Technology

You can now use TikTok on every American Airlines flight, the company announced on Monday. The airline has added the social media app to its roster of inflight entertainment, meaning that all travelers will be able to leisurely scroll through their For You page in 30-minute increments for free. Customers will be able to log into their TikTok accounts by enabling airplane mode, connecting to the “AA-Inflight” signal and selecting the TikTok ad for free access in the Wi-Fi portal. For those who do not have an account on the platform, American Airlines is also allowing travelers to download the app inflight, free of charge. “Faster Wi-Fi allows us to deliver diverse inflight entertainment options and invest in innovative partnerships with platforms like TikTok,” AA Managing Director of Premiu...

The 2021 New York International Auto Show has been canceled as the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the United States. The show was supposed to run from August 20th to August 29th at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City. The show’s organizers announced the cancellation Wednesday “with great disappointment,” according to a statement, citing the spread of the delta variant and increased safety measures such as the new proof of vaccination requirements announced by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio this week. The decision came suddenly, as just last week organizers revealed a poster for the event titled “The Future is Bright.” This year’s show was supposed to have a special focus on electric vehicles. “All signs were positive… but today is a different sto...

Some Facebook users stymied by the company’s seemingly impenetrable support channels have turned to an interesting — and expensive — loophole to get access to their locked accounts: buying an Oculus Quest headset, as reported by NPR. But it doesn’t appear to be a reliable way to get access, as many reports online indicate that the solution didn’t work out for them. The crux of the issue is that it’s often difficult to know if Facebook is receiving support requests when you submit them through its normal channels. From NPR: Facebook tells users to report hacked accounts through its website. The site instructs them to upload a copy of a driver’s license or passport to prove their identities. But the people NPR spoke with said they had trouble with every step of this automated process and wis...

If Democrats and progressives have their way, tens of thousands — or even millions — of Americans could soon find work planting urban trees, managing forests, and making homes more energy efficient and resilient to the ravages of climate change. They’d form a new “Civilian Climate Corps” that lawmakers and activists are hoping to fund through the budget reconciliation process. The idea has picked up significant momentum For more than a decade, different proposals have floated around for a new civilian mobilization focused on climate adaption. Recently, the idea has picked up significant momentum. The most ambitious proposal yet was introduced by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in April. Joe Biden proposed a more pared down Civilian Climate Corps as part of his ...

Apple Wallet has supported contactless student IDs since 2018, with three US universities supporting the feature at launch. The program has been gradually expanding ever since. Yesterday, the company announced that its virtual IDs will finally arrive in Canada this fall. An unspecified number of additional US universities will adopt it for the first time as well. The University of New Brunswick and Sheridan College will be the first two Canadian schools to use Apple Wallet IDs. The new US roster includes Auburn, Northern Arizona University, University of Maine, and New Mexico State University, in addition to “many more colleges across the country.” The University of Alabama, one of the program’s early adopters, will also be the first school to issue exclusively mobile student IDs (to stude...

Sony’s $499 PlayStation 5 console is no longer selling at a loss. Bloomberg reports that Sony chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki shared the news just a week after the company announced it had sold 10 million PS5 consoles. While the PS5 with a disc drive is no longer selling for less than the cost to produce it, the less expensive and disc-less $399 PS5 Digital Edition is reportedly on track to have Sony’s related losses offset by other hardware sales like accessories and the PS4. Sony sold 500,000 PS4 consoles in the most recent quarter, bringing lifetime sales up to an impressive 116.4 million. The PS5 won’t be as costly as Sony’s PS3 launch.Image: Sony It took Sony years to stop losing money on PS3 sales, but the company stopped selling the PS4 at a loss around six months after its de...

Losing access to your Google / Gmail account can be an incredibly frustrating and unhappy experience. When researching this article, I came across several accounts of people who had been locked out of their accounts after forgetting their passwords — and a few who had still not been able to get back in, even after several weeks. Google does provide a list of methods to try if you’ve been locked out of your account — either because you’ve forgotten your password or because somebody has hacked into your account and changed it. Sometimes, they work. Your options beyond Google’s suggestions may be limited, so it’s best to be prepared ahead of time. Here are some suggestions to place you in the best possible position to get your stuff back. Back up your account regularly If you should ever (kno...

Nissan’s Leaf 2022 range starts at just $27,400, making it the cheapest mass market electric car currently available in the US, according to Electrek. That starting price drops to as little as $19,900 if you include the full $7,500 federal tax credit, for which Nissan vehicles are still eligible. These prices don’t include other charges like licensing and destination fees, or additional state-level incentives, but it’s a promising sign of how affordable electric vehicles are becoming. The exact price difference between Nissan’s 2021 and 2022 Leaf cars varies from model to model. The entry-level Leaf S, which has a 40kWh battery, has reduced by $4,270 from $31,670 to $27,400, undercutting the electric Mini Cooper’s starting price of $29,990 (the electric Mini is frequently cited as the chea...

If you plan to get some typing done on your iPad, Apple’s Smart Keyboard might be a good accessory to pick up. Right now, it’s $115 at Amazon, which is $44 off its usual price. It has plummeted to around $100 before, according to pricing data from CamelCamelCamel, but this is a great deal if you need to buy right now. This model can work with the previous and current generation of the base 10.2-inch iPad, as well as the last-gen 10.5-inch iPad Air or the last-gen 10.5-inch iPad Pro models. Apple Smart Keyboard for iPad $115 $159 28% off Type away with Apple’s Smart Keyboard. This particular model is compatible with the seventh- and eighth-gen iPad, the third-gen iPad Air, or the older 10.5-inch iPad Pro. When folded up, it covers the front of the tablet only. For a little less, you can opt...

Kurzgesagt’s latest In a Nutshell video takes us once more to the depths of space to look at the scary phenomena that are black holes. Rather than go into topics like dark matter and how black holes are formed, this video blows viewers’ minds by giving them a size comparison of the different black holes that exist in the universe. From the tiniest primordial black holes to the familiar stellar-sized ones, down to the terrifying ultramassive ones. The video starts by explaining that the smallest know stellar black hole has a mass of 2.7x our sun but is sized roughly the same diameter as the city of Paris. More interesting facts are explained like how the closest black hole, named “Unicorn,” is only 17.2 km in diameter but is able to throw around V723 Mon, a star that’s 42x the size of our s...

Sony released its first PS5 software beta last Thursday, and with it came the much-anticipated support for adding an M.2 SSD, letting you install more PS5 games than the fairly restrictive 825GB built-in SSD allows. Alongside the beta, Sony provided a list of requirements, making it clear that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to just grab any SSD and chuck it in your PS5. Sony’s main requirements are that the SSD be PCIe Gen4 and at least 250GB. However, Sony makes it very clear that your SSD needs a heatsink, which can complicate things, given the limited amount of space in the PS5’s SSD bay. What SSDs you’ll want to consider depends on whether you want to install a heatsink yourself or not, and whether you’re a “play by the rules” type or a “let’s see what I can get away with” type. I do...

YouTube is planning on paying its creators up to $10,000 USD a month for making popular short videos for their TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts. In doing so, the company is launching a $100 million USD Shorts Fund that will be dedicated to these creators and distributed throughout the next year. Though the fund does mean there is a lot of cash up for grabs by creators, payouts are not entirely guaranteed. Payouts will be determined by the popularity of the Shorts each month and will be highly dependent on how the engagement for the Shorts and where the creator’s audiences are located. Content for Shorts must be original and cannot be re-uploads of videos from other platforms like TikTok, Reels, or Snapchat. There are only currently 10 regions including the US, UK, India, and Brazil, that ...