Technology

Instagram announced a new tool today that will allow users to automatically filter out direct message requests containing offensive words, phrases, and emojis. The tool is targeted at celebrities and public figures who receive a large number of unwanted, harmful DMs. The update builds on Instagram’s work to combat hate speech on the platform. In February, the company said it would begin disabling the accounts of users who sent multiple harassing messages. In 2018, the company expanded its offensive comments filter to automatically block comments that attack a person’s appearance or character. The message requests filter can be toggled on or off in a new section of the app called “hidden words.” When it’s on, offensive messages will be pushed to a separate folder. DMs in this folder are con...

Apple TV Plus launched on November 1st, 2019, but odds are that you (along with almost two-thirds of other Apple TV Plus customers) aren’t actually paying for it, thanks to Apple’s lengthy free trials. But Apple may have finally found the carrot to convince people to actually shell out their hard-earned cash for another streaming service: the upcoming second season of sleeper hit Ted Lasso, which is set to debut on TV Plus on July 23rd — just after Apple’s free subscriptions for its earliest customers end on July 1st. It’s no secret that Apple TV Plus has a paying subscriber problem: as of January, research firm MoffettNathanson noted that approximately 62 percent of TV Plus subscribers are enjoying Apple’s free ride. The free trials for the service were originally intended to last a year,...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe may soon be home to two new queens. Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Olivia Colman was negotiating a role in Marvel’s Secret Invasion Disney Plus series, and today, Variety reports that Emilia Clarke is in talks to do the same. Secret Invasion is expected to be the television adaptation of the comics storyline of the same name that’s focused on a hostile takeover of Earth led by a shape-shifting alien race you may already know and love from Captain Marvel: the Skrulls. Few details have been revealed since the project was first announced, but we do know the show will feature the return of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as the friendly Skrull Talos, who was last seen impersonating Fury in Spider-Man: Far From Home. There are some i...

Tim Cook, the mild-mannered Apple CEO, probably didn’t have to lift more than a finger to launch a new line of iPad Pros with the company’s Arm-based M1 chip. Tim Apple, on the other hand? He’s the kind of daring superspy who can pull off a high-security heist, slicing through plate glass, rappelling down buildings, and dodging lasers, all with a trusty grappling hook at his side, as you’ll see in the video above. Also, he’s apparently able to unsocket a soldered-down chip, perhaps the most impressive trick of all — except perhaps for the one where he gave Donald Trump a “new” factory and the “first” Mac Pro off its assembly line. Not bad for a 60-year-old, even one who’s in charge of the most profitable company in the world. I sure hope he’s ready for the memes! Here’s one single GIF with...

After what feels like ages of rumors, speculation, and worry that I was getting way too obsessed with a Bluetooth item tracker that seemed similar to ones made by several other companies, AirTags are finally here. But before you preorder the Mentos-esque pucks, there’s something you should be aware of: if you want to engrave your AirTags, you can’t combine a horse and poop emoji in that order. That’s right, the emoji version of “horseshit” is a no-go when getting an engraving for Apple’s newest product. Here’s what happens when you try to make that your engraving of choice: Apple says no to “horseshit” in emoji form. Curiously, poop and then horse (“shit horse”) is totally fine, though. Apple has no problem with “shit horse”. Fictional horse excrement is fair game too. Despite being a horn...

The M1-powered Mac Mini can now be configured to included 10-gigabit networking, an option that the computer was notably missing compared to its Intel-powered counterpart (via 9to5Mac). The update to the 2020 computer seems to have come during Apple’s store update that came with the bigger product announcements today, including a new iMac and iPad Pros. Adding the faster networking will add $100 to the price of the computer — the same price as if you were to add 10Gbps to the Intel version. When Apple added the 10Gbps port as an option to the Mac Mini in 2018, it was welcomed by those running home and professional servers, as well as anyone who needed fast network access from a cheaper Mac (like video professionals using network-attached storage). But when Apple introduced a faster version...

