Facebook wants to know as much about you as possible—if you let it. This week, the social giant launched a new app-based market research program called Study from Facebook. If you participate, you’ll get paid to run an app on their your phone that tracks what other apps you’ve installed and how you’re using them.
Read MoreDon’t throw away those old socks just yet. Read more… Reuse Your Old Socks to Make a Heating Pad or Dog Toy Source: Life Hacker
Read MoreGoogle is expanding the ability to use an Android phone as a physical two-factor authentication security key to include iOS devices (the feature previously launched in April, but only worked with Chrome OS, macOS, or Windows 10), as noted by 9to5Mac. Due to limitations on how iOS works, the process is slightly different here: instead
Read MoreSan Francisco is announcing a “bias mitigation tool” that uses basic AI techniques to automatically redact information from police reports that could identify a suspect’s race. It’s designed to be a way to keep prosecutors from being influenced by racial bias when deciding whether someone gets charged with a crime. The tool will be ready
Read MoreIn a surprise announcement, Google posted a tweet showing off the design of the upcoming Pixel 4. The tweet shows a square camera module on the back with two cameras, a depth sensor, and an LED flash. Well, since there seems to be some interest, here you go! Wait ’til you see what it can
Read MoreMIDI has been around for nearly forty years, but what do you do if you have an old ‘toy’ keyboard without MIDI? Or really any way to make it sound good? You could turn it into a player piano, and that’s exactly what [Alessandro] did with an old toy keyboard. It’s The Pianist Octopus, and
Read MoreBuying in bulk can be an empowering experience. The combination of the cost-savings, plus the satisfaction of not needing to buy that again for a while, can leave you feeling like you’ve managed to really cheat the system. Until you get home and realize that, uh, you don’t have room for this many cans of
Read MoreEarlier this month, one Rhode Island school district made headlines after giving some of its students—those with unpaid balances for school meals—cold sun butter and jelly sandwiches (along with milk and veggies) instead of hot meal items, available to all other students. Read more… How to Help Reduce School Lunch Debt Source: Life Hacker
Read MoreIt’s just trying to make extensions “safer.” Google says Chrome isn't killing ad blockers – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreJoin Cuddle Team Leader and Fishstick for some Slurp Juice at E3. Fortnite's Epic spectacular at E3 2019 – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreDigitizing vinyl is a lot harder than ripping a CD. An external CD drive costs $26 on Amazon; a record player with a digital output costs $250 or more. Plus you have to use special software, specify the beginning and end of each track, write out all the metadata, and make sure the record plays
Read MoreTwo very different electric scooter companies have united. Scooter tie-up: Bird acquires Scoot with aims to grow bigger, faster together – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreAlien-full and spoiler-free: Even Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth can’t elevate this average sci-fi spinoff. Men in Black: International review — A film that will be forgotten in a flash – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreKyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: SignalFX, which provides real-time cloud monitoring for infrastructure and apps, raises $75M Series E led by Tiger Global, following $45M Series D in May 2018 — Cloud computing’s growth shows no sign of plateauing, and that’s particularly true of segments like ecommerce, retail, transportation … SignalFX, which provides real-time cloud monitoring
Read MoreThe Fortnite developer continues to get bigger. Epic Games acquires video chat app Houseparty – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe Israel Electric Corporation, which provides the nation’s electricity and is responsible for much of the requisite infrastructure, is unhappy with Fortnite’s depiction of player characters freely climbing up electric poles. In an open letter by senior VP Oren Helman, the IEC notes that it has invested “enormous resources in educating the public about the
Read MoreIn an internal email shared with The Verge, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that YouTube is taking a “hard look” at its harassment policies and will consult “many groups, including people who have themselves experienced harassment,” as well as Google employee resource groups. During a meeting on Tuesday, Pichai, YouTube product and design SVP Neal
Read MoreLast August, San Francisco welcomed some electric scooters back into its midst, but it gave Bird (and Lime and Spin) the finger — making the city an afterthought in the scooter wars. But now, Bird has bought its way back into the city by purchasing Scoot, one of the two scooter companies that did get
Read MoreGoogle has long offered syncing between Google Photos and Google Drive, but it’s putting an end to that in the name of simplicity. “We’ve heard feedback that the connection between these services is confusing, so next month, we’re making some changes to simplify the experience across Drive and Photos,” Dan Schlosser and Jason Gupta, product
Read MoreMegan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch: Bird confirms it is acquiring electric scooter and moped startup Scoot, which was valued at ~$71M, meaning Bird can now operate shared scooters in San Francisco — Bird is acquiring electric scooter and moped startup Scoot, confirming TechCrunch’s previous report that the two companies were in acquisition talks. Bird confirms
Read MoreKyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Helium debuts $495 cryptocurrency-mining Helium Hotspots that offer free p2p networking, promising greater coverage than WiFi, as 100 could cover an entire city — Cellphone plans are expensive. The average person spends about $80 per month on their phone plan, according to price comparison engine Flipsy … Helium debuts 5 cryptocurrency-mining
Read MoreFor the past few months we’ve been running this series of Blacksmithing For The Uninitiated posts, exploring the art of forge work for a novice. It’s based upon my experience growing up around a working blacksmith’s business and becoming an enthusiastic if somewhat inexpert smith, and so far we’ve spent our time looking at the equipment
Read More{$inline_image} For the past few months we’ve been running this series of Blacksmithing For The Uninitiated posts, exploring the art of forge work for a novice. It’s based upon my experience growing up around a working blacksmith’s business and becoming an enthusiastic if somewhat inexpert smith, and so far we’ve spent our time looking at the
Read MoreI type all day. I swipe and tap on my phone. I scribble notes to myself on paper. I’m happy with my mostly-digital life. But every now and then I’ll get a handwritten note—from an old lady, usually—and I find myself wishing I practiced cursive more often. Those old ladies can write. Read more… How
Read MorePhone apps are funny things. You install ‘em with a couple of quick clicks from the Play Store, but you never actually see the associated files or have direct access to what’s downloaded. In the name of simplicity, our modern mobile operating systems have covered up the ugly inner workings of app installation and taken
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