Author Archives: Carol Edwards

TL;DR: Amazon’s premier line of Fire Tablets are extremely cheap for Prime Day — the Fire 7, Fire HD 8, and Fire HD 10 are all on sale (plus others), exclusively for Prime Members.

So you already have a laptop and a smartphone, and you want a tablet so you can round out your tech collection, but do you really need to shell out hundreds of dollars for the newest iPad when your other devices already do a lot of the things it features? No.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea to have a tablet in your possession — we just think it’s a better idea to save the cash instead of buying something that serves the same purpose as your smartphone for such a high price.  Read more…

More about Tablets, Amazon Fire, Prime Day, Mashable Shopping, and Tech

TL;DR: The best-selling Fire TV Stick is on sale for just $14.99 (a $25 discount), and comes packaged with the voice-controlled Alexa remote.

It’s easy to assume that most of us have “cut the cord” with the cable companies and switched over to an all-streaming entertainment setup. And there’s never been a better time to move over to streaming — with all the exclusive shows that are packaged with Netflix, Hulu, and others, it’s most people’s preferred way to watch TV. But if you haven’t done so just yet, here’s your chance for a price that you’re not going to find anywhere else.

The Fire TV Stick is a best-selling, pocket-sized streaming media player, and you can get one for just $14.99 during Amazon’s massive Prime Day sale — it comes bundled with an Alexa remote, too. Read more…

More about Streaming, Alexa, Prime Day, Mashable Shopping, and Fire Tv Stick

Don’t mess with kittens. Ever. Not these kittens, anyway.

Here’s what this video’s Moses Lake, Wash.-based creator had to say about the surreal scene of two kittens stalking a much larger goat as the latter sprints away in fear:

“It was my kittens first day outside in the back yard. They were very curious about what goats were. They decided to run after them because they had four legs as well. I came to find out that goats are scared of little [tiny] things running at them.”

That’s especially true, I’d guess, when those little tiny things have little tiny needle teeth and little tiny razor claws. That goat made the smart choice, is what I’m saying. Read more…

More about Goats, Kittens, Culture, and Animals

“I don’t watch tennis. I watch Woody Harrelson watching tennis.” 

Voiced by Twitter user @trevorstweetss, but felt by the whole internet, the new international pastime of watching Woody Harrelson bask in the glow of sports was officially established on Saturday as the beloved actor stopped by Wimbledon for the men’s doubles championship. 

As Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah took to the court against Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Harrelson watched eagerly from the stands. It was a grueling nearly five-hour match, wrought with edge-of-your-seat tension as perfectly displayed by Harrelson and his Emmy Award-winning emotions.  Read more…

More about Photos, Meme, Tennis, Wimbledon, and Woody Harrelson

The tech world moves so quickly that dystopia can arrive without us realizing it.

That seems to be the trajectory we’re on with facial recognition. Some of the biggest names in the tech space are developing advanced facial recognition systems and selling them to governments around the world, but the general public might not fully understand all the risks they bring.

With prominent politicians like New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking out about the dangers of facial recognition, it’s time to get caught up on why so many people are so concerned about the controversial tech. Read more…

More about Amazon, Surveillance, Ice, Facial Recognition, and Rekognition

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knows what’s coming down the surveillance pike, and she’s raising the alarm. 

The Representative from New York on Saturday highlighted the growing problem of facial recognition tech, and called out its associated ills of bias and abuse. She joins a growing chorus of technologists, activists, and elected officials who see the technology for the civil liberties threat that it is. 

“We have started to sound the alarm on the way facial recognition technology is expanding in concerning [ways],” tweeted the Congresswoman. “From the FBI to ICE to Amazon, the bar for consent and civil liberties protection is repeatedly violated, and on top of it all has a disproportionate racial impact, too.” Read more…

More about Privacy, Facial Recognition, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Tech, and Other

Look parents, he’s sorry. 

Juul CEO Kevin Burns made that much very clear during a CNBC interview, set to air Monday, in which he expressed remorse that all your kids are addicted to blowing fat clouds with the popular e-cigarette. The San Francisco-based company has taken heat from the FDA for a surge in underage use, and its CEO apparently thought it best that he let everyone know he’s paying attention.  

“First of all, I’d tell [parents] that I’m sorry that their child’s using the product,” Burns reportedly tells interviewer Carl Quintanilla. “It’s not intended for them. I hope there was nothing that we did that made it appealing to them.” Read more…

More about Vaping, Juul, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

Blair Braverman, Twitter legend, feels great about her body and she’d like for you to get on the same page.

The author and self-described “adventurer” who is also a competitive musher and prolific Twitter user, used her adorable army of sled dogs to make a point about body image. In a sprawling Saturday thread, Braverman described how her experiences raising and training the pups helped to give her a healthy perspective.

More about Dogs, Body Image, Culture, and Web Culture

A satellite zooming around Mars spotted a lone machine, the Curiosity Rover, exploring the rugged Martian terrain. 

The car-sized rover, which has traveled almost 13 miles on Mars over the last seven years, is now carefully inching up the base of Mount Sharp, a 3.5-mile tall mountain sitting in the middle of the sprawling Gale Crater. The rover has been busy scouring rock samples in an area that planetary scientists suspect was once blanketed in wet clay.

“It’s just one of many stops the rover has made in an area referred to as the “clay-bearing unit” on the side of Mount Sharp,” NASA wrote on Friday. Read more…

More about Space, Science, Mars, Curiosity Rover, and Science

They all knew it was going to be a night to remember, just perhaps not how memorable it would turn out.

The Los Angeles Angels played the Seattle Mariners on Friday, July 12, in a home game meant to pay tribute to deceased former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. The Angels also happened to get a combined no-hitter — meaning the Mariners faced off against more than one Angels pitcher but didn’t log a single hit for the entire game.

“This was definitely for him and he was definitely watching over us tonight,” the Angels’ Mike Trout told the MLB Network following the game.  

More about Baseball, Culture, and Sports