Technology

Google TV, the new smart TV interface that debuted on Google’s most recent Chromecast, appears to be getting a small but important tweak for its “Continue watching” row. Over on Reddit (via 9to5Google) user u/Alfatango97 has spotted a new option to manually hide entries from the row, which is designed to let viewers quickly jump back into unfinished TV shows or films. When it works, the Continue watching row is a convenient way pick up from where viewing was interrupted. But occasionally it can get cluttered with content you started watching and have no intention of finishing, or content that’s finished but whose credits are so long that it still shows up as in-progress. Being able to manually clear out the row should make it easier to see the shows and films you actually want to finish. I...

The RadRover, Rad Power Bikes’ flagship electric bike, is getting another major upgrade. The bike will be the first from the Seattle-based company to feature a semi-integrated battery. And when it’s released later this year, it will be the most expensive model in Rad Power Bikes’ lineup to date. The RadRover 6 Plus (it’s a mouthful of an official name) comes with a bevy of new parts, including hydraulic disc brakes, a custom geared-hub motor, a new ergonomic frame, and an improved LED display that’s easier to use. the most eye-catching new detail is certainly the semi-integrated battery But the most eye-catching new detail is certainly the semi-integrated battery, a first for the company. Rad Power Bikes’ batteries tend to be larger (672 amp-hour on average) than a lot of their European eq...

If your TikTok algorithm is anything like mine, you know that Weber and Traeger are not necessarily the hottest thing in cooking outside. In fact, grilling is out, and griddling is in. That’s griddling, as in on a griddle — a large flat sheet of metal like you would see in a diner or a hibachi restaurant. And the company behind the griddle revolution is called Blackstone Products and they make the Blackstone griddle. I first came across Blackstone on TikTok last year, just as the pandemic lockdowns were starting. And there was this caption I kept seeing on posts showing people smashing burgers and making pancakes outside: “I finally got a Blackstone.” Twenty minutes ago I hadn’t even heard about this thing, and now I was late to a trend? So I bought one. And we haven’t used our regular gri...

DuckDuckGo is launching a new email privacy service meant to stop ad companies from spying on your inbox. The company’s new Email Protection feature gives users a free “@duck.com” email address, which will forward emails to your regular inbox after analyzing their contents for trackers and stripping any away. DuckDuckGo is also extending this feature with unique, disposable forwarding addresses, which can be generated easily in DuckDuckGo’s mobile browser or through desktop browser extensions. The personal DuckDuckGo email is meant to be given out to friends and contacts you know, while the disposable addresses are better served when signing up for free trials, newsletters, or anywhere you suspect might sell your email address. If the email address is compromised, you can easily deactivate...

Known for its premium audio experiences, Klipsch has now launched a pair of home cinema soundbars perfect for those stay-at-home streaming nights. Dubbed the Cinema 1200 and Cinema 800, the two soundbars both boast 8K HDR passthrough capabilities as well as full support for Dolby Atmos. The former model measures 54 inches long and channels 1,200W of power through a 5.1.4-channel system to provide exceptional audio quality alongside a 12-inch wireless subwoofer, while the latter 48-inch model is slightly more accessible with a 10-inch sub and 3.1-channel configuration. Both also carry Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Spotify Connect functionality through WiFi with a dedicated Klipsch app for firmware updates, setup guides and in-app EQ adjustments. For those interested, Klipsch’s Cinema 1...

Apple is delaying its plan to return to mandatory in-person work because of the increase of COVID cases driven by the Delta variant, according to Bloomberg. The company had laid out a roadmap for returning to its offices in early September, with employees expected to come in at least three days a week, but now that deadline has reportedly been extended “by at least a month to October at the earliest.” Apple’s return to offices was controversial among some of its employees. A group of workers in an internal Slack channel for thousands of “remote work advocates” collaborated on a letter to CEO Tim Cook and the rest of Apple’s leadership, making the case that the company should embrace a more flexible work-from-home policy. Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s SVP of retail and people, responded to the r...

