People underestimate the versatility of popcorn. It’s a flawless snack, yes, but when paired with a glass of wine and some roasted olives, it also makes a pretty good supper. And, seeing as it’s a whole grain, I don’t think anyone could fault you for eating it for breakfast. (It’s basically oatmeal.) It’s near…
Hi Salty, I’m a woman who’s generally not “a touchy person.” I don’t like hugging acquaintances and I tend to get a little panicked when someone I’m not really close with goes in for the hug.
The promise of a “how it’s made” video is that it will surprise you. That’s obvious in this collection of the best “process porn” videos of 2018 from design blog Core77. Each video snaps something into place in your brain: oh, that’s how that works! For example, here’s a machine that prints ceramics:
The new year always means great deals on protein powders and supplements, so it’s worth stocking up for a full year now, if only to motivate yourself to keep working out. For a limited time, Amazon’s offering a 30% coupon on a huge variety of Cellucor and Scivation products when you use Subscribe & Save. You can…
Everyone’s watching Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on Netflix, thanks to its quirky premise of a fully interactive story that lets you choose how it unfolds.
This afternoon, scientists on NASA’s New Horizons mission shared the first close-up images of the distant, frozen space rock their spacecraft whizzed by on New Year’s Day. The pictures bring the strange object into a clearer focus — and it looks like a lumpy snowman. In fact, it’s not really one object, but two lobes that are touching each other, what’s known as a contact binary.
The images were taken on January 1st around 12:33AM ET, when the New Horizons spacecraft sped past the rock at a whopping 32,000 miles per hour. The vehicle, which came within 2,200 miles of the object’s surface, used all seven of its onboard instruments to gather as much data as it could about the rock during the flyby. Those instruments included two cameras...
The Apple Watch is packed with health and fitness features—so many that it can be overwhelming. But with a little thought, you can set up your watch so that it helps you to do great workouts and gets you ready for the next one.
Another year in life hacks come and gone! We’re celebrating our favorite moments, hacks, guests and episodes of 2018 with this, our annual Best of The Upgrade episode. Whether you’re a lifelong listener taking a trip down memory lane, or new listener looking to dip a toe in the magic that is The Upgrade, we’re here…
It’s a new year, folks, but there’s still one last data leak from 2018 we need to discuss. If you spent any time online over the holiday break, you’ve probably seen someone on Facebook or Twitter posting photos from Popsugar’s Twinning app, which uses facial recognition to tell you what celebrities you may kind of,…
Two hackers have teamed up to promote Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg by forcing TVs to display a message encouraging people to subscribe to his YouTube channel. The hack takes advantage of a router setting that makes smart devices, like Chromecasts and Google Homes, publicly viewable on the internet. The attackers are then able to gain control of the devices and broadcast videos on a connected TV.
The attack, which is being referred to as CastHack, is being conducted by two hackers, HackerGiraffe and j3ws3r. A website for the attack claims to count the number of TVs forced to show the PewDiePie message and currently says more than 3,000 have been affected. While it’s not clear that this is an accurate number (it has reset several times), a...
Volkswagen has an interesting solution to the dilemma of owning an electric vehicle without a permanent place to charge it: they’ll bring the charging station to you.
The German automaker offered a glimpse of its new mobile charging strategy last week, which envisions mobile charging units that can be delivered directly to electric cars in need of power, rather than frazzled EV owners having to use their last bit of juice to find the closest charging station. These portable DC charging stations could be perfect for owners who, for example, live in cities, park their cars on the street, or lack a garage where they can charge their EVs overnight. It’s a helpful strategy that could go a long way toward making EV ownership in big cities...
Post-it’s Extreme notes can go a lot of places regular Post-its can’t. They’ll stick to rough surfaces like wood and brick, and somehow, they’re even waterproof. We blasted them with a kitchen sink last year, and the paper never shredded, and the ink never ran.
Welcome to 2019. We’re all better, more responsible people now, and doesn’t that feel great? We’re getting our spending under control, excelling at our hobbies and setting up better boundaries with technology.
August appears to be close to launching a redesigned doorbell camera as its first new hardware since being acquired by the giant lock conglomerate Assa Abloy in 2017. Dave Zatz uncovered images of the new doorbell, which looks like a big improvement from the company’s original model that didn’t look much like a doorbell at all.
