TECHNOLOGY AND MORE!
Universal Becomes First Studio to Offer First Run Films in the Home
Universal The Hunt4KGizmodo / 36min
With movie theaters across the world closing, Universal Pictures has become the first studio to embrace a whole new mode of distribution.
A source close to the situation tells io9 that this isn’t necessarily a blanket policy moving forward, but merely a reaction to the current news and way to allow people to see the films.
Games To Play While You're Not Leaving The House
1KLifehacker / 1h
It’s a big, beautiful game where you can pick up and leave civilization behind whenever you want.
Here are some of the best video games to help you pass the time.
Coronavirus vaccine trials start today in US
300+SlashGear / 7h
Currently, researchers around the globe are working on different types of vaccines against coronavirus/COVID-19.
The research groups are pursuing different types of vaccines, including some developed from new technologies that are faster produced than traditional inoculations.
US hotel occupancy rates are plunging due to coronavirus
The Points Guy / 4min
Analysts also looked specifically at airport hotel demand data week-over-week and their analysis continued to show a decline in occupancy rate.
STR, a company offering insights into the hospitality industry, provided TPG with data from the last few weeks ; and their analysis matched what we’re hearing.
In retrospect, Disney’s CEO switch was a decisive act of crisis management
20TechCrunch / 4min
With Disney managing the impact of the crisis in China on its parks beginning in January, Iger likely foresaw the global spread of coronavirus and the economic damage sooner than most other American chief executives.
These business lines sustained healthy growth through last year but Iger had spent the last couple years emphasizing that Disney’s future sits with its subscription video streaming services (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Hotstar) overseen by Kevin Mayer, who previously spearheaded the company’s incredibly successful M&A strategy (including acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilm).
Five of the World's Largest Banks Are Pouring Billions Into the Amazon's Destruction
200+Gizmodo / 6min
A new report from environmental and indigenous rights group Amazon Watch reveals that five of the world’s biggest banks are funding crude oil extraction in the western Amazon.
The five financial institutions highlighted—Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and BlackRock—have provided tens of billions of dollars to oil companies to operate in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Working From Home? Here's the Ultimate Starter Kit
Gizmodo / 6min
While I’d personally advise taking a few minutes every day to step outside and take in some sunlight (even if it’s obscured by clouds), it also helps to have the next best thing: a natural light lamp near your workspace.
Working from home means you might go all day without stepping outside and taking in some Vitamin D—and not everyone is going to be lucky enough to have a desk setup near a natural light source.
Xbox Series X uses proprietary NVMe “cards” for storage expansion
Ars Technica / 7min
The Series X will still support standardized USB 3.2 hard drives, according to the Digital Foundry report, but those can only be used to natively run backward-compatible games designed for previous Xbox systems (the Xbox One, 360, and original Xbox).
Despite the exclusive format, Microsoft does not look like it wants to be the exclusive manufacturer and seller of these storage expansion cards, as it was for the overpriced proprietary hard drive format on the Xbox 360 .
Hop aboard the Microsoft Azure train with these prep courses and mock exams
Mashable / 9min
And this Ultimate Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Prep Courses and Mock Exams Bundle gets down to the nitty-gritty of the platform, helping you become a certified expert.
TL;DR: Upgrade your developer skills with The Ultimate Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Prep Courses and Mock Exams Bundle for $29.99, a 94% savings as of March 16.
Australians poke fun at how Tom Hanks is eating Vegemite while under quarantine
Mashable / 8min
Fortunately , they are in good spirits and recovering from relatively mild symptoms. Read more... More about Australia , Mashable Video , Tom Hanks , Coronavirus , and Covid 19
How to Entertain Your Young Children During Quarantine (2020): iPod Touch, Lego, Podcasts
65Wired / 15min
Even though our kids lives rotate around social gatherings—birthday parties, playgrounds, public libraries, zoos—we have to keep them isolated from other humans, large and small, in the interest of public health.
In areas that have been most affected by the coronavirus outbreak, schools and daycares have been closed, and small children have been sent home.
Snag these 9 productivity Mac apps for just $30
24Mashable / 18min
Premium apps can help you save time and effort, optimize your internet connection, and ultimately boost your productivity.
And you're in luck because we've got nine of these premium productivity apps — for everything from desktop management and organization to photo editing and speed reading — on sale for just $30 .
How Uber, Lyft, Seamless and more are addressing taxed gig economy workers
60TechCrunch / 20min
This situation is only going to worsen many of these issues, and there’s a very real fear that the United States’ inability to provide the working class with a legitimate social safety net will only incentivize workers to continue to do their job while sick, further exacerbating the spread of the novel coronavirus, in spite of restrictions on gatherings and other attempts to increase social distancing.
Already an ever-increasingly important part of our daily lives, grocery and food delivery services along with ride-hailing apps are going to play a fundamental role in helping individuals enact government-recommended social distancing.
Bay Area counties announce lockdown through April 7
100+TechCrunch / 24min
Effective at midnight, San Francisco will require people to stay home except for essential needs.
Both airports and public transit will remain open under limited operation for essential travel, while requiring people to maintain a six foot “social distancing.”
Need new kitchen knives? Get this three-piece set for 60% off.
Mashable / 24min
Whether you love to cook or you're famous for ordering DoorDash five times a week, this Sukasu Osami 3-Piece Chef's Knife Set can make things flow better in your kitchen.
TL;DR: Upgrade your kitchen tools with a Sukasu Osami 3-Piece Chef's Knife Set for just $39.99, a 60% savings as of March 16.
Mint Mobile is giving out free data for the next month amid COVID-19
Engadget / 24min
Ryan Reynolds ' wireless carrier of choice is giving out free data to help people in the US cope with the coronavirus epidemic.
T-Mobile , for instance, is giving all current customers unlimited data for the next 60 days.
NASA’s Aqua satellite snaps new image of Tropical Cyclone Herold
SlashGear / 26min
Tropical Cyclone Herold, the big storm impacting northeastern Madagascar, is the subject of a new satellite image from NASA.
The weather event started out as a tropical cyclone and later transformed into a full tropic storm, eventually reaching its current hurricane-force level.
10 things to consider for securing your organisation while employees work remotely due to new coronavirus mandates
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 28min
In addition to proactively monitoring your internet-facing RDP/VPN infrastructure, we recommend leveraging the NIST guidance regarding securing enterprise and teleworking access to implement the additional required controls to help further mitigate the risks associated with malicious threat actors obtaining and exploiting RDP shop-based access credentials.
Besides preparing your IT support for Reset Password attacks as employees working in new conditions will flood help desk with reset requests, here are some other security related best practices that will help you keep your business secure, whether working from home or the office:
U.S. Airlines Looking To Pick Your Pockets For $50 Billion
View from the Wing / 28min
U.S. airlines are seeking government assistance of more than $50 billion, including a mix of direct aid and loan guarantees, as the industry reels from the coronavirus outbreak, a lobbying group that represents 10 U.S. passenger and cargo airlines said Monday.
An airline should go into bankruptcy, determine if there’s capital available, and if not only then should a decision be made about whether it makes sense to provide an injection of cash to fund continued operations during a restructuring.
Covid-19 Is Spreading Far and Wide From People Who Don't Feel Sick, New Research Finds
92Gizmodo / 30min
More and more research is starting to confirm a troubling suspicion scientists have had about covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus: People without symptoms can not only spread the infection but are actually fueling its pandemic spread across the globe.
Since then, evidence has continued to stack up that people are regularly spreading covid-19 without having symptoms, either as carriers who experience no or very mild symptoms or before they actually become sick, otherwise known as being presymptomatic.
How to Attend a Recovery Meeting When You're Social Distancing
33Lifehacker / 32min
Alcoholics Anonymous offers a rather significant number of online recovery group options .
Online groups available range from Google Groups where you can chat in text form to video chat options that happen at a pre-set time, similar to a traditional meeting.
Report: Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) Could Worsen Coronavirus Symptoms
3KFuturism / 32min
A startling report emerged over the weekend from the French Ministry of Health: The use of ibuprofen (the active ingredient in Advil and other anti-inflammatory drugs) could potentially aggravate symptoms of the coronavirus currently sweeping the globe.
The news comes on the heels of a report by the French government claiming that all NSAIDs — non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, of which ibuprofen is one — can potentially cause “ grave adverse effects .”
More cruise ships stranded at sea as ports shut down due to coronavirus
The Points Guy / 32min
While many cruise ships in recent days have returned to their home ports, expelled passengers and tied up for now, at least a handful of vessels remain stuck at sea as a growing number of countries close to outsiders due to coronavirus worries.
The vessels include a Norwegian Cruise Line ship on a voyage from Sydney , Australia , to the South Pacific that has been turned away from multiple ports over the past few days, and a Princess Cruises ship sailing in the Indian Ocean that last touched land nearly two weeks ago.
Everything You Need to Know About Currency Exchanges
The Points Guy / 32min
Just like at home, the two common ways people make purchases in a foreign country are with cash or with a payment card, typically a credit or debit card.
Even if you plan on using a credit or debit card, it’s a good idea to carry some local currency with you, especially in countries where payment card acceptance isn’t as universal as it is in the United States.
A List of Ways to Help People (From a Distance) During Coronavirus
100+Lifehacker / 39min
Organizations and businesses that regularly donate to food banks are shutting down for the time being, just as need is going up.
It’s always a good idea to donate to your local food bank, and especially now!
These hypnotizing kinetic engines combine art and mechanics — Future Blink
32Mashable / 45min
Morris Models engine kits combine art with mechanics while reflecting gear-head styles throughout history. Read more... More about Science , Art , Mashable Video , Kinetic , and Laser Cut
'Core' is much more than a game, it's also an impressive game design tool
24Mashable / 51min
I was able to view a demo of Core via a video call on Friday with Manticore Games CEO Frederic Descamps and CCO Jordan Maynard, who spent about 45 minutes showing me tons of different ways people can use Core to create some really unique experiences, easily share them with the community, and hop into multiplayer games surprisingly quickly.
During my demo, I was shown that when you're playing in a multiplayer game with people, you can find a portal somewhere in the level to teleport into a whole new game, and everyone can follow you.
Oculus Quest update will make it easier to multitask
50Engadget / 54min
Facebook is introducing a new system experience that it says makes its standalone Quest VR headset "more flexible, social and easy to use than ever before." The centerpiece of the upcoming update is a redesigned universal menu Facebook claims will organize information more clearly, as well as provides faster access to your favorite apps with a menu that displays the ones you use most frequently.
At first, the feature will be available in WebXR apps you launch from the Oculus Browser and come to other tools and games as developers add support.
To slow coronavirus spread, EU countries and Russia join the list of countries officially closing their borders to all but essential travel
97TechCrunch / 59min
She added that the travel ban does not extend to everyone: emergency medical professionals and other essential goods and services will continue to move across borders, as will citizens of the respective countries coming home, and those making their way home through a country.
One of the defining characteristics of the European Union has been its strong policy of taking an open approach when it comes to borders in the region: the EU may be a collection of individual countries, but it works as one, and so when you travel from one to the other as an EU citizen, you can move as freely as you do within your own country.
The Time Has Come to Cook Some Beans
20Lifehacker / 1h
Before cooking, I drained the soaking water and added another half-teaspoon or so of baking soda to the cooking liquid.
All you need is a can of black eyed peas, a couple of canned plum tomatoes , and a tablespoon of butter, plus whatever seasonings you feel like adding.
Work Smarter, Not Harder with 3 Free Months of NordPass When You Sign Up for a Year [Exclusive]
24Lifehacker / 1h
From the team that brought you NordVPN, one of the most reputable VPN services on the market, NordPass will remember your passwords free for three months when you sign up for a 1-year sub right now using our exclusive promo code nordwfh .
3 Months Free w/ 1-Year Subscription | NordPass | Promo code nordwfh
The ‘Surreal’ Frenzy Inside the US’ Biggest Mask Maker
100+Wired / 1h
Back in what Bowen calls the “peacetime,” before the pandemic, Prestige Ameritech made roughly 250,000 masks a day.
Bowen’s voicemail inbox is littered with messages from hospitals and medical distributors in dire need of surgical masks, N95 respirators, and other forms of essential protective gear his company makes.
F1 drivers and other pros switch to esports in the age of the coronavirus
39Ars Technica / 1h
The second qualifying race was for professional esports racers like Rudy van Buren ( who won McLaren's World's Fastest Gamer competition ), Bono Huis (who won Formula E's million-dollar Las Vegas eRace ), and Brendon Leigh, winner of F1's inaugural esports championship , while the third was filled with rFactor 2 expert players who made the cut in an open qualifying event held the day before.
On Sunday, we got a taste of how that might work, as professional racers from F1, IndyCar, and other series took things digital, drawing big crowds on YouTube and
Alaska Airlines plans coronavirus capacity cuts of up to 15%; CEO will forgo pay
The Points Guy / 1h
Alaska Airlines will cut capacity by up to 15% as part of an effort to preserve cash amid the growing novel coronavirus pandemic.
Alaska is the latest U.S. carrier to announce capacity cuts amid the growing COVID-19 crisis.
TikTok Tried to Suppress Videos by Users It Deemed Ugly, Poor
100+Futurism / 1h
Chinese video-sharing app TikTok told its moderators to suppress videos created by “ugly,” poor, or disabled people to be posted on the platform’s main video section, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept .
The post TikTok Tried to Suppress Videos by Users It Deemed Ugly, Poor appeared first on Futurism .
Animal Crossing: New Horizons review round-up
Animal Crossing NHSlashGear / 1h
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that many of the review excerpts up on Metacritic mention the COVID-19 outbreak specifically, pointing out that a game like Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the perfect antidote to the world’s problems.
Beyond the coronavirus outbreak, there seems to be another theme to the reviews that have been published so far, with a number of them saying that New Horizons improves on the Animal Crossing formula to become the best game in the series yet.
