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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Navy Still Has No Idea What Mysterious Drones That Stalked Its Ships for Days Were
The U.S. Navy still has no idea who sent a swarm of drones to buzz warships off the coast of California in July 2019, or really even what kind of drones they were or what they were doing, NBC News reported on Monday. News of the incident was first reported by the Drive, which wrote … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Matt Gaetz Reportedly Fought a Revenge Porn Law to Protect His Stash
An update on the metastasizing horrors from the ongoing saga of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican reportedly under investigation for sex trafficking: It’s not looking great. On Monday, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Gaetz fiercely opposed a revenge porn law while in the Florida legislature. Why? Gaetz allegedly personally wished to do whatever … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Your 3D Printer Can Finally Make Biodegradable Objects
A Czech 3D printing company called Fillamentum has released the first ostensibly biodegradable filament, the stringy plastic used to extrude printed objects. Called NonOilen, the filament is made of a biologically based polylactic acid and polyhydroxy butyrate blend. This is the first biodegradable 3D-printed plastic on the market, and it is also food safe, which … Continued
By John Biggs -
Tech NewsGadgets
Will.i.am Is Back With a Stupid Face Mask
Overpriced connected face masks are a thing now—a side effect of the pandemic. The latest person to hop on the smart mask train is Will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas rapper with a penchant for developing tech that falls flat on its face. This time around, Will.i.am is partnering with Honeywell to create the, sigh, Xupermask … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogle
Google’s April Software Update Just Gave the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G a Big Performance Boost
The Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 weren’t exactly slouches when it came to processing power, but now a recent software update from Google has just given those phones a big boost in performance. While Google’s April software patch for Pixel phones is technically listed as a security update, it actually contains a number of … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
TikTok Ups Its Accessibility With Auto-Captions
TikTok’s giving creators a new tool to make their awful, awful memes a bit more accessible. On Tuesday, the company announced that creators could now turn on auto-captions for their clips in a push to help folks with hearing loss enjoy the app more. “Inclusivity is important because when people feel included, they’re more comfortable … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
eBay’s App Can Now Recognize and Automatically Make Listings for Trading Cards You Want to Sell
Who’d have thought that over 150 years after the first baseball cards were printed in the late 1860s that trading cards would still be a hot commodity? Every minute, almost 100 of them are sold on eBay, according to the company. So, to make the process smoother, it’s updating its app with image recognition capabilities … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
This 1.5-Pound Stainless Steel Dock Ensures Apple’s MagSafe Charger Always Stays Put
The iPhone 12’s new MagSafe charging is a marquee feature, but there’s one thing no one ever mentions: Separating the phone from a charger isn’t effortless, which means when you reach for the device and forget it’s being charged, you can yank the cable a little too hard. Nomad’s solution to the problem is a … Continued
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Tech NewsTransportation
Vietnam Lifts Ban on Boeing 737 Max Aircraft
The government of Vietnam has lifted a ban on Boeing 737 Max aircraft, according to Reuters, citing Vietnamese state media. The ban on the planes was put in place following two crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. The Civil Aviation Authority Of Vietnam originally grounded all Boeing 737 Max planes along with … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsNews
Japan’s Central Bank Launches One-Year Test of Digital Currency
Japan’s central bank has started trials of a new digital currency in an effort to experiment with how it might be used, the Bank of Japan announced on Monday. The announcement comes after the Chinese government revealed it was doing something very similar with a digital yuan in early March. “The Bank of Japan has … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsNews
Clubhouse Is Partnering With Stripe to Offer Direct Payments, and Creators Will Get 100% of the Profits
The invite-only audio chat app Clubhouse is sweetening the deal for creators by offering a direct payment option that would allow them to reap 100% of the rewards. In a Monday blog post, Clubhouse announced that it would partner with the payment processing startup Stripe to offer direct payments on the app for the first … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Is Yahoo Answers Dying? Yes, Son, Yes It Is
Yahoo announced on Monday that it will soon send its Answers service to that great trash bin in the sky, bringing about 15 years’ worth of absurd, typo-ridden questioning and equally irreverent answering to an end. Yahoo Answers will be read-only as of April 20, and fully defunct by May 4, the company said. After … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
This Soap Bottle Is Made of Soap and Also Dispenses Soap
I’m always trying to reduce the amount of plastic I throw away, and this new Kickstarter project’s clever solution, which uses soap to create a multi-purpose, zero-waste container, has me intrigued. Project Soapbottle, which was initially conceived by Jonna Breitenhuber as part of a student design contest, is a new line of packaging that uses solid … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Amazon Fixed the Echo Show 10’s Biggest Feature Failure
Amazon’s Echo Show 10 is a neat gadget for its ability to move with you while you stream videos and make calls to friends and family. But for a smart display whose entire reason for being its support for these uses, the Echo Show lacked one major app used universally during the pandemic: Zoom. When … Continued
By Catie Keck -
Tech NewsPolitics
HBO’s Q: Into the Storm Lays Out Its Case That 8Chan Admin Ron Watkins Is Q
The final episodes of HBO’sQ: Into the Storm aired on Sunday evening, and it’s put all its cards on the table. Director Cullen Hoback believes he’s unmasked Q, the unknown individual or individuals behind the sprawling, pro-Donald Trump QAnon conspiracy theory that asserts the Democratic Party and Hollywood are ruled by an Illuminati-style cabal of … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsRobots
Don’t Worry, This Chainsaw-Equipped Robot Arm Is, Uh, Perfectly Safe. Yeah.
Raleigh-based engineer Shane Wighton was given a robotic arm to test, but instead of making it do normal activities like the YMCA dance, Wighton decided to strap a chainsaw to that sucker and make a low-polygon dog out of foam board. Shane, don’t you know this is how robot uprisings start? You give one robot … Continued
By John Biggs -
Tech NewsNews
Supreme Court Sides With Google in Historic API Copyright Fight Against Oracle
The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with Google over Oracle in one of the highest-profile copyright disputes to ever hit Silicon Valley. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Google didn’t violate copyright law when it used around 11,000 lines of Oracle-created code when developing its Android system back in 2005. The ruling stands to … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
‘Deep Nostalgia’ Can Now Make Old Photos of Your Relatives Dance and Blow Kisses
According to MyHeritage, since the launch of its Deep Nostalgia tool five weeks ago, over 72 million photo animations have been created through its site—and that was with just 10 different options available. Today, the company is doubling the number of unique movements that can be applied to still photos in Deep Nostalgia, including one … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Google Is Cracking Down on Apps That Can See Every Other App You Have Installed
As Google continues to upgrade its privacy and security policies, it’s now making an important change in Android that will significantly limit the ability of Android apps to see all the other apps you have installed on your device. In a recent announcement for developers, Google outlined an update to its policies that will restrict … Continued
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Tech NewsApple
Apple’s New iMac Might Finally Go Big
A new iMac is coming, and this time around, rumors suggest that Apple is finally ready to supersize the display—or at least release a bigger version than the 27-inch display that we’re all used to. Per MacRumors, credible leaker l0vetodream tweeted over the weekend: “The iMac’s screen is really big, bigger than the biggest one.” … Continued