Science & Technology

Elon Musk is tweeting again, and this time, there are no words, both literally and figuratively.  On Friday, the Tesla CEO tweeted the following: "SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon’s."  SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon’s — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2020 Given Musk's beef with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which intensified around the time he tweeted he's "considering taking Tesla private" without anything to back it up, it's pretty easy to work out what Musk meant with this one.  To remove all doubt, though, one commenter on Twitter posted a photo of shorts with a sign saying "S*** Elon's C***," to which Musk replied "not bad." Read more...More about Elon Musk, Sec, Tech, Web Culture, and Transportation

We're somehow more than halfway through 2020 and well, it's been a wild ride. While I thought the coronavirus outbreak would slow down product releases, it was actually the opposite. Let's just say there was no shortage of devices. In fact, I'm still working through a backlog of gadgets to review. But if there's anything this pandemic helped to solidify, it's that technology is crucial in helping us stay connected, especially when sheltering in place for months at a time.  And a lot of the new products that have launched over the last six months have been essential for the lockdown lifestyle. The Fitbit Charge 4 can help with those quarantine workouts. And the Magic Keyboard case makes working from home a lot more bearable.  Read more...More about Best Of 2020, Tech, and Consumer Tech

Some people look to wipe their web history as soon as possible. (Can't have anyone stumble across those adult websites you visited!) But what if you're the opposite? What if you're looking to hold onto that history? Maybe you're trying to remember that really funny video you saw online but can’t remember what the heck it was called. You can’t find it online. Your browser history doesn’t go that far back, and it’s not pulling anything up.  Or maybe you're just a bit of a digital hoarder, like me. Either way, not being able to find what you're looking for is, well, annoying. I’m here to solve this problem. Here are a few of my favorite apps that will help you create your very own web history archive so you never forget about another website you once visited again. Read more...More about Apps, Firefox, Google Chrome, Web Browser, and Web History

Anifa Mvuemba used 3D models and animation for her Hanifa fashion show while COVID-19 shut down the fashion industry. Read more...More about Tech, Mashable Video, Fashion Show, 3d Animation, and Mashable Originals

Named Pulse, the 3D-printed necklace is meant to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Read more...More about Nasa, Mashable Video, Motion Sensor, Future Blink, and Covid 19

Well, we can't say we weren't warned. San Diego police have turned a technology pitched on the promise of reducing traffic fatalities and   tracking carbon emissions into a tool to surveil protesters. And yes, legal and tech experts saw this coming years ago.  In the midst of ongoing Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests following the killing of George Floyd, San Diego police looked to an unexpected source to gather surveillance footage: the 3,200 so-called smart streetlights installed across the city beginning in 2017. So reports Voice of San Diego, which, through public records requests, determined that in late May and early June the network of smart streetlights was accessed at least 35 times. Read more...More about Privacy, Surveillance, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, and Tech

Facebook is cracking down on the Boogaloo movement. On Tuesday, the social media giant announced that it was classifying a network on its platform associated with the boogaloo movement as a “dangerous organization.” As a result, this network has been banned from the platform.  The Boogaloo boys, as members are often referred, are a far right libertarian extremist movement seeking to incite a civil war in the U.S.  In a statement, Facebook said that it removed 220 Facebook accounts, 106 Facebook Groups, 28 Facebook Pages, and 95 Instagram accounts associated with the Boogaloo movement. The social network also removed 400 additional groups and 100 more pages that it said hosted content similar to that of the banned Boogaloo accounts. Read more...More about Facebook, Social Media, Ban, Boogaloo, and Tech

President Donald Trump has been saying covertly and overtly racist stuff since before he became the president.  Now, after protests against police brutality and systemic racism swept the country, some social media companies are finally doing something about it.  In May, after Trump called for violence against protesters, Twitter took (mild) action. More companies acted after the president retweeted, and later removed, a video in which someone yelled “white power,” and more than 20 companies boycotted Facebook because it let Trump spread hate and misinformation. Some companies banned groups that support the president. Others took action against the president's account. They probably won't be the last. As with Alex Jones' mass deplatforming in 2018, when the dominoes in a social media empire begin to fall, they all fall at once. Read more...More about Trump, Hate Speech, Content Moderation, Tech, and Social Media Companies

A slew of major far-right video personalities just lost their online home. On Monday, YouTube banned a half dozen white nationalist channels from its platform for continually violating its policies. The accounts belonged to a range of far-right groups and personalities. "We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” said a YouTube spokesperson. “After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies.” Read more...More about Youtube, Ban, White Supremacist, White Nationalist, and Hate Speech

A copy-paste issue on iPhones is still running wild on more than 50 apps, including TikTok, numerous news apps, and games like Bejeweled. The clipboard privacy breach was first reported back in March and exposed that some apps could see iPhone users' clipboard contents, whether it be a credit card number, password, or random link. The apps were accessing the copied text or media every time users opened them without users knowing that was happening. At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2020, the newest iPhone operating system, iOS 14, was introduced and with it a new way to notify users about apps looking at your iPhone data. Other types of app data access will be self-reported in what Apple is calling privacy "nutrition labels." Read more...More about Apple, Apps And Software, Ios 14, Tech, and Cybersecurity