The doorbell could be launched alongside a chime, according to Zatz. The chime accessory doesn’t appear to have a name yet, but it would be a smart addition for August since competitors like Arlo and Ring already offer similar options.
There’s no word yet on a release date or pricing — August hasn’t even announced the devices yet — but with CES 2019 around the corner, we might not have to wait too long before we...
The world is filled with amazing technologies, many that are so old we don’t even think of them as technologies at all.
Google just got one step closer to the possibility of controlling a smart device through hand gestures from afar. It won federal approval to continue its tiny radar project from 2015, “Project Soli,” at higher power levels for better accuracy.
Google has been working on this in its experimental division for years. Instead of tapping directly on a screen, the project proposed using gestures like rubbing your thumb and index finger together to control a smartwatch or smart speaker.
With this technology, you could potentially turn on a JBL smart speaker by moving a hand closer to it or turn music on or off with a flick of your fingers. The tiny radar sensors inside the speaker would sense your hand motions.
After its initial debut as a...
I love a roasted vegetable, and I love a pickled vegetable. But take a pickled vegetable and roast it? That, my friends, is a glorious snack, perfect for pairing with cheese, charcuterie, or a stiff cocktail.
There are a bunch of different extensions you can use to take full-page screenshots in your browser—typically a more elegant way to preserve a site’s contents than “printing” it as a PDF or saving it to your computer as a complete website. Since I use Chrome, Full Page Screen Capture has been my go-to for some time,…
The interactive TV format could give Netflix a needed advantage in a crowded streaming market
A discounted GoPro Hero 7, protein shakes, Nature Made supplements, and a J.Crew sale lead off the best day-after-New Year’s Day deals.
A pair of outdoor security lights from Ring have leaked via two FCC filings. The documents, which were first spotted by Dave Zatz, indicate that Ring is preparing to launch two new outdoor lights — its first that won’t also include a security camera. One model, the Ring Beams Spotlight, is battery-powered and has a single LED light. The other, the Ring Beams Wired Floodlight, is a bigger, wired device that’s equipped with two lights.
The leaks come less than a week before CES 2019 is due to start, where Ring is likely to announce new products. It’s been almost a year since the Amazon-owned Ring acquired Mr Beams, a company that already produces some very similar-looking security lights. Ring has previously built lights into its security...
“I have an idea; tell me if it’s a bad one,” a parent in our Offspring Facebook group posted a few weeks ago. “I’m seriously thinking about getting a small dog bed for my toddler. He likes to cuddle pillows and seems to like something against his back. I really think he would love having his own ‘couch’ in the living…
Tesla knocked $2,000 off of the prices of its cars in the US on Wednesday to help offset a recent reduction of the federal electric vehicle tax credit. The automaker also announced initial delivery and production numbers for the fourth quarter of 2018, showing that the frenzied pace it carried through most of the year — led by the big Model 3 push — helped Tesla set new company records, even though it cooled toward the end.
The cheapest Model 3 (a “midrange” rear-wheel drive version announced in October) will now start at $44,000. The base Model S now costs $76,000, and the most affordable Model X now starts at $82,000. (Prices for the base Models S and X went up in November.)
Tesla’s pace of production and deliveries tapered off...
It’s hard to get motivated to run when it’s freezing (or worse) outside. Here’s a little warmup to get you mentally and physically prepared. High knees, butt kicks, arm swings, and lunges will warm up your muscles, and they count as dynamic stretches too. The best part: you can even do these indoors, before you head…
Before we can send humans to Mars, we’ll need to select people who can live and work together in an extreme and distant environment. So how do we figure that out? One way is to re-create Mars here on Earth.
That’s where HI-SEAS comes in. It’s a fake interplanetary habitat located on an active volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. From 2013 to 2018, the University of Hawaii operated simulated Martian missions inside the habitat. For months at a time, people would live inside HI-SEAS, re-creating the conditions they might experience during a Mars mission. That meant conserving water, eating preserved foods, and simulating the delay in radio communications between Earth and Mars. They also couldn’t go outside of the habitat unless they were...
If we are headed for another economic downturn (to say nothing of the subprime car loan bubble bursting) it’s more important than ever to keep what you have now in peak condition. Who knows what our financial or living situations will look like after the next big one hits. You may wonder if you can afford all the…
Whether you’re getting a brand new Apple Watch today, or just want to accessorize your old one, this Milanese loop band is a great deal at $5, with promo code 50NBM4JV. That should work on any color and size, so you can match your watch’s color, or create a nice contrast.
