-
Tech NewsFacebook
Facebook Blocks Suicide Livestream of French Euthanasia Supporter
Facebook has banned a terminally ill Frenchman from livestreaming after he announced plans to broadcast his death on the platform, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday per French 24. Alain Cocq, 57, suffers from a painful and incurable illness that causes the walls of his arteries to stick together and has said he expects to die within … Continued
-
Tech NewsNews
What Outdoor Learning Could Look Like During the Pandemic
Although we’ve been talking about how to safely reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic for months, it can sometimes feel like we’re not any closer than we were back then. In recent weeks, schools in some states have opened their doors, employing a variety of measures to try to keep the virus out of their … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Even a Federal Judge Agrees That the FBI and NSA Are Flouting Civil Liberty Safeguards
The National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation violated thousands of people’s civil liberties by exploiting systems intended for sussing out foreign intelligence and criminal activity, a federal judge found per the Washington Post. In a December 2019 opinion first made public Friday, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, James E. … Continued
-
Tech NewsNews
DoD: Sorry, Amazon, Microsoft’s Still Getting That $10 Billion JEDI Contract. Sucks to Suck.
After a monthslong investigation by the Pentagon, the Department of Defense said Friday that it’s sticking with Microsoft for its $10 billion cloud computing contract. And Amazon is not happy. As a quick refresher: Microsoft was originally awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract in October 2019 after facing off against other tech … Continued
-
Tech NewsNews
The Winamp Skin Museum Is X-Tremely Gnarly
At this moment, thousands of people around the world are booting up the just-released remaster of the classic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game and hearing those plinking Primus riffs on the soundtrack for the first time in a couple of decades. If you’re one of the people who are about to spend the weekend … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech NewsStreaming Services
HBO Max’s Ad Plan Is a Disaster
As WarnerMedia gears up for the release of a planned ad model for its recently launched HBO Max product, its parent company has reportedly run into a number of problems—including the fact that absolutely no one wants ads on premium content, including some of HBO’s business partners. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Information … Continued
By Catie Keck -
Tech NewsGadgets
Keep Pregnancy Tests Dumb
I love a good teardown as much as the next gadget nerd, but two teardowns of digital pregnancy tests on Twitter illustrate how “technology” for reproductive health often misses the mark. The first teardown comes via Twitter user @CrunkComputing: “My wife had been checking if she was pregnant, initially with test strips, which can cost … Continued
-
Tech NewsNews
‘Stars and Stripes’ Ordered to Stop Printing
USA Today reports that in a recent, previously unpublicized memo, the Pentagon’s acting director of Defense Media Activity, Col. Paul Haverstick (Army), ordered the publisher of Stars and Stripes to present a plan to discontinue its print publication by September 15. “The last newspaper publication (in all forms) will be September 30, 2020,” Haverstick wrote, … Continued
By Dell Cameron -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Prison Phone App Exposes Millions of Inmate Messages and Personal Data
As many incarcerated individuals are having their visiting privileges restricted due to the global pandemic, Telmate’s Getting Out app has become one of the only options that families separated by incarceration have to keep in touch. But according to research published today, hundreds of millions of intimate messages from many millions of inmates were sitting … Continued
-
Tech NewsHellfeed
Facebook’s Militia ‘Mistake,’ FCC’s Speech Police, and TikTok’s Secret Sauce
The never-ending battle over content moderation is only intensifying as we get closer to the 2020 elections and beyond. We’re trying out new formats to round up and summarize developments in this space—both in the interest of everyone’s sanity and to allow more time for the ramifications and context of the outcomes of various screaming … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Peloton’s Plan to Meet Pandemic Demand: Cheaper Treadmill, Pricier Bike, and New Classes
As gyms and boutique fitness studios throughout much of the country remain closed to avoid becoming covid-19 hot spots, home workout equipment sales have skyrocketed. Peloton, maker of a popular connected bike and extremely expensive connected treadmill, has benefitted from the forced shift to home fitness. Now the company is reportedly preparing to launch new … Continued
-
Tech NewsComputers
Every Laptop Coming This Fall
Just when it feels like the deluge of new laptops with Intel’s 10th-gen processors and Nvidia’s RTX Super graphics cards have finally trickled to a stop, Intel goes ahead and announces the launch of its 11th-gen Tiger Lake processor. You know, the one that’s actually a system-on-chip (SoC) with integrated RAM and Intel’s latest integrated … Continued
-
Tech NewsNews
Drone Makes It Rain Weed in Tel Aviv
A drone over Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square dropped hundreds of bags of weed on Thursday, setting off a mad scramble by onlookers to stock up, the Jerusalem Post reported. According to the Post, the giveaway was orchestrated by a Telegram group called Green Drone that advocates for the legalization of marijuana throughout Israel. (Medical marijuana … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
SpaceX’s Satellite ISP Now Boasts Download Speeds of More Than 100 Mbps
When Elon Musk and SpaceX proposed building an ISP comprised of satellites in low earth orbit, it seemed like a project straight out of sci-fi. And while SpaceX has launched less than 800 of its eventual 12,000 satellite goal, the company just announced that its space-based internet service Starlink is already capable of delivering download … Continued
-
Tech NewsNews
The Car That Hit Times Square Protesters Used to Be a Police Cruiser
Last night, New York City police were filmed in Times Square, gently ushering Black Lives Matter counter-protesters into the back of a black sedan, which very much resembled a police cruiser, with New York plates. The same car almost immediately plowed through a crowd of protesters. While the driver could easily have killed someone, no … Continued
-
Tech NewsNews
T-Mobile Rolls Out Free Limited Internet for Millions of Students
As part of T-Mobile’s controversial megamergerwith Sprint, the “un-carrier” promised to provide up to 10 million low-income households with free broadband internet access in order to help children navigate the growing “homework gap” that’s become a problem as classrooms incorporate digitized lessons. On Thursday, T-Mobile announced the launch of the program at a time when … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech NewsFakes
Comedian Sued For Creating Fake ‘Antifa’ Events on Facebook
The mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana has filed a lawsuit against a 28-year-old comedian who created three fake events on Facebook that claimed “antifa” was coming to the town. Police responded to one of the fake events in late August with at least 30 squad cars and heavily armed officers, shutting down a shopping mall and … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Seven Years Later, Court Finally Finds Illegal NSA Spying Program to Have Been Illegal
The National Security Agency’s program to hoover up details on billions of domestic phone calls and text messages in the U.S. was illegal, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday, and was probably an unconstitutional abuse of power. Per Politico, the findings were unanimously handed down in a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case concerning … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsFacebook
Facebook Is Helping Encourage Voters to Break the Law
On Thursday, President Trump doubled down on the instructions he had given voters the day before: that those who voted by mail should also show up at polling locations and verify that their votes have been counted, and, if not, vote again. What Trump has now repeatedly directed people to do is a crime, whether … Continued
By Dell Cameron