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People have been talking about the advent of 3D-printed homes for quite some time now, but now a listing for a home in New York has popped up on Zillow boasting to be the “world’s first 3D-printed home for sale.” The listing’s claim is somewhat spurious due to the fact that companies like Mighty Building began…
China has been accused of stealing a lot of things from America:intellectual property, “jobs and wealth,” even our beloved role as the world’s biggest jerk. Now, U.S. national security officials warn that America’s greatest adversary wants to steal our genetic makeup, too. The Chinese biotech firm BGI Group recently offered to “build and run” covid-19…
The Securities and Exchange Commission broke its silence Friday morning on the populist investor uprising that has sent the stock price of beleaguered retailer GameStop “to the moon,” warning everyone involved that they are watching… and, for the time being, not doing a whole lot else, it seems. “The Commission will closely review actions taken…
Apple may have struggled to get its AirPower multi-device charging pad to work, but just over the horizon is a new technology that promises to make wireless charging truly wireless, and Xiaomi is the latest company to promise a world without charging cables—we just don’t know when it will actually arrive. Wireless charging in its…
Following the disastrous announcement of changes to its privacy policy, WhatsApp is losing the trust of millions of users who are now looking for a new encrypted messaging platform. Telegram claims it’s added 100 million new users this month alone, and it hopes its new ability to transfer WhatsApp chat histories will accelerate the transition.…
A controversial 1969 documentary has resurfaced thanks to an unknown uploader.
Google removed at least 100,000 negative reviews of the stock trading app Robinhood from the Google Play app store after angry users sent a flood of critical reviews that caused the app’s rating to plummet on Thursday. The app’s rating went from roughly four stars out of five on Wednesday to just one star on…
Facebook has reportedly shut down a popular stock trading group due to alleged policy violations, the page’s founder claims, who argues the real reason behind the sudden ouster is the windfall its members made off all the GameStonks drama this week. Robinhood Stock Traders boasted over 157,000 members before Facebook took it offline on Wednesday,…
Comcast celebrated the new year by rolling out its data caps and predatory overage fees to millions of customers in the northeastern United States, but lawmakers in Massachusetts aren’t having it. They’ve proposed a temporary ban on data caps, additional fees, and price hikes on home-internet services to keep folks from losing web access during…
Spotify’s powerful algorithm makes finding music you like a breeze. But what if it could recommend music based on how you sound? That’s the idea proposed in a patent Spotify was recently granted (reported by Pitchfork), which outlines potential uses for this kind of technology. The patent details a concept for using audio signals—your voice, background…
Congress will hold hearings on the GameStonks fiasco. House Financial Services Committee Chair Rep. Maxine Waters said on Thursday that the committee’s lawmakers plan to investigate short selling and online trading platforms. And Sen. Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking and Housing Committee, vowed to hold a hearing on the “current state of the…
Another free, ad-supported streaming service with a focus on non-fiction films launches today, this one hoping to win over the documentary crowd. A joint project between Tony Hsieh (the former Zappos CEO who recently passed away) and studio XTR, Documentary+ launched with a catalog of films by several high-profile directors and filmmakers, among them Werner…
Windows Insider members have found an issue with Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 feature pack, one that affects part of the screen-snipping utility. “We are removing the capability to copy and paste a screen snip directly into a folder in File Explorer for now due to an issue discovered thanks to the feedback from Windows Insiders.…
It’s been a big day in privacy land for Apple, but among a flurry of privacy-related announcements from the Cupertino-based company, the juiciest was perhaps a speech by CEO Tim Cook at CPDP 2021. In the roughly 15-minute opening keynote, Cook took several, savage potshots at a certain social media company that might be gearing…
From the flaming ashes of the GameStop stock clusterfuck, the WallStreetBets Discord group returns from the dead. It’s been a rough morning for anyone trying to get rich by pouring money into garbage stocks. Over the last week or so, we’ve seen a remarkable run on stocks like GameStop, AMC, and BlackBerry that has sent…
It’s not uncommon for robot-building engineers to take inspiration from one of Mother Nature’s designs, but this might be the first time we’ve seen one of her creations, a Venus flytrap plant, used to simplify the creation of an actual robotic component—in this case, a gripper capable of picking up delicate objects. In a recently…
Facebook’s Oversight Board, the supposedly independent entity the company created to quell some of the heat over its moderation policies, announced its first five decisions on Thursday. The oversight panel, which consists of 20 academics, lawyers, and human rights activists, overruled Facebook moderators on four of their decisions and dinged the company for having vague…
There hasn’t been much attention paid to the iPod since the iPhone arrived, and that’s a crime, because it was a brilliantly simple device with a wonderful user interface. To help make it relevant again, Guy Dupont gave a 17-year-old iPod a much-needed upgrade with the ability to wirelessly stream Spotify so that it plays…
Stock-trading app Robinhood now faces a class-action lawsuit after it blocked stock purchases of GameStop and other companies favored by Reddit’s WallStreetBets community on Thursday morning. The complaint alleges Robinhood violated its customer agreement when it failed to disclose that it would “randomly pull a profitable stock from its platform.” It claims Robinhood’s explanation for…
While it might seem ridiculous for Facebook to accuse any other company of having monopolistic tendencies, apparently the social media giant has spent the past several months preparing for an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. According to a new report from the Information, with the help of outside legal counsel, Facebook has been putting together an…