The Root Tiffany Haddish Bombs, Drinks with Fans Instead | Adequate Man Christmas Candy Vs. Halloween Candy: Who Ya Got?! | Jezebel Prince Harry Gave up Drinking Tea, Is No Longer British | Splinter Fox News Starts the New Year With Some Blood-Soaked Anti-Immigrant Hysteria | The A.V. Club In this week’s Savage…
My Instagram followers want to know whether I like veggie chips and how many push-ups I can do in a row. The answer is no and one. On this week’s Why’d You Push That Button, Vox.com’s Kaitlyn Tiffany and I discuss anonymous question-and-answer apps — why do people use them, both to ask and receive questions?
First, I chat with my pal Vanessa about how they use Instagram’s question and answer feature to build community. Then, Kaitlyn chats with a minor Tumblr celebrity, Klaudia, about how she handles questions she’s asked and how she guides the youth of today through their lives. And finally, I interview Janis Grivins, the COO of Ask.fm, about why people ask anonymous questions and what purpose a masked identity can serve.
As always, you...
With just about every major US cellphone service provider prepping their 5G network rollouts, you’ve probably seen 2019 hyped as the beginning of the “5G revolution,” or something similar.
The Roku Channel, which offers free-to-watch, ad-supported movies, TV shows, and live news, is introducing premium subscriptions. Users will soon be able to get networks including Showtime, Starz, and Epix, and pay for everything on one bill — similar to Amazon Prime Video and its add-on channels. The Roku Channel isn't strictly limited to Roku hardware: it's available on an expanding list of devices and is a huge focus for the company.
There are several differences between what Roku's doing and Prime Channels, though. First, Amazon's solution requires Prime, whereas Roku's subscriptions don't have any prerequisites aside from you setting up a Roku account. The second difference — and perhaps a more important one — is that Roku isn't...
I usually have about 90 articles in my Instapaper, and I’m OK with that. I get around to articles a month after everyone stopped talking about them. I look through my queue like it’s a ten-page diner menu, ignoring certain articles for weeks until I finally decide to read or delete. It could be worse; once I had 500…
TriggerPoint’s GRID foam rollers are the most popular on the market, and Amazon just discounted the 26" extra long model to $47, from the usual $60. Foam rollers use compression from your body weight to simulate a sports massage after you work out, and they hurt like hell, but they really work!
Microsoft finished 2018 as the world’s most valuable company, but it also passed an important milestone for Windows. The latest Windows 10 operating system is now the most popular desktop OS in the world, finally beating Windows 7’s market share according to Net Applications. Windows 10 held 39.22 percent of desktop OS market share in December 2018, compared to 36.9 percent for Windows 7. It’s a statistic that’s taken Microsoft three and a half years to achieve, and it demonstrates just how popular Windows 7 has been since its release nearly 10 years ago.
Microsoft had been planning to get Windows 10 running on a billion devices within three years of its release, but the company soon extended that timeline after it was clear that Windows...
Sony, the global leader in imaging sensors — both for smartphones and professional DSLR and mirrorless cameras — is eager to establish itself as the go-to supplier for the next generation of visual-processing chips with a set of new 3D sensors. Speaking with Bloomberg last week, Sony’s sensor division boss Satoshi Yoshihara said Sony plans to ramp up production of chips to power front and rear 3D cameras in late summer, responding to demand from multiple smartphone manufacturers. Though Yoshihara is geeked about the potential for augmented reality applications, the most intriguing aspect of this new tech would appear to be a better form of face identification than we currently have.
The Face ID approach that Apple first brought into use...
“Become a better photographer” has been on my New Year’s resolution list every year for probably a decade. I guess it’s more of a goal than a resolution. I have made strides toward that dream, but have never really started the year with a “plan” on how to make it happen. Now I have one.
The Federal Communications Commission will wind down most of its operations on Thursday if the partial federal government shutdown isn’t resolved by then. Should its lapsed funding not be restored, the commission says “all FCC activities will cease” as of mid-day Thursday, January 4th, “other than those immediately necessary for the protection of life or property, performing other excepted activities, or those funded through a source other than lapsed appropriations.”
The vast majority of the FCC’s employees would be sent home on furlough if this plan is implemented, with under 20 percent continuing to show up for work alongside the commission’s leaders — chairman Ajit Pai and commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Michael O’Rielly, and...
