Geek News

We’ve known since last year that Amazon Music was planning to shut down its dedicated cloud music locker. Now, we have a date for when that process will begin. In an email to Amazon Music users, the company says uploaded songs will be removed from a user’s library on April 30th, 2018. You can however keep any music in the cloud by proactively going to your Music Settings and clicking the “Keep my songs” button. Back in December, Amazon stopped letting users upload new tracks to Music Storage, which holds up to 250 songs for free. The company said at the time that by January 2019, users wouldn’t be able to download or stream tracks they’ve uploaded to Music Storage, so it sounds like you’ll still have many months between April and next... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GnhArU"

A leaked memo from a Facebook executive has described the consequences of the company’s growth-at-all-costs mentality. BuzzFeed on Thursday published a June 2016 memo by Andrew “Boz” Bosworth , who currently leads the company’s hardware division, in which Bosworth says he wants “to talk about the ugly” aspect of the company’s work. “We connect people. Period,” Bosworth wrote. “That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it.” Bosworth distanced himself from his comments. “I don’t agree with the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2E2BpTj"

Animals A few amphibians in Panama are suddenly showing signs of resistance. In Panama, some frogs are defying the odds and becoming resistant to a deadly fungus that has plagued their populations. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2pUOoBA"

Tesla said Thursday it was recalling a huge number of its Model S sedans around the world over a power steering issue. It told customers in an email that it was a proactive move and none of the company’s other vehicles were affected. The automaker said 123,000 Model S vehicles built before April 2016 were affected. No injuries or crashes have been reported in connection with the problem. Before today, its largest Model S recall was when 90,000 of the vehicles were affected in 2015 by a faulty seat belt. And last year, it recalled 53,000 Model S and Model Xs over a parking brake fault . In the email, Tesla said it had, “observed excessive corrosion in the power steering bolts,” but that the problem was most prevalent in colder climates... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GAYAth"

Technology The Payload SDK allows tech companies to make gadgets that integrate into DJI's drones. If you have ever wanted a drone that can detect radiation, you may soon be in… via Popular Science "http://bit.ly/2pPprYO"

Sportswear brand Under Armour announced today that its subsidiary MyFitnessPal was affected in a significant data beach, compromising as many as 150 million accounts, according to CNBC . Account information involved in the breach includes user names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, but no financial information like credit card numbers or government or identifiers like social security numbers. Under Armour acquired MyFitnessPal, a website and mobile app for tracking diet and exercise activity, in 2015 for $475 million, when MyFitnessPal had 80 million users. The service has since more than doubled in size thanks in part to the company’s largely agnostic approach to apps and fitness trackers, nearly all of which can be plugged into... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://bit.ly/2IhFzJB"

Denon has announced the next generation of its HEOS HomeCinema devices, following their initial debut in 2016, as reported by TechRadar . The HEOS HomeCinema HS2 line is comprised of a sound bar and woofer, with the new versions carrying additional features like support for high-resolution file playback and the promise of Alexa integration later this summer. The sound bar has a pair of dual 2x5-inch drivers and a pair of 20mm tweeters. It also supports playing hi-res files via FLAC, ALAC, DSD, and AIFF formats (with more to follow). This version also has integrated Bluetooth functionality with a separate Bluetooth button, and there’s connectivity via AirPlay. Lastly, there’s both optical and HDMI connections with an ARC TV audio return... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://bit.ly/2GBu4PQ"

You may be surprised to hear this, but smartphone notches have been pretty controversial: some people hate them, other people... don’t have strong opinions on the matter. But no one loves the notch. So to find out how people are really feeling, LG has gone to Reddit and asked. As spotted by Android Police , LG’s support team posted in r/Android with the timeless, thought-provoking question: “What are your thoughts on ‘the Notch’?” “We would love to gather some more feedback to share with our R&D team — and this is where you come in,” LG writes. “So… what do you think? Love the Notch? Or is it Notch your thing?” (I’m sorry but the pun is part of the quote, and I can’t get rid of it.) It’s not entirely clear what LG is doing here. LG’s next... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://bit.ly/2GD8ZEB"

Nexus Media News Scientists have developed a fabric that generates electricity when stretched—and works better wet. Anyone watching Swedish scientist Anja Lund working out on an aerobic stepper recently might have thought it a strange way to get fit. She was stepping while holding a… via Popular Science "http://bit.ly/2J781in"

* Fixed an old bug with Echo Sabre not going into cooldown during Tricks of the Trade * Fixed Tether not surpassing max movement speed when tethered to a hero that is faster via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2IgKScd"

Technology It, uh, had blood in it? Programmer Janelle Shane trained her neural network on 24,044 recipes and asked it to concoct one all its own. And, well, you can have the first bite. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2pMCnOm"

Google has banned the term “Kodi” from its autocomplete feature, meaning those who look for information on the set-top box will have to type out the full term in order to search, as reported by TorrentFreak . Google has been increasing its anti-piracy efforts in recent years, banning terms from autocomplete and making changes to its search algorithms in order to demote copyright-infringing material. While Kodi is a legal set-top box for streaming, it supports a myriad of third-party add-ons that provide access to pirated media. Last year, Kodi was in the news after five people were arrested for selling fully loaded “Kodi boxes,” and shortly after, the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled that selling set-top boxes configured for easy... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GVjpxj"

iPhone users at more than 100 hospitals and clinics in the US can now access parts of their medical records through the Health app, Apple announced today . The Health Records section of the app debuted in January with the iOS 11.3 beta, and today’s update makes it available to everyone who updates their phone to the latest version. The medical information — such as allergies, medical conditions, vaccinations, lab tests, medical procedures, and vitals — will be available to iPhone users who are patients at 39 health systems that are working with Apple, including Stanford Medicine and Johns Hopkins. Before the update, the medical records section of the app was only available to the people who had signed up to test a pre-release version . P... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2pOTkIG"

