Geek News

Health Skincare advice for our favorite chaps. After spending the weekend in sub-zero weather, my lips are so chapped I can’t even think of a joke about how chapped they are. Why does that even happen? via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2lFBki4"

It's a new year and evidently a great time for Amazon to tell us how many items the company shipped over the past 365 days. Amazon says today that more than 5 billion items were shipped through its Prime program last year, which includes free same-day, one-day, and two-day shipping. Amazon also says, "more new paid members joined Prime worldwide this year than any previous year." Alongside the new factoid, Amazon published a list of the most popular Prime items . Apparently people love to order bananas through AmazonFresh, and the Instant Pot was the best seller on Prime Day. Who knew. We, unfortunately, have relatively little information about how many Prime members existed prior to 2017 or even during the year. The last stat Tech C runch... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2A6Vead"

YouTuber Logan Paul posted a video on New Year’s Eve showing what appeared to be the body of a person who had died by suicide — and by doing so, he may have put his audience at risk. The video, which Polygon reports has been deleted from Paul’s 15 million-subscriber YouTube channel, sparked outrage for its disrespectful treatment of a dead body. But the truth is that turning the remains of a human being into a spectacle is worse than just horrifyingly bad taste: by sensationalizing suicide, it could also be dangerous. The video shows Paul and his friends visiting Japan’s Aokigahara forest. There, they spot a body of someone who had apparently killed himself, Polygon ’s Julia Alexander reports . “Paul then walks up to the body, providing... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2A8cmMB"

Rideshare company Lyft is has been working to make autonomous cars a reality lately. The company's pilot in Boston recently launched , thanks to a partnership with nuTonomy . Now Lyft has extended its partnership to nuTonomy's parent company Aptiv, to give rides to folks attending the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from January 9th through the 12th. Attendees won't be able to grab a self-driving car to anywhere in Vegas, of course; this is still a point to point affair with more than 20 pre-defined routes and destinations. Aptiv will provide the automated driving vehicles while Lyft will take on the dispatch. The idea is to show how Aptiv's technology can deal with complicated driving environments. Last year, the two companies offered rides on a simple 6.3 mile loop of city streets and highways. The rides during this year's CES can be requested from the Las Vegas Convention Center's Gold Lot, and they'll get an "informative exhibit...

Wires suck. They’re either always too long or too short, they break easily, and they never ever stay untangled. But now it’s a new year, and what better way to start out 2018 than by cutting out wires completely from your life? Avido’s new wirelessly charging battery pack, the WiBa , certainly has. The WiBa looks a lot like any other battery pack — it’s a small, oblong rectangle roughly the size of a phone — but it completely cuts the cord. Everything about the WiBa is designed to work sans cords: it charges itself wirelessly through a Qi charger, and it then charges your phone wirelessly (also using the Qi standard) when you’re out and about. The WiBa is expected to cost $99.95 when it goes on sale later this year, which gets you the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DSmhYT"

Samsung is making a tradition out of unveiling C-Lab projects at major trade shows , and CES 2018 is no exception. The tech giant is introducing a trio of experiments, starting with its unique S-Ray speaker (above). The makes directional audio portable -- you can listen to your tunes anywhere you go without the potential discomfort of headphones or subjecting everyone to your musical tastes. Samsung is teasing multiple models, including a smartphone cover and a neck-worn speaker that comes across as a less intrusive version of LG's Tone Studio . The other two projects are health-oriented. The Relumino smart glasses turn Samsung's earlier Gear VR visual aid into dedicated eyewear. Pair the glasses with a smartphone and they'll translate video from a built-in camera into easier-to-see pictures on their display. They can filter or invert colors, increase clarity and eliminate blind spots without requiring bulky headgear. Samsung hopes this could let those with poor eyes...

The Steam Winter Sale continues today, through January 4th!* Save big on thousands of games for Windows, Mac and Linux! Today is the final day to vote in The Steam Awards! Find out the winners on January 3rd. Voting for The Steam Awards 2017 ends with The "Even Better Than I Expected" Award. Here are the finalists: Assassin's Creed Origins Call of Duty: WWII Cuphead Hollow Knight Sonic Mania Remember to check back every day to see the new category and cast your vote! *Discounts end January 4th at 10pm Pacific, unless otherwise indicated. via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2Cbh0LB"

Last year, Twitter trumpeted that it scored the rights to livestream the Golden Globes...pre-ceremony red carpet show. You know, where all those nicely-dressed celebrities are asked pressing questions about things, and they answer, and the interviewer coos at their success/struggles/relationship/divorce/look. Well, you can still see that online this year, but you'll have to go to that other social media dumpster to watch it: Facebook snagged the livestreaming rights to the Golden Globes red carpet pre-show this Sunday, January 7th. The pre-show will air live on the official Golden Globes' Facebook page from 6pm to 8pm ET and feature additional content, like 360-degree videos. More stuff will be uploaded to @goldenglobes on Instagram, while the service's @Instagram account will have stories hosted by red carpet host Laura Marano. It wouldn't be a surprise if having both platforms handy to post content swung the livestreaming bid in Facebook's favor over Twitter....

