WeWork, the coworking space startup, just filed paperwork detailing its financials with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering and boy, oh boy, does it throw away a lot of money.Read more...
Illinois will become the first state in the nation to require that insurance companies cover the EpiPen auto-injector for anyone 18 years of age or younger. The state bill, which passed 92-0 in the Illinois House and 51-0 in the state Senate, will take effect on January 1, 2020.Read more...
The first time I picked up the Jaybird Vista truly wireless earbuds, a thought started looping through my head: These things are impossibly tiny and light. Even the case is pocket-sized. The sheer portability reminded me of AirPods, but there’s an essential distinction. The new Jaybird earbuds are practically…Read more...
The first Misfit Vapor was nearly vaporware. Its successor, the Vapor 2, tried to fix the original smartwatch’s issues but was ultimately hindered by an outdated processor. Today, Misfit launched its third stab at a smartwatch with the Vapor X—and at least on paper, it looks like it could be a substantial improvement…Read more...
Increasingly, it seems, our gadgets are not wholly owned by us—that when some component breaks, we are at the mercy of the giant companies that charge us out the ears for repair parts and services. One of the tech industry’s favorite lines of defense with respect to upholding repair monopolies is “safety,†but…Read more...
by James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson on io9, shared on (#4N95K)
Tiffany Haddish makes her pitch to be Nubia in DC’s cinematic universe. Idris Elba wants back in on Thor: Love and Thunder somehow. Jeph Loeb clarifies Marvel TV’s approach to the arrival of Marvel Studios’ Disney+ output. Plus, a sequel to May the Devil Take You, more American Horror Story: 1984 teasing, and...Urkel…Read more...
Juul pulled almost all of its flavored nicotine pods other than menthol and mint off the market last year under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, which under recently departed Administrator Scott Gottlieb was pursuing a hardline stance on the vaping industry and specifically on Juul, which has been…Read more...
The white supremacist accused of killing 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, currently has no access to internet, TV, newspapers, and radio. Yet he’s still able to get his hateful ideology out into the world, all thanks to extremists on 4Chan and lax rules about letter writing in New Zealand prisons.
The chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Chairman Joe Simons, acknowledged in an interview on Tuesday that perhaps maybe, just maybe, one outcome of an FTC task force inquiry into whether tech giants violated anticompetition laws could be forcing them to break up into smaller companies, according to reports in …Read more...
The Federal Aviation Administration has “banned select MacBook Pro†units from flying in the air after Apple issued a warning that some contained batteries that pose a fire risk, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Well now, it appears the deck has been shuffled yet again in the ongoing streaming wars, and it looks as though CBS may be shaping up to be a stronger contender than we’d previously anticipated.Read more...
Facial recognition systems are still far from accurate, and yet government agencies continue to push for its deployment. To illustrate the existing flaws of the tech, the ACLU conducted another test of Amazon’s Rekognition software, which inaccurately identified one in five California lawmakers as matches to a mugshot…Read more...
Following criticism, IMDb has decided to allow transgender film professionals to remove their birth names in credits—in some circumstances. As it now stands, the website will allow users to remove a person’s birth name if that person no longer voluntarily goes by it, and it’s not widely known to the public.Read more...
Most people familiar with face-scanning software suite Amazon Rekognition, its place in the surveillance state, and its questionable efficacy are apt to fear what the consequences of such a technology might be when deployed against civilians. As the company was delighted to point out, fear is also also the most recent…Read more...
Facebook has paid hundreds of contractors around the world to transcribe some of its users Messenger messages, according to a new Bloomberg report. The social network stopped doing the transcriptions a week ago, following public outrage after journalists revealed that Amazon, Google, and Apple employed similar teams…Read more...
A vaccine for the most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection in the U.S.—the bacterial disease chlamydia—is now a substantial step closer to reality. On Monday, researchers reported that two of their vaccine candidates were found to be safe in a phase 1 clinical trial of 35 women. Though the trial wasn’t…Read more...
by Brian Kahn on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to Giz on (#4N7KQ)
New York attorney general Letitia James has had a busy start to the week. On Monday, she announced plans to sue the Trump administration over its gutting of the Endangered Species Act. And on Tuesday, she along with 21 other state attorneys general and seven cities announced they were suing the administration over its …Read more...
Nearly four years ago, a lone bankruptcy lawyer sued Square, the payment processor run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, challenging the app’s terms of use—despite never signing up. As of yesterday, the case will proceed, thanks to an opinion issued by the California Supreme Court that could have wide-reaching implications…Read more...
Oregon has joined several other states in a lawsuit to stop the planned T-Mobile merger with Sprint, adding strength to a movement to stop the shrinking telecom market from becoming even less competitive.Read more...
Over half an hour before ABC News first reported that sex offender and accused human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein had been found unresponsive in his Manhattan prison cell, alleged details of his death appeared on anonymous message board 4Chan, Buzzfeed reported.Read more...
by Jamie Kitman on Jalopnik, shared by Andrew Couts t on (#4N7FC)
Who can forget Dieselgate, the headline-grabbing, reputation-destroying pollution scandal of 2015? In which Volkswagen AG, one of the planet’s largest carmakers, was exposed for installing defeat devices on up to 11 million of its diesels to trick regulators around the world into thinking these cars complied with…Read more...
