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So you’ve decided to treat yourself (or maybe you were treated) to a brand new Xbox Series X or Series S and immerse yourself in the next generation of consoles—but are you getting the most out of your Microsoft-made box? These quick tips and tricks for your new console will help, covering everything from automatic…
Nearly three weeks after the abrupt exit of Black artificial intelligence ethicist Timnit Gebru, more details are emerging about the shady new set of policies Google has rolled out for its research team. After reviewing internal communications and speaking to researchers affected by the rule change, Reuters reported on Wednesday that the tech giant recently…
Driverless delivery service Nuro has been cleared for California’s first Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Permit, meaning the company could soon launch a fleet of autonomous commercial vehicles on city streets around the state. Nuro was first given clearance to test fully driverless vehicles in California earlier this year, but the new permit means that the company…
Medical experts are begging, warning, and bargaining with us to halt the holiday parties. One epidemiologist likened a Thanksgiving gathering to gasoline on the fire, and run-down California health officials have made a potential Christmas transmission surge sound like a reactor meltdown. I can ask a million ways to StaY hoME pLeAsE, but consider this:…
Apple is getting ready to remove thousands more video games from its App Store in China due to pressure from the Chinese government, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company had previously warned Chinese video game developers that premium gaming apps were at risk of removal from the App Store, but the Chinese government is…
Dating apps are usually cutesy, at best. The questions they ask are always geared toward the agreeable and the design is chipper and romantic. Taste, a new dating app, isn’t that. Billing itself as a “twisted dating game,” the app asks questions that range from the confrontational to the borderline dirty. These include inquiring whether…
The Libyan government released a suspected Russian intelligence agent, Maxim Shugaley from prison, in part because someone paid actors Dolph Lundgren, Charlie Sheen, and Danny Trejo to endorse his release on video app Cameo. Per Business Insider, U.S. security researchers with Facebook and Stanford University’s Internet Observatory suspect Shugaley was connected to the Internet Research…
Anyone who has sat through an interminable panel discussion on a random topic and thought to themselves, “I wish this would never end,” will find a lot to like on Clubhouse. But due to the closed beta nature of the audio-focused social network, most people will have to make do with reading trend pieces about…
Substack, the popular mailing list platform that is purported to be the next big thing in media, is talking about content moderation and bias, and it’s going about as well as you’d expect. Substack started out as a simple email service. I created an account when it first launched in 2018 and still use it…
Disappointments are a natural part of life. Sometimes you buy a new game that doesn’t live up to the hype, or you end up with a new gadget that, while cool in concept, is actually kind of useless. In my case, that meant (possibly) breaking a playlist-roasting bot that my coworkers and colleagues were raving…
First Microsoft and Google incorporated classic Zoom features like breakout rooms into their own video-conferencing services. Now Zoom is reportedly challenging the tech titans by developing its own email and calendar apps, according to a report from The Information. Thanks in large part to millions of people going to school and working from home, Zoom…
Telegram, the encrypted messaging app and longtime drug-dealer haven, is planning to monetize in 2021, founder Pavel Durov said on Wednesday. The announcement comes as the app nears its eighth birthday and “approaches 500 million active users,” according to the statement that Durov put on his Telegram channel. Every new user that comes flooding in,…
Samsung’s mobile chief recently said the Korean electronics giant wants to bring the Galaxy Note experience to more phones, and now a new FCC filing seems to have confirmed that at least one model of the Galaxy S21 is getting S-Pen stylus support. In a new FCC filing first noticed by Android Authority, a device with…
Once, there was an app called Yo. All it did was send your friends the message, “Yo.” It was one of the best mobile apps ever made, and while it still exists, everyone deleted it years ago and there’s no one to Yo anymore. Now, a new app, Honk, would like us to Yo again,…
My biggest beef with Fossil’s latest smartwatch, the Gen 5E, was that it felt like a filler for the holiday season—something to pad out Fossil’s extensive catalog of Wear OS watches until it could release a new army of wearables powered by the new Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. Now, a recent FCC filing hints that…
Battery life is a priority for most of us, whether it’s on a phone we picked up three years ago or a brand new handset. The older your phone (and its battery), the more difficult it is to squeeze out extra time between charges, but if you just bought a new iPhone 12, there are…
Electric car maker Tesla is soaring high, with a $606.9 billion market cap and a stock price that’s up 813% this year. But Elon Musk really wanted to sell the company to Apple back in the days when Tesla was struggling. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple since 2011, wouldn’t even sit down for a…
Lawmakers in China are considering new legislation that would impose fines against anyone who creates videos where people eat large quantities of food or binge drinks, according to a new report from Chinese state media outlet China News. The proposed media rule, part of broader legislation to discourage food waste, would also allow restaurants in…
The American Civil Liberties Union announced on Tuesday that it plans to sue for information related to the FBI’s shadowy and relatively new ability to break into encrypted devices at will. The lawsuit will reportedly seek to target information related to the FBI’s Electronic Device Analysis Unit (EDAU) and its apparent acquisition of software that…
The web domains and server infrastructure of three VPN services have been taken down