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Fossil, the biggest Wear OS wearables maker, is planning to launch a new, premium Gen 6 smartwatch this fall that will run on Google’s revamped operating system for the devices. Fossil executives told CNET on Saturday that their upcoming Android smartwatches will be entirely new, featuring chips with faster performance, better battery life, and global…
Square, the digital payments firm led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, is teaming up with blockchain technology provider Blockstream Mining to build an open-source, solar-powered bitcoin mining facility at one of Blockstream’s U.S. sites. Square will invest $5 million in the facility, which will be a “proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mine at…
A group of Apple employees has written an internal letter to CEO Tim Cook and the company’s executive leadership team asking them to support employees that want to continue to work remotely or in location-flexible ways. The employees stated that many of them have thrived working outside the office and urged Apple leadership to understand…
The U.S. Department of Justice will no longer secretly obtain the records of journalists during leak investigations, the White House said in a statement Saturday. “While the White House does not intervene in criminal investigations, the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the President’s policy direction…
From dinosaurs to 'secret' messages, what else is hidden in your source code?
AMC is the latest meme stock darling for hordes of online investors, and CEO Adam Aron has been leaning heavily into the company’s newfound virality. However, I doubt he ever expected to become a meme himself, as was the case this week after he appeared to be pantless during a live interview with a YouTuber.…
It’s June 4, the 32nd anniversary of the infamous 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese troops crushed a pro-democracy protest movement by opening fire on and slaughtering hundreds of demonstrators in Beijing. The Chinese government doesn’t like talking about it, and it doesn’t like when others talk about it, either. It’s near the top of…
A ferocious bidding war over a misshapen chicken nugget concluded at $99,997 in the wee hours of Friday morning. Doesn’t seem weird at all, in a world where people are spending millions of dollars for blockchain tokens backed only by words. But wait, is this a sign of a healthy economy, us walking around like…
Dell is being taken to court in California over the company’s claims that its Alienware Area 51m-R1 gaming laptops can be upgraded. In his lawsuit, Robert Felter claimed Dell misled customers about the upgradability of its Area-51m gaming laptops after the company failed to provide replacement parts that would allow users to upgrade their CPUs…
In an apparent effort to kill fewer people, police departments across the country are investing in what is basically a high-tech lasso designed to automatically restrain suspects without cops having to electrocute or shoot them. As recently noted by Motherboard, the BolaWrap Remote Restraint device looks a lot like a taser and functions, more or…
For anyone naive enough to believe the forthcoming congressionally-ordered report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) observed by U.S. military personnel in recent years would shed some light on the issue, you’re probably about to be let down big time. Reports on Friday, citing people familiar with the inquiry, indicated that the government either hasn’t figured…
Boston Dynamics promises its impressive Spot robot can do a lot of things, but as we can see in the company’s latest demo, replacing the family pet isn’t one of them. Even with incredible autonomy, advanced sensors, and an articulated arm instead of a head and neck, Spot manages to make a fun interaction like…
Facebook announced on Friday that Donald Trump’s accounts on the company’s platforms—which includes the former president’s Instagram account—are going to be suspended for a full two years. At the end of that two-year gap, the company will “look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded,” before reinstating his account. This…
Following a previous Trump executive order that banned some Chinese companies from buying U.S.-made tech, this week President Biden issued a new executive order banning U.S. entities from investing in 59 different Chinese tech and defense companies. In a statement published by the White House, the Biden administration says the new executive order is designed…
The arrival of the smartphone made mobile messaging infinitely easier, but for those who some reason still miss typing out long messages on a tiny nine-button keypad, Guy Dupont has created a compact computer keyboard alternative called the T9 Macropad that brings predictive text to the desktop. Before touchscreen smartphones put adaptive keyboards on-screen, and…
TikTok quietly updated its privacy policy earlier this week in a way that allows the company to automatically collect extensive data on users in the United States—including data about their faces and their voice. The policy change, first spotted by TechCrunch, specifically states that TikTok “may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under…
After a year of gangbuster iPad sales, Apple is reportedly working on a new design for the iPad mini and revamping its iPad Pro to support wireless charging. The news comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple prognosticator extraordinaire. Citing anonymous Apple sources, Gurman says the company is experimenting with switching to a glass back for…
If you live in a crowded urban center, all you really have to do is peek outside in the morning to confirm how polluted the air you’re breathing is. But even if you don’t live in a perpetual cloud of smog, that doesn’t necessarily mean the air you’re breathing is clean, which is why this…
Google’s Android Auto is more than six years old now, and it’s changed a fair bit in that time. The latest version is baked into Android, if you’re running Android 10 or later, but you can download the stand-alone app if you don’t already have it. More and more automobiles and car stereos now support…
With Apple’s developer conference just around the corner, Google is reportedly planning to follow in its rivals footsteps by letting Android users opt out of being tracked by the apps they download from the Google Play store. A Google support page detailing how users can opt out of third-party tracking has generated a bit of…
