Technology

Twitter has continued its policy of labeling — but not removing — rule-breaking tweets from President Donald Trump. The company restricted a Trump post promising “serious force” against a potential Washington, DC equivalent to Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone. “We’ve placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group,” writes Twitter’s safety team. The warning is posted above the tweet and appears if users try to retweet it. Following Twitter’s usual policy for world leaders whose tweets serve a “public interest,” however, it won’t be deleted. There will never be an “Autonomous Zone” in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will ...

Apple is adding a new feature as part of its newly announced iOS 14 that will extend the lifespan of your AirPods. Apple says the operating system will reduce how quickly your AirPods’ batteries age by learning when you typically charge them and predicting when to stop charging them automatically. Instead of charging to 100 percent right away, the AirPods will stop charging at 80 percent, then resume later, so they don’t sit at 100 percent over an extended period of time. Arguably, the AirPods needed such a feature more than phones or laptops Most modern devices, including Apple products, use a lithium-ion battery, and experts agree that you shouldn’t always keep them 100 percent charged; you can extend a lithium-ion battery’s life by minimizing topping off. This isn’t a new idea: many mod...

After browsing for a new movie or TV show to watch on Netflix, people may throw something on before deciding 10 minutes in they’re just not that interested. Netflix’s new “remove from row” feature is designed to make it easier for people to remove those titles from their currently watching offerings. The goal is to give people more control over what appears on their Netflix homepage. The “continue watching” row is one of the most prominent, appearing at the top of the homepage. This makes it easy to jump back into a TV show that someone might be making their way through, or pick right back up where they left off with The Irishman (if you’re like me and it took a few sittings to watch). The annoying thing, however, is that if someone is no longer interested in watching a movie or a TV show,...

Amazon could be planning to bolster its Prime Video service, which is mostly known for its on-demand video offerings, with live TV, according to a report from Protocol and publicly available job listings. Details are light about what the new live TV services might entail, though the efforts appear to be in their early stages. One job listing says Amazon is looking for someone who can “redefine how customers watch 24/7 linear broadcast TV content.” That person will also be tasked with “designing the end-to-end customer experience for how customers discover and watch Linear TV content.” (Linear TV is another way to describe live TV, like what you might watch on a broadcast channel.) The Prime Video team is also apparently “building next gen linear catalog systems to provide best-in-class Lin...

Apple is bringing back the Mac’s iconic startup chime in macOS Big Sur. The company hinted it might return by playing the chime very prominently during yesterday’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, and people who have installed the first Big Sur developer beta have reported that it’s back. You can see a Mac on Big Sur play the chime while booting up in the video at the top of this post. The startup chime was first removed from Macs in 2016 with the redesigned MacBook Pros released that year, and Macs released since then (with the exception of the 2017 13-inch MacBook Air) didn’t play the chime when you turned them on. [embedded content] However, earlier this year, it was discovered that Apple would let you enable the startup chime on those Macs if they were running macOS Catalina an...

Microsoft is launching a preview version of its antivirus software for Android today. The software giant revealed that Windows Defender was making its way to both iOS and Android earlier this year, but didn’t fully detail what to expect. We’re now getting a good idea of exactly why Microsoft thinks Android needs antivirus protection. The public preview for Android will include protection against phishing and go a step further than Google’s built-in malware protection to offer signature-based malware detection. “Scans are instantly performed detect malware and potentially unwanted applications (PUA),” explains Kanishka Srivastava, a senior program manager at Microsoft. “If a safe app is downloaded, the end user will see a lightweight notification letting them know the app is clean.” Microso...

For years, Apple has steadily revealed how the ARM-based chips in its mobile phones were catching up in performance to the beefier silicon you’d find inside a laptop or desktop — in 2018, the company claimed its new iPad Pro was faster than 92 percent of portable PCs. At some point, it seemed inevitable that Apple would turn the more efficient chips into the primary processors for its Mac computers, too. Now, it’s official: Apple is migrating the Mac to its own homegrown silicon, starting later this year. But are Apple’s ARM chips actually powerful enough now to replace the likes of Intel and AMD? That’s still an open question — because at Apple’s 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the company shied away from giving us any definitive answers. a handful of canned demos and vague p...

In a major policy shift for NASA, the space agency is making it possible for its own personnel — including astronauts — to fly on commercial suborbital spacecraft. These rockets are designed to fly to the edge of space and back, giving passengers brief experiences of weightlessness. The agency is hoping to expand flight options for its astronauts and researchers, while investing in the commercial space industry. Today, NASA released a request for information on all the ways that NASA astronauts and employees could benefit from flying on these short trips to space. One possible advantage is enhancing astronaut training, by giving explorers extra experience on what it’s like to ascend to space in a rocket-powered vehicle and float in microgravity. That way they’re better prepared for flying ...

Mixer, the soon-to-be-shuttered streaming platform from Microsoft, always had a tough road ahead of it. In a space already dominated by Twitch, and with YouTube using its unparalleled audience scale to carve out its own slice of the market, Microsoft’s offering was a hard sell. But while Mixer was ultimately a failure, as evidenced by yesterday’s news that it was shutting down, that doesn’t mean it didn’t have an important place in the fledgling world of streaming. In fact, the sheer existence of Mixer, and Microsoft’s big-money push to make it relevant, showed some of the world’s biggest entertainers their true worth. And the platform kicked off a talent war that will likely continue even after Mixer no longer exists. Mixer launched in 2016, but its big impact didn’t happen until three ye...

Two of FX’s most anticipated shows, Y: The Last Man and American Horror Stories, are forgoing traditional TV airing to become FX on Hulu exclusives. Brian K. Vaughan’s popular comic book series being adapted by the network, Y: The Last Man, and Ryan Murphy’s spinoff of American Horror Story, American Horror Stories, will now premiere exclusively on Hulu, the company announced at its upfront presentation on Monday. The move signifies what many industry insiders speculated would likely happen as part of the new “FX on Hulu” deal — an emphasis on Disney’s streaming product. It makes sense. Moving shows away from traditional cable, where customers are dropping like flies, and building up Hulu’s library is completely in line with what Disney executive chairman Bob Iger envisioned as the future ...

Apple unveiled iOS 14 at its annual WWDC keynote yesterday, and among the small but important new features is sound recognition. First spotted by a Reddit user, this new accessibility tool could significantly benefit people who are hard of hearing or deaf. The iPhone can be set to constantly listen for 14 different sounds, including a door knock, doorbell, sirens, smoke detector alarm, dog barking, a crying baby, and more. The feature can be found in the accessibility section of iOS 14’s settings menu. Other tech companies, including Amazon and Google, have used AI-based sound recognition as a personal safety measure. You can set Echo speakers to detect the sound of alarms or broken glass as part of Amazon’s Alexa Guard home security system, and Google uses the microphone on Pixel phones a...

Acer debuted several new laptops, desktops, and monitors at its press conference today, but it took a break from those announcements to unveil something in an entirely new product category: energy drinks. As if it was destined to fulfill its own gamer stereotype, Acer now makes energy drinks. It’s called the Predator Shot, and given the name, it’s aimed at gamers who want some extra pep. Acer says that it’s full of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin B and lutein, and presumably, tons of caffeine. No release date or price was given for the Predator Shot, but according to the live stream, it seems to be edible, which is a good start for a company mostly focused on things you cannot eat. Acer’s new Predator gaming chair with Osim can massage you while you game.Image: Acer Acer CEO Jason...