Lyft is partnering with self-driving technology company Aptiv to offer rides in its robot taxis during CES in Las Vegas next week. There will be a safety driver behind the wheel, so the trips will not be completely driverless. Unlike a normal Lyft experience, the cars will only travel to 20 preprogrammed destinations. The news is notable, since most companies that come to CES to demonstrate self-driving technology do so in closed parking lots where they can control every aspect of the experience. Aptiv, which split off from automotive supplier Delphi last year, and Lyft, a newcomer to autonomous driving, are taking a big risk by conducting their demonstration on public roads, where pedestrians and other drivers help to make a completely... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2A82P8m"

EA and Ghost Games know Need for Speed: Payback got a rather cold reception on launch, and they're continuing to rehabilitate its image -- in this case, by bringing back a feature from the previous game. The creators have revealed that they're adding an online free roaming mode to the game sometime in 2018, echoing a feature from the 2015 Need for Speed release . You can technically roam around now while waiting for a lobby to fill up, but this should let you drive to your heart's content. The feature will be free for everyone, the team said . It's not certain if this was always in the cards or an after-the-fact addition. However, it is an acknowledgment that dropping a major online feature of the previous game probably wasn't the greatest idea. NFS games aren't typically known for deep, thought-provoking single-player storylines, so Payback only had so much to do if you'd finished (or just didn't care for) its solo mode. While this isn't ...

As a new year begins, so too does the 2018 winter anime season in Japan. Now, thanks to video streaming services like Crunchyroll, Amazon, and Netflix, they’re more accessible than ever. (Subtitled versions of most shows are available in America within a day of release.) With 50 different series hitting the air this season, there’s a lot to choose from, so we’ve picked the highlights and broken them down based on their specific appeal. If you like teen drama and Pacific Rim Darling in the Franxx In the far future, giant robots called Franxx protect the fortress city of Plantation and the remnants of humanity from giant monsters. Naturally, they are piloted by teenagers who work in pairs, much like the heroes of Pacific Rim . Our... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2lEVvg6"

YouTube star Logan Paul is facing major backlash over a video he recently posted on his YouTube channel. In it, he and a few of his friends who are traveling through Japan enter the Aokigahara forest near Mount Fuji claiming to be documenting the "haunted aspect of the forest," as Paul says in the video. But the forest is well known for being a place where many people go to commit suicide. While in the forest, Paul's group comes across a body and not only does the video show the body (with the face blurred out), Paul and his friends are shown laughing and making jokes. Once outside of the forest, Paul says to the camera that his jokes aren't a reflection of how he feels but are a coping mechanism and he comments that suicide, depression and mental illnesses are not a joke. Logan Paul and his friends laughing and smiling after discovering a dead body http://pic.twitter.com/azY7EAiuC4 — JhbTeam (@JhbTeam) January 2, 2018 The video has since been removed, but Pa...

Fans of Netflix's take on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events , rejoice: The show's second season will be available on March 30th. The streaming service dropped a trailer teasing the next batch of episodes fronted by Neil Patrick Harris' menacing and dentally-challenged Count Olaf. Okay, that didn't tell us much (aside from hints for eagle-eyed fans of the books). But we do know that nerd icon Nathan Fillion and Arrested Development and Veep 's Tony Hale will show up among several other guest stars, according to Deadline . And, of course, we'll see a return of NPH and the inimitable Patrick Warburton as Snicket himself. The second season will cover books five through nine, while a theoretical (aka still unconfirmed) third season would adapt the final four novels. Via: Deadline Source: Netflix (YouTube) via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2DRw01x"

Apple now has $29 iPhone battery replacements available as an apology for its approach to handset slowdowns . But do you need to wait until your iPhone actually slows down before paying for a fresh power pack? Apparently not. MacRumors has confirmed an iGeneration report that Apple will replace the batteries on iPhone 6 or newer models whether or not they pass the usual diagnostic test (which recommends a replacement if the battery falls below 80 percent of its original capacity). In other words, you can go ahead if your phone just isn't lasting as long as it used to. Some iPhone owners who jumped on the replacement program during its initial weekend had been denied fresh batteries, since their power packs were otherwise healthy. They shouldn't have a problem throughout the rest of the discount period, which ends in December. The no-strings-attached gesture is clearly part of Apple's mea culpa : you can get a fresh power pack if you're even slightly worried. A...