Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Ohio congresswoman Joyce Beatty made a really good point on Tuesday: You don’t need fat clouds to be radical.

This week, the state of Ohio launched an initiative called My Life, My Quit, which seeks to help teens quit using e-cigarettes and tobacco. Rep. Beatty (or a member of her staff) announced the new program via tweet — and her phrasing was truly some wild stuff. 

More about Twitter, Congress, Social Media, Vaping, and Juul

My 12-inch MacBook was stolen from my car last week, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smash-and-grab. Materially, the loss shouldn’t much matter — no one died, it was insured, it’s just a laptop, everything’s in the cloud anyway — but emotionally, it was a wrench. Over the last two years, I had grown to love that little rose gold beauty, my 2-pound tote-anywhere workhorse. It was almost as light as my iPad Pro in its case, but charged much faster (thanks, USB C!) and could do so much more. 

And now, just as I am removing the black armband and allowing myself to think about a replacement, here comes Apple to twist the knife. As of Tuesday, the 12-inch MacBook is no more. Indeed, the simple moniker of “MacBook” is no more.  Read more…

More about Macbook, Tech, Consumer Tech, and Big Tech Companies

The tiny British Mini Coopers have been around for decades (six to be exact) — but on Tuesday the first all-electric version was revealed. 

The world premiere in Rotterdam in the the Netherlands showed off the electrified Mini that looks like its non-electric predecessors but with a modified grille and no exhaust pipe — since there’s no exhaust here with the zero-emission vehicle. This Mini is all battery and electric motor.

The BMW Group’s newest car will be available next year and start production in November at the Mini plant in Oxford, England. Pre-orders with a $500 deposit are open in the UK and reservations are available in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway. Availability in the U.S. hasn’t been announced yet. The car starts around $35,000.  Read more…

More about Electric Vehicles, Mini Cooper, Tech, and Transportation

Advertising Content from HP

College is a time when the sky’s the limit, and HP’s x360 design promises to keep up with students’ always-on lifestyle — whether powering through late-night study sessions, a day full of homework, or some much-needed relaxation time. Click on our infographic’s hotspots, above, to explore the features that make HP x360 laptops the perfect college roommate.

• Images:

  HP Read more…

More about Tech, Supported, Hp, Laptops, and College Laptop

The 2019 Ford Ranger uses Belt Monitor technology which allows the driver to monitor if the seat belt of passengers in the rear and front are buckled. Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Ford, Smart Car, Driver Safety, and Future Blink

Did you watch Stranger Things 3 over Fourth of July weekend? If so, you’re not alone.

According to Netflix, the new season was such a popular viewing pick that it actually broke the service’s four-day record, with 40.7 million “household accounts” tuning in. And 18.2 million of those, or about 44 percent, have already completed all eight episodes.

More about Netflix, Stranger Things, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

An orange bird saved by passersby and brought to an animal hospital turned out to just be a seagull covered in spices. 

The Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in the U.K. saw an especially vibrant avian patient on July 1. In a Facebook post, the hospital said members of the public rescued a bright orange bird from the side of the road that couldn’t fly. 

“We had no idea what to expect — and would never have guessed this!” the hospital wrote. The bird, as it turned out, was covered “in curry or turmeric,” according to the hospital.

Aside from smelling a bit “pungent,” the bird was otherwise healthy. Named Vinny, after the Indian dish vindaloo, he’s on the road to being released back into the wild after a thorough bath. Read more…

More about Wildlife, Birds, Culture, and Web Culture

Apple announced scads of features for iOS 13, iPadOS, and their made-for-computers big sibling macOS Catalina back in June, but it looks like there’s at least one more coming.

Apple is testing out new sign-in options for iCloud with its as-yet-unreleased operating systems, with support for both Face ID and Touch ID. It only works if you’re running one of the OS betas and you access iCloud via the beta.icloud.com URL in Safari.

As 9to5Mac reports, navigating to that link with all requirements met summons a pop-up asking if you’d like to sign into your Apple ID using either of the hardware-specific features. Though of course, your ability to actually do that depends on the hardware you’re using: if you don’t have something that supports Face ID or Touch ID, that’s that. Read more…

More about Apple, Icloud, Ios 13, Macos Catalina, and Tech

The U.S. Women’s National Team beat the Netherlands 2-0 on the field on Sunday, securing their second consecutive World Cup win. 

It’s an especially sweet victory after weeks of complaining from other nations, which claimed the American women were celebrating their wins too arrogantly. And although fans celebrated with the team, some pointed out that the USWNT’s domination during each match only proved they deserved to be paid just as much as their male counterparts. 

A Nike ad appears to nod to the equal pay debate that has mired 2019’s World Cup. The women’s team escalated their fight for equal pay, suing the U.S. Soccer Federation for “institutional gender discrimination” after a 2016 complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission didn’t land salaries anywhere near what the men’s team was paid. The complaint noted that although the women’s team generated nearly $20 million more in revenue than the men’s team did in 2015, the men were paid four times what the women were paid.  Read more…

More about World Cup, Equal Pay, Uswnt, Culture, and Web Culture

Warning: This post contains mild plot spoilers about Stranger Things 3.

Stranger Things 3 is being largely hailed as a triumph. It jumpstarted the narrative, gave some much-needed credit to its female characters, and is generally just a good ol’ time (except for the Flayed, R.I.P.). 

But there’s one baffling gap, and that’s Jim Hopper’s terrifying anger management issues that build to a boiling point from the season’s very opening. Hopper is a rage monster almost as volatile as the Mind Flayer, and it’s not okay.

More about Entertainment, Television, Netflix, David Harbour, and Stranger Things 3