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Damn, I’ve never seen a tech company give up on a project so quickly since Microsoft bet big on the Kin, but Intel may have taken the cake as it announces the closure of the division responsible for its intriguing Vaunt smart glasses. Just five years after creating the New Devices Group, Intel is shuttering…
Oh.
Moronic YouTube personalities commonly have a problem discerning what goes into a funny prank. For Barcelona-based YouTuber ReSet, his lack of a sense of humor could cost him two years in prison. Spanish prosecutors reportedly intend to throw the book at him for giving a homeless man Oreos filled with toothpaste. ReSet’s real name is…
For years, Motorola has been the leader in making cheap phones feel like quality products, instead of gadgets designed only to hit a certain price point. And while the next generation of Moto’s low cost handsets don’t seem super exciting, from what I’ve seen so far, they should continue Motorola’s legacy of making, simple, but…
David Cope didn’t set out to make anyone mad. In 1980, the composer envisioned a tool to help cure his creative block: a machine that could keep track of all the sounds and loose threads running through his mind, find similarities, and produce an entire piece of music inspired by it. So he built it.…
If, for you, Halloween is less about trying to score free candy, and more about terrifying every last adult and child that crosses your path, then a company called VFX Creates has the perfect prank for you. What looks like an empty (suspiciously blood-splattered) box breaks open to send a screaming, heart attack-inducing ghost head…
Humans have been drilling holes into each others’ heads for thousands of years, and, surprisingly, we’ve actually been pretty good at it, even way back when. A re-analysis of a 5,000-year-old cow’s skull suggests humans were performing cranial surgery on animals as well—but why would they even bother? The answer could yield new insights into…
Later this month, Van Eaton Galleries is holding an auction of art and memorabilia from designer Rolly Crump. The eccentric artist helped design some of Disney’s most iconic theme park rides, and some of the most fascinating items going up for sale come from Crump’s early days working on what would become the Haunted Mansion.…
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a strict set of laws governing what data tech companies can collect on users, requiring them to seek explicit opt-in consent before doing so, and promptly disclose breaches, goes into effect on May 25th, 2018. Currently, the GDPR would require Facebook to apply these changes to 1.9…
San Bruno, California police responded to a threat of a copycat shooting on YouTube’s headquarters the day after a woman named Nasim Aghdam opened fire there on April 3rd, 2018, shooting and injuring three employees before killing herself. According to a release on Wednesday from the San Bruno Police Department, authorities were made aware of…
TaskRabbit, the handyman-for-hire app, is back online after being intentionally taken down on Monday following an apparent data breach. “While our investigation is ongoing, preliminary evidence shows that an unauthorized user gained access to our systems,” the company said. “As a result, certain personally identifiable information may have been compromised.” Founded in 2008, TaskRabbit is…
Citing new information that justifies further review, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has ordered an investigation into whether Facebook violated fair-housing laws reopened after a five-month freeze, an agency official told Gizmodo. Carson first revealed that the investigation, which was terminated last November, according to The New York Times, had been reopened in…
If there are two things Facebook is notoriously bad at right now, it’s maintaining the privacy of its users and developing cool Facebook-related hardware. Yet, according to a new job posting first noticed by Bloomberg, Facebook may start taking hardware a lot more seriously. The primary job listing to note is for a manager in…
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health has opened an investigation into Tesla following a report from Reveal detailing whistleblower allegations that Tesla was underreporting serious workplace injuries at its Fremont, California, factory. The inspection started on late Tuesday and can last up to six months, according to Bloomberg. The agency, known as Cal/OSHA, wouldn’t disclose…
Education and publishing giant Pearson is drawing criticism after using its software to experiment on over 9,000 math and computer science students across the country. In a paper presented Wednesday at the American Association of Educational Research, Pearson researchers revealed that they tested the effects of encouraging messages on students that used the MyLab Programming…
Reddit’s gotten plenty of deserved criticism over the years for hosting some of the most toxic communities on the internet. But a new study published this month in the Journal of Medical Internet Research suggests that at least some subreddits are helping people dealing with depression and other mental health issues come out of their…
There’s a reason that many natural things look unbelievably cool: Evolution. Given the stresses of existing on this turbulent spinning orb, some organisms must adapt in literally dazzling ways. Like this alga, which is basically a living opal. This confused me at first, too, but the Cystoseira tamariscifolia algae has an iridescent shimmer just like…
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers are pressing the Department of Homeland Security to release what they say are unclassified records related to the potential foreign government use of cellphone surveillance devices in the nation’s capital. “The American people have a legitimate interest in understanding the extent to which U.S. telephone networks are vulnerable to…
Either this man is really good at doing crimes or Iceland is really bad at security. Authorities say a man who is suspected of being the mastermind behind the theft of $2 million worth of bitcoin mining equipment has escaped the Icelandic prison where he was being held. What’s more, he allegedly hopped a flight…
A researcher with AdGuard discovered five fake ad-blocking extensions in the Chrome Web Store that used hidden scripts to manipulate users’ browsers. The good news is, after AdGuard published the report, the Chrome team removed all five of the extensions from its store. Unfortunately, AdGuard’s Andrey Meshkov reports that the extensions he discovered had more…