'PUBG Mobile' World and Americas Pro leagues have been postponed
26Engadget / 1h
PUBG Corporation and Tencent decided to turn the PUBG Mobile Pro League South Asia tournament into an online-only affair due to the coronavirus outbreak. The companies are taking a different approach for the Pro League Americas and World League events, though, postponing them until later in the year. "The health of our players, staff and contractors are our highest priority. While we're saddened
Uber Eats waives delivery fees for independent restaurants during COVID-19 pandemic
500+TechCrunch / 1h
Uber Eats said Monday it will waive delivery fees for all orders from independently owned restaurants on the app as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread and causes cities to shutter all non-essential businesses.
That’s why we’re waiving the Delivery Fee for all orders from every independent restaurant on Uber Eats —more than 100,000 local restaurants on the app,” the company said in an email Monday morning.
Coronavirus: Plan to ramp up ventilator production 'unrealistic'
500+BBC News - Technology / 1h
"The idea that an engineering company can quickly manufacturer medical devices, and comply with the rules, is unrealistic," says Penlon's Mr Thompson.
The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has tweeted asking for help from "all manufacturers who can support our National Effort for coronavirus ventilator production".
Over 24,000 coronavirus research papers are now available in one place
100+New on MIT Technology Review / 1h
The news: Today researchers collaborating across several organizations released the Covid-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), which includes over 24,000 research papers from peer-reviewed journals as well as sources like bioRxiv and medRxiv (websites where scientists can post non-peer-reviewed preprint papers).
What has already been done: As part of its Semantic Scholar service, which allows the scientific community to easily search through academic literature, AI2 has already processed the new corpus using the same information extraction and analysis techniques that it applies to all new research.
Travel savings tool Service shuts down, citing COVID-19 downturn
100+TechCrunch / 1h
It’s worth noting that Service founder and CEO Michael Schneider also notes that since it was founded, the company never turned a profit, even though it recovered over $4,000,000 for its customers.
The company, which launched in 2015, says it faced a fundraising round that collapsed two weeks ago and was in the middle of an acquisition that collapsed on Friday.
Even a Relatively Small Nuclear War Would Cause Global Famine
Gizmodo / 1h
According to a new study out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, even a relatively small nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan would surely bring about global famine.
The scientists project that production of the world’s four main cereal crops—maize, wheat, soybeans and rice—would drop by an average of 11 percent over the five-year period after a theoretical small-scale nuclear war.
WordPress to add auto-update feature for themes and plugins
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 1h
In an effort to prevent WordPress sites from being hacked , the WordPress developer team is working on adding an auto-update feature to themes and plugins.
Once the auto-update feature begins rolling out to stable versions of WordPress' content management system ( CMS ), site owners will be able to configure the themes and plugins they've installed to update by themselves by simply checking an option in their site's admin panels.
Getting coronavirus may be easier than we thought
Mashable / 1h
You don't have to have COVID-19 symptoms to spread coronavirus. Read more... More about Science , Mashable Video , Healthcare , Coronavirus , and Covid 19
Study finds discarded LEGOs may last for up to 1,300 years in the ocean
LEGO 1300 1 300 YearsSlashGear / 1h
The research involved LEGO bricks that had washed up on the South West England coastlines, thousands of pieces of which have been collected during bleach cleanup efforts.
A newly published study has found that ordinary plastic LEGO bricks may last for up to 1,300 years in the ocean, highlighting the need to carefully dispose of plastic waste.
YC grad SINAI helps companies understand their emissions in a bid to fight climate change
84TechCrunch / 1h
Companies have been focusing on understanding their measurements, but not identifying how to mitigate those emissions through different policies — or even what areas of the business to target, Fujihara said.
Founded by Maria Fujihara, a 16-year veteran of the sustainability industry whose previous work had been around the technical adaptation of LEED certification tools, SINAI is the culmination of her years of working to adapt certification tools to international markets and five years spent researching carbon emissions profiles — most recently at Singularity University .
Idris Elba Says He Tested Positive for the Coronavirus
1KFuturism / 1h
Golden Globe-winning actor Idris Elba announced on Twitter this afternoon that he has tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
In the clip, he advocated for staying out of public spaces, frequent hand-washing, and above all, for anyone who tests positive to quarantine themselves for a two-week period.
Don’t download coronavirus (COVID-19) apps: Here’s why
Coronavirus AndroidSlashGear / 1h
The “Coronavirus Tracker” suggested it’d be able to show the user a real-time outbreak map “in your street, city, and state”.
The app never really tracked anything but the user downloading the app.
14 Things You Need To Know About Working From Home But Were Afraid To Ask
View from the Wing / 1h
Work from home tips are like a cottage industry now, but I’ve got a real head start on you and I think I can offer solid concrete advice.
Here’s one piece my work from home tips offer that you aren’t as likely to read somewhere else: make your bed even if you didn’t used to.
Universal titles including 'The Hunt' and 'Trolls World Tour' to hit VOD early
Universal The Hunt26Mashable / 1h
The studio announced Monday that its current releases — including The Invisible Man , The Hunt , and Emma — will be made available on-demand as early as Friday, March 20.
The Invisible Man had hit theaters Feb. 28, The Hunt on March 13, and Emma on Feb. 21.
Don't Download These Bogus Coronavirus 'Tracking' Android Apps
36Lifehacker / 1h
If you’ve been hit by this app, DomainTools has reverse-engineered the decryption key you’ll need to use to unlock your Android again.
Now, we’re seeing Coronavirus “tracking” apps pop up for Android—and likely iOS too, but the effects are probably more phishing than infiltration.
Samsung Galaxy S20 and S20+ review: Smaller is better
45Engadget / 1h
Night Mode on the S20 and S20+ is pretty much the same as it is on the Ultra, as are new features like 8K video capture and Single Take mode.
I got great photos at 1x and using the ultra-wide angle camera, but when I zoomed in on a bus map across the street, the resulting images were a disaster.
Here's How Covid-19 Could Impact Upcoming NASA Missions
24Gizmodo / 1h
In terms of NASA projects that might be imminently affected by the pandemic, there are a several that come to mind, namely the summer launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover , the April Demo-2 mission (to test a SpaceX Crew Dragon with two NASA astronauts on board), and the already-delayed construction of the James Webb space telescope .
Two NASA workers have already tested positive for the new coronavirus, and officials at the space agency are having to prioritize only the most essential missions.
The coronavirus just resulted in the world’s new longest flight
The Points Guy / 1h
Air Tahiti Nui, a small long-haul carrier based in French Polynesia, has beat the Singapore Airlines record for scheduled flights with a one-off nonstop from Papeete to Paris on Sunday, at 9,775 miles.
On the same day that TN64 left Papeete for CDG airport in Paris, Singapore’s nonstop SQ22 from Singapore to Newark covered 10,253 miles, or 231 more than the Air Tahiti Nui flight.
Microsoft, Alphabet's Verily launch programs to assist COVID-19 prevention
20Mashable / 1h
The site provides a detailed map showing how the virus has spread through different countries. Read more... More about Microsoft , Mashable Video , Big Tech Companies , Coronavirus , and Covid 19
YouTube will temporarily increase automated content moderation
YouTube Google VR SEC82Engadget / 1h
But these are not normal times, and in an effort to reduce the need for employees and contractors to come into an office, YouTube will allow its automated system to remove some content without human review.
YouTube will rely more on machine learning and less on human reviewers during the coronavirus outbreak.
Leaked Documents Show TikTok Tried to Suppress ‘Ugly’ Users
TikTok China Chinese200+Gizmodo / 1h
The moderation document leaked to the Intercept notesLeake that attributes including “abnormal body shape,” being “chubby,” “obese,” or “too thin,” missing teeth, the presence of “obvious facial scars,” being an older person with “too many wrinkles,” or having congenital issues like dwarfism or acromegaly could limit the exposure of that content in the “For You” section of the app, an algorithmically generated suggestion engine that can drive enormous numbers of viewers to a video.
A representative of TikTok told the Intercept these policies are “either no longer in use” or were never put in place at all, and that the purpose of limiting the exposure of physically and economically undesirable users was “an early blunt attempt at preventing bullying.”
Canada Is Closed
500+One Mile at a Time / 1h
The federal government has announced that Canada’s borders are closing to all except Canadian citizens, Canadian permanent residents, and US citizens, with exceptions for diplomats, airline crew members, and immediate families thereof .
The Canadian government has now issued an official advisory to Canadians recommending that we avoid all non-essential travel outside Canada until further notice .
AMD Is Finally Taking on Intel With Gaming Laptop CPUs
AMD Ryzen 9 4000 Intel28Gizmodo / 1h
On the highest end, the Ryzen 9 4900H is an 8-core/16-thread mobile processor with a 3.3Ghz base clock (4.4Ghz boost), 45W of TDP, 12MB of cache, and a graphics frequency of 1750MHz. Here’s how that compares to the current line of available Ryzen mobile H-series processors:
The Ryzen 9 4900HS is an 8-core/16-thread mobile processor with a 3.0Ghz base clock (4.3Ghz boost), 35W of TDP, 12MB of cache, and a graphics frequency of 1750MHz. Here’s how that compares to the current line of HS mobile processors:
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Gizmodo +2 sources
These images of matches perfectly illustrate how we can help stop coronavirus from spreading
500+Mashable / 1h
It's clear that some people, such as the many Americans who continued to hit up bars over the weekend, still don't understand the importance of avoiding crowds and keeping at least three feet of space between yourself and others, but government officials and healthcare professionals believe that social distancing is the key to slowing the spread of this virus .
In an effort to help everyone see just how critical social distancing can be during this tumultuous time, people are creating helpful visual aids using matches.
Save 40% on a 61W RAVPower Fast Charger [Exclusive]
Gizmodo / 2h
Best Tech Deals Best Tech Deals The best tech deals from around the web, updated daily. RAVPower 61W PD 3.0 Wall Charger | $24 | Amazon | Promo code KINJACEQ Charge your phone, and your MacBook too. This 61W PD block from RAVPower is half the size of Apple’s boxy MacBook Pro adapter and for a fraction of the price. At $24 with our exclusive promo code KINJACEQ and the on-site coupon, you can’t be
No mute necessary: Taiv replaces live TV ads at bars with custom content
80TechCrunch / 2h
Taiv installs hardware at the restaurant that sits between the live feed and the TV, analyzing the image so that it can instantly understand that a commercial has come on, and switch over to custom content before anyone even notices.
Taiv turns TV ads into opportunities by sensing when they start and immediately switching to the bar’s own promo content.
Varsity Tutors launches Virtual School Day for free amid COVID-19 school closures
85TechCrunch / 2h
Varsity Tutors , the edtech company looking to connect students with tutors live and on-demand, is today releasing a free product called Virtual School Day for students and parents, as schools close across the globe due to the coronavirus pandemic.
For example, Virtual School Day offers study hall sessions with expert tutors in math, science and English for students who want to focus on certain subjects.
PS5 and Xbox Series X release date fears ramp up as another analyst predicts delay
Xbox PlayStation 534TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 2h
Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have release windows set for late 2020 but, due to COVID-19 concerns, some analysts are predicting either one (or both) consoles could be delayed.
In a recently-released statement, DFC predicted that the current pandemic will likely impact the release dates of both consoles - potentially resulting in one or both consoles not releasing this year.
Apple Card Will Let You Skip Your Payment This Month
Lifehacker / 2h
Apple Card is allowing customers to skip their March 2020 payments if the coronavirus is impacting their finances, according to an email sent to cardholders this weekend.
It’s not automatic; you’ll need to contact Apple Card support to enroll in the company’s Customer Assistance Program.
US ‘Big 3’ well-positioned survive possible coronavirus crisis shakeout, analysts say
41The Points Guy / 2h
“To the extent that [long-haul/low-cost] airlines and possibly others permanently exit the Atlantic, long-term international profitability at Air Canada, American, Delta, and United is expected to emerge higher than pre-crisis levels,” they said.
While they do not name the “weak and infirm” in the industry, Baker and Streeter do expect Air Canada, American, Delta and United to emerge from the crisis stronger than they were before — particularly on routes across Atlantic.
Google warns Android app reviews may take longer due to coronavirus
41Engadget / 2h
Google is warning developers that Play Store app reviews may take longer than usual due to work schedule adjustments, Android Police reports.
In a statement, the company cautioned developers to "expect review times of 7 days or longer." This likely applies to both new app submissions and those that trigger a manual review.
Uber Riders Are Accusing Drivers of Drunk Driving for Free Trips
200+Futurism / 2h
Both Uber and Lyft have explicit “zero tolerance” policies in place for drivers who drive under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, CNET reports .
They say they’ve been falsely accused of drunk driving by passengers looking for a refund.
To make locks touchless, Proxy bluetooth ID raises $42M
100+TechCrunch / 2h
The raise brings Proxy to $58.8 million in funding so it can staff up at offices across the world and speed up deployments of its door sensor hardware and access control software.
Now the company is expanding access to devices once you’re already in the building thanks to its SDK and APIs. Wifi router-makers are starting to pre-provision their hardware to automatically connect the phones of employees or temporarily allow registered guests with Proxy installed — no need for passwords written on whiteboards.
Ohio is closing all its bars and restaurants to slow down coronavirus
Mashable / 2h
Other places that have implemented this rule include: New York City, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington. Read more... More about Food , Mashable Video , Food Safety , Coronavirus , and Covid 19
No, Disney Plus UK will not launch early
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 2h
If you're stuck at home right now, we recommend checking out our lists on the best Netflix UK shows , best Netflix UK movies and best Netflix documentaries .
If you're considering Disney Plus, the full UK launch line-up was revealed recently, and we've selected our five highlights from its library of movies and TV shows to help you make up your mind about it.
