Apple’s FaceID authentication system started moving smartphone users away from relying on fingerprints to secure their mobile devices, which are arguably less secure. But researchers think they’ve come up with an even better biometric tool for protecting a device that uses a part of the body that’s nearly impossible…Read more...
A pinky finger bone, some teeth, and a lower jaw. That’s all the physical evidence we have of the mysterious Denisovans, an extinct group of hominins closely related to the Neanderthals. Remarkable new research offers a physical reconstruction of the Denisovans based on genetic evidence, providing our first potential…Read more...
Now that Apple has announced its latest batch of iPhones, it’s time for Huawei to hit back with some high-end phones of its own, the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro.Read more...
by Emily Long on Lifehacker, shared by Andrew Couts t on (#4QQ46)
Electric vehicles (EVs) are getting cheaper—so whether you’re looking for a way to save on the hassle and cost of gas, shrink your carbon footprint, or simply zip around in a new Tesla, there are lots of reasons to consider a hybrid or electric car.
Happy iOS 13 day! If you’ve got an iPhone 6s or something newer, get ready for your iOS 13 update, which will roll out today. We’ve seen beta releases and on-stage demos, but here’s the definitive list of all the new features and settings you can now play around with on your phone.Read more...
Getting Impossible Foods’ plant-based burger alternative from the lab and onto consumers’ grills has been a long, drawn out process. But the company has announced that starting tomorrow, the new Impossible Burger will finally be available to purchase in grocery stores—assuming you live in California.
by James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson on io9, shared on (#4QQ2P)
Another familiar face is back in action for Arrow’s last season. Jessica Lange is pretty much done with American Horror Story at this point. The CW has set its sights on The Archive for its next YA adaptation. Plus, what’s to come on The Purge and Nancy Drew, and Batman hunts down the deadliest game of all: the Scooby…Read more...
No one is sure what will happen later this week in Rachel, Nevada—the location of a planned Aliengate festival that evolved out of a viral Facebook event—but local authorities are already considering taking legal action to cover $250,000 the county plans to spend to prepare for the potential onslaught of visitors.Read more...
President Donald Trump claims the homeless population in San Francisco is polluting the ocean and says the Environmental Protection Agency will issue some kind of notice to the city within a week, according to reporters traveling with the president on Air Force One last night. Trump said that “needles†and “other…Read more...
The FBI tried to get the CEO of encrypted phone company Phantom Secure, Vincent Ramos, to install a backdoor in his service so that the agency could spy on Sinaloa Cartel members, Motherboard reported on Wednesday.
North Korea is developing its own cryptocurrency—at least according to Alejandro Cao de Benos, a Spanish aristocrat and IT consultant who serves as a sort of international liaison for the country’s totalitarian, militaristic government.
by Cheryl Eddy on io9, shared by Tom McKay to Gizmodo on (#4QP83)
Nothing brings friends together like a shared meal—but what happens when one friend does all the cooking, and then the other proceeds to gobble everything down without sharing? Tsuneo Goda’s wonderful stop-motion tale Mogu & Perol digs into this dicey situation.
by Jack Crosbie on Splinter, shared by Tom McKay to G on (#4QP1X)
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that WeWork CEO Adam Neumann once fired a bunch of employees and then, a few weeks later, tried to sooth the pain for his remaining workers by giving them tequila shots and hosting a concert by DMC of the legendary rap group Run-DMC.Read more...
Mere days before Microsoft workers are set to walk out of their jobs and publicly call on their employer to reduce carbon emissions and sever its ties with fossil fuel companies, the tech giant has announced a major partnership with two of the biggest corporations in the oil industry. Microsoft employees have…Read more...
Ostensibly this morning’s Senate subcommittee hearing was intended to be an assessment of what social media platforms are doing, and what they ought to be doing better, as mass shootings and the monsters who commit them continue to rain tragedy on communities around the world.Read more...
by Yessenia Funes on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to on (#4QNWD)
In California, more and more cities are moving to ban the expansion of natural gas lines in a bid to prevent further climate change. On Tuesday, San Jose became the latest—and also the largest—city to issue a ban, which will go into effect come 2020.Read more...
A report compiled by an independent group of experts claims that governments and NGOs are woefully unprepared for the next big pandemic, while subsequently warning of a “very real threat†for a global-scale pandemic to kill 50 million to 80 million people.
A California-based security company on Wednesday revealed its researchers had discovered more than 1.7 terabytes of proprietary telecommunications data left publicly online, including hardware specifications for a lawful surveillance device used throughout the Russian Federation.
Some of the most serendipitous discoveries about nature can be prompted by just about anything, like finding the first known venomous frog by accidentally grabbing the business end of one, or revealing a new owl species by eavesdropping on its unplaceable hooting. Or, perhaps, you might stumble upon a really weird…Read more...
Gifs lit up Web 1.0 like Las Vegas—the torches, crystal balls, humping muppets, dancing babies, mailboxes opening and closing to indicate that you’ve got mail—all signaling that crimson castles, their divorced dads clubs, and in-browser spaceships were hip and exciting places to be. In honor of an arbitrary…Read more...
