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While Apple says it has a thorough system of checks to ensure components used in its products are produced in an ethical manner, a new report claims that well known Apple supplier Lens Technology uses forced labor comprised of Uighur Muslim workers in China. The report is derived from publicly available information gathered by the…
It’s been four years since the laborious process of pulling the UK out of the European Union began, and one would expect the language in the final deal to be thoroughly considered. But if a section of the 1,246-page agreement regarding encryption standards for transferring DNA is any indication, this package might be a bit…
Typically the holidays are a time of giving, however following a camera update earlier this fall, users recently discovered that Google has removed the ability to use Astrophotography mode with the ultra-wide cameras on the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G. When the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G were first released, Google’s Astrophotography mode…
In a notice on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department warned of an uptick in cyberattacks and scams linked to covid-19 vaccines, saying ransomware poses a particular threat as criminals search for ways to exploit the ongoing public health crisis. Certain scams linked to the vaccination efforts may include counterfeit vaccines, the agency warned, citing prior…
Ripple’s rough few days just got way worse. After the fintech company was the subject of an SEC lawsuit over its flagship XRP token last week, Coinbase announced in a Tuesday blog post that trades of Ripple would be suspended on its platform. Per the blog, Ripple fans can continue trading the token in a…
In a time when you have to go out of your way to buy a new TV with less than 4K resolution, one Redditor has decided that their eyes don’t need such luxuries as 4K, 2K, HD, or even standard def videos, and have created a custom VCR that plays full-length movies on floppy disks…
Back in October, Twitter temporarily blocked a New York Post story that was reportedly based on materials taken from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden. The story’s dubious sourcing and suspicious timing led to widespread skepticism, and Twitter decided to temporarily ban links to the story under its policy against sharing “hacked materials.” Now, the…
The King of OLED TVs is finally getting on that mini-LED train. Last night LG announced that it plans on introducing its first ‘QNED’ TV at CES 2021. While LG is branding it QNED, these high-end LCD TVs will feature mini-LED tech. If you’re not familiar with mini-LEDs, they’re basically teeny tiny LEDs that are…
There’s a niche arms race among hardware hackers to create ultra compact versions of video game consoles, and YouTube’s GmanModz appears to have successfully miniaturized an entire Nintendo 64 into a portable that’s not much bigger than an N64 game cart—making it possibly the world’s smallest to date. The last time we featured one of…
A new Apple TV could be arriving in 2021, but how will it compete with so many powerful streaming devices when it retails for three times the cost? This year saw the release of several streaming sticks and dongles that cost around $50, many of which offer premium features like Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, HDR10,…
Panasonic has started testing a new delivery robot in suburban Tokyo. And it’s just so darn cute. The new delivery robot, first reported by the Japan Times, is being tested in what’s called the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town. Panasonic staged a test run for members of the press earlier this month.
The government of India is considering an 18% tax on all bitcoin transactions, according to a new report from the Times of India. It’s not clear whether the proposed goods and services tax (GST) would apply to other cryptocurrencies like ether, the second largest after bitcoin. The new proposal to tax all bitcoin transactions reportedly…
The Federal Aviation Administration announced a new set of drone regulations on Monday that will, among other things, mandate that every drone sold in the U.S. weighing more than .55 pounds come with a mechanism to broadcast its location to local authorities by 2022— a digital license plate, of sorts. The FAA’s Remote ID sales…
Welcome to our dystopian hellscape, where you might soon have to flash your Apple Wallet when trying to enter an airport in order to prove that you’ve been given the covid-19 vaccine. According to a recent Bloomberg report, that’s the reality being faced by residents in Los Angeles, where a recent partnership between Apple and…
When I’m using Wikipedia, I’m usually spending hours getting lost in the site’s bottomless pit of random factoids for hours on end. Apparently though, this puts me in the minority. If you look at the most popular pages on the platform from this year, you’re most likely to find pages discussing politics or the global…
The Apple Watch has become an iconic smartwatch, but things could’ve turned out very differently. Leaked images of what appears to be an Apple Watch prototype show just how far it has come since its early days in development. Apple prototypes are extremely rare. These particular images were posted by Twitter user @AppleDemoYT and initially…
R.I.P Chatroulette, the last, vast Wild West for exhibitionists whose incessant masturbation has delighted and startled onlookers since my college days. Wired reports that the platform in which users endlessly scroll through each others’ webcams resulting in an unceasing 11-year dongfest, has thrived lately thanks in part to artificial intelligence which has helped moderators identify…
This is a scientific experiment. Richard Dawkins, the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of evolutionary biology, is broadly credited with coining the term meme in 1976. On Monday, the 79-year-old public intellectual became a meme in his own right when he decided to ponder the mysteries of the universe on Twitter. “If lions were discovered weaving antelope-catching…
Quick question: What the heck is going on with HBO Max’s content discovery? Most major streaming services are constantly tinkering with their discovery features to help us find the latest and greatest on the platform, whether that be licensed content, originals, or trending titles. On Netflix, for example, the top of the page is generally…
After spending the past few years funneling billions of dollars through Ireland as a way to take advantage of the country’s relatively low taxes, it looks like Facebook is packing up its overseas operation. The Sunday Times was the first to spot a new document filed with the Irish Companies Registration Office show that Facebook…