Instagram was very quick to remove GIFs from Stories after it was discovered that Giphy — the company responsible for overseeing the GIF library — had let a racist image slip through. (Snapchat also removed GIFs as a result of the incident.) But now the ability to add GIFs to your Instagram Stories is being restored, according to TechCrunch . Giphy removed the racist GIF sticker immediately after being alerted of its presence. “After investigation, a bug was found in our content moderation filters affecting stickers,” the company said. That bug has since been resolved, and Giphy claims it has re-moderated the entire GIF sticker library four times to be absolutely sure there’s no other inappropriate content. It’s also tightening future... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2pUu17B"

Portions of the Cambridge Analytica data on as many as 50 million Facebook users may still be out in the wild, according to a report yesterday from the UK’s Channel 4 News . The news organization says it has seen a cache of data dating back to the 2014 survey results Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan collected with his app “thisisyourdigitallife.” Kogan later sold that data to Cambridge Analytica, which had connections to the Trump campaign and may have used it to inform election ad targeting. The data in question here “details 136,000 individuals in the US state of Colorado, along with each person’s personality and psychological profile,” Channel 4 reports. This would appear to refute Cambridge Analytica’s claims as the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2IeCLg4"

Facebook has a four-part plan to protect its platform from malicious attacks during the 2018 US midterm elections, company executives said today. In a conference call with reporters, representatives from Facebook’s security, product, and advertising teams laid out their strategy for preventing the kinds of problems that plagued it during the 2016 campaign. While most bad actors are motivated by profits, executives said, state-sponsored attackers continue in their efforts to manipulate public opinion using posts on Facebook. Here’s Facebook’s plan to shore up its security over the next several months. 1. Fighting foreign interference . Executives pointed to the FBI’s creation of a task force to monitor social media as an important step to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GAMosx"

German automation company Festo has a history of making kooky robotic versions of wildlife. It has previously constructed a kangaroo , an elephant trunk , and ants , and now, it has come up with a walking, rolling robot spider as well as a robotic flying fox, as spotted by IEEE Spectrum . If the idea of a rolling spider seems terrible, let me cement your fears and assure you this robot is based on the very real flic-flac spider , which lives in the Sahara and escapes predators with cartwheels and flips. Bionics professor Ingo Rechenberg, who discovered the flic-flac spider, was involved in helping to design Festo’s version. It has eight legs which are controlled by 15 motors within the knee joints and body. When it rolls, it does a somersault... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2pOMxPd"

iOS 11.3 is a pretty major update , and one of its most notable tweaks is in response to one of the bigger PR controversies to hit Apple in recent times. A few months ago, it became apparent that iOS contains a feature to slow down older iPhones’ processors when their batteries degrade to the point that they’re no longer able to deliver peak performance; Apple says it’s designed to prevent the phones from unexpectedly shutting down altogether. A lot of people were unhappy with the revelation, and Apple responded by cutting the price of an iPhone battery replacement from $79 to $29 and pledging to give users the ability to turn off the throttling in iOS 11.3. That ability has arrived in iOS 11.3, which is now available to install. Once you... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2nIGT08"

Get up to 75% off your favorite LEGO® titles as part of this week's Weekend Deal!* *Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2GnkAV5"

Google recently added audiobooks to Google Play , allowing users to listen to their favorite reads across Android, iOS, web, and home speakers, and presenting another option for readers aside from Audible or iBooks. The company has now rolled out some new features to listeners, allowing them to save bookmarks and add books to their daily routine. The updates rolled out today for Android, iOS, and devices that use Google Assistant. In all, there are four updated features for listeners. If you pause your book, Google will rewind to the beginning of a word or sentence. Second, Google now allows listeners to adjust the speed of the narration; you can set it to 3x speed to get through your book faster, or slow narration down to 0.5x. Third,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2uwbjbU"

Twitter is introducing a feature called Timestamps that will allow anyone to tweet a live video or replay that starts at the exact moment they want it to. Twitter said it decided to introduce the feature after seeing users tweet live videos along with a specific time in the video they wanted to talk about. To use Timestamps, you just tap to share a live video. The video will then pop up, and you can use the scroll bar to select the time you want your followers to start watching. Then, you can add whatever description you want to tweet and share it. The video will start playing from the time specified for anyone who sees the tweet. If the broadcast is still live, though, users can also select the “live” button to skip forward to what... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2Gi9DrT"

Save 60% on Killing Floor 2 and 80% off Killing Floor as part of this week's Weekend Deal*! *Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2GHAjSt"

Today's Deal: Save 50% on Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Saturday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2pU7uYy"

Jalopy is Now Available on Steam and is 40% off!* Build, repair, refuel and drive a dilapidated old car on a grand journey through the territories of the former Eastern bloc. Explore Germany, CSFR, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria *Offer ends April 4 at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2pPTtuN"

Jurassic World Evolution is Now Available for Pre-Purchase on Steam! Pre-Purchase now and receive an exclusive skin for the ACU helicopter and the Ranger vehicle! via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2Go717T"