Thursday, April 20, 2017
Sources: Nintendo to launch SNES mini this year Tom Phillips writes at Eurogamer: The reality of a SNES mini is certainly exciting - while the NES was unique for being Nintendo's first home console, the SNES arguably boasts the better software line-up, and a catalogue of classics far more advanced …Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Google begins rolling out free internet to public housing in Fiber cities This is a big deal. I worked at the Philadelphia Housing Authority for years and talked to a lot of kids and adults about their desire to get online. Philly isn’t yet on Google’s Fiber expansion roadmap, but this …Thursday, December 24, 2015
Katie Floyd’s 3 Tips For Family Tech Support Great advice for every geek dreading the holiday “Can you help me with my computer?” conversations.Friday, December 18, 2015
Laser-armed fighter jets by 2020 Thom Patterson writes for CNN: Here's how Air Force special ops might use them: The commander of USAF special ops, Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, said last September that by 2020 he wants them on C-130J Ghostrider gunships for landing zone protection. The laser weapons …Thursday, November 19, 2015
Vizio TVs spy on you, here’s how to disable it Vizio’s technology works by analyzing snippets of the shows you’re watching, whether on traditional television or streaming Internet services such as Netflix. Vizio determines the date, time, channel of programs — as well as whether you watched …Thursday, November 12, 2015
Is the Russian kamikaze sub misinformation or an inadvertent warning to the West? Apparently, The screen capture depicts a project called "Ocean Multipurpose System 'Status-6.'" The weapon would apparently be delivered by a nuclear-powered underwater drone, carried externally by a nuclear …Thursday, November 12, 2015
Russian Ships Too Close to Data Cables for U.S. Comfort The first of two this-is-really-concerning posts you’ll find here today: The role of the cables is more important than ever before. They carry global business worth more than $10 trillion a day, including from financial institutions that …Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Apple has learned nothing from Microsoft’s Surface - The Verge iPad sales are indeed down, but it does not follow from that fact that iPad use is down. This Time article did the yeoman’s work of aggregating some data about iPad sales. The bottom line is that in the five years since the …Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Hackers Can Silently Control Siri From 16 Feet Away Well this is concerning: A pair of researchers at ANSSI, a French government agency devoted to information security, have shown that they can use radio waves to silently trigger voice commands on any Android phone or iPhone that has Google Now or …Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Most of this article is an extensive discussion of my hunt for the best ad blocker on iOS. It isn’t exhaustive and, given the pace at which the App Store moves, probably won’t remain current for long. That’s why I want to open things with my own thoughts on ad blocking, because I …
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Facial Recognition Software Moves From Overseas Wars to Local Police This is troubling: Lt. Scott Wahl, a spokesman for the 1,900-member San Diego Police Department, said the department does not require police officers to file a report when they use the facial recognition technology but do not make …Thursday, July 9, 2015
iOS 9 Public Beta coming today? I rarely cross-post from my geekery-focused Tumblr, but I’m so excited about this I had to share it here, where I have literally thousands more followers. I’ll be writing a proper post about the public beta after I’ve used it for a few days. There are some interesting …Wednesday, July 8, 2015
The Verge made a FAA drone exemption search engine Ben Popper reports at The Verge: We have partnered with the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College to collect data on every commercial exemption the FAA grants. It's a fascinating snapshot of a fast-growing industry still in its infancy. …Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Tor Project seeks Executive Director The Tor Project, makers of anonymizing browsing tools, is looking for a new Executive Director: The position provides the high-profile opportunity to assume the voice and face of Tor to the world, and particularly to the global community of Internet …Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Amazon AWS: Good enough for the CIA Leena Rao has a fascinating background story at Fortune on Amazon Web Services, built around a profile of its leader, Senior Vice President Andy Jassy. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but this bit was particularly interesting: Netflix’s adoption also …Thursday, June 4, 2015
NASA, Verizon developing tech to track drones via cell towers Mark Harris reports at The Guardian: That $500,000 project is now underway at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Nasa is planning the first tests of an air traffic control system for drones there this summer, …Thursday, April 2, 2015
Another blow to deceptively marketed “unlimited” data plans Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica: The FCC's new rules ban throttling except in cases of "reasonable network management." AT&T could argue that the throttling is necessary to keep its network running smoothly, but FCC Chairman …Friday, March 20, 2015
Tesla will enable automated freeway driving this summer Chris Taylor reporting at Mashable: So to recap: Tesla cars will start self-driving this summer, on freeways at least. (It seems likely that once we've gotten used to that notion, autopilot for the full ride will be unlocked.) Google could …Monday, December 15, 2014
The ethics of reporting on the Sony hackEmily Yoshida (@emilyyoshida), entertainment editor at The Verge, one of my favorite tech news sites, on the publication’s ongoing and deep contemplation of the ethics of reporting on unethically leaked information: The contents of the leak are already …Wednesday, December 10, 2014
HBO without cable confirmed for April 2015Finally, although HBO’s decision to use MLB Advanced Media instead of HBO’s own streaming tech prompted CTO and former Xbox executive Otto Berkes to resign.Saturday, October 11, 2014
I’ve heard from many people who insist their iPhone or iPad “can’t handle” or “doesn’t fit” iOS 8. I read an article about a slow-down in updates to iOS 8. John Gruber of Daring Fireball first posited that some well-documented software bugs were making people reluctant to update. But his follow-up …Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Subprime auto lenders use technology to compel paymentMichael Corkery And Jessica Silver-Greenberg, reporting at the New York Times DealBook blog: Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car’s …Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Apple can’t bypass your iOS passcodeApple says in the latest revision of its page on government information requests: On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed …Friday, September 19, 2014
My iPhone 5 recently stopped charging, unless I propped the phone upside down against an inclined surface like a lamp stand or a keyboard. I’m not in a position to buy one of those fancy new iPhones, so I shopped around in the internet’s DIY isle. I found a well-reviewed set of iPhone surgery tools …Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Millenials won’t use subpar enterprise softwarePaul Boag writes at Smashing Magazine: Frustration will only increase as millennials enter the workforce. These people are digital natives, and they expect a certain standard of software. They expect software to adapt to them, not the other way …Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Facebook is not freeIf you use Facebook, this article is a must-read. It’s now common knowledge Facebook is always watching and analyzing how you use the service. But the breadth and depth of the company’s participation in the data brokering economy is staggering. The worst part? You literally …Friday, July 4, 2014
Facebook COO Sandberg apologizes for emotional contagion experimentR. Jai Krishna, reporting on the reaction of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg to the outcry over the company’s experiment on the emotions of nearly 700,000 unwitting users: We take privacy and security at Facebook …Saturday, June 28, 2014
Facebook experimented on its users' emotionsAviva Rutkin, reporting in New Scientist: A team of researchers, led by Adam Kramer at Facebook in Menlo Park, California, was curious to see if this phenomenon [of contagious emotion] would occur online. To find out, they manipulated which posts showed …Friday, June 20, 2014
Budgets and egosMark Headd, Philly’s first Chief Data Officer, who quit in spring of 2013, talking to Juliana Reyes of Technically Philly about why he resigned the post: “A self-certifying website is a 20th century answer to the problem of tax deadbeats,” he wrote in an email. “An open data API is …Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Avoid Facebook’s all-seeing eyeViolet Blue, reporting at ZDNet: Facebook also announced Thursday it will begin tracking its users’ browsing and activities on websites and apps outside Facebook, starting within a few weeks Her article is full of great advice for people who want to minimize …