Technology

Two months ago, my best friend stayed with me and watched all of Emily in Paris on my Netflix account. I have spent the time since flitting past worthless recommendation after worthless recommendation because, while I enjoy a frothy dramedy, my taste is different than hers and Netflix has failed to grasp that. A “forget what you just saw” button on Netflix would fix this. But when you’re using the Netflix app on your phone, tablet, set-top box, TV, or even, if that’s a thing you do, your Facebook Portal, there is no button to forget what you have seen. There is just the ruin of your recommendations after a friend visits or your kid goes on a Cocomelon binge. But, as this tweet pointed out, there is actually a Forget button. Well okay, not a button. You can’t make Netflix forget as much as ...

A video was posted on Reddit Thursday that appears to show a Tesla vehicle slowly crashing into a $3.5 million private jet after being “summoned” by its owner using the automaker’s automatic parking feature. The Reddit user (who did not immediately respond to a request for comment) said the incident took place at an event sponsored by aircraft manufacturer Cirrus at Felts Field in Spokane, Washington. Tesla meets $3.5 million private jet The smartphone video appears to capture security camera footage of the Tesla slowly crashing into and then actually pushing the Cirrus Vision Jet across the tarmac. A spokesperson for Felts Field also did not respond to a request for comment. According to the poster, the Tesla owner was using the “Smart Summon” feature that enables a Tesla vehicle to leave...

Gearbox Software added crossplay to Borderlands 3 last year, but Sony’s platforms didn’t support the feature at first. That will change soon, as the company announced at PAX East that full crossplay support — including with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 — will be arriving sometime in the spring, GameSpot reports. When the feature is available, PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Stadia players will all be able to play the game with each other. Sony has been resistant to enabling crossplay on some games in the past, originally blocking support for it in titles like Fortnite and Rocket League before eventually coming around. However, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a Borderlands spinoff, launched in March with support for crossplay on all platforms, including PlayStation. At the time of that announcement,...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill stripping the Walt Disney Company of its special tax status in the Orlando area. The move is widely viewed as retaliation against Disney for its criticism of the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, a position DeSantis took umbrage at. Disney CEO Bob Chapek apologized last month to employees who protested what they viewed as a failure by the company to support its LGBTQ community. Disney then issued a press release that said its “goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.” DeSantis said Friday he was “just not comfortable having that type of agenda get special treatment in my state,” according to...

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is targeting a “late August” launch for the game’s long-awaited network co-op campaign mode, the game’s head of creative Joseph Staten says in a new Halo Waypoint blog post. As part of a new roadmap included in the post, Staten also shared that 343 is targeting an open beta for Halo Infinite’s Forge mode in September. 343 Industries announced months ahead of Halo Infinite’s December release that co-op and Forge mode wouldn’t be available at launch. The developer then said it was aiming to ship campaign co-op “with” season 2, and then pushed that target to “later” in season 2. Split-screen campaign co-op, which lets you play the campaign with your friends on the same TV, is even further away. Based on the roadmap, 343 Industries doesn’t expect to launc...

At CES 2022, Anker announced an addition to its Nano II USB-C charger lineup with this more powerful version sporting two USB-C ports capable of outputting up to 100W, plus an old school USB-A charging port. Now the $79 Anker Nano II 100W (also known as the Anker 736 charger) has popped up for sale on Amazon (via MacRumors), although it is already showing sold-out. The Nano II chargers use the company’s second-generation version of gallium nitride-based components that replace older charger’s silicon components to pump out more power in a smaller package with less heat. According to Anker, the Nano II 100W is 34 percent smaller than Apple’s 96W charger, with similar capabilities plus two extra ports that help you reduce the number of items you’ll need to keep all of your devices powered up...

Instagram is testing a new tool called Templates, which will allow users to replicate pre-existing video formats with their own images and clips on Reels, according to Business Insider. The feature, which is currently only available to a small group of creators, mimics the nature of TikTok‘s Templates, which lets creators upload their own images into a preset format. “We are always working on new ways to make Reels simpler to create. We are testing the ability for you to make a reel using an existing Template from another reel,” a Meta spokesperson confirmed in an email via TechCrunch. Developer Alessandro Paluzzi previously discovered a version of the forthcoming feature in the app’s code earlier this year, before Josephine Hill, a DC-based marketer and influencer, tweeted about the ...

Twitter levied a new ban today on “misleading” advertisements “that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change.” “We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetized on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis,” the company said in a blog post today. “Misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis” Its decisions about what’s legit content in regard to climate change will be guided by “authoritative sources,” it says, including the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC has published a couple of landmark reports on the crisis over the past few months that break down what needs to be done to adapt to the changes that are alre...

Twenty-one Raven Software QA employees have until May 20th to submit their ballots in a historic video game industry union vote. Today the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decreed that voting for the union would commence and that the voting unit would be composed of those 21 employees, against Activision Blizzard’s argument that the voting unit should be opened to all Raven employees. In a statement to The Verge, Activision Blizzard spokesperson Rich George said: While we respect the NLRB process, we are disappointed that a decision that could significantly impact the future of our entire studio will be made by fewer than 10% of our employees. We believe a direct relationship with team members is the best path to achieving individual and company goals. We are reviewing legal options r...

After years of speculation, we finally know what Google’s first in-house smartwatch will be called. Surprising absolutely no one, a new trademark filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reveals it is… Pixel Watch. The filing (via 9to5 Google) is about as barebones as it gets. The description says the Pixel Watch name is “intended to cover the categories of smartwatches; cases adapted for holding smartwatches; wearable computers in the nature of smartwatches; smartwatch straps; smartwatch bands.” Further on in the filing, it’s noted that while the Pixel Watch name is not in current use, there is an intent to use it. Not to mention, Google recently changed its store to more prominently feature watches. Clearly, Google has smartwatches on the brain. The name signals Google’s int...

Jack Dorsey’s new title at Block is not CEO, but Block Head. No, this is not a very belated April Fools’ joke. The company filed an 8-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing the change — and of course, the new title came into effect on 4/20. Despite the new title (which, in full, is “Block Head and Chairperson”), Dorsey’s job at Block, the company formerly known as Square, will ultimately remain the same: there will be “no changes in Mr. Dorsey’s roles and responsibilities, and he will continue to serve as principal executive officer of the Company.” Block’s bylaws also no longer require that the company to have an officer with the title of CEO and president, which seems to mean that anyone who succeeds Dorsey in his role could also be called Block Head. The chang...

Several years ago, I had to deal with a situation that may be familiar to a lot of people: I was slammed with a series of high medical bills that had been denied by the insurance company. The doctor was in network, but according to the insurance company, his bills were coded wrong. Or wait, his facilities weren’t in network or… well, you get the idea. It took over a year and many phone calls to iron out the issue — and I wouldn’t have gotten through it had I not been able to record each phone call I made with the insurance company and the various medical facilities involved. Today, it would be nearly impossible. Federal law in the US says that you can legally record a phone conversation, but only if you are taking part in that conversation. State laws differ. While most states generally fo...