Uber Eats is offering free delivery across the US as millions self-isolate
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 2h
As millions of people across the US settle into coronavirus-triggered self-isolation, Uber Eats is offering free delivery across the US and Canada starting today. That doesn’t include tip, of course, and customers should still contribute that way for gig workers. But Uber Eats will also make moves to help local businesses in this time. “We will also launch daily dedicated, targeted marketing camp
Now's a Good Time to Use No-Touch Payment Systems Like Apple Pay
100+Gizmodo / 2h
And because these surfaces can be touched by dozens or hundreds of people each day, it’s probably a good idea to take advantage of any no-touch payment system available to you.
And if you do find yourself needing to touch a high-touch surface like a payment keypad, wash your hands or use hand sanitizer as soon as you possibly can.
Crack Open All Those Canned Goods You've Stockpiled With a $5 Can Opener Set
Lifehacker / 2h
Can Opener Set | $5 | Amazon | Promo code WHQRSWJ3 Graphic: Ignacia Fulcher Best Home Deals Best Home Deals The best home, kitchen, smart home, and automotive deals from around the web, updated daily. Can Opener Set | $5 | Amazon | Promo code WHQRSWJ3 I’m sure everyone has gone to the grocery store during the weekend and has stockpiled on everything from meats, snacks, and frozen veggies. And hon
3D printing saves lives in coronavirus supply line breakdown
SlashGear / 2h
The founder of The FabLab, Massimo Temporelli, spoke with a number of FabLab locations and 3D printing companies in Milan and Brescia (location of the hospital itself).
Milan-based 3D printing group The FabLab was contacted on Friday by Nunzia Vallini, editor of the Giornale di Brescia, who informed the group that their services were needed.
Canada closes border to ‘all foreign nationals’ except Americans, will block even citizens with symptoms
1KTechCrunch / 2h
In addition to this border closure, all travelers, including Canadian citizens, who are exhibiting symptoms will be denied access when boarding flights, Trudeau said during a press conference on Monday.
If you’ve just arrived, you must self-isolate for 14 days,” he said to close the conference, and added that even Canadians at home without symptoms should attempt to isolate and stay away from others as much as possible.
Create a Daytime Academic Schedule for Kids Stuck at Home Right Now
54Lifehacker / 2h
But experts agree that the best thing parents can do for kids off school for the next couple of weeks (or longer) is to get them on a schedule right away.
As schools around the country close and parents scramble to either work from home or find child care, it can be easy to view this as one big, long snow day.
Maximizing credit cards during retirement
The Points Guy / 2h
You should only have as many credit card accounts as you can manage responsibly, which means paying your bills on-time and avoiding carrying a balance.
And as regular TPG readers know, credit cards can offer you the chance to earn valuable travel rewards and benefits.
Emergency fund launches to help nannies and house cleaners during coronavirus pandemic
Mashable / 2h
That's why the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), an advocacy organization, launched an emergency relief fund to help support nannies, house cleaners, and in-home care workers during the pandemic.
"Donations to the Coronavirus Care Fund will provide emergency assistance to nannies, house cleaners, and home care workers who need help right now, giving them the stability they need to stay home and be a part of the solution to this crisis."
T-Mobile Is Offering Free Upgrades to Subscribers Right Now
100+Lifehacker / 2h
Additionally, T-Mobile customers will get the following free upgrades to their service for at least the next 60 days:
Lastly, T-Mobile is also helping Sprint customers displaced by the pandemic by granting Sprint users free roaming access for the next 60 days.
French antitrust watchdog hits Apple with its biggest fine ever: $1.2 billion
Apple France French69Ars Technica / 2h
Given the strong impact of these practices on competition in the distribution of Apple products via Apple premium resellers, the Authority imposes the highest penalty ever pronounced in a case (€1.24 billion).
It is the largest fine ever processed by France’s antitrust regulators, and it follows eight years of preparation on the part of the watchdog.
YouTube warns of increased video removals during COVID-19 crisis
YouTube Virginity Rocks100+TechCrunch / 2h
“We have teams at YouTube, as well as partner companies, that help us support and protect the YouTube community—from people who respond to user and creator questions, to reviewers who evaluate videos for possible policy violations,” YouTube explained in its announcement.
But the current health crisis is leading to reduced in-office staffing in certain sites, which means automated systems will be removing some YouTube content without human review.
Can Pets Get COVID-19?
99Lifehacker / 2h
While it doesn’t seem like pets play a role in transmitting COVID-19 between people, a dog in Hong Kong was reported to test positive for it earlier this month.
The University of Illinois’s veterinary college has an article for dog owners which emphasizes that even with this new information, “There is still no indication that pets can shed the virus or get sick from the virus at this time.”
Seagate's Xbox Series X storage card has 1TB of space, but no price
Microsoft Xbox Series X100+Engadget / 2h
Microsoft only just revealed that the Xbox Series X will support "expansion cards" that allow for faster storage, but it already has an accessory maker lined up. As you might have noticed in the hardware preview, Seagate has introduced a Storage Expansion Card for the Series X that will deliver an additional 1TB of game space while maintaining the same performance as the console's built-in SSD. I
We Risked Our Hair to Try Out Dyson's $500 Cordless Flat Iron
33Gizmodo / 2h
Even so, Dyson’s hairstyling gadgets are a special kind of expensive, from $400 supersonic hair dryers to its $550 Airwrap curling iron .
The Corrale is Dyson’s latest hair gadget—a cordless $500 flat iron that the company says can smooth and curl any hair type.
WHO calls for rapid escalation in global COVID-19 response, including testing and isolation
300+TechCrunch / 2h
The World Health Organization (WHO) held a briefing today for media to update them on the current status of the global pandemic of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and called out worldwide efforts on what the agency’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described as not an “urgent enough” response in terms of fielding a truly comprehensive approach.
During the Q&A, Ghebreyesus went further, noting that while the immediate threat still needs to be addressed, and addressed promptly, the COVID-19 pandemic has also revealed fundamental issues with our global approach to pandemic preparedness that we’ll need to address longer-term.
GitHub nabs JavaScript packaging vendor npm
GitHub JavaScript Npm100+TechCrunch / 2h
As GitHub CEO Nat Friedman wrote in a blog post announcing the deal, npm is a big deal in the JavaScript community.
“For the millions of developers who use the public npm registry every day, npm will always be available and always be free,” Friedman wrote.
This is the cheapest Intel Core i3 laptop right now that targets business users
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 3h
The most affordable laptop that carries an Intel Core i3 processor right now is the HP 14-DQ1038wm and it's a great choice for remote working .
Here's our list of the best business laptops on the market
New United Club Infinite Card launches with 100k limited-time welcome offer, 4x on United purchases
The Points Guy / 3h
The new card is a step above the current premium United Club Card , offering an impressive 4x miles per dollar spent on United purchases, 2x on all other travel and dining and 1x on everything else.
New cardholders will have the chance to earn 100,000 United miles after spending $5,000 in purchases in the first three months from account opening (offer ends 5/18/20).
Working from home essentials: where to buy laptops, monitors, printers, and more
Walmart Amazon Target24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 3h
We've rounded up a selection of working from home essentials, from laptops and printers to headsets and even Wi-Fi extenders, from leading retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.
Dell : save an extra 17% off on working from home essentials
Microsoft Edge browser shares more information than the competition
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 3h
To better understand what data is being shared by popular web browsers, Chair of Computer Systems at Trinity College in Ireland, Professor Douglas J Leith tested Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Brave, Russia's Yandex, Firefox and Apple's Safari.
Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser may share the same source code as Google Chrome but new research has revealed that it may have more telemetry than other browsers, putting users' privacy at risk.
Dropkick Murphys will livestream a St. Patrick’s Day show with no audience
1KEngadget / 3h
YouTube has been streaming Coachella performances for years, and Apple and Amazon have livestreamed concerts and festivals.
In an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, the band is canceling its regular concert but will livestream a free performance tomorrow at 7pm ET.
Antivirus deal: this Bitdefender discount gets you 60% off the world's best antivirus
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 3h
Probably the easiest way of protecting your self online at home remains downloading and installing the best antivirus software - and according to our in-depth security software testing, the world's best antivirus is still Bitdefender .
It's due to a multitude of reasons why we rank and continue to rank Bitdefender Total Security as the world's best antivirus, all of equal importance to the customer.
Mattermost CEO Ian Tien on building a successful remote team
64TechCrunch / 3h
I hopped on a chat with Mattermost CEO and co-founder Ian Tien to talk about how they decided to go full-remote before it was really a thing, what it takes to make a remote team successful and his hopes for the growing number of remote companies.
The team didn’t originally set out to build a messaging tool at all; they wanted to build video games.
Edtech notches a win as Teachable is acquired by Hotmart
400+TechCrunch / 3h
Teachable is a smaller company than its new parent, with offices in New York and Durham, N.C., but together, the combination of platforms, GMV and revenues will likely make it a major competitor in the online course space.
Unlike some online education marketplaces, Teachable is a SaaS revenue business, and teachers pay a monthly or annual subscription to sell and manage their classrooms (unless they are on the company’s “Basic” plan, in which a 5% revenue fee is also taken).
Be Your Own Barista with a $30 Electric Milk Frother
Lifehacker / 3h
Best Home Deals Best Home Deals The best home, kitchen, smart home, and automotive deals from around the web, updated daily. Vava Electric Milk Frother | $30 | Amazon | Promo code DPZFRIV2 + $8 coupon For $30, you could buy three, maybe four macchiatos from your favorite coffee shop. But wait, say your favorite coffee shop is closed for reasons outside your control. Well then you could put that $
The virus has gone global—so what happens to the launch industry?
25Ars Technica / 3h
While United Launch Alliance has scaled back some aspects of its outreach for this mission—for example, a social media event has already been canceled—the company is following protocols outlined in its internal Pandemic Plan and pressing ahead with essential activities.
The Florida-based launch pads operated by NASA and the US Space Force in Florida remain open for business, for now.
Why is Meetup helping people organize meetings during a pandemic?
52Ars Technica / 3h
Contacted by email, Meetup told Ars that the company is taking steps to encourage groups to shift from face-to-face to virtual meetings.
But in the middle of a pandemic, a website devoted to encouraging people to have face-to-face meetings seems more than a little counterproductive.
3D printing could prove a lifesaver in helping treat coronavirus
59TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 3h
3D printing could be a lifesaver in the face of supply shortages caused by coronavirus, with a 3D printer providing vital medical supplies to an Italian hospital. The hospital in Brescia – located in an area of northern Italy suffering at the hands of the virus outbreak – was running out of replacement valves for ‘reanimation’ machines which provide desperately needed respiratory aid to those who
Chase Introduces New Premium United Airlines Rewards Card With 100,000 Mile Bonus
View from the Wing / 3h
The new United Club℠ Infinite Card is available as long as you are not a current United Club credit card customer, and have not received a new cardmember initial bonus for either Club Card product within the last 24 months.
The old United Club card will no longer be offered, and existing Club Card cardholders can keep their current card or request to move to this new one.
Virgin Atlantic to cut daily capacity by 80%, ground up to 85% of its fleet
35The Points Guy / 3h
In addition to cutting capacity and grounding some of its fleet, Virgin said that it’s asking staff to take eight weeks unpaid leave over the next three months.
As a direct result of the decline in demand, also as of March 26, Virgin will ground approximately 75% of its fleet.
El iPhone 12 destruye al Samsung Galaxy S20 y todos los Androids en velocidad
TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 3h
Sólo ha que compararlo con el Android más rápido del momento con el procesador Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 que todos los Android van a usar este año y las mejores caracterÃsticas técnicas hasta ahora — el Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.
El iPhone 12 va a ser un monstruo de la velocidad tan extremadamente poderoso que va a destruir cualquier otro celular del 2020, incluyendo el Rey de la Colina Android, el Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra .
New Powerbeats wireless earbuds launch with improved battery and lower price
Beats Powerbeats Apple24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne.../ 3h
They should boast faster pairing speeds than the Powerbeats 3, courtesy of Apple's H1 chip, which is also found in the 2019 AirPods , the new AirPods Pro , and the Beats PowerBeats Pro true wireless earbuds.
Apple also says that we can expect the "same powerful sound" as the Powerbeats Pro true wireless earbuds, which impressed us with their balanced soundstage and energetic presentation.
Also in
iPhone Hacks
Macworld +2 sources
‘Resident Evil 3’ remake demo will come to consoles and PC on March 19th
Resident Evil 3 Demo100+Engadget / 3h
Resident Evil 3 was announced just three months ago, yet it will be out on April 3rd, so it feels like Capcom has been rushing the game to market, but the game has actually been in development for over three years.
Capcom also announced an open beta for Resident Evil Resistance , a multiplayer game that comes free with Resident Evil 3 .
An Overwhelmed Italian Hospital Is 3D Printing Replacement Parts
7KFuturism / 3h
Since then, more companies have 3D printed dozens more of the valves in a bid to keep the hospital well-stocked for the foreseeable future, according to 3DPMN .
Specifically, the hospital needed extra valves for ventilator devices sooner than its usual supplier could send them, according to 3D Printing Media Network .
Walt Disney's great niece calls out Disney World visitors during coronavirus
Disney Frozen 2 17200+Mashable / 3h
When Disney parks announced that Walt Disney World in Florida would close after Sunday March 15th as a precaution against the spread of the novel coronavirus, some people assumed the right thing to do would be to cancel their vacation, head home early, and obey the Center for Disease Control guidelines in avoiding large crowds. Others did not. A tweet from parks blog site Walt Disney World News
Coronavirus: 3D printers save hospital with valves
Italians 3D Coronavirus1KBBC News - Technology / 3h
A 3D-printer company in Italy has designed and printed 100 life-saving respirator valves in 24 hours for a hospital that had run out of them.
The hospital, in Brescia, had 250 coronavirus patients in intensive care and the valves are designed to be used for a maximum of eight hours at a time.
European Union To Ban Non-Essential Travel
100+One Mile at a Time / 3h
The President of the EU Commission has today announced plans to introduce a 30-day ban on non-essential travel to the European Union.
