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If your life won't be complete until you've gotten roasted by Gordon Ramsay like that dude in that Super Bowl ad , then Alexa can help make your dream come true. Ground Control, the same interactive audio company behind " Biden's Briefing " that uses the former VP's voice to read news, has released a new Alexa skill that brings the famous chef to your kitchen. Just say "Alexa, ask Gordon Ramsay what he thinks about my [insert food here]," and the skill will "critique" your work. Obviously, it can't actually give you a valid critique, but it's a surefire way to hear one of the chef's infamous/hilarious putdowns directed at you... especially when you know your "idiot sandwich" deserves it. Want a sample? In the video below, the user asks what Ramsay thinks of his dish, and the chef replied with "How can you do this to food, and [bleeping] sleep at night?" Sounds like a fun skill already. Source: Ground C...

Apple has yet to launch any of the original shows funded by its $1 billion war chest , but it's already losing part of its production team. Hollywood Reporter has learned that showrunner Bryan Fuller (of Star Trek and American Gods fame) has left Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories revival for the tech giant. The departure was "amicable," according to sources, and stemmed from creative differences. Reportedly, Fuller wanted to make a Black Mirror -style show that wasn't what Apple intended. Fuller wasn't new to the Amazing Stories continuation. He'd been around since 2015, when the series was attached to NBC and Spielberg wasn't involved. He's had some relatively short stints lately: he was booted from American Gods after the production company wanted to reduce the per-episode fee, and left Star Trek: Discovery over cost and casting issues with CBS. This is a significant blow, but not a dramatic one. Apple has several original shows ...

Ask Us Anything Every question you’ve ever wanted to know about how not to get sick, answered. Everyone wants to be that person that never gets sick. How do you become that individual? via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2BMj8gv"

The most remarkable thing about Waymo v. Uber is that so many of the people following the lawsuit are essentially rooting for Google to crush a smaller firm with a lawsuit. It’s a tale as old as time: a maverick upstart galls a bigger, more established competitor, and the bigger guy strikes back in the courts. It’s practically an American fairy tale, and yet Uber’s lawyer’s are hard-pressed to get this archetypal narrative to stick. Nobody sees Uber as the underdog. For one thing, through a collision of multiple scandals, Uber has become extraordinarily unpopular, and the discovery process in this lawsuit hasn’t done much to alleviate its reputation as an unethical, underhanded company. But the other part is that the supposed maverick... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2BhmUxd"

The US just took down one of the larger online crime organizations in recent memory -- certainly one of the largest prosecuted by the feds. Department of Justice officials have filed charges against 36 people allegedly involved with Infraud Organization (no really, that's the name), a global cybercrime ring with roots in the US as well as numerous other countries. Combined, the group is believed to have trafficked in stolen financial data (including up to 4 million cards), identities and contraband worth over $530 million in losses. And that's what they actually managed to accomplish. Reportedly, they hoped to inflict a total of $2.2 billion in damage. Law enforcement has only arrested 13 of the members so far, five of which are from the US and only one of which (Sergei Medvedev) is considered top brass. Ukraine resident Svyatoslav Bondarenko, who's believed to have founded Infraud back in 2010, isn't one of them. And while there are just five suspects still at larg...

Winter Olympics attendees from North Korea, as well as Iran, won’t be getting Samsung Galaxy Note 8 phones due to United Nations sanctions, the event’s organizers said today, as reported by AFP . This year, Samsung, for the second Olympics in a row, made a special version of the Galaxy Note 8 to distribute to athletes and organizers. It’s not the only promotion of its flagship phone that the tech giant engages in — the Note 8 has also heavily appeared on Korean dramas over the past year, as actors on TV shows tend to all use Samsung devices. Since the regular Note 8 phone costs $920 in South Korea, or 1,000,000 won, and the Olympic edition will no doubt be priced higher, it could be considered a luxury good, which is banned by the UN... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2BhXShd"

John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, died in his sleep this morning at the age of 71. EFF executive director Cindy Cohn shared the news in a blog post . "It is no exaggeration to say that major parts of the Internet we all know and love today exist and thrive because of Barlow's vision and leadership," she wrote. "He always saw the Internet as a fundamental place of freedom, where voices long silenced can find an audience and people can connect with others regardless of physical distance." Through the EFF, Barlow championed net neutrality and an open internet, often suing the federal government over its handling of online information and privacy matters. Barlow founded the EFF in 1990 alongside Mitch Kapor and John Gilmore, in response to what they saw as the government's overzealous, misguided and illegal attempts to police cyber crime. Here's how Barlow viewed his mission at the EFF, as he wrote in 1996 after the ...

