Technology

There’s something to be said for cheap, simple gadgets. The BoomPro is a smart idea that’s executed almost perfectly. With a single cable, you get a microphone (with a flexible arm for easy repositioning), volume controls, and a mute switch. It can substitute for the 3.5mm audio cable that you’d normally plug into your favorite wireless headphones, immediately transforming them into a much better communication tool. For years now, I’ve been using V-Moda’s BoomPro microphone to chat with people while gaming. During the pandemic, I’ve also regularly used the $35 accessory to improve the audio quality on my end of conference calls — when I don’t want to bother with my desk-mounted Rode microphone, that is. This week, V-Moda announced a new evolution of that idea: the $45 BoomPro X has a tweak...

Suriyan Ramasami’s first date with the professor from Sacramento was special. After matching on Bumble and texting and FaceTiming for a week, Ramasami suggested they meet in person. He reserved a table at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, drove two hours from the Bay Area to Sacramento, and even bought her a rose. They hit it off and scheduled a second date of hiking and dinner by a lake. It was then that Ramasami disclosed his living situation: “I don’t stay in an apartment or anything. I’m nomadic, and I actually love it.” At first, the Sacramento professor was curious. But, soon after, she gave him the bad news: she wanted to just be friends. This wasn’t Ramasami’s first time in the “friend zone.” In fact, most of his experiences with online dating apps like Bumble, Hinge, and PlentyofFish play...

Hurricane Ida is about to pummel Louisiana as an “extremely dangerous” storm after strengthening rapidly over the weekend. The hurricane is swirling towards the coast with winds of 150 miles per hour, accompanied by a life-threatening surge of water, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center warned on Sunday. “This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said at a press conference on Saturday. Ida already had wind speeds of 103 miles per hour on Saturday night. Just six hours later, the storm had strengthened into a major hurricane with wind speeds increasing to 130 miles per hour. The storm was able to intensify so quickly because it had all the ingredients a hurricane needs to grow. Warm wate...

A recent T-Mobile data breach coughed up the information of more than 50 million people, including some who aren’t current customers or never were. The 21-year-old hacker who says they’re responsible for the attack already did an interview with the Wall Street Journal calling its security “awful,” and now CEO Mike Sievert is speaking out. This is T-Mobile’s fifth incident in four years Sievert says he’s taking a moment to update us now that the breach is contained and the investigation is “substantially complete.” “Keeping our customers’ data safe is a responsibility we take incredibly seriously and preventing this type of event from happening has always been a top priority of ours,” he writes. It’s true that these attacks happen to many companies, but it’s hard to take the statement as si...

Yesterday, we wrote how Microsoft’s Windows 11 won’t technically leave millions of PCs behind — the company told us it won’t actually block you from installing Windows 11 on a PC with an older CPU, so long as you download and manually install an ISO file all by yourself. But it turns out even that technicality has a technicality. Microsoft is now threatening to withhold Windows Updates from your copy of Windows 11 — potentially even security updates — if you take that route. We’re not sure why the company didn’t mention it in our original briefing, but Microsoft has since told The Verge that unsupported PCs won’t be entitled to receive Windows Updates, and that even security and driver updates may be withheld. CYA or genuine threat? It’s quite possible this is just a cover-your-ass measure...

With just a few days left until Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes faces criminal fraud charges at trial, newly unsealed court documents (via NPR) reveal evidence that her lawyers may cite in her defense. If you don’t remember the details from the scandal as described in a book, documentary, and more than one podcast series, Theranos told investors it developed revolutionary blood test technology capable of amazing results based on just a few small drops. Theranos had been valued at as much as $9 billion before reports exposed its inaccurate results and use of modified machines by other companies to perform crucial testing instead of its own Edison device. The company folded in 2016, and federal prosecutors charged Holmes and Balwani (pdf) two years later for wire fraud, listing investors a...

An antitrust lawsuit filed against Google and its Play Store by several state attorneys general echoed the Epic vs. Apple battle, and a new document highlights how and why Google’s app store is so similar. MLex senior correspondent Michael Acton points out the new complaint, which arrived Friday night from lawyers appointed to represent consumers (that’s us) in a potential class-action lawsuit that joins the states and Epic Games in accusing Google of abusing its monopoly power and of anti-competitive behavior. Image: MLex, CONSOLIDATED FIRST AMENDED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT, CASE NO. 3:20-CV-05761-JD – 42 Perhaps most telling is a mention that popular subscription services like Spotify, Netflix, and Tinder have tried to find ways around Google Play Billing and that 30 percent cut. Thi...

Apple made waves this week by announcing a $100 million settlement with small app developers who sued the company. But despite the changes announced yesterday, nothing is really changing for developers — the App Store is too big and too reliant on in-app purchase fees for that to happen. Apple’s settlement includes several new policies that it says “clarif[y]” the App Store’s rules. Developers can now contact customers about alternative payment methods using data collected from their app (so long as the notification itself is done outside their apps), which they had previously been barred from doing. Apple promises to keep the App Store Small Business Program, which reduces Apple’s revenue cut down to 15 percent for developers who make less than $1 million a year, in its current state for ...

The ecosystem of MagSafe chargers for the iPhone 12 might not be very expansive, but it’s hard to go wrong with Apple’s base magnetic wireless charger — especially when it’s discounted to $30 at Amazon. The magnetic puck can provide the iPhone 12 Mini with up to 12 watts of power or the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro with up to 15 watts, so long as you use a 20-watt power brick. It can also top off other iPhones that support wireless charging without magnets. In fact, it can power up any device that supports Qi charging, including AirPods. Apple MagSafe Charger $30 $40 26% off Apple’s wired MagSafe Charger is nothing short of convenient. While slow, the magnetic device can still juice an iPhone 12 to 40 percent within an hour. It also offers Qi support, meaning it can charge older iPhone models and ...

At times, Twitter can be a bad place, amplifying some of the worst opinions and people on the internet. But on some days, the platform can remind us there are still decent humans doing good work to make the world a better, less shitty place. Long ago, an Xbox user who goes by Noukon on Twitter purchased a Pac-Man ghost avatar for a dollar. Over the years, as the Xbox user interface underwent changes and iterations, Noukon’s avatar got smaller and smaller until it was little more than a tiny blue square lost in the endless gray sea of the Xbox avatar display. Dismayed yet defiant, Noukon shared his problem on Twitter but expressed resolve to keep the cherished avatar. “I bought this gamerpic for 80 Xbox Points in 2006,” Noukon tweeted. “And I’ll be fucked if it won’t remain the best dollar ...

Demand for oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients is spiking during the latest pandemic surge, leaving liquid oxygen in short supply for other uses, including water purification and rocket launches. As supplies get redirected to hospitals, other industries are scrambling to figure out alternatives. “We’re actually going to be impacted this year with the lack of liquid oxygen for launch,” Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said earlier this week. “We certainly are going to make sure the hospitals are going to have the oxygen that they need, but for anybody who has liquid oxygen to spare, send me an email.” “anybody who has liquid oxygen to spare, send me an email” While oxygen is extremely common in the atmosphere, hospitals need high concentrations of it to treat patients with damaged respir...