An astrophotographer has spotted what looks to be a moon orbiting the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission.Read more...
To coincide with the launch of the Nintendo Switch Online service which included a bunch of classic 8-bit games as part of the subscription, Nintendo also released a pair of NES gamepad shaped Joy-Cons to round out the retro experience. So putting two and two together, a recent Nintendo FCC filing for a wireless Super…Read more...
You can’t put a price tag on the value of sticking it to the man—specifically, trying to own an official surveillance system. Except maybe when you are owned right back.
A rare, sometimes fatal viral infection spread by mosquitoes has resurfaced in Massachusetts—and has likely sent at least one man into a coma. Over the weekend, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported that a local resident contracted the Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus. Dozens of communities…Read more...
Raise your hand if Calculus 101 made you want to tear your hair out in college. If so, then you might be one of the people MasterClass Cofounder Aaron Rasmussen had in mind when creating his new startup Outlier.org. Starting this fall semester, the new venture will offer two classes—Calculus I and Introduction to…Read more...
by Brian Kahn on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to Giz on (#4N76A)
Greenland is on the front lines of climate change. This summer of fire and ice loss is indicative of the much larger shifts afoot. Yet while much has been made about the science of rising temperature, precious little research has been done on the impacts on the people who call the island home.Read more...
It seems Snap just can’t give up its obsession with techy camera glasses. That’s because after losing a buttload of money trying (and failing) to sell its first Spectacles, and later following up with a second model to little fanfare, today, Snap announced the Spectacles 3, which are somehow uglier than ever and come …Read more...
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gherig’s disease, is a neurodegenerative condition that affects muscle strength and control, eventually leaving patients unable to even hold their own heads up. To improve their quality of life, researchers and engineers at Columbia University have created a…Read more...
by James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson on io9, shared on (#4N6KA)
James Wan adds another movie to his endless list of production credits. Marlon Wayans wants in on a Plastic Man DC movie, should it ever happen. Zack Snyder shows off a nice camera and some corpses for his Netflix zombie movie. Plus, set pictures from the Jupiter’s Legacy adaptation, and new footage from It Chapter Two…Read more...
Between devices like the Osmo Mobile 2 and the Osmo Pocket, DJI doesn’t really have any competition when it comes to making portable gimbals. But that hasn’t stopped DJI from trying to make its gadgets even better with the new Osmo Mobile 3.Read more...
Hong Kong International Airport has been shut down for the second time in two days after pro-democracy protests disrupted normal operations. The airport, which handles 75 million passengers a year, is the eighth busiest in the world and a major international hub in Asia. Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam warned…Read more...
A previously announced settlement in a class action lawsuit against Google over claims of defective microphones in first-generation Pixel phones and failure to honor warranty claims has been finalized and a website set up to process claims, per the Verge. Those eligible for payouts may receive up to $500, but anyone…Read more...
Two new clinical treatments for the infamous Ebola virus may result in it becoming a “preventable and treatable†disease, the BBC reported on Monday, with a study of four drugs finding that two treatments called REGN-EB3 and mAb114 were effective in limiting mortality from the disease.
Here’s a story that’ll haunt you into your golden years. Doctors say their elderly patient endured a nightmarish week of his throat bleeding out and weeks more of surgeries and hospital care, all because surgeons had forgotten to remove his dentures—dentures that then became lodged in his throat.Read more...
A pair of tragic stories reported this past weekend are raising awareness of a threat to both people and animals in the water: algae. At least four dogs in two states along the Southeast U.S. have reportedly died from swimming in freshwater lakes and ponds filled with toxic blue-green algae. And as the climate warms,…Read more...
by Mike Fahey on Kotaku, shared by Andrew Couts to Gi on (#4N5EA)
Since I became paralyzed last year, I’ve spent a lot of effort figuring out how to reconcile my need for quick access to game consoles with my limited mobility. Viotek’s new LinQ portable 15.6-inch touchscreen monitor appears to have ended my quest. It’s exactly what I needed to get all my gaming hardware in one…Read more...
It feels like it’s been years—rather than mere months—since Apple introduced its roster of original programming for its forthcoming streaming service Apple TV+. But even prior to its official announcement, reports were already swirling that its offerings were so dull that the product was being referred to internally…Read more...
It’s taken a little over 12 years, but one of the amazing technologies featured in the game Portal has finally been recreated in real life. No, sadly not the actual portal-making gun, but the autonomous robotic turret sentries that can identify and dispose of targets. Instead of live ammo, however, this 3D-printed…Read more...
Personal blogging social network Tumblr—a waning haven for artists and fandoms—will exit the portfolio of current owners Verizon and be parted off to Automattic Inc., owners of Wordpress, another blogging platform with social elements, according to the Wall Street Journal.Read more...
An attempt to prove Einstein’s hallmark theory of gravity revealed something even freakier: an unprecedented flash from the black hole at the center of our galaxy.Read more...