Bryan Fuller has stepped down as showrunner for Apple’s science fiction anthology show Amazing Stories , reports The Hollywood Reporter . Fuller, the creator of Pushing Daisies and Hannibal , began developing the revival of the 1980s show in 2015 with NBC. Apple picked up the series in 2017 in its bid to create its own original content. T he H ollywood R eporter says Fuller departed the project over creative differences with Apple, which wanted a more family-friendly take than the darker Black Mirror -style show Fuller envisioned. This is a familiar story: Fuller spearheaded CBS’ revival of Star Trek , but stepped aside due to his workload on Amazing Stories and Starz’s American Gods . In November, he and Michael Green stepped down from work on A... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2Eak4IM"

The city of Berkeley, California is considering launching an initial coin offering (ICO) in a stated effort to reduce its dependence on federal funding. The ICO would raise funds by selling digital coins that would be backed by government municipal bonds, according to Business Insider , which spoke to a Berkeley city council member who described the plan. Governments ordinarily sell municipal bonds to finance new projects, and some in Berkeley’s government hope the addition of blockchain technology will make the venture more appealing to residents who might already be bitcoin investors. In theory, coin holders might also use the cryptocurrency within the local economy. Introducing a viable cryptocurrency for real-world transactions is... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2EPncey"

After years of testing , Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft has a launch window. NASA has given the go-ahead to the vehicle's first mission, which is now slated for late 2020. Appropriately, it's a straightforward resupply trip for the International Space Station. The company received the all-clear after hitting a slew of key NASA-approved design milestones. Out of the companies NASA picked to provide ISS resupply missions back in 2016, Sierra Nevada's vessel is the only aircraft-like design of the bunch -- the Orbital ATK and SpaceX offerings are capsules. That should give it an edge when it carries scientific experiments, as it can land on a runway and offload equipment immediately (crucial for time-sensitive science) instead of waiting for a recovery. There's a pressurized cabin for human-tended experiments. Dream Chaser might not serve its original purpose for long when the ISS isn't poised to receive funding past 2024 . Even so, it should h...

Technology There's more content to stream this year than you can shake a hockey stick at. There are lots of ways to watch this year's Olympics, even if you don't have cable anymore. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2shfy9R"

If you use Android, you might have come across a Progressive Web App or two in your Chrome journeys. Progressive Web Apps (not to be confused with Android’s native “Instant Apps”) use relatively fresh new web technologies to make websites work better offline or with intermittent connections, and often mimic native features like push notifications. For instance, Twitter and Flipboard both have PWAs that you can put on your Android home screen, and which behave like lightweight apps without the installation hassle. Well, Microsoft wants to get into the action . It’s bringing Progressive Web Apps (not to be confused with Universal Windows Platform apps, many of which are glorified websites) to Windows 10 with a new version of Edge that... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2E9jteA"

After its CEO launched one of its yet-to-be-available Roadsters into space yesterday, Tesla posted its largest quarterly loss while simultaneously posting a jump in revenue. Meanwhile, the company is still working towards its earlier goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s a week . In the fourth quarter ending on December 31st, the company lost $675.35 million dollars. During the same quarter in 2016, the company lost $121.38 million. But the company was able to grow revenue from $2.85 billion in Q4 2016 to $3.288 billion this past quarter. More than expected by analysts. It also announced that it expected to begin generating "positive quarterly income on a sustained basis" in 2018. Meanwhile, on the Model 3 production front, the company hopes to hit 2,500 Model 3s per week by the end of the first quarter and plans to be producing 5,000 Model 3s by the end of the second quarter. That should be good news to anyone waiting on reservations. During a third-quarter call with in...

The Department of Homeland Security has revealed that Russian forces have successfully accessed voter registration rolls of several US states in the months prior to the 2016 presidential election. Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity of the Department of Homeland Security, told NBC News that of they saw a targeting of 21 states, and "an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated." Developing... Source: NBC via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2BKSDYu"

Google Photos has been making themed videos from uploaded pictures for a while now. Originally introduced in late 2016, the AI-powered videos have already substituted for for an actual Mother's Day card. You can also see all your smiles from 2017 in a special selfie compilation video . Now Google is expanding its automatic video creation chops again with nine different themed movie sets that you can create via the Google Photos app or on the web. The service is rolling out to most countries today, with more to come over the next year. The themes are pretty self-explanatory; themed movie titles include "They Grow Up So Fast," "Meow Movie," "Selfie Movie," "Valentine's Day Movie" and "In Loving Memory." All you need to do is open the Google Photos app, tap on the Assistant tab and then tap on Movie. You can also make a quick flick on the web , too. Once you've chosen a theme and the people or pets to start in it, Google w...