1⃣Green lanes/fast lanes giving priority to essential transport to keep the mobility sector going & ensure economic continuity
Can't find toilet paper anywhere? You should get a bidet.
88Mashable / 3h
To be clear: Toilet paper can't protect you against the coronavirus, nor is the need for it expected to soar as people spend more time practicing social distancing at home.
If you're struggling to find toilet paper in stock near you, or if you don't feel like brawling over the last pack , using a bidet makes a solid Plan B.
The Best Streaming Service You Can Subscribe to Right Now
500+Lifehacker / 3h
Starting at $55 per month after a free trial, you’ll get all of Hulu’s library of originals, TV, and movies in addition to more than 60 live and on demand TV options, including news and sports.
The bundle—which starts at just $13 for ad-supported Hulu, rivaling the price of Netflix’s popular standard plan—comes jam-packed with a massive catalog of originals; beloved and legacy content from franchises like Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel; all of National Geographic’s documentaries and shows; ad-supported Hulu, which of course hosts a massive library of content; and ESPN+, which comes stuffed with thousands of live events, original series, and fantasy league tools.
Here's What's Inside The Xbox Series X
Microsoft Xbox Series X1KGizmodo / 4h
What you really need to know is that at this moment the hardware inside the Xbox Series X is the most impressive I’ve seen in a gaming console, easily rivaling today’s more powerful gaming PCs. Here’s the full spec list Microsoft laid out this morning.
Today the company details the hardware inside the box that’s getting it done, including a custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU running at 3.8 GHz and its powerful RDNA 2 GPU.
mccallcompany: Edge tooling from a while back. I don’t do this...
Music, Arts & Literature / 4h
mccallcompany : Edge tooling from a while back. I don’t do this as often as I’d like, but I have a few books coming up in my queue that I’ll be doing it on! . . . #McCallCo #bookbinding #create #craft #craftsmanship #craftsperson #finebinding #theprocess #wip #workinprogress #bookbindingporn #diy #leatherwork #magic #handmade #handmadeisbetter https://www.instagram.com/p/B9j3vPNB1yL/?igshid=w115r
On Lockdown in Rome: A Preview of American Life in 11 Days
500+Wired / 4h
For the first time she is living with her fiancée, who is from Naples, and the fiancée happened to be here in Rome for a visit just when the country was put under lockdown.
So, according to the new rules, if she goes back to Naples she won’t be able to leave home for who knows how long.
Coronavirus has somehow given us Shakespeare plague memes
100+Mashable / 4h
bold of people to tweet about how shakespeare wrote king lear and newton invented calculus while under self quarantine, as if the king lear of our time isn't gonna just be reams of gay fanfiction
Sure, Shakespeare wrote King Lear while he was quarantined, but back then Netflix was still just doing DVDs in the mail
Microsoft Teams went down for two hours as Europe logged in
200+Ars Technica / 4h
Enlarge / This morning's Teams outage wasn't entirely limited to the European region whose traffic caused it. (credit: Downdetector ) This morning, Microsoft Teams was unavailable for many users for approximately two hours. This isn't the first high-profile Teams outage this year. Last month, Teams was down for several hours due to an expired TLS certificate. This outage—which occurred at about 8
Support Restaurants By Ordering Directly From Them
500+Lifehacker / 4h
Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney, at a news conference at Chicago City Hall, said the company is prepared to delay collection of $100 million in fees.
If you’re currently relying on food delivery to get you and your family through a work-and-school-at-home situation—or if you’re having food delivered to elderly relatives and friends who need a little extra love and care right now—there’s one good way to ensure that as much of your money as possible goes towards the businesses you want to support.
How did we get to 5G? The history of mobile networks
100+Engadget / 4h
This approach has yielded incredible results; as much as we might gripe about coverage or speeds today, the first real cell networks could only support about a dozen calls per tower, had no data capacity, and used unencrypted analog signals that were easy to intercept.
One aspect of early cell networks we're lucky to leave behind is the networks technology standards wars.
Dead Sea Scrolls revealed forgeries: The rest?
SlashGear / 4h
This announcement was just the latest in ongoing investigations of a collection of “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments that have appeared on the market in the past 20 years.
They had a collection of the “Dead Sea Scrolls”, a set of texts, fragments of what were supposed to be the oldest known surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible.
Resident Evil 3 remake demo, RE Resistance open beta both on the way
Resident Evil 3 DemoSlashGear / 4h
Capcom is also giving players the chance to check out Resident Evil Resistance , a new game mode that’s shipping along with the RE3 remake.
Capcom has announced that prospective buyers won’t even need to wait until April to check out the game, as the company is launching a demo for the remake later this week.
Impossible Foods confirms $500 million fundraising, has raised $1.3 billion in total
93TechCrunch / 4h
According to a statement from the company, the funding will be used to boost its manufacturing; expand its distribution in supermarkets and other retailers domestically and internationally; and speed up the commercialization of its new line of products: Impossible Sausage made from plants and Impossible Pork made from plants .
The new financing was led by Mirae Asset Global Investments, with participation from existing investors Khosla Ventures, Horizons Ventures and Temasek, the company said.
Social events aren't a thing for the next few weeks, so a 4K TV is in order
32Mashable / 4h
We're not just working or taking classes from home anymore — we're skipping the likes of bottomless brunch, concerts, and the movie theatre.
This splurge probably wasn't factored into your monthly budget pre-pandemic, but don't worry: A lot of TVs on sale this week won't cost you more than $500.
Chatty, cheerful podcasts to listen to if your home feels too quiet
40Mashable / 4h
Those of us who are able to practice social distancing will be spending a lot more time at home over the coming weeks.
If you're missing your friends right now, then The Receipts Podcast will make you feel like you're sitting with your mates.
Amid pandemic, T-Mobile gets emergency access to Dish’s 600MHz spectrum
100+Ars Technica / 4h
T-Mobile will borrow spectrum in the 600MHz band from Dish, Comcast, and other companies to boost mobile bandwidth during the coronavirus pandemic.
T-Mobile said it is also giving all customers "an additional 20GB of mobile hotspot/tethering service for the next 60 days." Sprint is taking identical steps .
Grocery delivery apps see record downloads amid coronavirus outbreak
200+TechCrunch / 4h
On Sunday, online grocery apps, including Instacart, Walmart Grocery and Shipt, hit yet another new record for daily downloads for their respective apps, the firm says.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the U.S., grocery delivery apps have begun seeing record numbers of daily downloads, according to new data from app store intelligence firm Apptopia.
Follow the Joy of Cooking Twitter Account for Tips While You're Socially Distancing
20Lifehacker / 4h
Beyond health and safety concerns, one of the biggest sources of anxiety for people right now is keeping themselves and their families fed. While it’s easy to invest in a whole bunch of dried pasta and beans, buying vegetables, storing perishables, and planning meals can feel a bit confusing. Luckily the editors of the J oy of Cooking are dispensing some truly helpful food tips on via their Twitt
Kenya turns to M-Pesa mobile-money to stem the spread of COVID-19
100+TechCrunch / 4h
The move came after Safaricom met with the country’s Central Bank and per a directive from Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta “to explore ways of deepening mobile-money usage to reduce risk of spreading the virus through physical handling of cash,” according to a release provided to TechCrunch from Safaricom.
To encourage the use of digital-payments over cash, the East African telecom will also allow SMEs to increase their daily M-Pesa transaction limits from 70,000 Kenyan Schillings to 150,000 (≈ $700 to $1500).
Italy Plans To Nationalize Alitalia
View from the Wing / 4h
Italy has been pumping cash into perennial loss-maker Alitalia for years, despite European Union rules against subsidizing a national carrier.
The Italian government wouldn’t stand up to the airline’s unions, and without lowering costs no one was willing to come to a deal to take over the failed airline.
Use this code to score a data boost on a bargain £8/pm Vodafone SIM only deal
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 4h
We've listed everything you need to know about this SIM only deal below as well as giving a quick tip for anyone considering also investing in a new broadband deal right now.
This is also, as far as we can see, the best value Vodafone plan around right now.
A new computer chip mimics the neurocircuitry of our noses to smell
Intel Chip 10 Loihi500+New on MIT Technology Review / 4h
On Monday, scientists at Intel published a paper in Nature that proposes a new neuromorphic chip design that mimics the structure and capabilities of the olfactory bulb.
Both because they are so efficient and because we understand them so well, olfaction systems are great starting point for neuromorphic chips, a new type of computing hardware that takes inspiration directly from the structure of the brain.
So We’re Working From Home. Can the Internet Handle It?
LG V60 Verizon AT&T2KNYT > Technology / 4h
As millions of people across the United States shift to working and learning from home this week to limit the spread of the coronavirus, they will test internet networks with one of the biggest mass behavior changes that the nation has experienced.
In Seattle, which has been a center of the virus outbreak in the United States, internet traffic started spiking on Jan. 30, nine days after the first positive case of the virus in the area with people accessing news and using chat apps, according to security company Cloudflare.
Credit card showdown: Capital One Venture vs. Capital One Savor
The Points Guy / 4h
These two cards have very different earning schemes: the Capital One Venture earns 2x miles on all purchases, while the Capital One Savor earns bonus cash-back rewards on dining, entertainment and groceries.
Capital One Venture Capital One Savor Sign-up bonus 50,000 bonus miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months $300 cash bonus once you spend $3,000 on purchases within three months Annual fee $95 (waived for the first year) $95 (waived for the first year) Earning rates 2x miles on every purchase 4% cash back on dining and entertainment
Intel’s neuromorphic chip learns to ‘smell’ 10 hazardous chemicals
Intel Chip 10 Loihi100+Engadget / 4h
Using Intel's Loihi , a neuromorphic chip, the team designed an algorithm based on the brain's olfactory circuit.
Most recently, researchers from Intel and Cornell University trained a neuromorphic chip to learn and recognize the scents of 10 hazardous chemicals.
NASA Worried Astronauts Could Spread Coronavirus on Space Station
500+Futurism / 4h
NASA is reevaluating its standard pre-launch precautionary measures to ensure that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus doesn’t have a chance to spread among its employees — and to stop the deadly virus from reaching orbit, according to Space.com .
Russian space agency Roscosmos has already felt the affects of the coronavirus outbreak.
Watch Italians send messages to themselves from 10 days ago, stressing threat of coronavirus
Italians 3D Coronavirus500+Mashable / 4h
In these trying times, 10 days can make a big difference. That's what Italians in a new video from Milan-based film collective "A THING BY" want viewers to understand about the coronavirus pandemic . Within a short period of time, Italy has become the second-most-affected country. The video, which features testimonials from Italians, is meant to serve as a cautionary tale for those in other count
Powerbeats 4 launch just in time to spice up your quarantine workouts
Apple Powerbeats Beats28Mashable / 4h
At $149, they're a full Benjamin cheaper than the excellent Powerbeats Pro earbuds Beats launched a year ago.
But at least you can work out at home with Apple's new Powerbeats 4 wireless earbuds.
Save over $400 on an HP 2-in-1 laptop, plus other tech deals this week
28Mashable / 4h
So, you've got your WiFi in check for your indefinite work-from-home stint, but do you have a proper piece of tech to connect to it? If not, we've got you covered — we found some of the best laptop and tablet deals that you can get this week, including over $400 off an HP Spectre x360 2-in-1, and more. Take a look, and get something that'll perfect your work-from-home setup. Laptops $499 and belo
Microsoft Teams down as coronavirus remote working takes hold
Microsoft Windows 1041TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 4h
The online collaboration tool was set to face severe strain today as millions of workers around the world begin a stint of logging in remotely after the coronavirus outbreak shut down offices globally.
The company is currently offering a six-month free trial of Microsoft Teams, with the premium tier of the service, which was initially available in China with certain limitations, also now available to users globally.
Apple hit with record €1.1bn fine in France
France French Apple500+BBC News - Technology / 4h
Image copyright Getty Images France's competition authority has imposed a record €1.1bn (£1bn; $1.2bn) fine on US tech giant Apple for what it sees as anti-competitive practices. It is the biggest fine ever imposed by the French regulator. The firm and two of its wholesalers in France were found to have an unfair agreement to control prices. The investigation began in 2012, following a complaint
A New Site Connects ‘Egirls’ With Gamers—for a Fee
200+Wired / 4h
She’s only made a couple hundred dollars total as a gaming accomplice, but as a college student living in a dorm, she says it’s a great way to earn cash for what she'd be doing anyway.
Sunny, the 24-year-old who offers herself as a Fortnite teammate on egirl.gg, also has a part-time job selling games at GameStop.
Apple hit with record antitrust fine
France French Apple20TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 4h
The French competition watchdog (Autorité de la Concurrence) has fined Apple $1.2 billion for breaching competition law and imposing unfair restrictions on wholesalers.
The combined effect of these practices amounted to “sterilising the wholesale market for Apple products,” said the Autorité de la Concurrence.
YC graduate Genecis Bioindustries turns food waste into compostable plastics
100+TechCrunch / 4h
While plastics are a building block for modern industry (historically, there’s been a great future in it ), they’re also a byproduct of the highly polluting petrochemical business; produce 300 million tons of waste per-year (for single use plastic); and production could throw off 1.34 gigatons per year of greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, according to the NRDC .
Unfortunately, the world doesn’t have a constant quantity of problems, and while governments and most private businesses are focused on tackling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, companies like Genecis Bioindustries are working on technologies to solve another major problem: climate change.
Where’s the Zoom of VR?
92TechCrunch / 4h
A number of startups have raised funding in recent months on the premise that the future of work has a space carved out for virtual reality applications.
I recently met with Anand Agarawala, CEO of Spatial , an AR/VR collaboration tool that locked down a $14 million round of funding earlier this year.
Do US Airlines Deserve A Government Bailout?
200+One Mile at a Time / 4h
Right in the middle you have airlines like Delta, which have high change fees and also have high checked bag fees, but it’s a company that’s loved by many, and which fundamentally does what they can to treat consumers right
My biggest point of disagreement with this argument is that I don’t think the government regulating most aspects of aviation will help in any way.
