Technology

Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who released a trove of internal documents and data from Facebook and testified in front of lawmakers about the social network’s behavior, is now looking to start a non-profit focused on holding companies like Meta accountable, according to a report from Politico. The organization, which Haugen wants to call Beyond the Screen, plans to focus on three main goals: educating lawyers who could potentially be going up against social media companies, incentivizing investors to look into how socially responsible a tech company is before giving it money, and giving regulators and researchers an inside look into how platforms work. Politico reports that Haugen is currently working with two other people on the project, and is looking to raise around $5 million in fu...

On June 8th, NASA revealed that its new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, is now sporting a small dimple in one of its primary mirrors after getting pelted by a larger-than-expected micrometeoroid out in deep space. The news came as a bit of a shock since the impact happened just five months into the telescope’s space tenure — but such strikes are simply an inevitable aspect of space travel, and more thwacks are certainly on their way. Despite what its name implies, space isn’t exactly empty. Within our Solar System, tiny bits of space dust are zooming through the regions between our planets at whopping speeds that can reach up to tens of thousands of miles per hour. These micrometeoroids, no larger than a grain of sand, are often little pieces of asteroids or com...

In the final season of Star Trek: Picard a lot of long-loved characters are expected to make their big returns (and possibly goodbyes) to the Star Trek universe. Earlier this year it was announced that almost the entire original cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was going to be showing up in season 3. Now showrunner Terry Matalas is teasing even more characters from TNG showing up. As first noticed by TrekCore, Matalas recently appeared on the Inglorious Treksperts podcast and had a lot to say about the final season of the show. Including teases about some as-yet-unannounced returns: “There are some people from ‘Star Trek’ who come back in this season who aren’t the ‘Next Gen’ [primary] cast. I mean there’s one character who is in ‘Next Gen’ who I was like… I really want THIS characte...

When iOS 16 comes out later this fall, you may notice that you don’t have to deal with as many annoying CAPTCHAs asking you to slide a puzzle piece or distinguish between a hill and a mountain. That’s because Apple’s introducing a feature for its iPhones and Macs called Automatic Verification, which let some sites know that you’re not a bot without you actually having to do anything (via MacRumors). Apple has worked with two major content delivery networks, Fastly and Cloudflare, to develop the system. When it launches with iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, sites that use either of the services to defend against spam should be able to take advantage of the system and stop showing you so many CAPTCHAs. If you’re attentive to how many sites go down when either Fastly or Cloudflare start to have issu...

Lara A. Greene keeps her antique sewing patterns in plastic tubs, stashed in the first-floor workshop of her old Victorian home so she can throw them out the window if her house goes up in flames. Greene has collected at least 10,000 patterns — possibly 20,000 — since the 1990s. And like other collectors, she is paranoid about losing them: to fire, flood, and mice or simply the indifference of people whose first instinct would be to toss them in the trash. In 1994, Greene was a 24-year-old stitcher at the New York City Opera when she was brought along to visit Betty Williams, a costume designer and researcher with a large antique pattern collection. Old patterns are used as references by costume designers, especially when working on period pieces, and seeing Williams’ collection was format...

Telegram has rolled out its premium tier upon announcing it earlier this month. Giving subscribed users access to extra features on its platform for $4.99 USD a month. According to reports, the new tier allows users to get faster downloads and upload larger files up to 4GB, as opposed to its original 2GB. Users can join up to 1,000 channels as opposed to 500. More features include being able to save more stickers, have more chat folders, pin more chats and add a total of four accounts instead of three. The new subscription will also allow users to have extended bios and add a link. The premium feature will allow users to access a library of stickers and flood chats with full-screen animations, exclusive emoji animations, and animated profile pictures. It also removes sponsored messages in ...

Earlier this month, legislators in the European Union came to an agreement for USB-C to become the standardized charging port required for tech devices sold within the region by 2024, and now, senators in the U.S. are looking to follow suit. According to a new report from The Verge, American senators Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have penned a letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo proposing a common charging standard within the country, backed by similar reasons adopted by the EU including reducing technological waste and protecting consumer interests. Unlike Europe, however, the senators aren’t asking for universal adoption of USB-C but instead pleading with the Commerce Department to create its own strategy. “The EU has wisely acted in the public inte...

As we pass the midway mark of 2022, data analytics company Kantar once again delivers its annual BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands ranking for the year. Apple, Google and Amazon are once again the big three this year, though a reshuffling has Apple taking the top spot away from Amazon which now ranks third after Google.  The total combined value of the world’s top 100 brands increased by 23% to $8.7 trillion in the past year, and Apple alone is on track to be the world’s first trillion-dollar brand at a current value of $947.1 billion USD. The top 10 list stays relatively consistent, with Louis Vuitton being the sole new introduction to the list, moving up 64% in reported brand value and replacing MasterCard at number 10. Out of all the companies on the list, the French fashion house...

Product design studio Higround and streetwear label PRIX Workshop have joined forces to create a nostalgic translucent mechanical keyboard paying homage to childhood-favorite transparent Playstation and Xbox consoles. Looking to create a broader set of offerings that are style-forward and expressive for a culturally diverse audience, Higround was founded by Rustin Sotoodeh and Kha Lu in 2020 to deliver high-quality modifiable keyboards and other computer peripherals for gamers. After partnering with brands outside of the gaming industry such as Beats by Dre, StockX and Attack on Titan, the brand now works with PRIX to form a natural bridge between fashion and gaming. “This is the perfect time to show our dimensionality, as a product design studio beyond graphics,” Higround co-founder Rusti...