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Long since report after report indicated that emotional trauma is an occupational hazard of content moderation, YouTube is still hurling low-wage workers into a daily emotional onslaught, allegedly with limited mental health safeguards. In a class action suit filed yesterday, a former moderator claims that a year-and-a-half term as one such content janitor caused her to…
There have been a lot of questionable portable music player formats over the years (does anyone remember the Iomega HipZip?), but Terence Eden’s homebrew Walkman that plays entire albums off of old-school 3.5-inch floppy disks is an obscure masterpiece. If you consider yourself an audiophile, you’ll want to look away immediately. Building the Walkman itself…
Today in things that nobody asked for: Facebook is testing the waters with yet another app that copies one of TikTok’s core features. Those keeping track at home might notice this marks the third time this year that Mark Zuckerberg has slyly attempted to rip off the same app he’s been doing all he can…
For this fall’s phone release season, instead of pushing out a new line of expensive premium phones like Apple and Samsung, HMD/Nokia is focused on taking over the budget phone market with the new Nokia 2.4 and 3.4. Priced at just $140 and $180 respectively, the Nokia 2.4 and Nokia 3.4 are extremely affordable while…
A rural village in Wales has been suffering through internet outages and slowdowns for 18 months. The situation baffled technicians until they realized that turning off one man’s TV solved everything. On Tuesday, U.K.-based broadband provider Openreach explained in a release that every morning, around 7 a.m., residents of the Aberhosan village found themselves experiencing…
Bose discontinued its noise-masking Sleepbuds last year after users complained about unreliable charging. However, Bose didn’t completely give up on its goal of making super small in-ear white noise generators, because today the company announced the second-gen Sleepbuds II. Bose addressed previous complaints about the device’s charging by switching to a new NiMH battery and…
Today AMD announced its Ryzen processor series is joining the Chromebook family—Athlon, too. Both APUs (that means CPU and integrated graphics in non-AMD terms) include Radeon Vega integrated graphics and will be found in mid-level to high-end Chromebooks with Athlon on the mid-level, and Ryzen on the high-end respectively. The current A6 and A4 series…
Jabra’s earbuds might fly under the radar compared to Bose’s ‘buds and Apple’s AirPods, but the company makes the best Bluetooth earbuds around. We loved the Elite 65t, we raved about the Elite 75t and Elite Active 75t, and now Jabra has announced the Elite 85t. Those earlier earbuds were great, but these? These might…
One of the Trump administration’s flacks at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases secretly trashed the agency under the persona “streiff” for the right-wing blog RedState, according to a Monday report by the Daily Beast. He is now planning to “retire.” The official in question, public affairs specialist William B. Crews, wrote on…
Notorious stinging trees from Australia cause agonizing pain that can linger for weeks and even months. New research suggests this nettle relative is actually venomous, producing a toxin not unlike the venom of spiders. From snakes and spiders to jellyfish and cone snails, Australia has no shortage of venomous animals. As new research published in…
In an astonishingly cool, levelheaded interview that rocked this U.S.-based tech blogger’s world, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton told the Financial Times that the EU is considering a number of regulations that could finally break up big tech and hold platforms accountable for disinformation. Sounds exactly like the conversations we’re having in the U.S.! Except in…
Ultraviolet light can kill microscopic creatures like bacteria and viruses by destroying the molecular bonds in their genetic material. But UV light also damages human DNA, causing eye and skin damage and increasing our risk of cancer. It turns out, though, that there’s a loophole: a specific wavelength of UV light that’s safe for people…
Discovery’s forthcoming streaming service—which multiple reports have said will be called Discovery+—may be launching early next year, though pricing for the soon-to-launch offering is still unclear. Citing agency executives familiar with the matter, Digiday reported this week that the service is readying to launch in Q1 of 2021 with both an ad-supported and ad-free tier.…
Executives at Quibi, the spectacular disaster that no one asked for and evidently no one wants‚ may be looking to bail from their own failed experience. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal’s Benjamin Mullin reported Monday that Quibi “is exploring several strategic options including a possible sale,” a move that definitely…
Over the years, Amazon has made it very clear that it’s no longer satisfied with being “the everything store.” What was once just a hub where you buy shit online has since branched into the world of autonomous vehicles, pharmaceuticals, drones, and space travel. Earlier today, the company unveiled some of the details of its…
For a long time, one of the key benefits of choosing Android over iOS has been the ability to break away from the rigid inflexibility of multiple home screens, split up into uniform grids of app icons. Now with the introduction of home screen widgets and the App Library in iOS 14, that advantage has…
Sony’s Xperia Play was clearly a phone ahead of its time. Released in 2011, the device predates the rise of mobile gaming and modern handheld consoles like the Nintendo Switch. But now, years later, it appears an unreleased prototype of the Xperia Play 2 has surfaced, and it kind of makes me wish Sony would…
Microsoft is buying ZeniMax Media and its subsidiary, publisher Bethesda Softworks—giving it ownership of wildly popular game franchises including Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, and Wolfenstein, as well as others like Dishonored, Prey, and The Evil Within—for a price of $7.5 billion. Technically, Microsoft now has the power to make the iconic Master Chief from…
His full name isn’t as well known as Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell’s, but if you spend any amount of time outdoors, there’s a good chance you’ll find at least part of Robert W. Gore’s name on your gear. He’s the inventor of Gore-Tex, and at the age of 83, the celebrated inventor, engineer,…
A newborn baby will get an early taste of what it’s like to navigate the fine print in airline agreements. A woman gave birth on an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to London last week, and the company says her child will receive free flights for life. The airline tweeted a statement explaining that a woman…
