Geek News

Animals They found some nanoscale clues on the hues. Researchers examined more than 500 butterfly specimens, ultimately selecting six that were well preserved enough to reveal their secrets. The specimens date to the… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2IMa9uX"

Motorola has just released a new Moto Mod stereo speaker and it’s the cheapest speaker mod yet at $59.99. Still, it has most of the features of the more expensive Moto Mod speaker, with a built-in kickstand and dual 28mm stereo speakers inside the mod. Since the Moto Mod connects to Moto Z phones, it relies on the phone as a source of power and doesn’t have a separate charging method. The new Moto Mod speaker marks Motorola’s increasing focus on mass market mods that will be popular among many, instead of more niche mods it’s worked on before, like gamepad mods. That focus might make it easier to build cheaper gadgets at economies of scale, even as Motorola’s engineering team allegedly suffered layoffs last month. The Moto Mod comes in... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2HvGwOY"

Soylent may have been a polarizing powdered drink when it first went on sale four years ago, but it’s clearly developed a following outside of the startup world as a drink that’s said to be a substitute for a meal . And it may have truly hit the mainstream market now that it’s available at Walmart. Its maker, Rosa Foods, announced Wednesday it has signed a deal to get Soylent in 450 of the big box stores across the US. Soylent CEO Bryan Crowley says the move is, “a significant step in providing more ways for consumers to get access to our brand.” Walmart locations will stock the ready-to-drink bottles in “Cacao,” “Vanilla Latte,” and “Coffiest” flavors. Whatever you think of the taste or concept, Soylent says it’s been popular enough to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2qpjZMI"

Technology Here's how the space agency gathers data when planes (purposely) hit the ground hard. At NASA’s Langley Research Center, engineers subject aircraft to what they call “severe but survivable” crashes. Here's how that works. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2IIkdoT"

This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before members of Congress, splitting his visit into two days of questioning. There were expected queries regarding the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, about whether Facebook has grown too large and could be considered a monopoly, and how to better regulate the platform. Less expected were the weird and somewhat rambling moments throughout the combined 12 hours of testimony, as members of Congress grappled with the legitimately complicated technology they were questioning. At times, lawmakers relied on slightly clunky metaphors, revealing anecdotes, and corny jokes. Here are some of the oddest instances during Zuckerberg’s testimony in Washington, DC. I love chocolate Before... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2INfRwu"

T-Mobile has announced that through an update today, it is now supporting Apple’s Business Chat. Included in iOS 11.3, Business Chat is a way for customers to chat with company reps over iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. That means instead of calling, emailing, or hitting up Twitter DMs and Facebook Messenger when you have a question, you can talk to an actual human being at a company directly through the iMessage app. Though T-Mobile already offers the ability to chat with representatives through its app, more ways (and certainly, more streamlined ways) to get a hold of a company is never a bad thing. T-Mobile says it’s accessible through Maps, where a “Message” icon will appear when you click on the listing for a T-Mobile location,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2JEm7rF"

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has found himself once again embroiled in a controversy surrounding his website’s policy on moderation. In a Reddit thread announcing the platform’s 2017 transparency report findings, in which Reddit identified and listed close to 1,000 suspected Russia-linked propaganda accounts that have been banned, Huffman replied to a straightforward question about the company’s hate speech rules. “I need clarification on something: Is obvious open racism, including slurs, against reddits rules or not?” asked Reddit user chlomyster . “It’s not,” Huffman, who operates on Reddit under his original handle “spez,” responded. Huffman elaborated on his point, adding: “On Reddit, the way in which we think about speech is to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2Hx8WII"

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made his second of two appearances before Congress on Wednesday, enduring a five-hour session of questions from members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In contrast to their amiably confused counterparts in the Senate , members of the House committee demonstrated a generally better command of how Facebook works and how its efforts to develop richly detailed advertising profiles for billions of people have created privacy concerns around the world. As with yesterday, Facebook sought to promote steps it has already taken to address the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. But House members spent less time on Cambridge Analytica in favor of asking about a broader range of subjects,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2IMrcx8"

