Posts

Honestly, if it weren’t for a few minor quirks specific to my usage, it would be my perfect ultraportable laptop. Even still, it might be the laptop I would buy myself today — perhaps good enough to pry me away from Microsoft’s Surface line that which has long offered my devices of choice. I’m not going to go in-depth into every corner of the laptop’s specs and feature set — there are plenty of other great reviews for that — but instead, highlight things that stood out during my test period....

The circular camera array lends the phone a unique aesthetic that doesn’t look like anything else out there. On the rear, anyway — on the front, the Pro+ features a 6.8-inch display, while the regular pro has a 6.5-inch one, both capable of 90Hz refresh rates. Processor aside, the phone’s promise high performance with 8 GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD on the Pro; the Pro+ gets 12 GB of RAM....

Enter Icon Rewind — a web-based app that lets you switch up the icons of some of your favorite apps with an older version. Among others, you’ll find icons for Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Spotify, Snapchat, Facebook, Google, Slack, Gmail, and YouTube. All you need to do to bring back the old icons is open Icon Rewind from your mobile device, click on an icon of your choice, and follow the steps....

As part of this reality TV extravaganza, Maezawa is hoping to find a female playmate to accompany him on this stellar journey. Today, Reuters reported applications for this girlfriend vacancy have topped 20,000 entries, which, quite frankly, is ridiculous. But there was another tidbit that caught my attention. [Read: SpaceX is flying a Japanese billionaire to the moon in 2023] According to Reuters, the application form now includes a “love diagnostic test” which potential entrants can take to asses their compatibility with the billionaire....

Ken Pillone’s YouTube Shorts video, first spotted by Apple Insider, shows a working iPhone X model with the new charging port. The video shows the phone charging with a USB-C-based Mac charging brick. His blog post written in May describes how he aimed to use a combination of lightning and USB-C converters to finally install a USB-C female port as the primary charging input on the iPhone. When he started, he wanted to reverse engineer the Apple C94 connector board so that he can accommodate USB-C components....

ARK’s ‘next generation internet’ Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is now up a pearl-clutching 85% this year while the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 index returned just 29%. Buoyed by solid stock picks like Tesla and Square, ARKW’s portfolio is now valued at $2.45 billion, up from $1.11 billion and 120% more than when Hard Fork first analyzed it in June. ETF Database ranks ARKW 2020’s best performing “actively managed” ETF so far, rivalled only by ARK’s other “thematic” offerings, which take up the next four leaderboard positions....

The photo-sharing social network has begun locking down its platform by preventing signed-out users from having unlimited access to public profiles. As a result, you’ll now be prompted to either sign up or login after viewing a handful of photos and posts via mobile or desktop web. Worse, there’s no getting around it. “This is to help people see photos on Instagram and then understand how to get the best Instagram experience by being part of the community, connecting and interacting with the people and things they love,” the company told Adweek....

The Facebook-owned photo-sharing social network is now adding a new feature that allows individuals to “manage all of the third-party services they connect to their Instagram account.” The option can be accessed by heading to Settings > Security > Apps and Websites. In addition to providing a handy list of all websites which have access to your Instagram information, it’s adding a new authorization screen that asks for your explicit consent before sharing your data with a specific third-party app....

The iPhone-maker hasn’t developed any technology to make Face ID work when someone’s wearing a face mask. But when the Face ID system detects that you’re wearing a mask, it instantly tasks you to the passcode screen, so you don’t have to wait for the face detection to fail. Thankfully, to use this feature you simply need to update your iPhone to iOS 13.5. To do that, go to Settings > General > Software Update, and download the latest version....

Most experts – not all – believe we’re decades away from anything of the sort. Unlike other incredibly complex problems such as nuclear fusion or readjusting the Hubble Constant, nobody really understands yet what GAI actually looks like. Some researchers think Deep Learning is the path to machines that think like humans, others believe we’ll need an entirely new calculus to create the necessary “master algorithm,” and still others think GAI is probably impossible....

