Matt Novak

Tech NewsNews

Chuck Grassley Tweets That Cable Companies Have Gotten ‘To [Sic] Big Like Goggle [Sic]’

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa has always used Twitter in a rather bizarre way. After all, who can forget Grassley classics like “PantsBurnLegWood” of 2009 and “WH:ANSWER MY LETTER” of 2017? But the senator’s tweets over the weekend were particularly weird, even if you agreed with his central premise. “These cable companies are getting … Continued

ScienceHealthCovid-19

L.A. Records No New Covid Deaths for First Time in Over a Year as Life Gets More Normal

Los Angeles County recorded no new deaths from covid-19 on Sunday, the first time that’s happened since L.A. County identified its first coronavirus death on March 10, 2020. And while experts warn there’s a possibility of undercounting that typically happens on weekends, it’s still a great sign that Southern California and the U.S. more broadly … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Elon Musk Shares Painfully Obvious Idea About the Difficulty of Self-Driving Cars

Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest people on the planet, sent a tweet Thursday night about the real problem with self-driving cars. And as you can probably guess by now, it’s one of those things that sounds profound until you stop to think about it for three seconds. That’s more or less Musk’s brand at … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Australian Political Staffer Fired for Filming Himself Jerking Off on Female Politician’s Desk Says Video of the Incident Is ‘Revenge Porn’

How do you define revenge porn? It might seem easy enough when it’s an angry man posting a naked photo of his ex-girlfriend to 4Chan. But what happens when it’s an image of a lewd act in the workplace that touches off a national conversation about gender bias, power imbalances, and sexual assault? Australia was … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Facebook Says Posts Criticizing India’s Prime Minister Were ‘Mistakenly’ Blocked

Facebook posts criticizing India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi were being blocked on Wednesday, the tech giant confirmed to Gizmodo, adding that it was a “mistake.” But why was Facebook content with the hashtag #ResignModi being censored in the first place? Facebook is being incredibly cagey about the specifics. “We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, … Continued

Tech NewsApple

Australia Says Apple and Google’s Default Phone Apps Stifle Competition

Google and Apple should give consumers more control over which apps they have on their phones right out of the box, according to a new interim report from Australia’s top consumer watchdog. The report is Australia’s latest attempt to pick a fight with Big Tech, and if the past is any guide, Google and Apple … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Man Banned From Carrying ‘Loose QR Codes’ After Altering Covid Check-In Signs

A man in the Australian state of South Australia was arrested Wednesday after allegedly placing his own QR codes on two official covid-19 check-in signs, according to police in South Australia. The man was granted bail with one very specific condition: He can’t carry “loose QR codes” anywhere. The government of South Australia operates an … Continued

Tech NewsNews

YouTube Launches PSAs to Boost Confidence in Covid-19 Vaccine

YouTube launched a series of public service announcements on Monday encouraging people to get vaccinated for covid-19. The videos come as health experts in the U.S. worry there will soon be more covid-19 vaccine doses available to Americans than people who want to take them. The YouTube video series, produced in conjunction with the London … Continued

Tech NewsNews

CEO of Turkish Crypto Platform Flees Country as Users Say They’re Locked Out

Federal police in Turkey are investigating Thodex, a cryptocurrency trading platform that handles hundred of millions of dollars in trades every day, after users complained they’d been locked out of their accounts, according to new reports from Reuters and Turkey’s TRT World news service. CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer reportedly fled Turkey on Tuesday and 62 … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Electric Bicycles Recalled Over Firmware Issue That Can Cause Unwanted Acceleration

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled Brompton electric folding bicycles over a firmware problem that can cause unwanted acceleration even after users stop pedaling, according to a press release from the government agency. Brompton’s electric bicycles are designed to give riders powered assistance while they pedal, but the company has received a complaint … Continued

Tech NewsGoogle

MailOnline Sues Google for ‘Hiding’ Links to News Stories

MailOnline, a news site associated with the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper, has sued Google over allegations the tech giant has been “hiding” links to its news stories. Google calls the allegations “meritless.” The U.S.-based lawsuit, first reported by the Guardian, alleges that articles about professional bloviator Piers Morgan and former royal Meghan Markle were recently … Continued

Tech NewsAmazon

Whole Foods Launching Amazon Palm Reader Payment System in Seattle

Whole Foods will launch a palm reader payment system at its Madison Broadway location in Seattle today and has plans to roll out the biometric program at seven more stores in the coming months, according to an announcement early Wednesday. The electronic palm readers, known as Amazon One, allow people to pay for everything in … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Venmo Launches Ability to Buy, Sell, and Hold Cryptocurrencies Like Bitcoin

Payment app Venmo will now let users buy, sell, and hold four cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash, according to a press release from the company Tuesday morning. But users won’t be able to send cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to their Venmo friends just yet. “Venmo customers can start their crypto journey with as … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Facebook’s Long-Stalled Digital Currency Could be Tested This Year: Report

Facebook hopes to launch a trial of its long-stalled digital currency project by the end of this year, according to a new report from CNBC. The currency, first announced in 2019 as Libra and then renamed Diem after some bad publicity, will now be pegged to the U.S. dollar, provided the tech giant can actually … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Shanghai Auto Show Disrupted by Protester Shouting ‘Tesla Brakes Fail’

The first day of China’s Shanghai Auto Show was disrupted Monday by a protester jumping on top of a Tesla and shouting “Tesla brakes fail” before being dragged out by security, according to photos and video posted to social media sites. The woman can be seen standing on a Tesla Model 3, apparently without her … Continued

Tech NewsNews

UK Launches Digital Currency Task Force to Explore the Future of Money

The Bank of England and the UK’s Treasury have launched a task force to explore the use of a national digital currency, the British government announced in several press releases early Monday as part of April 2021 Fintech Week. The task force, formally known as the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Taskforce, will examine the … Continued

Tech NewsNews

9.5 Million Users Traded Cryptocurrency on Robinhood in First Quarter of 2021

Roughly 9.5 million people traded cryptocurrency on the Robinhood app in the first quarter of 2021, the company announced in a new blog post on Thursday. The number is significantly higher than the last quarter of 2020, when just 1.7 million people traded cryptocurrencies on Robinhood, according to the company. The news from Robinhood comes … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Elon Musk’s ‘Public Transit’ in Las Vegas Still Just Humans Driving Cars Slowly in a Tunnel

Local media outlets in Las Vegas were invited for a sneak peek of Elon Musk’s new form of ‘public transit’ on Thursday. But just how futuristic is this technology, which Musk’s Boring Company has dubbed the “Loop”? That depends how futuristic you think a car being driven slowly by a human inside of a tunnel … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Twitter Launches Pro-Democracy Emoji for ‘Milk Tea Alliance’ in Asia

Twitter launched a new emoji early Thursday that will appear anytime a user tweets the hashtag #MilkTeaAlliance. The so-called Milk Tea Alliance refers to the pro-democracy movement in Asia that has been organized, at least in part, through actions online. “To celebrate the first anniversary of the #MilkTeaAlliance we designed an emoji featuring 3 different … Continued

Tech NewsNews

LG Pledges Three Years of OS Updates After It Stops Making New Phones

LG will continue to provide operating system updates for its mobile phones over the next three years, even after the company stops making phones entirely by July of this year, according to an announcement posted on LG’s website. And that’s good news for anyone who recently bought an LG phone or may be thinking of … Continued