Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
This week has been especially busy when it comes to new silicon, because almost immediately after MediaTek announced a number of new chips for phones and Chromebooks, Apple followed up with its big M1 chip. Now Samsung has announce its first chip designed using a 5-nanometer process: the Exynos 1080. Samsung’s new mobile chip is…
The next major update for macOS is here, and Big Sur brings with it a bunch of new features as well as a significant revamp on the visual side. These are 11 of the most significant upgrades that enable you to do more with your Mac, once you’ve downloaded and installed the 2020 update. 1.…
I don’t claim to be the arbiter of fashion. For Pete’s sake, I currently run in smart sneakers that resemble Flaming Hot Cheetos that took a bath in pink highlighter fluid. But friends, I’ve found a shoe crime that is beyond mere phrases like ‘hideous’ and ‘this is why we can’t have nice things.’ Behold,…
The Campari Group recently experienced a ransomware attack that allegedly shut down the company’s servers. The malware, created by the RagnarLocker gang, essentially locked corporate servers and allowed the hackers to exfiltrate “2 terabytes” of data, according to the hackers. On Nov. 6, the company wrote, “at this stage, we cannot completely exclude that some…
Instagram’s about to look a little bit different. As of today, the platform’s overhauling its home screen to give Reels and its shopping feature some coveted (and permanent!) space in the app’s navigation bar. When you open the app today, you might notice Reels replacing the shortcut to create a post and the new dedicated…
On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced increased social distancing for my home state of New York as covid-19 infections explode all over the country. We have a long way to go before this is over. But that’s not stopping the masters of the universe from mapping out the new world to come. A new research…
There are a lot of music streaming services out there, but chances are you probably fall into one of three camps: Spotify, Apple Music, or Pandora. A few months ago, Sonos tossed its hat into the ring, launching a free streaming radio service called Sonos Radio. Today, it’s expanding that service in the U.S. and…
Responding to demands from consumers for “an Alexa, but make it talk even more,” Amazon announced on Wednesday that its latest digital assistant model will be able to infer a user’s “latent goals,” and will use those to pose follow-up questions to users. If you ask your new Alexa how long it takes to cook…
YouTube appeared to be having technical issues on a global scale on Wednesday night, leaving scores of users (ahem) temporarily unable to stream their rainy night blogging music. In a tweet, YouTube confirmed that there was an issue: “If you’re having trouble watching videos on YouTube right now, you’re not alone – our team is…
Google rolled out Chrome version 86.0.4240.198 on Wednesday in response to two zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in the wild—the fourth and fifth security flaws discovered in the browser in the last three weeks alone. Although Google has not made details about the attacks involving the zero-days public, the company was reportedly alerted to the vulnerabilities by…
If you’ve been enjoying the luxury of unlimited premium file storage with Google Photos, I have some unfortunate news. Google Photos previously supported unlimited file storage with photos uploaded under its “high” setting (rather than in their original, sometimes beefier formats). The only caveat was that photos over 16MP would be compressed to that size…
It’s not exactly a secret that Elon Musk, billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, self-proclaimed Thai pedophilia expert, and designer of death race trucks, doesn’t give a flying fuck what other people think about his actions. To wit: Musk has endorsed a sex cult’s system for ranking news organizations based on “critical thinking,” regularly railed…
The Xbox Series X is so hot right now, and I don’t mean figuratively. I mean literally. Some people are claiming that their new Xboxes are catching on fire, but there’s a lot of skepticism over whether these claims are true. As our sister site Kotaku reports, this could be an elaborate hoax. It all…
Until now, Nanoleaf has been best known for those fancy RGB-lit triangles, squares, and hexagons that show up in the background of seemingly every YouTuber’s videos. But starting this week, Nanoleaf is entering the world of mainstream smart lighting with its affordable Essentials Line. The first two members of the Essentials Line are Nanoleaf’s A19…
Working from home, it’s relatively easy to minimize my potential exposure to the covid-19 virus—at least until I have to leave the safety of my suburban fortress of solitude every week to buy groceries. Even with safety precautions in place and a mask on my face it’s still an incredibly stressful experience, which is why…
Roku support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit is finally arriving on select 4K devices, with support coming to 4K TVs running Roku’s OS in the coming days. The Apple feature support, initially announced back in September, will begin rolling out to 4K devices with the Roku OS 9.4 update. Of the company’s streaming solutions, the…
Facebook and Google aren’t lifting their political ad bans soon, most likely not until Donald Trump sorts out a coup timeline concedes. This morning, Facebook sent advertisers an email reviewed by Gizmodo announcing that the platform is suspending political and issue ads for another month. “While multiple sources have projected a presidential winner, we still…
On Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden announced his administration’s transition team, including the list of agency review team members that will help his White House “hit the ground running on Day One.” It also, by all indications, includes a deeper bench of big tech figures than any transition team prior. Biden’s list is also a mix…
Hand a modern controller to someone who hasn’t gamed since the days of the original Atari console and they’ll be immediately overwhelmed by its complexity. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, controllers featured a joystick and a single button, and if you’re looking for the most authentic way to play retro games, you can…
There’s a lot of folks worried about the ethics and future of AI and robotics. Apparently, you can count Pope Francis among them. Each month, the pope issues a new prayer intention. The topics vary from month to month—September, for instance, was about sustainability, February was for migrants, and, uh, March was for Catholics in…
