Technology

For years, Google has supported Android Auto directly on smartphones for those who don’t have compatible dashboards, giving drivers easy access to functions such as Google Maps while on the go, but the tech giant is now reportedly shutting down the app in favor of a new feature. According to a statement from Google, the company has now developed a driving mode for its Google Assistant which it calls the “next evolution of the mobile driving experience.” Reassuring drivers that supported vehicles will still have access to the onboard Android Auto software, Google explains that those using the phone app will be transitioned over to the new mode starting with Android 12. The company hasn’t shared any more details about the new feature just yet, but those who have yet to upgrade to the new And...

Apple may be launching a new, redesigned Mac mini with the long-rumored “M1X” chip. According to new reports citing Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, the tech giant is gearing up to release a Mac mini with a new form factor alongside the rumored upcoming MacBook Pro models. Both machines will carry the more powerful “M1X” chip that Apple has been said to be developing over the past year, although its specs have yet to be released. The upgraded Mac mini will offer more ports on its body and most likely come at a higher price point given its boosted performance, while the regular M1 model will be retained as the basic and more affordable option. No specific release date has been suggested yet either, but Gurman says it’ll arrive in “the next several months.” As usual, Apple hasn’t confirmed any of th...

As the race to space continues, it was revealed that Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin has seen more than a dozen of its key leaders and engineers leave the company almost immediately after Bezos launched himself into space. Many of the engineers who left were reportedly part of Blue Origin’s astronaut lunar lander program and moved on in the weeks following Bezos’ trip. Shortly after his spaceflight, the company gave all its full-time employees $10,000 USD no strings attached cash bonus. CNBC learned that two of its top engineers left to go to Blue Origin’s competitors, Elon Musk‘s SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace. Sources revealed that many thought the bonus was meant to try to entice the talent to stay in response to a number of employees filing notices to leave the company after the July flight...

Despite Apple now abandoning its “nano” branding, newly surfaced emails reveal that the Cupertino-based company was working on something called the “iPhone nano.” Confirming rumors that surfaced back in 2011, one of Steve Jobs‘ last emails spotted in a series of emails revealed from the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit confirms discusses an outline for the phone. The email dated back to October 2010 features an agenda for a strategy meeting about plans noted to “create low-cost iPhone model based on iPod touch to replace 3GS.” “2011 Strategy” also notes that “Jony,” presumably Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive, would present a “show model (and/or renderings).” It is interesting to note that the email came about four months after the release of the iPhone 4 and sixth generation of the iPod n...

Facebook on Saturday released a content transparency report sharing the most widely-viewed Pages, posts, links and domains on its platform during the first quarter of 2021. According to the report, the most popular post on its site was an article published by the Chicago Tribune in April that discussed the death of a seemingly healthy doctor in Florida two weeks after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The news piece, titled “A ‘healthy’ doctor died two weeks after getting a COVID-19 vaccine; CDC is investigating why,” garnered over 53.8 million views in the U.S. The latest release follows a report published by Facebook on Wednesday, which detailed the most-viewed content in its News Feed over the second quarter of 2021 and comes as a part of the platform’s effort to increase transp...

I think I have found the max number of streaming shows I can keep up with/commit to at once and that number is three and a half. I just added Manifest back into the rotation because Netflix dropped season three and The White Lotus ended. Good timing, thanks, streaming channels! A few quick recaps of the past week’s shows: The White Lotus finale. While the theme song will forever haunt me, this deeply unsettling show remained unsettling to the very end. I didn’t love it but I can’t stop thinking about it, so figure that out for me. Kathryn VanArendonk has an interesting interview in Vulture with WL creator Mike White who says he accepts the criticism of the show. Ted Lasso episode 5 (official title: Rainbow): If it makes me a sap, fine, but I loved this rom-communism/Roy Kent-centric episod...

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III on Sunday activated stage 1 of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), ordering six commercial airlines to provide passenger planes to help evacuate people from US military bases in the Middle East, the Department of Defense said in a news release. The planes won’t fly in or out of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, but will help transport Afghans and US citizens who have arrived at bases in Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The plan calls for 18 planes total; four from United Airlines, three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Airlines, and Omni Air, and two from Hawaiian Airlines. The DoD said in the release it doesn’t expect the CRAF activation to have a major impact on commercial flights. The Washington Post reports officials said ...

As conditions in Afghanistan continue to deteriorate and the Taliban gain control of its major cities, it’s been a challenge for its citizens to get accurate information about what’s happening from moment to moment. Rest of World tells the story of Kabul-based startup Ehtesab, which relies on crowdsourced reports from vetted users to track everything from electricity outages to bombings to traffic jams, and feeds the information to its app, which then sends out push notifications. Ehtesab means “accountability” in Dari and Pashto, and the app, formally launched in March 2020, offers streamlined security-related information, including general security updates in Kabul to its users. With real-time, crowdsourced alerts, users across the city can track bomb blasts, roadblocks, electricity outa...

Facebook released a report (.pdf) late Saturday about its most-viewed posts in the first quarter of 2021 that it had initially shelved reportedly because it made the company look bad. As first reported by the New York Times, which obtained a copy of the Q1 report before Facebook released it, the most-viewed link on Facebook between January and March of this year was a since-updated news story that suggested a Florida doctor’s death may be linked to the COVID-19 vaccine. Facebook policy communications manager Andy Stone tweeted Saturday that the criticism Facebook received for not releasing the report “wasn’t unfair,” but tried to unpack the complexities of how it handled that most-viewed link: “News outlets wrote about the south Florida doctor that died. When the coroner released a cause o...

The 1996 album “One in a Million,” by Aaliyah finally came to streaming platforms on Friday, almost 20 years after the singer’s death in a 2001 plane crash. A huge star in the 1990s and early 2000s, much of Aaliyah’s music has been missing from streaming platforms for the past two decades. As Billboard magazine reported in a lengthy feature earlier this month, Aaliyah’s uncle, music producer Barry Hankerson, and her estate, controlled by her mother Diane Haughton and brother Rashad Haughton, have been at odds for years. According to Billboard, Hankerson has made a distribution deal to release the entire catalog of Blackground Records— which includes Aaliyah’s music as well as recordings from other artists including Timbaland & Magoo, and Toni Braxton— to streaming starting this month. ...