Last year, LG launched a Software Upgrade division and said it would be “investing significant resources toward extending smartphone lifespan” with consistent, stable updates. Many were hopeful that this concentrated focus on software would mean customers would receive major new versions of Android in a more timely manner; LG has never been particularly quick at delivering the latest features to its devices — even with the company’s flagship Android phones.
Unfortunately, the company’s roadmap for Android 9 Pie — posted to its Korean website — suggests more of the same and shows that buyers of several phones will be waiting months longer for the upgrade. The G7 is scheduled to receive it first; LG says Android 9 will start rolling out...
If sharing your top nine most popular photos wasn’t enough, now you can look back on the colors of your year with a new web app that creates a mosaic out of the colors in your Instagram photos. The app, Year of Colour, takes your snapshots of events and moments and distills them into an abstract time capsule of colored dots.
Stef Lewandowski, a venture builder based in London, built the web app in his spare time after being inspired by his wife, Emily Quinton. Quinton runs a company called Makelight that, among other things, helps people improve their Instagram presence to coax more people into pressing that “follow” button. “If you look consistent, and there’s good quality, people press that button,” Lewandowski told The Verge.
He...
In an era where everything is controlled by touchscreens and oblique voice commands, there’s something incredibly satisfying about a gadget with simple, tactile controls. That’s probably why designer Chris Patty’s homemade jukebox looks so charming: it’s controlled by physical cards, each printed with an artist and album art on the front, that you swipe to play a song.
Patty created the jukebox as a Christmas gift for his father, after his family decided to only swap handmade presents this year. He later posted a short video of the creation to Twitter, where he’s received enough positive responses that he’s working on an open source version of the software and instructions so that fans can make their own.
This year my family decided...
Frank Castle will return to his life of vigilantism when the second season of Netflix’s The Punisher premieres.
The streaming service released the first teaser for the Marvel series’ second season, which sees Castle burn the pardon he received at the end of the first season. That means Castle isn’t giving up on his role as the Punisher. There isn’t any more information that fans can gleam from the short teaser, but Netflix says the show’s second season is arriving “soon.”
Back to work. pic.twitter.com/egCCC2qX3y
— The Punisher (@ThePunisher) January 1, 2019
The Punisher’s first season was mostly well received by critics who praised actor Jon Bernthal’s portrayal of the character. It’s also one of the few Netflix and Marvel original...
Netflix has pulled an episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj from Saudi Arabia after complaints from the Saudi government, according to a report from Financial Times.
The second episode of the Netflix comedy show criticized Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the government’s reaction to the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi government reportedly told Netflix that the episode violated its cybercrime laws and requested its removal. The cited law effectively states that criticizing the government through any kind of digital medium is a criminal act.
Although Netflix has removed the episode from its service in Saudi Arabia, it can still be viewed on the series’ YouTube channel for those living in the country, according...
NASA received a critical signal from one of its most distant spacecraft this morning, confirming that the vehicle has just flown by a tiny frozen rock in the outer reaches of the Solar System. That space probe, named New Horizons, has now made history. Currently located more than 4 billion miles from Earth, the spacecraft has now whizzed past the most distant — and most primitive — object that’s ever been visited by humanity.
“We have a healthy spacecraft,” Alice Bowman, the mission operations manager for the New Horizons mission, said after confirming the feet. “We’ve just accomplished the most distant flyby.”
It’s a flyby that’s been over a decade in the making, too. Launched in 2006, New Horizons famously passed by Pluto in 2015,...
Today’s best deals are largely about New Year’s resolutions. Supplements, superfood powder, and bathroom scales are a little on the nose, but they’re legitimately great deals.
Netflix rang in the start of 2019 by announcing that Stranger Things would return for its third season on July 4th.
A brief teaser for the show’s third season accompanied the announcement, giving fans plenty of cryptic hints to think over while enjoying their morning coffee. A news broadcast from New Years’ Eve 1985 includes some bizarre intermissions from a government agency, filled with phrases like “when blue and yellow meet in the west” and nonsensical terms like “SilverCatFeeds.”
A poster for the season also debuted on Twitter last night, bringing us up to date with what’s going on in the lives of our favorite Hawkins residents. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) seem like they’re still going strong, holding each...
New Year’s Day is a big holiday, so big in fact that you might run into problems visiting a number of your retailers.
