Gizmodo

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Uber drivers in the UK should be classified as workers and entitled to both paid vacation time and the minimum wage, according to a ruling Friday by Britain’s Supreme Court. But Uber’s London office is already disputing the scope and relevance of the ruling for its British drivers, insisting that its own rules have…Read more...

Facebook has endangered public safety by blocking news on the platform in Australia during the covid-19 pandemic, according to Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg a high-ranking official in the country’s ruling Liberal Party.

While the world eagerly watched Thursday as NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars, snapshots flooded social media of excited viewers striking a pose on the Red Planet.Read more...

Microsoft has announced an update to its productivity suite, Office 2021, for consumers along with a variant specifically geared toward businesses, Office Long Term Servicing Channel.Read more...

If you thought the GOP couldn’t mess with our already broken internet infrastructure more than they already have, well, they’re just full of surprises. According to Ars Technica, House Republicans introduced a new bill on Tuesday that would ban municipal broadband networks nationwide. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers…Read more...

A new study out Thursday is one of the first to try measuring deaths during the pandemic that were caused not by the virus itself but by the economic devastation it sparked. The study estimates that the spike in unemployment seen last spring helped cause an additional 30,000 deaths among working-age adults in the U.S.…Read more...

The city of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit in California state court against Polymer80, a company it says has flooded the country with untraceable firearms by shipping customers all the components necessary to build a gun in minutes.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has warned state residents that over a year’s worth of data—including customer addresses and license plate numbers—may have been compromised in a recent cyberattack on a third-party contractor.Read more...

A massive cold snap hit 25 states in the south and central U.S. this week, unleashing chaos. Millions are without power. Hospitals are being evacuated even as people suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning after trying to heat their homes with grills, generators, and other dangerous items. The air is more toxic than…Read more...

It all came down to this. Hundreds of hours of work, spread over seven months, all culminating in a single press of a button. If it worked? Glory. If it didn’t? Agony. And while one would assume a moment of this magnitude would go off without a hitch, history proved that not to be the case. Yes, I’m being incredibly…Read more...

All six wheels of NASA’s Perseverance are firmly and safely on the Martian surface, following a successful landing of the rover in Jezero crater today.

Facebook, which along with Google accounts for around 60% of advertiser spending online, has knowingly built some of its astonishing success on incorrect data, newly unsealed court documents allege. Incidentally, this may pose a problem for a business which generates over 90% of its revenue from selling ads.

It’s been a hard week for everyone living in Texas as blackouts, boil notices, and bone-chilling cold rattle the state. But data shared with Earther shows the suffering maybe be particularly acute for the millions of Texans living near oil wells and refineries.Read more...

Our favorite streaming device just got a major update.

Since November, hundreds of thousands of farmers and their supporters have been protesting across India, calling for an end to a series of new agricultural laws introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. The demonstrations have seen record-breaking turnout in the streets—and sparked historic…Read more...

Being a teacher is rough. Being a teacher trying to teach a class of more than 20 students virtually in the middle of a pandemic is even rougher. Not only do you have to come up with clever ways to teach the same material and keep your class engaged, but you often find yourself troubleshooting your students’ tech…Read more...

Apple’s first 5G phones arrived mere months ago, but the company is already exploring the future of cellular connectivity.Read more...

Google just announced the release of the first developer preview build of Android 12, giving us a few hints at what changes to expect when the software upgrade rolls out widely.Read more...

Attempting to get ahead of cryptocurrency miners who might snatch up a good chunk of RTX 3060 stock when the GPU goes on sale next week, Nvidia announced this morning it now has a dedicated card for professional mining.

Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show—the one and only—is finally going to be more easily accessible to fans with its arrival on Disney+ this week. You might be so excited you’re just going to dive in headfirst, but if you’re down to skip around a bit, we have some suggestions for the best of the best.Read more...

Springhares are cute as can be, but their fur looks kind of dull under normal conditions. When cast under UV light, however, their fur comes alive, featuring vibrant patches of red, orange, and pink. As new research shows, these creatures are now one of only a handful of mammals known to emit a biofluorescent glow.

It snowed in the Middle East on Wednesday, covering parts of Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and Israel in rare white blanket. The region is known more for being dry and hot than snowstorms. But a huge dip in the jet stream similar to what’s happening in Texas allowed polar air to plunge from…Read more...

As powerful workstations slowly but surely work to remaster all the world’s old film and video footage to higher resolutions and frame rates using machine learning techniques, you’d assume that one piece of footage would have been a top priority. But apparently Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video has…Read more...

More real-time WallStreetBets drama, the David and Goliath tale of class and meme warfare that has it all, will unfold before our very eyes today in a Congressional hearing at noon, ET. Possibly aware that at least two forthcoming movies and two TV shows need some good material, the House Committee on Financial…Read more...

