Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
The seeds of the robot apocalypse are apparently being sown in Minor League Baseball. Or rather, the minor leagues appear to be one more sector of society where automation is being used to “augment” and then potentially replace human labor. This week, the MLB announced that it plans to “expand testing of the Automatic Ball-Strike…
Hackers may have gotten their hands on inside intel that Microsoft shared with its security partners to exploit vulnerabilities in the company’s widely used email and calendaring software Exchange, according to a Friday Wall Street Journal report. Several different hacker groups have descended on the Exchange in a series of branching cyber attacks that compromised…
The next generation of AirPods is expected to look a lot different than its predecessors. Photos from 52Audio claiming to show the AirPods 3 indicate significant changes compared to the current AirPods, most noticeably with a shorter stem that looks a lot more similar to the design of the AirPods Pro. According to the report,…
Elon Musk’s tweets have landed him in hot water with shareholders—again. This time, he and the Tesla board are staring down a suit from one disgruntled investor who claims some of the CEO’s tweets violate a 2019 settlement Musk had reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission meant to temper his public missives about the…
A pair of good dice is a guilty pleasure for a tabletop RPG gamer. You can never have enough, but I can tell you this: None are going to be as flashy as Pixels. These dice have an ace up their sleeve that the rest of your dice don’t have, because they light up and…
Swiss authorities on Friday raided the home of a computer hacker reportedly under FBI investigation who has also—unrelatedly—taken credit for the recent breach of U.S. security camera company. The company, Verkada Inc., has itself separately been accused of granting employees extraneous access to the private surveillance feeds of potentially thousands of global customers. Bloomberg, which…
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which oversees the Texas Highway Patrol and the state’s (in)famous Texas Ranger Division, said this week it has finally halted the discredited hypnosis techniques it used to provide evidence in criminal investigations since at least the start of the 1980s. It’s not exactly a surprise that police would…
Today is the World Wide Web’s 32nd birthday. It can’t be overstated how much the world has come to rely on it since inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea while working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 1989—particularly in the last year. The web has completely changed the face…
Our friends the bees have certain behaviors that are unhealthy to the hive and scary for passersby. One behavior, swarming, happens when a hive splits naturally with a group of bees following a new queen. This is a delicate time for the hive and could result in starved bees and a dead queen. In other…
AT&T just announced that it will expand 5G connectivity to customers with older unlimited plans for free starting this month. Before today, if you bought a 5G phone—say, an iPhone 12—and wanted to activate it on AT&T’s 5G network, you had to upgrade to one of the carrier’s newest unlimited plans (AT&T Unlimited Starter, Unlimited…
Hackers, those pilfering rogues, are now threatening something much more valuable than our money or our data: our goddamn alcohol. A cyberattack has reportedly brought production at one of the nation’s largest breweries, Molson Coors, to a standstill. On Thursday, the beer giant revealed in a regulatory filing that an attack had “caused and may…
In an incoherent op-ed published by USA Today on Friday morning, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio voiced support for a union drive by Amazon warehouse workers he clearly cares nothing about in an attempt to paint Amazon as a “woke” demon and shame it into backing Republicans in the “culture war.” “Uniquely malicious corporate behavior like…
Sitting for long hours hunched over a keyboard is terrible for your neck and back, a problem that’s only been exacerbated as more people work from home during the pandemic. Aside from investing in more ergonomic furniture or actually getting up to move and stretch regularly, there’s not a whole lot out there to help…
The long-expected ad-supported tier of HBO Max will finally arrive this summer. Company executives on Friday revealed details relating to both the expected launch window for the new tier as well as how it will differ from HBO Max’s existing subscription plan. The primary difference between the two will center on WarnerMedia’s 2021 films, which…
Everybody loves a good Apple leak—except for Apple. The notoriously secretive company is now suing an ex-employee for stealing and then selling trade secrets to a currently unnamed journalist in exchange for dubious favors. The ex-employee, according to court documents, is Simon Lancaster, who worked as an Advanced Materials Lead and Product Design Architect for…
Earlier this year, multiple sectors called out for help as chip shortages wreaked havoc across the auto industry, the gaming market, and more, and now it seems those issues are starting to affect Android phones too as the supply for Qualcomm chips begins to dwindle. Based on the testimony of two sources who spoke to…
The Etch a Sketch toy has gone more or less unchanged for over 60 years, but if you’re handy with a soldering iron you can build an upgraded version that swaps aluminum powder for glowing LEDs. You’re still stuck with the challenge of drawing using just two spinning knobs, but when you screw up, a…
The Malaysian government instituted an ordinance against “fake news” on Friday in an effort to crack down on misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple news outlets in the region. Anyone prosecuted for spreading fake news faces a maximum fine of 100,000 ringgit (roughly $24,000 US) and up to three years in prison. The…
Delivery riders for apps like Uber Eats and Deliveroo will be granted the same rights as employees in Spain, including the right to collectively bargain, according to an announcement from the Spanish government on Thursday. Spain will become the first country in the world to formally give gig economy delivery drivers rights similar to employees.…
President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he will direct states to make all adults 18 and older eligible for coronavirus vaccinations by May 1. In his first primetime address to the nation, which came on the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic, Biden outlined ambitious measures to…