Apple revealed a redesigned iMac and Magic Keyboard at its “Spring Loaded” event on Tuesday, but didn’t, for some reason, decide to change the Magic Mouse 2’s infamous charging solution. While the mouse will come in new colors to match the new iMacs, Apple confirmed to The Verge that its charging port is still on the bottom — meaning that five and a half years after its introduction, Apple still seems to think that the best way to charge the mouse is by flipping it over (rendering it useless) and plugging in a Lightning cable. The Magic Mouse’s charging situation has long been a bit of a joke — my former colleague Nick Statt equated it to looking like “a beetle with its legs in the air” all the way back in December 2015, and frankly, I’m having a hard time coming up with a better descripti...

The simmering issue of how Tesla deals with customer complaints in China came to a boil this week as police detained a woman after she protested at Tesla’s booth at the Auto Shanghai 2021 trade show. The woman was dragged off the show floor after jumping on top of a Tesla Model 3, where she shouted about a brake issue the company has been criticized for with its China-made cars. Tesla has since said it will conduct a self-inspection of its service and operations in China. The woman, who police referred to only by her surname “Zhang,” according to Reuters, was detained for “disrupting public order.” She has protested before about the brake issue, after she was involved in a crash. She is reportedly being held for five days. A female Tesla owner climbed on top of a car’s roof at the Tesla bo...

The Apple AirTags have finally been announced, and with them come a ton of accessories to make them easier to use (so much easier than if it had, say, a built-in way to attach it to things). While a small tracking puck could be carried in a bag, there are a variety of other things that you may want to put an AirTag on that require some sort of holder or the judicious use of tape. These are all the accessories we could find that are either listed for preorder on the maker’s site or have a page on Apple’s store. We don’t have official ship dates for most of them, but it’s probably a safe bet that the ones on the Apple Store will become available when the AirTags do, on April 30th. Belkin’s AirTag holder. Tie it to anything!Image: Apple Belkin Belkin currently has two offerings, a key ring an...

On Monday, I had a chance to talk with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the company’s plans to build new audio products over the next few months. The occasion for our interview was the opening of Sidechannel, a Discord server I launched over the weekend with some fellow independent journalists. We didn’t know what to expect when we opened the doors, but more than 2,500 people filed in over the first day, and many of them joined us for a lively conversation about Facebook’s rapidly evolving attitudes toward creators. If you missed the conversation, you can find the audio here on Soundcloud. (Skip to 1:10 to get past my welcome message to Sidechannel members.) There’s also a very rough automated transcript up on Otter, if you like your conversations moderately corrupted by errors in machin...

The Polaroid Go, Polaroid’s new $99.99 instant camera seems tiny. In design and functionality, it’s almost like a condensed version of the Polaroid Now launched last year. But it has a few add-ons like a selfie mirror and a longer-lasting battery for the trendier, on-the-go, social media-savvy crowd who are the champions of instant film cameras these days. The Go is 2.4 inches tall, 3.3 inches wide, and 4.1 inches long. Smaller than a breadbox, or the Now, which is over an inch larger in nearly every direction. Along with the mirror and Polaroid’s claims of an improved 750mAh battery, it also has standard features like a self timer (good for group shots), flash, and the ability to do easy double exposures with just a button click. The Polaroid Go’s film is more square than it is rectangula...

Microsoft has started inviting Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to test its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service on iPhones and iPads today. The service works through web browsers, allowing it to also run on PCs and Macs on Edge, Chrome, or Safari. We’ve managed to get an early look at this beta and see how Xbox Cloud Gaming works on an iPhone or iPad. The web interface for xCloud (yes, we’re going to keep calling it xCloud) is very simple to use. It scales across devices like the iPhone, iPad, or even a large monitor attached to a PC to provide quick access to games. Microsoft has even included a search interface, which is something that’s strangely missing on rival service Google Stadia. You don’t need to install any apps or extensions; it works natively in Chrome, Safari, or Edge. All ...