Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
5G and the pandemic are already changing the way people buy and use their devices, so to help bring more competition to affordable mobile devices, MediaTek is launching a new line of smartphone and Chromebook processors. Starting with its smartphone chip, the new MediaTek Dimensity 700 is based on a 7nm architecture and features an…
There are Batman fans who will casually collect caped crusader action figures, and then there are Batman fans who will drop $250 on a giant Lego Batmobile. Several tiers of obsessive above that you’ll find the true Batman devotees who will happily spend almost $30,000 on a desk clock that even Bruce Wayne would hesitate…
Today brings yet another Apple event. Yes, it’s separate from the other two events that already happened. No, Apple hasn’t yet unveiled the products that will be covered during this week’s Apple affair. Today’s event is likely all about Macs. Apple’s already run down releases for most of the major products under its umbrella: The…
The head of the Election Crimes Branch at the U.S. Department of Justice resigned in protest late Monday after Attorney General Bill Barr issued a new memo giving the green light for federal prosecutors to investigate alleged “voter fraud” in the presidential election. Richard Pilger, a prosecutor with the Justice Department since long before President…
The November 2020 elections failed to culminate in the nightmare, worst-case scenario many onlookers feared, which is generally good news if you don’t happen to be a firearms manufacturer. Gun stocks plunged on Monday after so-called stay-at-home stocks in general took a hit from news that Pfizer’s vaccine for the novel coronavirus looks promising, and…
After rolling out several new features ahead of the 2020 presidential election designed to make it harder for users to retweet and quote tweets containing “misleading information,” Twitter may now be gearing up to similarly hinder users’ attempts to ‘like’ content with the same designation. The new feature was first reported on Monday by Jane…
Just hours after good news of a promising vaccine rolled in, the Biden-Harris trasition team today announced appointees to its covid-19 advisory board. According to the Washington Post, at least two of the advisory board co-chairs, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler and Obama-era Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, have been briefing Biden for months. Unlike a…
Parler, the Twitter alternative for conservatives where users can say anything they want without fear of censorship (except for an arbitrary list of terms conservatives don’t like), is taking off in the wake of Donald Trump’s defeat against Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 elections. Parler is currently listed ranked as the #1 most downloaded…
A new iOS app called iSH could pave the way for more powerful programming features on iPad and iPhones—provided Apple lets it stay on the App Store. On Oct. 22, three programmers named Theodore Dubois, Saagar Jha, and Martin Persson uploaded an open-source app that essentially ran a copy of Alpine Linux inside of an…
Update 4:06PM: Following the publication of this story, Beyond Meat told CNBC that it was part of the creation of the McPlant. It’s unclear why Beyond would wait for its stock price to crater before saying something and it’s unclear why McDonald’s would so forcefully claim ownership over the burger. We’ve reached out to Beyond…
Apple has temporarily cut ties with a major manufacturing partner after discovering it was actively covering up an untold number of student labor violations in multiple China-based facilities. Shanghai-based outlet The Paper was the first to report that the Taiwanese company Pegatron—a key supplier for gadgets like iPhones, Macbooks and iPads—was misclassifying student interns working…
It’s a bad day to be Zoom. As Zoom’s stock price plunged amid promising news of a covid-19 vaccine development on Monday morning, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with the video conferencing company over a “series of deceptive and unfair practices that undermined the security of its users.” The FTC hopes the settlement…
While smart homes can be pretty convenient, they also require a certain type of never-ending vigilance. Specifically, you have to keep up with which companies support what platforms, and if any mergers or acquisitions have royally screwed your entire setup. Then, you have to decide whether you’re going to go through the hassle of figuring…
In a delightful act of copyright justice, Mark and Patricia McCloskey—the personal injury attorneys who became infamous for aiming firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters this summer from their castle mansion’s pristine lawn—have reportedly been sent a $1,500 bill for attempting to profit off one of the photos of that incident. Of course this can’t…
In another example of unsettling biomimicry, engineering researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney were inspired by an elephant’s trunk and designed what looks more like a robotic tongue that can firmly grasp objects by wrapping around them like a snake. Biomimicry is an approach to engineering that takes inspiration from the…
There’s never been a more joyous time to watch tech stock prices fall. As markets opened on Monday, Pfizer shared the news that a trial of its coronavirus vaccine had shown it to be 90 percent effective. American markets soared to all-time highs while many stocks that benefit from the public being holed up in…
After buying a nice camera, it doesn’t take long to amass a mountain of “necessary” accessories to help you get the perfect shot. The Conda Strap is a clever alternative to a heavy backpack full of photography gear, instantly turning a flexible neck strap into a rigid camera support. A good photographer doesn’t need a…
I am going to answer this one right here in the intro: no, you can’t. In 2020, it is hard to just to go to the grocery store without inadvertently surrendering 40 or 50 highly personal data-points on the walk over. Go ahead, delete your Facebook—it makes no difference. It wouldn’t make a difference if…
President Donald Trump’s grumpy gang of dipshits set up a new hotline over the weekend for Americans to report “voter suppression, irregularities and fraud” during last week’s presidential election. The old number was inundated with prank calls, and the Trump regime has pledged to keep changing the number if the pranks continue. “Another new number.…
This is not a movie; this is real life. It is not a drill. In about a decade, we might see a ton of robots working alongside humans in the UK army. But don’t worry, although some of the robots will have weapons, only humans will be able to fire them. (That’s a relief, I…