AMD Ryzen 9 4000H and 4000HS APU units hit the top end of laptop power
AMD Ryzen 9 4000 IntelSlashGear / 5h
The newest AMD Ryzen 9 4000 mobile series chips were revealed today with the power and features to take on Intel’s latest Core i9 laptop collection.
The HS version has a base frequency of 3.0 GHz, turbo at 4.3 GHz, and again, the H works with 45 W TDP, and HS is 35 W.
LG V60 ThinQ 5G carrier deals confirmed: Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T
LG V60 Verizon AT&TSlashGear / 5h
Announced last month , the Android smartphone may be LG’s 2020 flagship but it’s not really priced that way, and the good news is that on some carriers the second screen attachment comes as standard.
As for pricing, T-Mobile is offering the V60 ThinQ 5G with and without the second screen.
Spanish Police Using Drones to Yell at People Breaking Quarantine
11KFuturism / 5h
Police in Spain have been using drones to check the streets for anyone ignoring Spanish orders to stay home during the coronavirus outbreak
The country issued a state of emergency on Friday, and on Saturday the government ordered everyone in the country to stay home for all but the most crucial trips outdoors, according to Business Insider .
Apex's electric supercar includes an AR race coach and partial self-driving
60Engadget / 5h
The high-resolution environment mapping enables Level 3 semi-autonomy (that is, you can theoretically take your hands off the wheel most of the time) for driver assistance features like adaptive cruise control, lane keeping and automatic emergency braking.
The AP-0 theoretically ready for Level 4 autonomy (full self-driving in some conditions), although Apex didn't say when that might be available.
Online printing site Doxzoo exposed thousands of customer files
81TechCrunch / 5h
By the time that the company secured the bucket, it contained more than 250,000 customer-uploaded files.
The U.K. printing company left its customer files on a cloud storage bucket, hosted on Amazon Web Services, without a password.
Riot automatically educates your team about phishing
100+TechCrunch / 5h
“With the new voicemail received notification, the person should have noticed that the email came from the noreply.link domain name,” Riot founder and CEO Benjamin Netter told me.
Riot runs fake phishing campaigns on your employees.
How to Use Mentions in Microsoft Office 365 Comments
Microsoft Windows 10How-To Geek / 5h
When you’re adding comments to a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation, Office 365 lets you mention another user using the “@” sign (like most chat apps). Here’s what Office 365 mentions are for and how to use them effectively. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›
The Walking Dead Goes Game of Thrones With a Medieval Battle and a Deadly Twist
31Gizmodo / 5h
But The Walking Dead ’s version of a medieval fight still managed to make the pitched battle between the inhabitants of Hilltop and the zombie armies of the Whisperers overwhelming, brutal, and disorientingly chaotic.
This would be a more-than-powerful enough note to end the episode on, but “Walk With Me” has one more moment up its sleeve, when Negan surreptitiously approaches Alpha to tell her he’s found the thing she wanted, i.e. Lydia, tied up in a cabin, safe from the prying eyes of the other Whisperers who still believe Alpha murdered her months ago.
Quarantined Italians Are Singing, Playing Music on Balconies
500+Futurism / 5h
Italians in lockdown all over Italy are keeping each other company by singing, dancing and playing music from the balconies.
So residents of a number of Italian cities have taken to keeping each other amused by holding impromptu concerts, either singing or playing music from their balconies .
People are changing their Zoom backgrounds to spice up remote calls
93Mashable / 5h
A protip for my fellow professors plunging into online education: Zoom lets you select a "virtual background." I'm looking forward to lecturing at Hogwarts this Spring: pic.twitter.com/LQE93H9LLS
As more and more people begin to work and attend class remotely due to coronavirus, the switch from in-person meetings to constant Zoom calls has been pretty jarring.
Searching for the perfect flavor profile
Mashable / 5h
Didn't see your perfect match in these flavor profiles?
With over a dozen bubbly, gluten-free, low-cal flavors, Truly is one of the top seltzer sellers in the US.
How to Eat, With Mark Bittman and Dr. David L. Katz
57Lifehacker / 5h
Their latest book is called How to Eat: All Your Food and Diet Questions Answered , and in this episode, they discuss the importance of using both science and common sense when it comes to our consumption.
Forget paleo, keto, and intermittent fasting—we’re getting to the truth of how you really should be eating this week with Mark Bittman and Dr. David L.
Scientists Discover 139 New “Minor Planets” in Our Solar System
1KFuturism / 5h
The discoveries could uncover new ways to search for the mysterious Planet Nine , a hypothetical ninth planet in our Solar System that some suspect to be causing strange gravitational effects on a cluster of trans-Neptunian objects beyond Neptune’s orbit.
While the coronavirus outbreak is dominating the global news cycle, a team of astronomers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered 139 minor planets — too small to be a proper a planet, but not a comet or space rock either — orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, as detailed in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal last week.
Both the Echo Show 5 and 8 are on sale right now
32Mashable / 5h
If you want a compact smart display to show off those vacation pictures or read your audio books aloud to you, the Echo Show 5 is a great option.
But in case you're not interested in buying a Blink security camera (which that deal requires), one of the new sales we found for you might be a better bet.
Amazon Prime deliveries delayed by coronavirus
32TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 5h
Amazon has revealed that the coronavirus outbreak may be impacting some of its Prime deliveries.
In a blog post, Amazon revealed that it is working round the clock with its supplier partners to get the products back in stock, as well as getting additional capacity to cover increased demand.
Very good little robot teaches itself to walk
28Mashable / 5h
This robot taught itself how to walk in just a few hour using AI. On a flat surface the robot learned how to walk in just 90 minutes. It's an important step in making robots more useful in the real world. Read more... More about Robot , Ai , Walk , Machine Learning , and Georgia Tech
Monday's Best Deals: RAVPower USB-C Charger, Viva Instant Pot, Vitamix blender, Millennium Falcon Funko, and More
44Gizmodo / 5h
Whether it’s the 5-inch model that’s currently discounted by $20 or the 8-inch model by $30 , you’ll have an Alexa-bearing device that adds to an already-impressive skillset with video chatting, entertainment, smart home voice control, and visual updates on calendars, traffic, weather, and more.
Right now, Amazon’s running a great deal on a router and satellite with Amazon Alexa and Harman Kardon speaker built-in.
Global Challenges Spur Innovative Solutions at MistyTech’s FOUNDERS & FRIENDS
24Futurism / 5h
In 2016, MistyWest hosted the first FOUNDERS & FRIENDS event – a marquee, invite-only series catering to a high technology audience base with installations taking place globally from San Francisco to LA to Austin (and beyond).
From tracking polar bears during climate change to a scanning the waters for drowning victims , MistyWest is making an impact.
Microsoft Teams goes down — just as everyone starts working from home
500+TechCrunch / 5h
Microsoft Teams, the collaboration software that rivals Slack, is currently down. A lot of workers are staying at home because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic . Countries are shutting borders, entire industries are struggling, the U.S. Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates , and governments are scrambling to protect their populations by asking millions to stay at home. Suffice to say, a
Yes, You Can Go for a Run
200+Lifehacker / 5h
Don’t go running in a crowded place or with a big group of people (many organized races like marathons are being canceled anyway), but if you just want to head out for a jog, enjoy.
stay six feet away from other people
France Fines Apple $1.2 Billion for Antitrust Issues
France French Apple200+NYT > Technology / 5h
WASHINGTON — France’s antitrust regulator on Monday fined Apple 1.1 billion euros, or $1.2 billion, putting more pressure on the company as it grapples with the coronavirus outbreak that has threatened its supply chains and closed its retail stores.
As the virus spread through China earlier this year, many of the factories that make Apple’s products were closed.
Here's your chance to get a 9-in-1 Instant Pot for under $50
60Mashable / 5h
But there's another, more less-known model that should probably be in the mix: Once a QVC exclusive, the Instant Pot Viva is now available at Best Buy and is on sale for $49.99 .
The Instant Pot Viva sits stealthily between the Duo, which has fewer functions, and the Duo Plus, which has the same amount of functions but comes with a blue display and status icons.
Insight Partners sells security firm Checkmarx to Hellman & Friedman for $1.15B
48TechCrunch / 5h
Checkmarx , an Israeli security company acquired in 2015 by private equity firm Insight Partners with an $84 million investment, was sold today to Hellman & Friedman , another private equity firm at a valuation of $1.15 billion.
Checkmarx is one of a handful of Israeli security firms held in high regard across the cybersecurity industry.
Microsoft’s Windows 10 nag screens are back with a vengeance
Microsoft Windows 1028TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 5h
Microsoft is once again employing its aggressive tactic of annoying nag screens, with users reporting a surge in unwanted prompts since installing the latest Windows 10 updates.
After installing the latest software updates, likely Microsoft’s February or March patches, users have moaned that they’re experiencing a deluge of full-screen prompts urging them to “Get even more out of Windows”.
Bring your work home with an external hard drive on sale
36Mashable / 5h
Just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, Mashable might earn an affiliate commission. Work from home like a pro. Image: western digital By Miller Kern Mashable Shopping 2020-03-16 14:48:42 UTC Some of us are lucky enough to be able to work from home during the coronavirus outbreak . But that means we have to actually be able to take our work home with us. If you have a ton of fi
Apple's Powerbeats 4 Are Finally Here and They're the Cheapest Ones Yet
Apple Powerbeats Beats66Gizmodo / 5h
That said, for this model Apple switched up the Powerbeats 4's design so that the cable now runs down behind your ears instead of in front, which should make it easier to keep that cord from getting in your way.
Another nice inclusion is that Apple claims the Powerbeats 4 should sound the same as the more expensive Powerbeats Pro, while its built-in H1 chip will make it a cinch for iPhone owners to quickly pair the Powerbeats 4 with their device and gets access hands-free to Siri voice commands.
Malicious COVID-19 tracker app locks phones and demands $100 in Bitcoin
Coronavirus Android40TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 5h
Security researchers from DomainTools not only noticed an increase in the number of domains relating to coronavirus recently, but spotted one in particular – coronavirusapp.site – that purports to offers real-time tracking of COVID-19 cases via an Android app available to download outside of Google Play.
Aware that people are scared and in search of information, cybercriminals are luring in victims with the promise of a coronavirus app for Android – but in reality, it is ransomware.
Nintendo Switch is getting a surprise Indie World Showcase
Nintendo Switch IWSlashGear / 5h
Nintendo has announced a new Indie World Showcase for the Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo, in keeping with tradition, didn’t say what games it will cover in its announcement of this Indie World Showcase today – all it said is that the presentation will last around 20 minutes.
A snapshot of the leading startups in Africa’s top VC markets
Africa Europe China100+TechCrunch / 5h
TechCrunch did a synopsis recently on Africa’s 2019 VC stats. Analyses from investment fund Partech and media outlets Disrupt Africa and WeeTracker came up with varied numbers, but there was a common trend: the top two countries for venture capital to startups across all three studies were Nigeria and Kenya. TechCrunch covered a number of the major investments in those markets in 2019. Here’s a l
This versatile Vitamix blender is $150 off on Amazon
Mashable / 6h
This Vitamix will help you make far more than just smoothies, and it's $150 off on Amazon right now, which is as good a deal as you're going to get today.
This versatile Vitamix blender is $150 off on Amazon
Uber offers 14 days of financial assistance to drivers with COVID-19
Uber Postmates TAP100+Engadget / 6h
Today, Uber detailed its plan for compensating drivers if they are unable to work because of a COVID-19 diagnosis or a mandated quarantine.
In either scenario, Uber will offer its drivers and delivery workers 14 days of financial assistance.
France Hits Apple With a Record-Setting $1.2 Billion Fine
France French Apple500+Gizmodo / 6h
In a statement announcing the fine, the Autorité de la Concurrence said that Apple and its wholesale partners, Ingram Micro and Tech Data, agreed they wouldn’t compete with each other.
According to the watchdog, Apple also put in place a price monitoring system.
How to Talk to Your Kids About the Coronavirus
89Lifehacker / 6h
By this point, if you haven’t already, it’s important to talk to your kids about this coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
It’s also important to make sure you’re managing your own anxiety about the coronavirus—your kids will be looking to you for cues about how worried to be, and you can model a healthy balance by being serious and concerned about it while still remaining calm.
Here's How to Get Your Medications (While Minimizing Your Exposure Risk)
46How-To Geek / 6h
Popping down to the local pharmacy to grab your medications when you need them is a routine as old as, well, pharmacies themselves. But with the push for social distancing in the face of a global pandemic, it’s smart to take these steps to get your pills while minimizing your risk. Read This Article on LifeSavvy ›
How to Encrypt a PDF on a Mac
How-To Geek / 6h
If you want to encrypt a PDF on a Mac, the easiest method is to use the Preview app. You can use Preview to add a password to your most sensitive PDF documents to keep them secure. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›
serafino-finasero: Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye, circa 1968 |...
Music, Arts & Literature / 6h
serafino-finasero : Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye , circa 1968 | Motown Records Archive
Everything coming to Hulu in April 2020
33Mashable / 6h
Plus, more Into the Dark, Cutthroat Kitchen , Dance Moms , and the final season of Future Man. Cap it off with the premiere of The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart and a Masked Singer sing-a-long!
What We Do In The Shadows : Season 2 Premiere (4/16)
Chinese Billionaire Ships 500,000 Coronavirus Testing Kits to US
32KFuturism / 6h
In an update on Twitter — his first-ever tweet — the Alibaba founder wrote that “the first shipment of masks and coronavirus test kits to the US is taking off from Shanghai.
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma pledged last week to donate half a billion COVID-19 testing kits and one million face masks to the US, Business Insider reports .