Japanese researchers have just demolished the previous world record for Internet speeds with their own incredible achievement. According to new reports, the Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology managed to transfer data at a whopping 319Tbps, making gigabit Internet seem obsolete. Even more impressively, the new record they’ve achieved is almost twice the speed of the previous 179Tbps set by a collaborative effort from British and Japanese scientists back in August of 2020. To achieve this new record, researchers had to upgrade pretty much every component within the system. The team opted for four cores instead of one for its fiber-optic line and used rare earth amplifiers to boost the 552-channel comb laser. To make sure the connection worked over extend...

Snap is introducing the ability to pose your Bitmoji avatar on your Snapchat profile in 3D, the company announced on Monday. For your 3D Bitmoji, you’ll be able to pick from more than 1,200 combinations of body poses, facial expressions, gestures, and backgrounds, according to Snap. You can get a look at some of the options available in the image at the top of this post and in the one below. It looks like there will be a lot of fun ways to pose your Bitmoji to represent you. Snap says the feature is rolling out on Monday, but I haven’t been able to access it on Snapchat myself just yet. Bitmoji avatars are very popular — Snap says that more than 200 million people use them daily — and this isn’t actually the first time they have gone 3D: Snap offers Snapchat lenses that project an animated...

Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, is flying to space Tuesday morning on his company’s suborbital rocket. He’s riding with a motley crew of three other passengers: his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviation icon Wally Funk, and 18-year-old Dutch high school grad Oliver Daemen. The mission, called NS-16, will mark the first time Blue Origin sends humans to space. Bezos will become the second billionaire to fly a rocket he helped fund, after Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson launched on his company’s rocket-plane to space on July 11th. Daemen will be the youngest person to fly to space and Funk, a lively firebrand aviator who trained as an astronaut in the ‘60s but never made it to space, will be the oldest. “The launch crew is ready, the vehicle is ready, the crew is ready…” ...

Two of the earliest employees behind WhatsApp have emerged with a new private social network called HalloApp. Starting Monday, anyone can download and sign up for HalloApp in Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Android devices. There are many parallels between HalloApp and WhatsApp: the app is designed for group or individual chats with close friends and family, the only way you can find people is by knowing their phone number, the messages are encrypted, and there are no ads. While other startups have over the years tried and failed to build successful social networks for close friends (RIP Path), the pedigree of HalloApp’s two cofounders, Neeraj Arora and Michael Donohue, makes this particular effort notable. They both worked at WhatsApp before and after Facebook bought it for $22 billi...

Giant retailers, including Amazon and Ikea, have pledged to go green, but their shipping is still pretty dirty. Now shoppers can now see how much pollution some of the biggest retail companies in the US each generate while bringing goods into the country, thanks to a new report. In 2019, the 15 companies in the report generated almost as much climate pollution as 1.5 million American homes do in a year. The report looks at greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution caused by shipping piles of cargo around the world and ranks the top 15 biggest polluters by company. Walmart tops the list, generating more greenhouse gas emissions than a coal-fired power plant would in a year. Ashley Furniture, Target, Dole, and Home Depot round out the top five. Ikea and Amazon ranked 7 and 8, respectively. ...

Snap is making a big bet on AR shopping. The parent company of Snapchat has bought Vertebrae, a company that lets brands create and manage 3D versions of their goods. Vertebrae’s 50-person team will keep developing the platform for existing and new clients, according to a Snap spokesperson. The idea is that a company can easily upload visuals and other information about an item into Vertebrae and have a 3D version made for shoppers to access, and potentially buy directly, within Snapchat. While Snap first used its augmented reality tech for silly effects like puking rainbows and dancing hotdogs, the company increasingly sees AR as a way to shop. Early tests of AR shopping experiences, such as a recent collaboration with Gucci to let people virtually try on a pair of limited-edition sneaker...