Bellus3D , the company behind the uncannily accurate, slightly creepy 3D selfie camera , is making the jump to the iPhone with a new app that will let you take its oddly realistic scans without any extra hardware. The company had previously announced at CES 2018 that it was finally releasing its face-scanning camera this year for $499. But with the release of the iPhone X, the company is taking things in a bit of a different direction by bundling its software into an iPhone app, removing the requirement for any expensive hardware required (other than the $999-plus smartphone, of course). The app is currently in beta — interested users can sign up for on Bellus3D’s website — with a full App Store release planned for later this year. As... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2qqqRcs"

Space Planets are basically just giant dust bunnies. At an ESO site in Chile’s Atacama Desert, a unique telescope has allowed astronomers to make unprecedented observations of the “dusty disks” that form around young… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2IHWZis"

Called before Congress this week, Mark Zuckerberg tried to present Facebook’s approach to user data as open and transparent. In question after question, he focused on the privacy choices available to users, and their ownership over all the data they share — and it wasn’t all wrong. Facebook has data because users share it (mostly). Users control that data and can review it or delete it whenever they want (with a few exceptions). And if you delete your account, (almost) all of that data will disappear from Facebook’s servers within 90 days. None of it’s false, but as the parentheses should tell you, it is incomplete — and by the second day of hearings, members of Congress were starting to catch on. The most powerful example came from Rep.... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2JEuXpJ"

Instagram is building its own data portability tool which will allow users to download a copy of everything they’ve ever shared on the platform, similar to how Facebook’s download your information tool works. The platform confirmed the news to TechCrunch . The tool could help Instagram users monitor how much of their data is on the platform. It will also help Facebook, which owns Instagram, comply with the forthcoming European data privacy rule, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) , which will require all data to be portable. The rule will also require companies to delete data upon user request. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed in testimony today to the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Congress that the company would... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GQsxXh"

Eastern Arsenal Plans for thousands of chemical rainmakers in the Tibetan Plateau. To solve its water shortage problems, China is building a computerized network of tens of thousands of chemical rainmakers designed to create 10 billion tons of rainfall… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2qpbHUk"

Battle royale shooter Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is quite popular in China, with the country making up nearly half of the game’s tens of millions of users. But with that popularity comes a significant amount of in-game cheating, with around 99 percent of all unauthorized modifications originating from Chinese players. Cheating is so prevalent, in fact, that Dell even went so far as to advertise a new laptop for the Chinese market as being superior for running PUBG -specific plugins, with plugin being a euphemism for a cheat or hack. As first noted earlier this week by Australian gaming magazine PCPowerPlay , a Dell spokesperson at an Intel 8th-gen event in Beijing said new Dell machines would allow PUBG players to “run more plugins to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GUMzf7"

For the first time, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved an artificial intelligence diagnostic device that doesn’t need a specialized doctor to interpret the results. The software program, called IDx-DR, can detect a form of eye disease by looking at photos of the retina. It works like this: A nurse or doctor uploads photos of the patient’s retina taken with a special retinal camera . The IDx-DR software algorithm first indicates whether the image uploaded is high-quality enough to get a result. Then, it analyzes the images to determine whether the patient does or does not have diabetic retinopathy, a form of eye disease where too much blood sugar damages the blood vessels in the back of the eye. Diabetic retinopathy is the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2IJLZ4g"

GIF platform Tenor has announced that it will be powering GIF searches within LinkedIn Messaging, as reported by TechCrunch . The news comes just a couple weeks after Google announced it had acquired Tenor to help the company bring up GIFs inside Google images and other services like Gboard more easily. As part of the new integration, members will be able to search for GIFs within LinkedIn Messaging as well as access trending GIFs, and in the near future have a custom stream thats shows what’s being used most often within LinkedIn. The update is now available for 50 percent of LinkedIn users, and will be rolling out to everyone else in the near future. Tenor says that messages sent on LinkedIn have grown 60 percent in the past year, and... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GV3dLp"

Apple Music has broken the 40 million subscriber mark, according to Variety , and picked up a new boss in Oliver Schusser, who’ll be running the streaming service as part of his new role as vice president of Apple Music & International Content. Apple confirmed to The Verge that Schusser will report to Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, and will be in charge of managing Apple Music, as well as running Apple services like the App Store and iTunes outside of the US. Schusser has previously led launches of Apple services including the App Store, iTunes Store, and iBooks for international markets, as well as managed label, studio, and publisher relations for Apple outside the US. This makes him a logical fit for managing the continued... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2HsM9xB"