Microsoft just revealed a ton of new info about the Xbox Series X
Microsoft Xbox Series X100+TechCrunch / 6h
[T]he Series X processor is actually capable of running four Xbox One S game sessions simultaneously on the same chip, and contains an new internal video encoder that is six times as fast as the more latent, external encoder used on current xCloud servers.
That’s coupled with the GPU stuff we already knew about, including the promise of 12 teraflops of processing power, equating to double what the Xbox One X could do and eight times the original Xbox One. There’s Variable Rate Shading (VRS), which allows for the system to focus on given effects on screen and DirectX Raytracing for improved lighting, reflections and other fine touches.
Norwegian Cancels Long Haul Flights, Lays Off 90% Of Employees
400+One Mile at a Time / 6h
Due to stagnating demand and new travel restrictions by authorities worldwide, Norwegian has announced that they’ll gradually cancel most flights and temporarily lay off a vast majority of their employees.
Just a few days ago Norwegian announced that they’d ground 40% of planes and lay off up to 50% of employees, and now the company has announced that they’ll cancel 85% of flights and lay off 90% of employees.
Coronavirus: Broadband firms say no issue with extra demand
500+BBC News - Technology / 6h
But some traffic-heavy services, like gaming, are seeing a surge in use around the world, as people stay home.
Internet service providers (ISPs) say they have contingency plans in place and that the network can deal with extra daytime demand.
How do we stop people from blinding other drivers with aftermarket LEDs?
200+Ars Technica / 6h
But stuffing aftermarket LED headlight bulbs into OEM housings designed for conventional halogen units results in dangerous glare for oncoming drivers.
Consumer Reports' testing of conventional replacement bulbs found that while aftermarket units can improve headlight brightness, there's much more to it than that.
Stock markets halted for unprecedented third time due to coronavirus scare
TechCrunch / 6h
For a Level 1 pause to be triggered, the S&P 500 has to see a 7% drop from the previous trading day’s close.
This is the third time that so-called circuit breakers (trading curbs) have tripped in the last few days.
Important Principles For Government Aid To The Airline Industry
View from the Wing / 6h
The best case for government aid to the airlines isn’t that the industry will be facing massive losses.
Moreover the best assistance to workers isn’t likely to be protecting airline shareholders.
'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' review: The best cure for stress
Animal Crossing NHMashable / 6h
As things like uncertainty about basic healthcare, a once-in-a-decade virus, and everyday anxiety threaten to send the general public into a spiral at any moment, Animal Crossing: New Horizons feels like a little beacon of hope; a place to catch bugs, plant flowers, collect furniture, and chat with animal neighbors with little-to-no pressure.
For hours I was walking around, vaulting across rivers, and catching bugs and fish with my flimsy crafted tools to gather enough resources to help get this little island on its feet.
Moto E6s announced and it's one of the cheapest smartphones you can buy
Motorola Edge Snapdragon32TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 6h
Oddly though, its specs are almost identical to the Moto E6 Plus , a phone which also has a similar price tag.
The Moto E6s also has a 5MP front-facing camera, 32GB of storage, a microSD card slot, a 3,000mAh battery, a rear-facing fingerprint scanner, and comes running Android 9 Pie. The phone sports a water-repellent design too, so it’s likely to survive an accidental spill.
The US Box Office Just Had Its Worst Weekend in 20 Years
300+Wired / 6h
According to Variety , ticket sales at North American theaters hit a low not seen in some 20 years, with the domestic box office coming in around $55 million this past weekend—a number that at any other time could be reached by a single film.
As an increasing number of Americans begin to stay at home in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus , US movie theaters are taking a hit.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons review: A quarantined life has never been cuter
Animal Crossing NH100+Ars Technica / 6h
Animal Crossing games include a lot of little tasks that players can do in a given session, and these range from daily chores (talk to all of your island neighbors, harvest flowers and fruits when they grow, pick any extraneous weeds) to uncommon opportunities (help a stranger who stumbles upon your island, buy special once-per-week items at the market).
This brings us to the two biggest jolts to the old formula: a crafting system and a new currency for completing various tasks, dubbed "Nook Miles." Both of these in their current pre-release implementation are good, because they each offer an extra pipeline of optional, satisfying busywork—without breaking the series' emphasis on patience and long-term play.
‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ is the island escape we all need today
Animal Crossing NH100+Engadget / 6h
But unlike other Animal Crossing games, you can pay off the cost of your trip through Nook Miles, which you earn quickly early on by doing things like collecting weeds, chatting with your neighbors, and in general being a solid member of the community.
(Of course he's a tech CEO now too.) It'll help you keep track of DIY crafting recipes, which you can use at workbenches to build new items; earn Nook Miles, a currency based entirely on things you do; design custom items; and even get rescued if you manage to get stuck somewhere on the island.
Microsoft details its low-latency Xbox Series X controller
Microsoft Xbox Series100+Engadget / 6h
In a Q&A , Microsoft's Ryan Whitaker, a senior designer with the company's Xbox team, detailed some of the enhancements you can expect to see on the Xbox Series X's controller when it becomes available later this year.
The accessory also borrows a couple of design ideas from Microsoft's Elite controller .
Also in
The Verge
Engadget +6 sources
The best streaming services for every kind of horror fan
Netflix March 202027Mashable / 6h
Showtime has The Babadook , Hulu's got Black Swan , Netflix is streaming Rosemary's Baby , and American Psycho is on STARZ.
Unfortunately, body horror classics like The Thing and The Fly are only streaming on STARZ.
Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board
Popular Mechanics / 6h
Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates announced on Friday, 13 March, that he will be stepping down from his position on Microsoft’s board of directors to focus his efforts on philanthropy as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The announcement was made on Gates’s Linkedin Profile , which read: “I have made the decision to step down from both of the public boards on which I serve – Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway – to dedicate more time to philanthropic priorities, including global health and development, education, and my increasing engagement in tackling climate change.”
Also in
BBC News
bit
Eventbrite confirms the coronavirus outbreak will materially impact its business
100+TechCrunch / 6h
Global ticketing and events business Eventbrite announced this morning its business outlook will be materially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as many have already suspected.
Specifically, the company says it’s withdrawing its outlook for the first quarter of 2020 as a result of the “growing impact” the outbreak is having on global live events.
Launches from Europe’s spaceport are suspended in light of COVID-19
100+TechCrunch / 6h
Despite indications just a few days ago that launches as soon as later this month were on track as planned, Arianespace announced on Monday that they made the tough call to suspend operations at the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s spaceport located in French Guiana. This includes suspending any launch campaigns currently on the calendar in the immediate future, like the Vega rocket mission carrying
Huboo picks up investment from Maersk Growth, the venture arm of container logistics giant A.P. Moller – Maersk
eBay Amazon A.P. Moller100+TechCrunch / 6h
Huboo , the U.K. startup that operates a multi-channel fulfilment service for e-commerce businesses of varying sizes, has picked up an undisclosed amount of investment from Maersk Growth , the venture arm of Danish container logistics giant A.P. Moller – Maersk.
The idea is that by outsourcing fulfillment, online shops can focus on the parts of the business where most value is added, such as customer service and choosing which products to develop and/or sell.
What we're listening to: 'Hunting Warhead' and Grimes
50Engadget / 7h
This month, commerce editor Valentina Palladino explains why you should listen a true crime podcast about the dark web, despite its subject matter.
Contributing Editor Igor Bonifacic discusses the merits of the latest album from Grimes.
What If You Can't Avoid the Hospital as Covid-19 Spreads?
200+Wired / 7h
Like much of the internet, Facebook groups and subreddits for people with serious medical conditions are buzzing with coronavirus concerns, but with an urgency that is considerably more concrete and specific.
“I'm 34, which isn't old, and I feel like people aren't getting the fact that I am at risk,” Greene says.
Samsung Galaxy S20: How to Change Your Screen Resolution
How-To Geek / 7h
Your Samsung Galaxy Galaxy S20, S20+, or S20 Ultra has a stunning display that’s capable of running at 120Hz. Out of the box, the handset is set to WQHD+ (3,200 x 1,440), which can only run at 60Hz and uses the most battery life. If you want to change your screen resolution, you can set it to HD+ (1,600 x 720) or FHD+ (2,400 x 1,080). Read This Article on How-To Geek ›
Austrian Airlines Suspends Operations
300+One Mile at a Time / 7h
Austrian Airlines has announced that they will terminate all regularly scheduled flight operations until further notice as of Wednesday, March 18, 2020.
Austrian Airlines is grounding a vast majority of their fleet, though will keep one wide body and one narrow body ready to go, in case there’s a need for evacuation and other relief or emergency flights.
U.S. health agency attacked by hackers amid coronavirus outbreak
US Bloomberg Sunday200+Mashable / 7h
The computer systems of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) suffered a cyberattack late on Sunday, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
There are no other details about the attack at this time — except that it involved multiple incidents — and the HHS did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.
How to avoid fake news about the Coronavirus
Popular Mechanics / 7h
Through the vast number of social media platforms, a huge wave of misinformation is spreading on the coronavirus, from magical home remedies that promise to cure your every ailment, to fake medical advice asking people to avoid foods such as ice cream and chicken, and sharing conspiracy theories.
It is likely that if it is fake one of the organisations mentioned or an official government source would have alerted their social media audience to the fraud.
Coronavirus hospital suspends activity over cyberattack
42TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 7h
Brno University Hospital in the Czech Republic has incurred a crippling cyberattack in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, causing it to suspend scheduled operations.
The incident was confirmed by the Czech National Office for Cyber and Information Security (NÚKIB), which is collaborating with law enforcement and hospital personnel to bring the facility back into full commission.
Stuck at home? Binge on some “War Stories” gaming videos!
61Ars Technica / 7h
If you're stuck at home looking for distractions to take your mind off of COVID-19—or if you've realized that you don't actually have to pay attention to your department's snooze-inducing staff meeting and you'd rather not watch your boss try and fail for twenty solid minutes to get WebEx desktop sharing to work—I've got a humble suggestion: how about watching some of our "War Stories" videos on game-design challenges?
Featuring game dev godfather and world-famous haunted house owner Richard Garriott, the very first "War Stories" video shows how no design survives contact with the enemy players.
SpaceX abort Falcon 9 launch last minute
Popular Mechanics / 7h
The launch Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket carrying a payload of Starlink satellites was aborted during the final countdown, seconds before take-off.
Will announce next launch date opportunity once confirmed on the Range,” SpaceX tweeted shortly after the abort.
The tools you need to work from home
Popular Mechanics / 7h
If you have been asked to stay home or have chosen to do it yourself, here are some of the best tools to use to make sure your work day isn’t totally interrupted.
At home you might not have the good office printer or scanner so it’s time to move into the 21st century and download this app.
BBC delays free TV licence changes for over-75s as COVID-19 situation develops
36TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 7h
"Changes to the TV licence for people aged over 75 had been due to come into effect on 1 June," the BBC said in a joint statement with the British government.
Originally slated for June 1, the BBC has set a new date for the changes of August 1, with coronavirus cited as the reason.
Westworld Returns With a Brand New World (But No West)
100+Gizmodo / 7h
There’s plenty of Incite business talk, and Liam also meets with Guardian of the Galaxy ’s Pom Klementieff, whose character is presumably working for Serac since she tells him someone seems to have hacked inside Rehoboam to run some mysterious tests.
The job complete, Caleb leaves but not without a glance at the unconscious Delores, though as he’s brushed off by guards, he misses her wake up and kill many, many goons.
'Kill Chain': HBO's Election Security Doc Stresses Urgency
300+Wired / 7h
It focuses on the core issues, like voting machines that don't produce any type of paper record that can be used to verify an election's results.
In spite of documented Russian election meddling in the 2016 United States presidential election , and years of warnings from security researchers about insecure voting infrastructure , the US has moved slowly to improve its election defenses.
Lockheed Martin CEO Marilyn Hewson to be succeeded by board member James Taiclet
100+TechCrunch / 7h
Lockheed Martin has announced a major shift in its corporate leadership: CEO Marilyn Hewson, who has been in the role since 2013, will be replaced by board member and American Tower President and CEO James Taiclet. Hewson will become executive chairman of the board, and both shifts will be effective as of June 15. Hewson’s time as chief executive of the U.S. sense company has been punctuated by s
Now Is a Great Time to Choose a Healthcare Proxy
96Lifehacker / 7h
A healthcare proxy is someone who can make decisions about your medical care if you’re unable to do so yourself.
But if you’re looking for an action you can take to provide a little extra certainty during uncertain times, might I recommend choosing a healthcare proxy?
The Best Coronavirus Dashboards to Stay Abreast of Pandemic News
100+How-To Geek / 7h
With the constant flood of coronavirus news and new developments, it’s tough to stay on top of everything (especially with all the misinformation floating around). We’ve gathered up four reliable and easy-to-read sources for helping you stay current. Read This Article on LifeSavvy ›
How to Quickly Record Voice Memos on iPhone or iPad
14 Apple iPhone 9 202033How-To Geek / 7h
If you’d like to capture thoughts on the go, Apple’s Voice Memos app on an iPhone or iPad is a wonderful way to do it with your voice. But sometimes it can be difficult to quickly find the app on your device. Luckily, there’s an easy way to launch Voice Memos using a Control Center shortcut. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›
There are now 1 billion Windows 10 devices in the wild
Microsoft Windows 1083Engadget / 7h
Windows 10 is now being used on one billion devices around the world -- that's one in every seven people on the planet. Since 2015, the operating system has made its way onto consoles, laptops and PCs across 200 countries, with the entirety of the Fortune 500 using Windows 10 devices. According to Microsoft, more businesses are in the process of transitioning to the system, too, so this number is
Xbox Series X full specs revealed – just how powerful is Microsoft’s next-gen console?
Microsoft Xbox Series X55TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 7h
There’s a lot of jargon thrown around in the Digital Foundry article (and at times it sounds almost like a press release straight from Microsoft), so let’s break down those core specifications and look at what that means.