With Sony having teased a new cinema camera launch next week, it seems Blackmagic Design is sneaking in a new product ahead of Sony’s announcement with its updated Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro.Read more...

The veil between dreamworld and reality may be thinner than we thought. In a new study released Thursday, scientists in four countries say they’ve shown it’s possible to communicate with people while they’re lucid dreaming. At least some of the time, the dreamers were reportedly able to respond to yes-or-no questions…Read more...

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G (Mystic Bronze) | $1,791 | Amazon

The capacitive technology that allows us to physically interact with touchscreens isn’t just limited to our fingers or a fancy stylus. Hopefully, someone somewhere is polishing up a Nobel Prize because a researcher discovered that pastries work with touchscreens too, and with some clever baking techniques, an iPad is…Read more...

Paddington 3 is real, happening, and our friend. Get a look at HBO Max’s animated Aquaman spinoff. The Riverdale gang goes on the hunt for Mothman. Go behind the scenes on the new Tom & Jerry movie. Plus, new clips from Chaos Walking, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Fear the Walking Dead. Spoilers now!

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Open-ear audio is having a moment. JLab and Bose both have sunglasses that double as discreet headphones, but perhaps the most intriguing open-ear technology I’ve seen so far is the SoundBeamer, a device that can supposedly beam sound directly into your ears and your ears alone.Read more...

The Oculus Quest 2 has finally given us what we want from virtual reality headsets: simplicity in its standalone operation, affordability in its $300 starting price, and a selection of decent games that’s wide enough to actually make it worth buying the headset. If you already own or are planning to buy an Oculus…Read more...

In a time when even basic human interactions are discouraged for safety reasons, there’s an even greater demand for alternate sources of companionship. But if you’re not ready for the responsibilities of a dog or a cat, Panasonic has introduced yet another companion robot that dutifully pays attention to you through…Read more...

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Bitcoin miners in Malaysia have stolen over $2 million worth of electricity since the end of 2020, according to police in the state of Johor Bahru and a new report from the Malay Mail. Police reportedly seized 1,746 bitcoin mining machines this week and have arrested seven men who authorities have claimed are part of…Read more...

Facebook blocked dozens of charity groups, nonprofit organizations, and even random big box retailers in Australia late Wednesday (early Thursday, local time), a move that appears to be collateral damage from Facebook’s ban on news in the country. Facebook even briefly blocked its own page in Australia, according to …Read more...

The massive energy crisis that’s been overwhelming Texas ever since the state was hit with a record cold snap is now threatening some of its most vulnerable residents, and at least two hospitals in the Austin metro area were being evacuated on Wednesday night due to a lack of hot water and heat.

YouTube TV has announced it’s bringing several premium features to the service.Read more...

E-commerce giant and surveillance technology purveyor Amazon is already in your walls, your doorbell and your secret union drive Facebook group, but the question on everybody’s lips is: When will they be more in the sky? The answer, apparently, is soon.Read more...

Keith Gill, also known as “Roaring Kitty” on Twitter/YouTube and “DeepFuckingValue” on Reddit, is facing a proposed class action lawsuit for his role in the massive GameStop short squeeze orchestrated by Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets board, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

After a seven-month journey to the Red Planet, the Perseverance rover is finally ready to touch down on Mars. We’ve got you covered for the historic landing, as you can follow the dreaded “seven minutes of terror” live right here.Read more...

Nintendo held its first full-length Direct in nearly two years today, and it was chock-full of smaller announcements and some neat surprises.

Early on in the pandemic New York Attorney General Letitia James promised an investigation into Amazon’s safety practices and, by god, she delivered.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged three members of “Lazarus,” a DPKR-sponsored hacker cell that, since its inception, has reportedly stolen over a billion dollars—much of which was in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and attained through various cyber campaigns. The DOJ has called the group “a criminal…Read more...

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As lawmakers in Australia continue to insist on moving forward with legislation to force Facebook to pay publishers for the right to link to their stories, the social network has decided to block users in the country from sharing or viewing news articles on its platform.Read more...

In addition to supporting fancy graphics on next-gen titles, one of the goals of the Xbox Series S and X was to help improve the appearance of older titles. Today, Microsoft’s FPS Boost tech has arrived to enhance five existing games.Read more...

The daughter of late, legendary film director Stanley Kubrick—The Shining, Space Odyssey: 2001, Dr. Strangelove, etc—is on board with extremist groups like the Proud Boys, Boogaloo, and QAnon, according to a Wednesday report in the Daily Beast.

A teardown of the DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5 appears to have zeroed in on several contributing factors to the issue of joystick drift.