Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
The Federal Communications Commission has officially repealed net neutrality rules introduced in 2015 by the Obama administration, which established federal regulations prohibiting internet service providers from blocking or throttling content for customers or creating “fast lanes” for companies that pay more to have their services delivered at a faster speed. But the fight for a…
In spite of aggressively lame marketing, obnoxious YouTube evangelists, and unsteady legal status, vaping is here to stay. Studies haven’t yet determined the long-term impacts of inhaling plumes of flavor, but it’s likely less damaging to healthy lung function than traditional cigarettes. Teens think it’s cool. Adults—like yours truly—by and large don’t, but it can…
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday took an ax to net neutrality. The rest of us, now at the mercy of broadband providers unshackled from the chains of fair regulation, are left asking, will the open internet survive? More than a hundred Republican members of Congress voiced their support for repealing the net neutrality rules…
You tried, America. You tried. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support for safeguarding the open internet, the Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to ignore the public and kill net neutrality protections. With his familiar shit-eating grin, FCC chairman Ajit Pai went through the motions of holding a committee hearing on his “Restoring Internet Freedom” initiative. The…
Snap has had a rough year. Its stock price is cratering, and its once hype-worthy new product, Spectacles, has left the the company with almost $40 million of unsold inventory. But even with all that, the thing people will probably remember the most about Snapchat in 2017 was that stupid dancing hot dog. So now,…
The year is almost over and Americans are reflecting on the highs and lows of 2017. Here at Paleofuture we’re obsessed with time capsules, so it got us thinking about what a 2017 time capsule might include. Which objects would you bury to show people of the future what it was like to live through…
With an issue this important, paraphrasing won’t do. At time of writing, the FCC’s open meeting has begun and soon the commission will vote on an order that will repeal net neutrality and place the future of the open internet in the hands of Verizon, AT&T, and a small handful of other powerful corporations. As…
Humans have been killing other humans since the dawn of the species, but owing to the poor archaeological record, it’s unclear what sort of weapons our ancestors used to brutalize one another. Using models of human skulls and a replica of a weapon dating back thousands of years, researchers have shown that a bat-like club…
The first major step toward the annihilation of a free and open internet takes place this morning, and you can witness it live. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to vote to repeal the Obama-era regulations protecting net neutrality during its annual meeting today. It starts at 10:30am EST and a livestream is available…
Apple’s new, most powerful iMac Pro is finally available for sale, and while some may think its $5,000 starting price is a bit steep, it’s the all extras that will really get you. That’s because when fully loaded with an 18-core Intel Xeon CPU (which won’t even ship until next year), 128GB of error-checking memory,…
As 2017 comes to a close, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on how the year went for some of the most attention-grabbing tech companies, ordered here conveniently from most screwed to least screwed. For brevity, I’ve left plenty of tech companies out of this list. Across those listed below there are…
Tech giant Apple brought the iPhone X to market this year, but not without significant production stumbles that resulted in predictions of supply shortages for retailers and consumers. Reports on Wednesday show that Apple is moving quickly to ensure future access to some of the device’s more elaborate parts to decrease the odds of that…
On Thursday, the Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission and its chairman, Verizon BFF Ajit Pai, will hold a vote on whether to repeal Barack Obama-era net neutrality rules. If passed, the FCC would allow ISPs to begin setting up a tiered internet designed to suck as much money from customers’ pockets as possible while screwing with…
Of the 239 Republicans in the US House of Representatives, only 107 added their names to a letter released this morning supporting FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to repeal net neutrality rules. If we can figure out the names of the 107 GOP lawmakers who signed the letter, then we can find out who the…
As Facebook’s big pivot to video continues, the company is partnering with two more production teams in order to wrestle up more original content for its Watch tab. Today, those combatants happen to be Machinima, which is launching a trio of new shows, and the WWE, which is planning a special 12-episode series available exclusively…
In an age when bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to our best antibiotics and the words “E. coli” can shut down your favorite local Chipotle, people are desperate for anything that promises to wipe out germs. Unfortunately, when it comes to cleaning products that label themselves “antimicrobial,” they’re largely a pile of overpriced trash. Not…
It’s one thing to wake up and discover that you missed the boat on a cryptocurrency boom that’s making a handful of people very wealthy. It’s another thing to find out that your computer is making someone else rich while it gives you poor performance and jacks up your electricity bill. With the spread of…
This February Google finally brought the Google Assistant from the Pixel and Google Home to other Android devices, but they were newer products like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10. Older phone owners were stuck with upgrading or going Assistant-less. That changes now, the company announced on Wednesday that Google Assistant is now coming…
Plagued by infighting and the constant threat of a far-right insurgency, congressional Republicans have little to show after nearly 11 months at the helm of a unified government. The world-class fuckup that was Tuesday night’s Alabama special election, as extraordinary as it was, only adds further credence to the notion that a “blue wave” is…
For almost anyone who grew up playing video games in the 90s, Super Mario 64 was a blocky rite of passage. But it’s not just gamers who have taken to the mustachioed hero lately. More recently, scientists have to begun to test whether games like Super Mario 64 could be used to keep people mentally…