According to Digital Foundry, which certainly knows its hardware, the specs confirm that the Xbox Series X will indeed be twice as powerful as the Xbox Once X… in practise.
AP-0 Super Sports EV Has 650 Horsepower and lots of carbon fiber
SlashGear / 7h
The company says the carbon fiber body panels wrap tightly around the tub while exposing parts of the central construction, which means lots of exposed carbon fiber on the exterior car.
The company says that the car is a celebration of the feeling of being behind the wheel and offers a more connected driving experience while embodying sustainability and technology.
Muting Coronavirus Anger, China Empowers Its Internet Police
200+NYT > Technology / 7h
The experience mirrored what happened to the hero of Mr. Li’s essay, a Wuhan doctor named Li Wenliang, who tried to alert colleagues about the spread of a mysterious virus in a chat group, only to be called to a police station and forced to sign a confession for spreading rumors.
Mr. Xiao, of Berkeley, said internet police activity has only intensified during the coronavirus outbreak.
Create Multiple Virtual Desktops to Separate Your Work and Personal Life
100+Gizmodo / 7h
The menu bar, dock, Start menu, desktop shortcuts, and any other on-screen tools you use stay consistent across these virtual spaces, so you can easily jump into whatever new programs you need and get at your files, even as you expand your digital workspace.
To move apps and windows to another virtual desktop, just click and drag them from the Task View screen into a different desktop thumbnail.
This big data Samsung S20 deal is one of the best around...with a minor catch
Samsung Galaxy S2024TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 7h
Pre-orders have been over for just a few days and already Samsung Galaxy S20 deals seem to be sliding down in price.
This affordable Samsung Galaxy S20 deal in full:
How to Livestream the GDC 2020 Panels and Awards
21How-To Geek / 8h
This year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) has been postponed due to the coronavirus. Fortunately, as you try to stay indoors, you can still enjoy livestreams of the award show and most of the panels while you wash your hands. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›
Stay home and watch the best of Disney+
28Mashable / 8h
TL;DR: An annual Disney+ subscription is available to pre-order for £49.99, saving you £10 on list price.
This pre-launch offer is only available until March 23 , and saves you £10 on list price.
Vodafone offers free access to NHS Online during coronavirus
32TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 8h
Vodafone has revealed it will not charge customers for accessing the NHS’s online services during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Therefore, Vodafone is giving all its mobile customers, including VOXI and TalkMobile customers, free access to NHS UK online, including the web sites of NHS England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, so that they can get the latest health information at no additional cost.
Researchers combine low-cost tactile sensor with machine learning to develop robots that feel
SlashGear / 8h
The robotic skin the scientists came up with can distinguish between several forces acting on the sensor surface and calculate them with high degrees of resolution and accuracy.
Changes in the pattern of the microbeads is used to calculate the force distribution on the sensor.
Formula-E suspended because of coronavirus
Popular Mechanics / 8h
As to what that means for the season, the races scheduled to take place in March and April have been categorized with a red flag, a yellow flag has been placed over May’s race and the June and July races both getting the green flag, but whether they’ll remain green is yet to be seen.
The organizing body behind motorsport and Formula E, FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) announced on Friday 13 March that it will be suspending this year’s 2019/20 season for up to two months.
Apple hit with record-breaking $1.2 billion antitrust fine in France
France French Apple400+Engadget / 8h
Isabelle de Silva, president of the authority, said in a statement that "given the strong impact of these practices on competition in the distribution of Apple products via Apple premium resellers, the Authority imposes the highest penalty ever pronounced in a case.
French competition authority Autorité de la Concurrence has found Apple and its wholesale distribution partners Ingram Micro and Tech Data guilty of running a cartel for Apple products, and has fined the companies €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion), €62.9 million ($70.2 million) and €76.1 million ($85 million) respectively.
The latest Powerbeats bring Pro-style updates to a tethered design at $149
Beats Powerbeats Apple100+TechCrunch / 8h
The name is, in part, to distinguish the bluetooth headphones from the well-regarded Powerbeats Pro. The new models adopt a number of new features from those truly wireless earbuds, while maintaining the familiar tethered design.
In the press material, Beats is comparing them to the Pros, rather than Powerbeats 3, given that many of the updates bring them up to speed with the higher end devices, including an upgraded design, new components and updates to the wireless radio.
View of a bookmark advertising Dingman’s soap. Bookmark...
Music, Arts & Literature / 8h
It’s the glory of the nation, and of every home and hope, there’s naught since, the creation can wash like Dingman’s soap.
View of a bookmark advertising Dingman’s soap.
Today Only, Get a Brand New Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Unlocked for $600
20Gizmodo / 8h
Best Tech Deals Best Tech Deals The best tech deals from around the web, updated daily. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (Unlocked) | $600 | Amazon We might be a couple of generations removed by now, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was one of the best smartphones on the market for its time. Even today, it runs a very smooth and competent Android experience that will get Android 10 (at some point soon, we hope
When A Travel Provider Keeps Your Money, Remember The Credit Card Chargeback
29View from the Wing / 8h
When A Travel Provider Keeps Your Money, Remember The Credit Card Chargeback
This is doubly true if you booked your travel 11 months ahead of time, and the airline is going to give you a voucher when you decide to cancel.
Beats Powerbeats official: $149 for Pro drivers and a neck cable
Beats Powerbeats AppleSlashGear / 8h
Rather than the hard – and hardly small – battery case that the more expensive Powerbeats Pro come with, and recharge inside, Beats opted to give the Powerbeats a Lightning port.
For a start, the Powerbeats use the same Apple H1 chipset as the Powerbeats Pro and the AirPods Pro : that handles easier Bluetooth pairing, hands-free “Hey Siri” triggers, and wireless audio sharing with any other H1-enabled headphones.
A Critical Internet Safeguard Is Running Out of Time
300+Wired / 8h
Shadowserver says it sinkholes up to five million IP addresses per day, neutralizing malicious firehoses of data that would otherwise spew from botnets and disruptive malware.
More than four years after researchers exposed the iOS and macOS malware known as XcodeGhost, for example, Shadowserver still has more than half a million devices connecting to its sinkhole in an attempt to talk to the malware's command and control infrastructure.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is self-isolating with his tiny pet donkey and horse. That's it.
11KMashable / 8h
"We stay home, and we eat here," he continues, feeding a small carrot to his tiny horse, Whisky, alongside his donkey, Lulu.
On Sunday night, the 72-year-old actor shared a Twitter video of himself at home, casually feeding carrots to his pet horse and donkey while talking about the importance of staying at home to avoid possible contraction of COVID-19 , the official term for the disease caused by the virus.
Finally, WhatsApp is bringing back self-destructing messages for individuals
WhatsApp Delete Messages33TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 8h
Analysing the latest beta version of WhatsApp – version 2.20.84 – WABetaInfo noticed new references to self-destructing messages in ordinary chats.
Just as with the group chat version that already exists, the feature is known as Delete Messages, and it gives users the option of having messages removed after an hour, a day, a week, a month or a year.
The Powerbeats are the latest workout-friendly headphones from Beats (and Apple)
Apple Beats Powerbeats52Ars Technica / 8h
Like past Beats earbuds, the Powerbeats don’t totally seal off the ear canal—it’s more like a three-quarters seal—so you’ll likely hear some outside noise while wearing them.
My first impression is that they’re indeed similar to the Powerbeats Pro in both audio quality and design.
Beats' redesigned Powerbeats earbuds have longer battery and hands-free Siri
Beats Powerbeats Apple80Engadget / 8h
Well, the official reveal is here: Apple's latest Beats wireless earbuds are indeed a new Powerbeats device.
The Powerbeats 3 was announced in 2016, so the Beats tethered wireless earbuds were well overdue for an upgrade.
What's New on Netflix the Week of March 17, 2020
86Lifehacker / 8h
We’ll also lose seasons 1-4 of Being Mary Jane this week as well as the movie Zodiac .
If social distancing has made you already blow through all the movies and television shows you had in your queue, Netflix is dropping a bunch of new stuff this week to help you build it back up again.
Reader tip: Getting a refund even after your credit card is canceled
The Points Guy / 8h
Related to this news, a few readers wrote in asking how to get their refund if the card they’d used to pay for the application fee has since been canceled.
If you’re expecting a refund, perhaps for a returned item or canceled membership, then your first step should be to ask the merchant whether the refund can be issued in a different form.
The 6 Best Free Video Conferencing Apps
100+How-To Geek / 8h
If you suddenly find yourself working from home or another remote location, you’re going to miss those interactions with other people. Video conferencing can help by allowing you to talk face-to-face, even if it is via a screen. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›
Here's Everything Coming to Netflix This Week
Netflix March 202030How-To Geek / 8h
With many people voluntarily staying at home to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, Netflix binge-watching is the order of the day. Thankfully, the streaming service has plenty coming this week. From Oscar-winning films to new original movies, Netflix’s mid-March offerings will keep you entertained while you keep your distance. Read This Article on LifeSavvy ›
First US clinical human trial of potential coronavirus vaccine set to start Monday
5KTechCrunch / 8h
The trial, which will test the effects of an experimental vaccine shot developed by the National Institutes of Health and drugmaker Moderna, won’t make use of either an active or inactive sample of the virus, as is common for vaccines, but will instead use a gene-based method that uses messenger RNA to trigger an immune response in the target individual.
But there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to injecting any newly-developed drugs, even into otherwise young and healthy volunteer participants like the reported 45 individuals taking part in this program.
Air France Grounding A380s, KLM Retiring 747s
100+One Mile at a Time / 8h
Air France-KLM has announced some sweeping measures to respond to the current global crisis, as airlines face increasing government restrictions, and a big decrease in demand, which has resulted in a drop in traffic and sales over the past few weeks.
Air France-KLM is planning on reducing capacity by 70-90% over the coming weeks (measured by available seat kilometers).
France hits Apple with a $1.23 billion anti-competitive fine
France French Apple500+Mashable / 8h
The French Competition Authority has ordered Apple to pay a €1.1 billion ($1.23 billion) fine, for colluding with its distributors and abusing the economic dependence of its independent resellers. France's competition watchdog also fined two wholesalers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, for €76.1 million ($85 million) and €62.9 million ($70.3 million), respectively. The fine, a record for France, wa
Airline alliances call for government support amid coronavirus outbreak
The Points Guy / 8h
The three alliances represent 60 of the world’s largest airlines, including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines in the U.S. The alliances released a joint statement on March 16 asking regulators to suspend slot usage rules for the northern summer 2020 season, as the airlines cut back in service due to coronavirus .
The European Commission on March 10 agreed to suspend strict requirements regarding airport slots in the light of the coronavirus outbreak .
5 things to consider when building your home office
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 8h
We’ve done some of the hard work for you too, having devised a simple five-point checklist of things to consider when you’re building a home office for the very first time.
Well, in the same way as lot of family members, friends and work colleagues don't seem to think working from home involves doing a proper days work, you need to be in the right ‘zone’ in order to be productive, efficient and, let’s not forget, happy.
Windows 10’s first major update for 2020 could arrive soon with a useful new tool
Microsoft Windows 10100+TechRadar - All the latest technology ne.../ 8h
Introduced with the May 2019 Update, this system is supposed to initially use around 7GB of drive space, although Microsoft admitted that this amount could grow larger (10GB+ potentially) over time.
Of course, bear in mind if you do turn this capability off, and you’re applying a big update to the OS with low drive space, you could potentially run into some of the thorny issues which led Microsoft to introduce reserved storage in first place.
Xiaomi explains why a customer’s Redmi Note 7 Pro exploded
30TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 8h
Take this case of the exploding Redmi Note 7 Pro for example.
Recently, 91mobiles reported of a person from Gurgaon whose phone spontaneously exploded.
Is this the Motorola Edge? Images of a second Motorola flagship have leaked
Motorola Edge Snapdragon32TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
It also looks like Motorola will join the growing list of manufacturers to include a display with a high refresh rate option, with the Edge set to feature a 90Hz mode if another settings image is to be believed.
The new phone has surfaced in images leaked to XDA developers , and they suggest the Edge will boast premium features including a ‘waterfall’ curved-edge display with a 90Hz refresh rate.
Also in
The Verge
Android Central +2 sources
LG's latest budget OLED TV is coming a lot sooner than expected
36TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
LG's cheapest OLED TV for 2020, the LG BX OLED, will be launching this April, alongside the more premium OLED sets in the LG TV 2020 range – bucking tradition from previous years.
LG's B Series OLEDs get a lot of attention each year, and for good reason: OLED is still an expensive TV technology, and – with pricing starting at $2,500 (around £2,000 / AU$4,000) – the BX is going to be the cheapest way to get your hands on a new LG-branded OLED this year.
Adobe gives students free home Creative Cloud access – here's how to get it
200+TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
Adobe is helping students who are stuck at home because of the Covid-19 outbreak with free, temporary remote access to Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop and InDesign.
In order to get access to the apps your school or college needs to be an education customer and the temporary licenses will only be available until May 2020.
Sleep easy with this discount code from Casper
24Mashable / 9h
TL;DR: Save 20% on all Casper products (except the Glow Light) using the code WORLDSLEEPDAYZZZ. Nothing can ruin your day quite like a bad night's sleep, and that's why it's so important to invest in the best mattresses, pillows, and accessories on offer. There are plenty of top providers of sleep products, with the likes of Eve, Nectar, and Casper using leading technology to ensure that you get
Reader credit card question: Best luxury cards based on annual fee and authorized user fees
The Points Guy / 9h
TPG reader Adrienne recently emailed us, asking for a comparison of premium travel rewards cards that includes the annual fee and authorized user fees:
So, for today’s reader credit card question, I’ll compare the annual fee, authorized user fees and authorized user benefits across the following premium travel rewards cards :
Just one week left to save £10 on a year's subscription to Disney Plus UK
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
Until March 23, pre-ordering a year's subscription of the service cuts the price down to £49.99 from £59.99.
