Technology

A tracking system designed to help ships avoid crashing into each other has become an important tool for spotting bad behavior on the high seas. Researchers can now put a spotlight on corporations that dominate fishing in unregulated international waters where it’s easier to get away with overfishing. And it’s giving us a better idea of how widespread slave labor could be on fishing vessels. That all makes it easier to make companies answer for any abuses they commit Two recently published papers use this technology, the maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS), to make high-seas fishing a little less mysterious. The first study, published in the journal One Earth on December 18th, traces the origins of thousands of high-seas fishing vessels back to big-time corporations that keep st...

On Monday, congressional leaders unveiled their massive spending and coronavirus relief measure, including a handful of controversial copyright measures civil liberties activists fear could penalize internet users for everyday online behavior. Congress is expected to vote on the package as early as Monday. Congress’ $2.3 trillion spending and relief package includes controversial measures previously introduced as the CASE Act, the Trademark Modernization Act, and a felony streaming proposal — all significantly expanding the rights and powers of intellectual property owners. Most controversially, the CASE Act would create a quasi-judicial tribunal of “Copyright Claims Officers” who would work to resolve infringement claims. As outlined in the bill, copyright holders could be awarded up to $...

Marvel superhero Black Panther is now available in Fortnite. You can get him, Captain Marvel, and Taskmaster as part of the Marvel Royalty and Warriors Pack, which costs $24.99. Epic had hinted toward Black Panther’s eventual arrival with the release of the Wakandan Salute emote Monday morning. The salute has become an iconic greeting — something that many of the cast members of the 2018 Black Panther movie have spoke publicly about in the months after its release. The film grossed $1.35 billion at the box office, including an astounding $700.4 million domestically. During Fortnite’s last season, which was Marvel-themed, a large statue of a black panther appeared on the map, and players could find a Black Panther superpower, though a tie-in Black Panther skin never appeared in Fortnite’s i...

Stardew Valley is an idyllic digital space to escape to after a long year — and thanks to its 1.5 update available today on PC, you can now bring friends and family along to your farm with local split-screen co-op. The multiplayer update from a couple of years back made it possible to play and share farms online, but this local co-op addition lets you do the same with the people you actually live with, even if they don’t have their own copy of the game. You can add the ability for local co-op by having Robin the Carpenter build cabins on your farm, or if you’re starting from scratch, you can select to have the cabins already built when you make a new game. Once the cabins are built, you can start local co-op for up to three other people from game menu. The 1.5 update also adds a new “Beach...

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Chromebook 2 has been revealed in a new leak, showing off the return of the company’s unique bright orange coloring in an otherwise similar-looking design, via Evan Blass. There are some visible changes to the new model, including minor adjustments to the port layout and the extension of Samsung’s application of the orange color. The keyboard on the second-generation model has been made a more neutral black, even as the orange hue has extended to the sides of the laptop. But any more substantial changes will likely be found in the internal specs, which presumably will see some sort of improvement from last year’s model — especially considering that there are new 11th Gen Intel laptop chips out. Combining the improved battery life and graphics performance from thos...

Apple once again appears to be seriously looking at making a car. Reuters reports that Apple is pursuing production of a passenger vehicle by 2024 as well as the creation of self-driving systems and a “breakthrough battery technology.” The report is vague on how it all comes together — it’s not clear that all of this tech is going into the first passenger vehicle Apple hopes to make — but it indicates that Apple is considering vehicle production, after previously shutting down plans to make a car. There have been rumors of Apple developing a car going back to 2015. But in 2016, the project was scaled down significantly, with development of a full car being scrapped and Apple’s team refocusing on providing software that could be licensed out to car manufacturers, according to reports at the...

Last week, news broke that IT management company SolarWinds had been hacked, possibly by the Russian government, and the US Treasury, Commerce, State, Energy, and Homeland Security departments have been affected — two of which may have had emails stolen as a result of the hack. Other government agencies and many companies are investigating due to SolarWinds’ extensive client list. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that some big tech companies have been infected, too. Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, Belkin, and VMware have all had computers on their networks infected with the malware. There could be far more: SolarWinds had stated that “fewer than 18,000” companies were impacted, as if that number is supposed to be reassuring, and it even attempted to hide the list of clients who used the infe...

With its upcoming Galaxy Buds Pro, Samsung is planning to counter one of the differentiating features of Apple’s AirPods Pro (and now AirPods Max): spatial audio. Spatial audio crams an immersive, surround sound-like experience into a set of earbuds or headphones. And it accurately keeps the sound source anchored to your iPhone or iPad, so if you turn your head, you’ll notice that the audio stays in front of you. Wherever you move the device, that’s where it’ll sound like the audio track is coming from. But Samsung seems to be readying its own take on spatial audio. As is becoming oddly common, the company’s mobile Galaxy Buds app has prematurely spilled some of Samsung’s latest earbud tricks. As noted by 9to5Google, an updated version of the app was found on Samsung’s servers with screens...

Eero was the company that first popularized mesh networking for the home, fixing Wi-Fi for millions. It has built a reputation for its simple setup and minimal maintenance, reliably broadcasting a Wi-Fi connection throughout your home much better than a traditional standalone router could. Now that it is owned by Amazon, it promises to repeat that trick for customers who have access to gigabit internet speeds with its top-tier Eero Pro 6. Fixing most home Wi-Fi problems doesn’t have to cost a lot. A basic mesh system can provide reliable Wi-Fi coverage in most homes without costing more than $250. If the speeds you’re getting from your ISP are 300Mbps or less, there’s no real need to buy anything more. But if you do have the privilege of access to faster home internet, such as what gigabit...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate and the creators of Netflix movie Enola Holmes have agreed to dismiss a copyright lawsuit over Sherlock Holmes’ emotions. Copyright Lately reported on the outcome today, noting that the court didn’t rule on the merits of the case, possibly indicating that the parties settled. So unfortunately, we don’t know if Enola Holmes’ take on Doyle’s famous detective violated copyright by showing a wider range of feelings and greater respect for women. The Enola Holmes case hinged on Sherlock Holmes’ complicated copyright status. Most Holmes stories sit in the public domain, and stories like Enola Holmes — which reimagines Holmes (played by Henry Cavill) having a younger sister — can freely repurpose their elements. But 10 of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories are still prot...

The worst part of most Zoom meetings is the end. Not because it’s the moment when we have to lose human connection after being isolated for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The end of a Zoom meeting is the worst because it’s so dang hard to quickly and gracefully end a call. With a typical not-Zoom call on a smartphone, you bring the phone down from your ear and tap the end call button. That’s it. On a Zoom meeting, you say your goodbye pleasantries, put your hand on your mouse, find your mouse on your screen, move it in the right direction toward the end call button, overshoot said button in your desperation to leave the meeting as soon as possible, and then finally click the button, all on video, where anyone who is still in the meeting can see the growing desperation in your eyes as...