Nintendo’s had a handheld in its stable since the original Game Boy came out in 1989. The Switch Lite would be the first time the handheld has been related to the company’s home console in anyway, even though the console itself can’t be docked in the regular Switch’s port or be connected to a TV. Now that we’ve got a next-gen handheld, I knew it wouldn’t be long before we started seeing commentary about the imminent “death” of the 3DS, as it would seem there’s no longer a place for it in the paradigm....

Watch out! Plugged In has just tumbled through the ceiling and is now laying on the floor and rolling around and groaning in agony. But you know what? That hurts less than what happened this week. It’s story time — and that means one thing: slipping this stifling robe from my shoulders and getting comfortable enough to paint you a word picture. It’s Sunday afternoon. I’m so hungover I feel halfway between a lizard and a raisin....

As you can guess from the sub-heading, I’m most excited about the all-new guitar de-noiser. As a beginning player my picking and fretting techniques are atrocious. But a little studio magic goes a long way and, thanks to RX8, I don’t have to spend hours editing out unwanted instrument and pick noises if I want to record a few licks for a track. But that’s not the only thing new in RX8....

Not one to let such popular models go stale, today KEF announced their successors: the LS50 Meta and LS50 Wireless II. The key acoustic update is a newfangled use of metamaterials to “absorb 99% of the unwanted sound radiating from the rear of the driver, reducing distortion and enabling the prevention of audio distraction.” It covers a range from 600Hz all the way up to the top of the tweeter’s response....

While Kickstarter launched a Funding Calculator tool earlier this year, this was a private feature for creators. The Project Budget uses this data and displays it publicly on a product’s campaign page, forcing a degree of accountability and reminding creators of expenses they might not have fully considered. According to The Verge, projects that share a budget are more likely to be featured on Kickstarter’s homepage. They’ll also display a badge that will tell backers its creators are trying to be more transparent....

Dotcom’s proposed platform, K.IM, is pitched “secure and dynamic ecosystem” where consumers and publishers of digital content can easily transact (without the middleman). Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex will facilitate Dotcom’s fundraiser via its revamped token issuance platform, Bitfinex Token Sales (formerly Tokinex). The firm markets the platform as a more sustainable solution to Initial Exchange Offerings. The token (also named KIM) will be issued via Blockstream’s Liquid network, a Bitcoin sidechain....

Google may be paving its own, strange road to CPU design For a while, it seemed Google might just use a slightly tweaked Exynos processor made by Samsung, with some additional Google-y AI bits. But according to a leak by XDA, whose source claims to have access to a Pixel 6 Pro, Google might be taking a fundamentally different approach to Android CPUs (we’re assuming the non-Pro model’s CPU will be largely identical)....

The UK city of Leicester is installing 30 “living” bus shelter roofs as part of a new programme to revamp its infrastructure while supporting the environment. Working with advertising firm Clear Channel, the so-called “bee bus stops” will be planted with a mix of wildflowers to attract pollinating insects and add extra greenery to the city. The City Council says the shelters will positively contribute towards biodiversity and climate resilience, absorb rainwater falling on the roof, and help to reduce the “urban heat island” effect by capturing harmful particulates from the air....

Back in 2019, Facebook announced it was making progress on one of its favorite pet projects, creating a wearable system that could type up to 100 words per minute translated directly from a writer’s thoughts. Facebook still hasn’t cracked that particular code quite yet, but even without digging into your brain waves, technology has done a pretty good job anticipating your next move and trying to help you carry it out more easily....

There’s a never-ending torrent of kazoos, maracas, tambourines, and other instruments aimed at enabling children to explore music and rhythm, but if my toddler wants to play along with mommy and daddy while we jam on guitar he’s out of luck. At least he was until we reviewed the Loog Pro together. His tiny hands can’t grip a real guitar and the motor and music skills he’ll learn strumming some plastic toy with fishing line for strings won’t really transfer over to his first Stratocaster....