The city of Seattle, Washington, claims that Facebook has been violating its 1977 campaign finance law, which states that those who accept advertising dollars from political campaigns be transparent with the public about the “ exact nature and extent of the advertising services ,” as reported by Fast Company . If Facebook is found to be at fault, it could be liable for $5,000 per violation. The issue began last December, when Seattle newspaper The Stranger attempted to request 2017 state election ad data from Facebook. Unsuccessful, Wayne Barnett, the executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, then sent Facebook a letter saying the company had until January 2nd to comply. Facebook requested a 30-day extension, which... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2nRQIrN"

Intel's Xeon chips normally reside in distant server rooms or brawny workstations . But that's not ideal for the modern internet, where connected cars , VPNs, streaming video and other tech frequently needs computing power somewhere in between. That's where its newly launched Xeon D-2100 processor might come into play. The system-on-a-chip is designed to bring the performance of a Xeon to the "edge" of a network, where that extra speed might be more effective. It includes up to 18 cores and the requisite hooks for four 10Gbps Ethernet ports, but uses 'just' 60W to 110W of power. In other words: you could tuck some of these into a local office without the demands that normally come with server chips. The company hasn't divulged pricing, although it's safe to presume you won't be buying one for home use. And in case you're wondering: yes, there will be software updates to make sure they aren't vulnerable to Meltdown and Spectre secur...

Police in China are now sporting glasses equipped with facial recognition devices and they're using them to scan train riders and plane passengers for individuals who may be trying to avoid law enforcement or are using fake IDs. So far, police have caught seven people connected to major criminal cases and 26 who were using false IDs while traveling, according to People's Daily . The Wall Street Journal reports that Beijing-based LLVision Technology Co. developed the devices. The company produces wearable video cameras as well and while it sells those to anyone, it's vetting buyers for its facial recognition devices. And, for now, it isn't selling them to consumers. LLVision says that in tests, the system was able to pick out individuals from a database of 10,000 people and it could do so in 100 milliseconds. However, CEO Wu Fei told the Wall Street Journal that in the real world, accuracy would probably drop due to "environmental noise." Additionally,...

Hulu is offering one free month of its live TV service as an apology to the customers whose streams were disrupted during the final moments of Super Bowl LII last Sunday. In an email sent to eligible customers, the company says it will automatically credit one month of subscription to users’ accounts as it continues to investigate what caused the issue. Impacted users on Sunday flocked to Twitter to notify Hulu’s support account, citing a variety of error messages from “rights restrictions” to “no content available.” Hulu says only a “small percentage” of users were affected, though it did not specify exactly how many and which markets. “We know this is an unacceptable experience for those viewers, and we sincerely apologize for the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2E8hYx3"

Yesterday, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket to much fanfare. After numerous delays due to upper-level winds, the rocket lifted off at 3:45 PM ET on Tuesday . The rocket worked perfectly, delivering the test payload into orbit (a red Tesla roadster) and coasting for six hours before performing another engine burn to take it deeper into the solar system. SpaceX was even able to land two of the three boosters in beautiful synchronization. The core booster was lost because of low propellant; it slammed into the ocean at around 300 miles per hour, 300 feet from the drone ship. This is a huge milestone for SpaceX. The question now is: What's next? There were a lot of expectations pinned on this rocket, if not this specific launch. It would have been disappointing (rather than catastrophic) if the rocket had failed; SpaceX could have attempted another Falcon Heavy launch in another few months, assuming the launch pad survived. It was a test flight, not a make-or-...

Eastern Arsenal Getting ever closer to Iron Man-like capabilities. China's defense contractors are entering the field in a major way. Here's the next generation of military exoskeletons. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2E8q0SE"

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has built a career on insulting people for their questionable cooking, and now he has his own Amazon Alexa skill where you can get his feedback on your kitchen talents. By asking, “Alexa, ask Gordon Ramsay what he thinks about my food,” you can recreate the vibe from Kitchen Nightmares , Hell’s Kitchen , and Master Chef where Ramsay brought tears to many home cooks and restaurateurs. You can also say in the command what dish you’ve made, for instance, mac and cheese, fried chicken, or a casserole, but there aren’t personalized comments on specific dishes. If that sounds a bit too masochistic for your liking, rest assured that Ramsay may sometimes throw a compliment or two in there, and that there are easter... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2sd9n6V"

Panasonic has announced an updated version of the company’s smaller 10.1-inch form factor Toughbook, the CF-20 Mark 2. Like the original CF-20, the Mark 2 features a 10.1-inch screen in a rugged, 2-in-1 convertible tablet form factor — think of it as a smaller, more portable version of the 12-inch Toughbook 33 that the company announced last year . New on the Mark 2 model are some more modern features, like a Windows Hello-enabled front camera (with both visual and IR sensors), keyboard keys that are 8 percent larger, an improved camera, and an extended 17-hour estimated battery life thanks to a second battery that now comes standard in the keyboard half of the computer. Its predecessor was rated for 10 hours of battery life in tablet... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2nQ0tqt"

Get The Red Solstice for FREE, now through Friday at 10am Pacific Time. You can also pick up the other game in the series Solstice Chronicles: MIA at 30% off! The Red Solstice is a tense, tactical, squad-based action game. Fight to survive with up to 8 players in co-op, or lead your own squad in single-player mode. *Offer ends Friday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2sgHj2n"