At launch, the new streaming service reverts to its normal yearly price, and you'll be able to grab it for £5.99 per month if you don't want to commit for a year.
Apple fined record $1.2B in France over anti-competitive sales practices
France French Apple300+TechCrunch / 9h
The wheels of the regulatory machine continue to turn, and today Apple, along with two of its wholesale partners, was dealt a major blow in France over antitrust violations, by receiving the biggest-ever fine levelled against a business over anti-competitive practices and “sterilizing the market” for Apple products, specifically as they are sold across a range of Apple Stores, large “big box” retailers and smaller, independent resellers.
Apple, along with its wholesale distribution partners Ingram Micro and Tech Data, have been accused and fined by the French competition authority (Autorité de la Concurrence), over operating a cartel — affecting pricing and who could sell products — for virtually all Apple products including computers and tablets, but not the iPhone (which is often sold via mobile phone distributors and carriers).
Steam breaks record for concurrent users, likely due to coronavirus
38TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
Steam set a new all-time high for the number of concurrent users on the gaming service at the weekend, hitting 20 million for the first time ever – likely due to the number of folks staying at home because of the coronavirus outbreak.
It was only last month, February 2020, when Steam set a new record of 18,801,944 concurrent users (with about 5.8 million in-game).
Perfect your look with the Philips S3000 electric shaver
Amazon Seelk28Mashable / 9h
TL;DR: The Philips Series 3000 electric shaver is on sale for £47.75 on Amazon, saving you 60% on list price. Philips is a brand that's synonymous with personal care products. In the same way that Bose is all about headphones and speakers, you can't help but pair electric toothbrushes, beard trimmers, and electric shavers with Philips. There are loads of impressive devices to consider from the br
Is Not Cutting Flights As Deeply As Competitors A Brilliant Strategy Right Now? [Speculative]
View from the Wing / 9h
Forward bookings are drying up, and none have enough cash – or even assets – to continue their businesses for long without revenue.
Would an airline that continues to operate more flights than competitors actually stand to come out ahead?
The Freewheeling, Copyright-Infringing World of Custom-Printed Tees
eBay Amazon A.P. Moller200+Wired / 9h
Imhoff also alerted Cassidy and Sahad to a less familiar name: an Australian company called Redbubble, where he had filed occasional infringement notices on Chainsaw ’s behalf starting in 2013.
Exurbia has filed more than 50 notices with eBay, more than 75 with Amazon, and more than 500 with Etsy, asking the sites to remove items that violated Chainsaw trademarks.
E3 2020 Is Canceled Due to Coronavirus
Pokémon Pokemon Go100+Wired / 9h
But with social distancing becoming the new normal for the time being, Niantic, the developers behind the game, have taken steps to make Pokémon Go a hopefully more sedentary, or at least play-from-home, activity.
While this is a big deal and could signal a change in how Sony manages first-party games going forward, head of worldwide studios at Sony, Hermen Hulst, also said that, well, maybe not.
Today's Cartoon: Replied All
84Wired / 9h
Featured Video Health Expert Explains What You Need to Know About Quarantines Professor Lawrence Gostin on what you should know about COVID-19 quarantines.
What a WoW virtual outbreak taught us about how humans behave in epidemics
2KArs Technica / 9h
He and his Tufts colleague, Nina Fefferman, co-authored a 2007 paper published in Lancet Infectious Diseases examining the potential implications of the Corrupted Blood incident for refining existing epidemiological models, since they would be able to draw on hard data showing how players actually responded during an outbreak.
As Corrupted Blood infections spread uncontrollably, game spaces became littered with virtual "corpses," and players began to panic.
How I booked 1 bed for 4 people — reader mistake story
The Points Guy / 9h
Today, I want to share a story from TPG reader Terry , who failed to confirm one fundamental detail of a hotel stay:
Some hotel websites are sophisticated enough to exclude search results that can’t actually accommodate your party, so booking a room for four people might have helped Terry avoid this situation altogether.
GPD WIN Max shown running The Witcher 3 thanks to 10th Gen Intel Core CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 4000 IntelSlashGear / 9h
While GPD may have proven the WIN Max’s gaming performance, some still call into question how comfortable it will be to use as a handheld gaming device given its unorthodox design.
GPD says that it initially looked at the AMD Ryzen 5 5200U but when Intel came out with its latest chips, it found that the Core i5 offered better performance than AMD’s equivalent.
5 reasons why you should consider remote working
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
In uncertain times working remotely can remove a lot of that anxiety as you cut costs overnight by removing the need for commuting.
While working remotely might not be for everyone, especially those who like the community spirit provided by many office environments, it does offer a lot if you’re looking for positive change.
Why the OPPO Reno3 Pro is the best phone for vloggers
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
Where most smartphones struggle to keep footage steady and clear-cut, the OPPO Reno3 Pro has a few tricks up its sleeve that make it the perfect partner device for your vlogging channel.
Combined with the rest of the camera array, the 64MP Zoom Quadcam takes perfects shots whether you’re zoomed into a subject, zoomed out or at nighttime under less than ideal lighting conditions with the phone’s AI powered Ultra Dark Mode
Nvidia wants PC gamers to use their rigs to fight coronavirus
100+TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
By using the Folding@home software , PC gamers – or anyone with a computer who wants to help out – can donate spare clock cycles of their powerful graphics cards to a globally-linked network of PCs, essentially making a huge international super computer.
Nvidia has asked PC gamers to use their powerful gaming PCs to help with the fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, by donating unused GPU clock cycles to help improve our knowledge of coronavirus.
Huawei P40 range leaked and teased in a render and video
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
Evan Blass (a reputable leaker) has shared a render showing the Huawei P40, Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei P40 Pro Premium Edition in a range of colors.
This doesn’t really show us anything that we haven’t seen before, other than the – possibly full – range of colors, but coming this close to launch and from a reliable leaker it’s likely accurate.
Galaxy A11 silently joins Samsung’s mid-range troop
Samsung Galaxy S20SlashGear / 9h
Given all the attention the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series get, it’s all too easy to forget Samsung has other phones in its lineup.
Given there’s still no official announcement or even product availability, it’s still up in the air how really affordable this entry-level Samsung Galaxy A11 will be.
Also in
TechRadar
The Witcher season 2 and The Lord of the Rings shut down over coronavirus
44TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 9h
It makes sense: Netflix previously shut down all production for shows filming in US and Canada, and Redanian Intelligence claims this new shutdown will last for two weeks, which lines up with Netflix's other shutdown notice.
The Witcher season 2 , which was filming in the UK, and Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series, filming in New Zealand, are both on hold right now.
New Policy: United Airlines Will Refund You In A Year For Your Canceled Flight
300+One Mile at a Time / 9h
Then United’s policy was that you could only get a refund if your flight schedule was changed by at least 25 hours ; this even applied retroactively to previously booked tickets
The former policy was that in the event that your flight schedule was changed by at least two hours, you could get a cash refund
BT broadband network 'can cope' with coronavirus demands
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 10h
BT has reassured customers that its home broadband network has the capacity to cope with any spike in demand caused by the coronavirus.
Large businesses in the UK tend to have dedicated Ethernet or FTTP connections, meaning traffic intended for these networks will instead be carried by home broadband networks.
CoilPay is reinventing plastic cards of a bank with an affordable smartwatch
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 10h
For making payments through a normal smartwatch, he said that a user has to buy a watch and download the bank app to make a payment but with their solution, banks give the device free of cost to a customer, instead of a credit card, and the customer can control Coil through the bank’s mobile application.
Furthermore, Andrejas said that the wearable can integrate with any existing bank NFC payment solutions and with its AI-powered analytics, banks can build apps that deliver consumers powerful spend control capabilities and analytics.
Apple Card holders can skip March payment due to impact of coronavirus
Apple Card Skip March400+Engadget / 10h
Following Apple's decision to close all of its retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27th, the company is taking further action in the face of the spreading coronavirus -- it's allowing Apple Card customers to skip March payments without interest. As revealed on Reddit and reported by MacRumors , Apple Card customers have received an email explaining, "We understand that the rapidly-
Microsoft Edge will finally let you ditch Bing for Google – here’s how to do it
Microsoft Coronavirus Bing100+TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 10h
While Microsoft’s new and improved Edge web browser , which is now based on the open-source Chromium engine (the same used by Chrome), does a lot of things right, it still tries to force you to use the company’s unloved Bing search engine - but that could soon be changing.
However, that appears to be changing, as a new Edge Canary update (which is an early version of Edge released to people who want to help test out new features) looks set to come with new options for changing the search engine used in new tab windows.
GTA 6 could return to Vice City, based on this fascinating theory
30TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 10h
"Rockstar appear to tease what looks like a map that includes Florida and Mexico in the latest GTA 5 racing DLC's circuit packs," said one commenter on Imgur (via Comic Book ).
GTA 5 players have been examining a new DLC track for the game's online portion, and believe they've found evidence that the next game will be returning to Vice City, the series' imagined take on the US regions of Miami and Florida.
Korg and Moog are giving away free synthesizer apps – download them here
100+TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 10h
Korg's Kaossilator app is available free for both iOS and Android for a limited time.
"To help you with a musical way to occupy your mind we have decided to make the Kaossilator app for iOS and Android free of charge for a limited time."
Pixel 4a to have a significant storage upgrade but not in size
Google Pixel 4A CameraSlashGear / 10h
According to XDA’s source , the Pixel 4a will use a 64 GB UFS 2.1 NAND flash storage, which is a considerable step up from the 64 GB eMMC of the Pixel 3a.
XDA notes how even the Pixel 3a’s eMMC was able to match a UFS 2.1 storage in at least one aspect due to such work.
Startups developing tech to combat COVID-19 urged to apply for fast-track EU funding
500+TechCrunch / 10h
The European Commission put out a call Friday for startups and small businesses which are developing technologies that could help combat the COVID-19 outbreak to apply for fast-track EU funding.
Apply for fast-track EU funding – deadline 17:00 CET on 18 March ↓
Telkom zero-rates university websites
30Popular Mechanics / 10h
Telkom released a statement confirming that it is zero-rating a long list of websites belonging to educational institutions alongside websites related to coronavirus information.
Telkom is also zero-rating educational facility websites to allow “learning and teaching to continue”.
Disney Plus is £2 cheaper each month if you're on O2
24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 10h
Disney Plus is set to launch in the UK on March 24, and when it does you'll be able to access the service for free for six months if you're a new or upgrading customer that chooses a particular extra with O2.
Your mobile contract may be able to help with O2 now offering two deals as a benefit for customers on the network.
ESA capture reduced pollution over Italy
100+Popular Mechanics / 10h
The European Space Agency has just released a video tracking the air pollution over northern Italy for the last few months, registering a serious drop in nitrogen dioxide.
Using the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, the European Space Agency (ESA) collected data over the course of the lockdown, noting a sharp decrease in nitrogen dioxide in Po Valley.
What features should you look for in antivirus software?
One Fantastical 3 Mac28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 11h
The all-in-one platform brings real-time protection to devices against a wide range of ransomware, viruses, spyware, phishing and other online threats.
Antivirus software is a great way to ensure that your personal information, financial details and devices are as secure as they can be.
SpaceX aborts Falcon 9 launch with rare 'Liftoff! Disregard' sequence
SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink200+Engadget / 11h
With both computers and human controllers cautiously watching every single rocket function, it's not unusual for SpaceX to abort a launch.
Apparently, the launch was aborted automatically by the Falcon 9's onboard computer after it detected a Merlin 1D engine issue.
American Teenagers Are Declaring ‘Virginity Rocks’
1KNYT > Technology / 11h
It can be traced to Danny Duncan, a 27-year-old YouTube personality and prankster, who said he started wearing “Virginity Rocks” shirts in his videos as something of a joke in 2017 .
The chain, which specializes in action sports brands, prominently showcases “Virginity Rocks” apparel featuring Mr. Duncan’s name online and in stores, where cardboard cutouts of the floppy-haired YouTuber grin at customers in some locations.
How bad can coronavirus get in the US? We’re about to find out.
Italian US 10 Coronavirus500+New on MIT Technology Review / 11h
Macchini ends his post by begging people to stay apart, to stop gathering in order to slow the spread of the disease: “Please share and share the message.
The overall fatality rate of Covid-19 is around 3.5%, according to the World Health Organization, though the true number is uncertain because some cases may be asymptomatic.
Coronavirus: Job interviews go online as candidates stuck at home
WhatsApp Delete Messages500+BBC News - Technology / 11h
"It was actually easier to get hold of many clients because they were at home, bored and on the end of a mobile phone than it was when they were in meetings, walking factories or flying somewhere," said recruitment firm PageGroup's chief executive Steve Ingham.
Recruitment firms are going online to interview candidates who are working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Realme 6i is set to debut on March 17, but only in Myanmar
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 12h
It will be the third member of the new Realme 6 series, which launched earlier this month in India.
It’s just been a few weeks since the Realme 6 series made their global debut, and the company is already looking to add another member: the Realme 6i.
Motorola Razr at Rs 1,24,999 is outrageous for you to even care about it
Motorola RAZR India24TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 12h
Motorola has finally launched its nostalgia-driven clamshell foldable phone, the Moto Razr in India, and it's going to cost you an arm and a leg.
Motorola Razr, on the other hand, costs Rs 1,24,999 in India, which is rather expensive pricing.
Google Maps is making 'Live View' AR navigation more prominent
100+Engadget / 12h
Last year, Google Maps introduced " Live View " AR navigation that visually guides you to a location using your phone's camera.
In the latest beta version, Maps puts a floating action button (FAB) for Live View front and center as soon as you search for or select a location, according to 9to5Google .
Score 20% off over a million items in eBay Australia's massive mid-season sale
28TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 13h
A massive mid-season sale has just kicked off on eBay Australia, with over a million products discounted by 20%.
For this mid-season sale, there’s 20% off storewide, so check it out if you’re looking for something other than what we’ve listed above.
