Technology

On January 6th, 2021, President Donald Trump, the former reality television star of NBC’s The Apprentice, escalated his assault on 244 years of democratic rule by inciting a mob of his supporters to break into the US Capitol building. In images that will haunt our republic for generations, Trump’s crazed supporters terrorized our elected representatives and their staffs and forced them to evacuate the seat of American government. CBS News reports that four people died in the ensuing chaos. Trump is now finally facing a ban from Facebook and Twitter. For more than four years he has polluted the internet, turning large swaths of our shared spaces into fever swamps of conspiracy and hatred. At best, platforms have temporarily limited his ability to post — at average, they have labeled his twe...

Sony has announced that it’s going to start selling a series of modular displays that can be used to create digital movie sets (via The Hollywood Reporter). If this kind of technology seems familiar, it may be because Industrial Light & Magic and Epic Games built similar sets to help create The Mandalorian. They displays are part of Sony’s Crystal LED line, which are modular panels that use MicroLEDs, and were previously marketed as being used for signage. The screen tech and modularity means that you can make enormous displays using a bunch of panels connected to a controller. That’s useful if you’re trying to create a virtual set out of displays. They get quite bright The ones announced today are part of the new B-series, and are marketed as being useful for movie production: they’ve...

LG has announced its 2021 lineup of Gram laptops, which feature a new design as well as some internal upgrades. There are five models. They include three clamshells (the Gram 17, the Gram 16, and the Gram 14) as well as two convertible models (the Gram 2-in-1 16 and the Gram 2-in-1 14). LG hasn’t changed the Gram lineup’s signature features. LG Gram laptops are known for being astonishingly light (hence the name “Gram”). The Gram 17 is just 2.98 pounds, the same weight as its predecessor. It’s highly unusual to see a 17-inch laptop under three pounds, and using one really messes with your mind — I always felt like I was carrying nothing when holding the 2020 model, because I expected it to feel so much heavier. The Gram 16 is just 2.62 pounds, while the 14 is 2.2 pounds. The LG Gram 17 in ...

Facebook has blocked President Trump from posting on the site for 24 hours, the company said Wednesday evening. The decision comes after the company already removed posts he made in support of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol on Wednesday. “We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time,” the statement reads. Trump’s account on Facebook-owned Instagram will also be locked for 24 hours, Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed. We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time. — Facebook Newsr...

Twitch banned the popular PogChamp emote Wednesday after the person depicted in it published tweets “encouraging further violence” following a riot at the US Capitol. “We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today,” Twitch said in a statement Wednesday evening. “We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on — its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself — and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.” We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol ...

In the wake of an unprecedented mob attack on the Capitol building, Twitter restricted and then removed a tweet from President Donald Trump, including its attached video. Users initially could no longer reply to, like, or retweet the post due to what Twitter referred to as a “risk of violence.” The tweet containing the video was then deleted entirely with a nonspecific link to Twitter’s policy guidelines. In Trump’s Wednesday Twitter video, he responded to mob violence at the US Capitol calling on rioters to peacefully “go home” hours after the chaos began. But he also repeated false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and did not denounce the violence, leading some to find the calls for order unconvincing. “We had an election that was stolen from us,” Trump said in t...

YouTube has removed a video from President Donald Trump addressing a mob attack on the Capitol today because the president repeats false information about the outcome of the 2020 election, The Verge has learned. The company will allow Trump’s message to appear in other creators’ videos if there is proper educational or news context; basically, if people are talking about Trump’s message as part of a greater point, YouTube will allow it to remain up. The removal comes after YouTube instituted a new policy update in December 2020 that forbids any type of content that alleges widespread voter fraud impacted the results of the 2020 presidential election. In Trump’s new video, which was also posted to Twitter and Facebook, he continued to spread misinformation about the 2020 election, calling t...

As rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, Facebook removed a video from President Donald Trump responding to the violence. The decision came around an hour after the video was posted on the platform. “This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video,” Guy Rosen, Facebook vice president of integrity, said in a tweet Wednesday. “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.” This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence. — Guy Rosen (@guyro) January...

On Wednesday afternoon, a mob of pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol, resulting in chambers being vandalized and at least one death. The attack came in the middle of an ongoing vote to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, and it sent both lawmakers and members of the press scrambling for safety. Some found discreet paths out of the building, while others took shelter in the tunnels beneath the Capitol. But some photojournalists wandered the halls of the Capitol alongside the intruders, capturing stunning images of the mob at work. With police struggling to bring the nation’s capital under control, those images gave us a first-hand look at the chaos and disgrace of today’s events. Supporters of US President Donald Trump gather outside the US Capitol.Photo by Olivie...

Microsoft is making a big change to its Windows 10 taskbar soon, with the addition of a news and weather widget. The new feature is available to testers today, and it will allow Windows 10 users to access a feed of news, stocks, and weather information straight from the taskbar. You’ll be able to quickly glance at the weather without having to open the Start menu, install a third-party app, or check online. The taskbar feature will pop out into a mini feed of content that can be personalized with the latest sports news, headlines, and weather information. Microsoft is using its Microsoft News network to surface news and content from more than 4,500 sources. The company has been curating this through artificial intelligence in recent months, and this particular feature will also learn what ...

Teachers who have found themselves holding class over Zoom have probably already figured out clever hacks to show their students documents, but there’s now an app designed specifically for that purpose (via 9to5Mac). Overviewer was made by developer Charlie Chapman, and it allows teachers (or anyone, really) to easily use their phone’s camera as a replacement for an overhead document viewer. If it’s been a minute since you were a student, or if your school didn’t have these overhead devices, they’re basically webcams pointing straight down that allow teachers to show students a printed document, book, hand drawing, or other piece of writing or image. It’s a useful ability to have, but many teachers are working from home because of COVID and may not have access to one like they would in the...

Mint, the free personal finance app from Intuit, is receiving an update today, adding more automated features like subscription tracking and new “insights” to keep you informed where your money is spent, Fast Company reports. Mint’s new features may bring it more in line with the competition from banks and companies like Google that have been nipping at its heels with built-in budget tracking features and other services over the years. Mint’s main function is tracking spending by automatically sorting transactions based on type. By connecting a checking or savings account, Mint can start combing through purchases to see how much is spent in categories like groceries, electronics, or gas. From there, you can create a budget by setting a limit for each category, and Mint can see when you go ...