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In February, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in Microsoft’s case arguing that a domestic warrant does not necessarily have the power to compel it to turn over documents stored in overseas data centers. Now that a piece of sweeping surveillance legislation has become law, Microsoft admits that the case is dead. Microsoft’s case stems…
Patrick Donahoe worked with the United States Postal Service for a total of 39 years until his retirement in February of 2015, serving the final four-and-change years of his career as Postmaster General. He knows the agency inside and out, and—shocker—he told UBS analysts today that Amazon is profitable for the USPS, contrary to the…
The BBC admitted in a statement on Thursday that scenes from its 2011 documentary series, Human Planet, were staged by the doc’s creators. An episode dedicated to the indigenous Korowai people of Papua, New Guinea featured tribe members building a new residence in a tree house. Cut to 2018, when a member of the same tribe,…
A California family plagued by bed bugs for months has come away with some solace: On Wednesday, a civil court jury ordered their former landlords to pay them $1.6 million over the ordeal. In 2012, Liliana Martinez and her husband alleged in their complaint, their apartment complex in Inglewood, California became infested with bed bugs.…
Spirit Halloween unknowingly created one of the most authentic Paw Patrol costumes you can buy for your pup-obsessed toddler. The flashlight accessory that comes with this Marshall (the fire-fighting member of the Paw Patrol) helmet has been found to overheat, creating a potential fire and burn risk, and prompting a voluntary recall. According to the…
There was once a time when people had to go to a theater to watch movies. There was also a time when they called Moviefone to hear an automated message slowly read out the showtimes. MoviePass is trying to revive that first golden age and has now decided to throw its considerable weight behind the…
Today, in a story by Techcrunch’s Matthew Panzerino, Apple gave us an actual timeframe for when we’ll see its next pro-level Mac desktop. The company, clearly aware of the fact that it’s been way too long since the last desktop, also gave Panzerino a whole mess of platitudes and excuses. Five years ago, Apple released…
61 years ago, the executives of Wham-O Inc. acquired the rights to a flying disk they called the Frisbee®. Now, the same company claims it’s reinvented the damn thing with a wobbly-looking toy called the Frisbee Sonic. It being 2018 and all, the new invention is being funded on Kickstarter. Oh, and I hate it.…
Since the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal first broke last month, Facebook has tried out a number of PR strategies to address the growing outcry. At this point, the social media company is just going for broke, telling the public it should just assume that “most” of the 2.2 billion Facebook users have probably had their…
Delta Air Lines and Sears Holding Corp. on Thursday disclosed a data breach that may have exposed the payment card details of hundreds of thousands of online customers. The breach originated at a software vendor called [24]7, which provides Sears, Delta, and other businesses with online chat services. Less than 100,000 Sears customers were supposedly…
Usually when researchers find bugs in software, even critical ones, the company responsible apologizes, addresses any flaws, and then puts out an update for people to download again. However, in the case of Intel’s Remote Keyboard app for Android, it seems even that is too much work for Intel. After three different security researchers found…
At the end of 2016, Facebook delegated its misinformation problem to outside experts, but it looks like fact-checkers tasked with weeding out bullshit are largely dissatisfied with how things are going down. A new report released Wednesday by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism explores Facebook’s partnership with its fact-checking organizations, revealing a number of…
To date, Apple’s mostly useless Touch Bar is the closest the company has ever come to selling a touchscreen Mac. But if you’ve got a spare dollar in your wallet, you could upgrade your MacBook with touchscreen-like functionality all by yourself using this wonderfully clever hack. Even better, Project Sistine (as Anish Athalye and its…
Authorities have identified the suspect in the mass shooting at YouTube’s headquarters, which ended in four injuries and the death of the shooter, as YouTuber Nasim Aghdam, who made videos about topics ranging from animal rights and veganism to bodybuilding. Police have not named any motive in the attack, but Aghdam has now been widely…
Our smart speakers continue to get smarter over time, and one of the features recently added to the kit made by Amazon and Google is support for multi-room audio—in other words, the option to play the same tunes in multiple rooms at once. Here’s how to set it up with a group of Amazon Echos,…
Top researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have called for a boycott of the South Korean university KAIST after it opened a lab with the defense firm Hanwha Systems. Even if you’re not familiar with KAIST, you might know some of the school’s robots. The university won the top prize at the last…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg—who has (reluctantly) become the face of the company’s response to the Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal—will testify not just in front of the House Energy and Commerce Commitee next week as previously reported, but a joint hearing of the Senate as well. Per CBS News, Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before the…
Singaporean mobile chip manufacturer Broadcom says it is now again a US-based mobile chip manufacturer, Reuters reports, even after the White House blocked its planned acquisition of US rival Qualcomm on national security grounds. Per Reuters, Broadcom announced on Wednesday it had completed transitioning its corporate headquarters from Singapore to the US—a move that just…
“Look, this is bad,” Mark Zuckerberg told reporters during an impromptu conference call on Wednesday. The Facebook CEO spent much of the time taking responsibility for the privacy scandals that have consumed his company recently, but he also pointed out that he’s been the victim of fake news. Contrary to a recent Reuters report, he…
A lawsuit against Equifax filed by Massachusetts is moving forward after a judge in Boston denied the credit-reporting firm’s motion to dismiss the complaint, Reuters reports. Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Salinger on Wednesday ruled credible the central claim of the lawsuit, which states that Equifax failed to prioritize safety and privacy of consumers’…
