The news was announced during a conference call led by Julian Wheatland, the current chairman of the SCL Group who was reportedly tapped…
