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If you cheap out on alkaline batteries, there’s a noticeable difference in performance. But that might not be the case with rechargeable nickel-metal hydride batteries made in Japan. As Matthew Eargle discovered, the cheap LADDA rechargeables that Ikea sells might actually be rolling off the same production line as Panasonic’s pricier Eneloop Pro batteries. To…
Spend enough time googling “tacos” or “pasta” and eventually you’ll be served ads for Latin or Italian restaurants. Spend enough time driving to Latin or Italian restaurants and eventually, your car might soon serve ads and offer recommendations. This week, Bloomberg spoke with Telenav Inc., a California company working to serve smart cars with pop-up…
In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with the modest goal of curing all diseases before the end of the century. Now, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is setting its sights on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Over the next five years, it plans to hand out $2.5 million…
If all goes as the FCC’s Republican commissioners planned, December 14th will be known as the day that net neutrality died. But thanks to the mercifully slow gears of the federal bureaucracy, big changes don’t happen immediately. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality protections is scheduled to hit the federal register.…
Earlier today, a video appearing in YouTube’s trending videos feed, meant to surface the most popular content to the platform’s estimated 1 billion users, featured content suggested a survivor of the Parkland shooting was a “crisis actor.” The term is used in conspiracy circles to describe someone paid to pretend they’d been involved in a…
You probably think your baby is special. Every hacker in the world is just itching to catch a glimpse of that tubby little poop monster. But let’s be real—probably nobody is spying on your baby. Nevertheless, on the off chance you are one of the 50,000 parents who bought a Mi-Cam device (presumably to keep…
A new report authored by over two-dozen experts on the implications of emerging technologies is sounding the alarm bells on the ways artificial intelligence could enable new forms of cybercrime, physical attacks, and political disruption over the next five to ten years. The 100-page report, titled “The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and…
Apple may finally be fed up with some of the unethical supply chains that leave the company open to possible shortages. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple “is in talks to buy long-term supplies of cobalt directly from miners for the first time.” If this report is true, Apple would begin working directly…
Uber announced Wednesday that it’s rolling out a new product: Uber Pool Express, a carpooling service targeted at commuters. Uber won’t like this comparison, but honestly, just think of it as a bus stop. When a rider selects Pool Express, the app groups them with nearby riders who are all going to destinations that are…
Employing sophisticated scams involving social engineering, email phishing, and the harvesting of employee passwords, attackers have pilfered millions of dollars from some of the world largest corporations—all while bypassing traditional hacking safeguards by simply avoiding the use malware. A new report from IBM Security sheds light on ongoing campaigns being waged by “cyber con artists”…
A cryptocurrency exchange in Japan reportedly experienced a temporary glitch last week that suddenly offered investors their pick of coins for the low, low price of zero dollars. Several customers took advantage of the opportunity, but one really ran with it. According to Reuters, it was possible to buy cryptocurrencies for free on the Zaif…
From afar, the photorealistic portraits that Cayce Zavaglia creates look like they were painted with fine, hatched brushstrokes. But when you get closer you can see that each one is actually made up of thousands of threads, painstakingly embroidered by hand using a needle and endless patience. Filmmaker Jesse Brass created a short documentary, Verso,…
Twitter suspended thousands of accounts overnight and conservatives on the platform aren’t happy about it. Twitter has yet to make a public statement about the issue, but right-wing users believe that they’re being targeted in a mass purge of suspected Russian bot accounts. Conservative Twitter has even started a hashtag called #TwitterLockOut to talk about…
Police in Texarkana, Texas arrested 24-year-old Ricky Jared Rankin for allegedly posting a photo of an AR-15—that model of semi-automatic rifle that keeps on being used in mass slaughters across the country—to Instagram accompanied by the caption, “I’m thinking about finally going back to school,” KTBS reported. According to KTBS, the post almost immediately resulted…
AT&T, whose quest to merge with Time Warner into some kind of lurching telecommunications/content mega-hybrid has run afoul of the Department of Justice, won’t get to see any internal White House communications that preceded the DOJ’s legal intervention. Per the Verge, AT&T and Time Warner requested the judge overseeing the DOJ’s anti-competition lawsuit against the…
Headlines are blaring: “Trump moves to ban bump stocks,” and gun enthusiasts are wasting no time stockpiling for the apocalypse. Slide Fire, the primary manufacturer of the accessory that effectively turns a semi-automatic weapon into a machine gun, has been hit with a flood of traffic and its website is currently down. Following the murder…
If last week’s video of Boston Dynamic’s SpotMini robo-dog opening doors all by itself had you worried, don’t be. The bot’s creators have done everything possible to ensure the public’s safety by hiring a guy to thwart the robo-dog’s escape attempts using a hockey stick. Phew! One less thing to stress over. https://gizmodo.com/boston-dynamics-unsettling-robodog-can-now-escape-thro-1822936573 We’ll give…
As Fox News’ primary viewership continues to kick the bucket, rapturously transported to their makers by the sonorous tones of Lauren Ingraham and bigotry, the company is clearly looking for a play that could make it relevant to a younger breed of red hats. Enter Fox Nation, a new streaming service that will ostensibly target…
Depending on the day, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is either the richest or second richest human on Earth. And while he’s trying to figure out how to use some of that money philanthropically, he announced today that construction has begun on the giant clock in the middle of nowhere that he put up $42 million…
“I was only ten when it happened,” says Lane Murdock, a 15-year-old sophomore from Ridgefield, Connecticut. Her high school—suddenly ground zero for a national youth movement combating school gun violence—lies only 20 minutes south of Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was there, less than six years ago, that 20 children were gunned down, none more…