Just on the heels of finding three cubed numbers that sum to 42, scientists have passed another important milestone by finding three enormous cubes that sum to 3.Read more...
The hard-fought bill that may one day give full employee status to workers engaged in the gig economy spearheaded by companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash has finally been signed into law by the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom.Read more...
by James Whitbrook on io9, shared by Andrew Couts to on (#4QNHV)
In the mythos of Star Wars’ cosmic energies, the ability to exist after death as a Force Ghost is one of the most rare and powerful abilities a wielder of the Force can master. Or rather, attempt to master. Because if anything, despite its importance to the Star Wars saga at large, what we think we know about Force…Read more...
People at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease may be able to slow down the atrophy of their brains through regular aerobic exercise, a new study has found. The findings are a spot of good news for dealing with a disease that has proven seemingly impossible to treat.Read more...
India this week moved to ban e-cigarettes in a move that will see illegal use of the products punishable by up to three years in prison for repeat offenses. Separately, a mysterious halt on Juul sales in China comes just days after the devices were introduced to the market. All the while, lawmakers in the U.S. are…Read more...
by Kyle Mizokami on Foxtrot Alpha, shared by Andrew C on (#4QN30)
On September 14, some as-yet officially unknown perpetrators launched a complex attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities. The attack was apparently carried out by drones, cruise missiles, or both. It cut Saudi Arabia’s oil exports by half, a big deal considering the country supplies 10 percent of all oil worldwide.…Read more...
One of the largest and coolest collections of Soviet computers in the world resides in an apartment complex in Mariupol, Ukraine. Dmitriy Cherepanov started Club 8-bit with a small collection of computers built when the Soviet bloc was crafting its own personal computers.Read more...
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on io9, shared by Andrew Cou on (#4QN89)
HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show is exactly what its title tells you it is: a sketch comedy show centering and spotlighting a group of black, women comedians as they and a ridiculously impressive cast of guest stars act a damned fool in a variety of wild scenes. But in between the jokes and impressions, A Black Lady…Read more...
Hoping to avoid the failure that was the consumer version of Google Glass, Facebook has teamed up with Luxottica, the parent company of brands like Ray-Ban, to help with the development of its own augmented reality glasses, sources told CNBC. But it could still be at least three years before Facebook’s smart specs…Read more...
An experiment nearly two decades in the making has finally unveiled its measurements of the mass of the universe’s most abundant matter particle: the neutrino.Read more...
Street View has been with us since 2007, allowing us to spy on our old neighborhoods, see our front door on the internet, and generally travel the globe without getting up from the sofa. This ever-expanding digital library of locations has more uses than you might realize—and here we’ve listed some of our favorites.
by James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson on io9, shared on (#4QMJX)
Sony teases that “famous people†want to do a remake of The Princess Bride. No, Rihanna has not been cast as Batman’s Poison Ivy, but she’d like to be. Plus, production wraps on The Invisible Man, what to expect when The Flash and Van Helsing return, and another batch of footage from Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.…Read more...
You don’t need the new Sonos Move. It’s a $400 Sonos speaker that sounds an awful lot like a $180 Sonos speaker but with the added benefit of being portable. You can pick it up and carry it around. If you wander away from your wifi, no problem! The Move is the first Sonos that can stream music over a Bluetooth…Read more...
While the typical business laptops often get the job done, they’re usually heavy, ugly, and generally hard to love, which exactly what HP is trying to address with the new Elite Dragonfly.Read more...
Last year, Facebook launched Portal, its first hardware device, to tepid reviews. Today, Facebook is proving it can’t take a hint and is announcing three new Portal products: the Portal Mini, Portal TV, and a redesigned Portal.Read more...
President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border could destroy 22 archaeological sites in Arizona, according to a new report produced by the National Park Service. The report was obtained by the Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request but its findings may not matter to government…Read more...
by Tom McKay on Earther, shared by Tom McKay to Gizmo on (#4QKKM)
Donald Trump, fresh off moving to eviscerate lightbulb efficiency standards he thinks will make him look too orange and declaring war on the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, is reportedly set to revoke California’s ability to regulate vehicle emissions.Read more...
Snap, parent company of Snapchat, is trying to do the whole social media platform tries to lure journalistic outfits into producing content for them thing again, per a report in the Information on Tuesday.
The New York state Department of Health’s Public Health and Health Planning Council approved an emergency ban of all vaping products with flavors other than tobacco or menthol—and have doubtless started a mad rush on mint, mango, creme, and countless other types of vape juice—amid skyrocketing teen use and hundreds of…Read more...
by Germain Lussier on io9, shared by Tom McKay to Giz on (#4QKH2)
Amazon Studios just announced the filming location for its upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel show. And after searching far and wide it settled on...drumroll please...New Zealand!Read more...
by Katherine Krueger on Splinter, shared by Tom McKay on (#4QK8G)
In a lawsuit filed today in California, a woman alleges that her Lyft ride home from a Brooklyn bar became a nightmare as the driver kidnapped her at gunpoint and drove her far outside their intended route, across state lines into New Jersey, where she alleges she was gang-raped by the driver and at least two other…Read more...