Today's Deal: Save 66% on Galactic Civilizations III !* 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 Friday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2JBglaw"

Mark Zuckerberg is facing a lot of questions about Facebook’s policies, most of which involve handling user data. But there’s a running theme on the Republican side of the aisle: Facebook is censoring conservative content, particularly two pro-Trump vloggers who go by the names Diamond and Silk. Multiple legislators have asked about Lynnette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, who complained that Facebook was limiting the reach of their videos, and were told their videos were “unsafe to the community.” Facebook later told reporters that the email was “inaccurate and not reflective of the way we communicate with our community,” but that hasn’t satisfied lawmakers. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) listed a series of alleged cases of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2Hus9e7"

In today’s hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) decided to take the opportunity to press Mark Zuckerberg on the subject of racial diversity in Silicon Valley. After rebuking him for the Cambridge Analytica data leak, he changed the topic. “I want to go in a different direction today,” he said, with a sudden shift in tone. “You and your team know how I feel about racial diversity in corporate America, and Sheryl Sandberg and I talk about that all the time.” Butterfield noted that although Facebook had “increased black representation from 2 to 3 percent” in the last year, “This does not meet the definition of building a racially diverse community.” Butterfield waved a printout of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2HxoxIl"

For families looking for cheap budget phones for their kids, there are now phones around the $100 range that can almost pass for flagship phones from a distance. The Blu Vivo XL3 now costs $109.99 for 24 hours on Amazon. Blu is also launching an additional Blu Vivo XL3 Plus phone. Both are budget phones, and with today’s discount, there aren’t other phones in their price range that have similar flagship-like-but-not-quite features. They’re both nearly bezel-less and have perks like a fingerprint sensor, decent storage options, and the Vivo XL3 runs on the latest version of Android. They’re not laggy phones with cheap-looking designs but actually good knockoffs of $900 phones. I’ve been testing the Blu Vivo XL3 since mid-March and found... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GRE3xi"

In today’s hearing before the House Committee for Commerce & Energy, Mark Zuckerberg stated that the changes Facebook is making in response to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be available worldwide. Zuckerberg made a commitment to not only providing the same privacy controls but making the same kinds of disclosures and treating users’ data the same. The GDPR imposes requirements on how user data is collected, and how user data must be deleted at the user’s request. However, only moments after giving a clear yes, he seemed to equivocate yet again. “Facebook has committed to abiding by [the GDPR] in Europe and you face large penalties if they don’t,” said Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) in the hearing. “In recent... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GUcbMY"

Google is planning to launch a new design for its Gmail web interface soon. In an email to G Suite administrators, obtained by The Verge , the company says the new design will include “several new features” that will also be made available to regular Gmail accounts. Google promises a “fresh, clean look for Gmail on the web,” with features like Smart Reply, the ability to snooze emails, and offline support. Google isn’t revealing exactly what the new design for Gmail looks like, but the company did recently launch a new design for Google Calendar . The calendar was updated with modern icons, colors, and cleaner event boxes. Overall the design looked a lot more like the mobile app, and it’s reasonable to assume that Gmail itself will be... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2qojAt6"

For weeks, Facebook has been struggling with the fallout from a third-party app that leaked 87 million Facebook profiles to the campaign firm Cambridge Analytica — but speaking to a House committee today , Zuckerberg revealed a new personal connection to the breach. Apparently, Zuckerberg himself was one of the many Facebook profiles collected through the app. The revelation came as part of a string of yes-or-no questions from Rep. Anna Eschoo (D-CA), who encouraged Facebook to adopt a more serious approach to data privacy. “Was your data included in the data sold to malicious third parties?” Eshoo asked. “Your personal data?” “Yes,” Zuckerberg answered. It's unclear if Zuckerberg installed the "thisisyourdigitallife” app himself or if... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2qp1MOk"

Space The ubiquitous American food flew aboard quite a number of missions Forty-eight years ago today, a Saturn V rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center, sending astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise into space on NASA’s… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2IL9I43"