Author Archives: Carol Edwards

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Chris Hughes says regulations are needed for U.S. tech companies. Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Technology, Mashable Video, and Mark Zuckerberg

Netflix’s assortment of young adult dramas are successful to varying degrees — from the creatively superior Sex Education and American Vandal to the passable Insatiable and 13 Reasons Why. The streaming platform’s latest offering, The Society, lands somewhere on the higher side.

It’s a fairly simple story but it still emerges as somewhat victorious in its quest to tell the law vs. anarchy trope through the optics of the high school graduates left alone in a town that resembles their own. 

The teenagers of West Ham, a town plagued by a mysterious smell, return home from a school trip cut drastically short. When they return, they have their lavish homes and cars, but what’s missing are their parents, pets, and basically any other human beings. Even that pesky smell is gone.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Netflix, Streaming Shows, The Society, and Entertainment

Gaming can be an immersive experience as is, but the right headset can truly push it over the edge. So many games today have incredible sound and music, whether it’s the booming beats in God of War or whizzing laser bolts in Star Wars: Battlefront II, the right headset can suck you deeper into the worlds you’re exploring on the screen. But what is the best headset for you?

There’s no shortage of choices when it comes to gaming headsets. If you’re on a budget or are looking for the best audio experience you can get no matter the cost, there’s a headset that can provide that extra oomph for your gaming sessions. Read more…

More about Video Games, Headsets, Mashable Shopping, Shopping Amazon, and Tech

Saints Row: The Third lives again.

The 2011 game comes to Nintendo Switch on May 10, and it’s the same ridiculously over-the-top story of superstardom, gang warfare, and government malfeasance you remember.

Or not? Even if we accept that time has actually flowed normally since early 2017 — a tall order when every day ages us all another 10 years, I know — it’s been a long time since Saints Row: The Third showed up. If you’re not familiar with the series, or just want to catch up, let’s talk about why it matters.

Finding the right footing

It’s always funny to think back on how Saints Row, the series, started as an opportunistic knock-off. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Saints Row The Third, Entertainment, and Gaming

YouTube may be the king of online video, but its subscription music streaming service is trailing far behind its biggest competitors.  

According to a report in Bloomberg, Google now has 15 million paid subscribers — a number that includes customers on free trials, per sources  — across its two paid music streaming services, YouTube Music and Google Play Music. (The search giant has not made their subscriber base public; the number comes from two sources familiar with the subscription numbers.)

Meanwhile, Spotify boasts around 100 million paying subscribers, as well as another 115 million users on its free, ad-supported tier. Apple Music has nearly 60 million subscribers on its paid and trial plans. Read more…

More about Google, Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music, and Streaming Services

Claire Saffitz, the fearless pastry chef of Bon Appétit, appears to have broken once again. This time, it was over an attempt to make Almond Joys.

This time, the experienced chef tried tackling the tropical gluten-free treat. While deliberating between ways to use coconut, a small fire started on the stove behind her. There’s a delightful camera zoom at 10:25.

From experimenting with prepackaged shredded coconut to getting innocent bystanders to crack open a fresh one for her, Saffitz went above and beyond to nail down Almond Joy’s signature sweet coconut filling. After making a coconut paste, she added roasted chocolate-covered almonds and pipes some chocolate on top to make a gourmet version of the candy.  Read more…

More about Viral Videos, Candy, Culture, and Web Culture

Facebook has an automation problem. 

A confidential whistleblower complaint filed to the SEC and obtained by the Associated Press claims that the social network has been generating extremist videos, pages, and content by default. The content in question, which reportedly was manufactured entirely by Facebook independent of any specific human, ranges from white supremacist pages to pages for Al-Qaida.

Yeah, it’s bad. 

According to the AP, Facebook’s tools “[scrape] employment information from user’s pages to create business pages.” When those users’ pages contain extremist content, like, for example, pictures of suicide vests or mushroom clouds detonating in cities next to the words “The Islamic State” (two real examples), those images can make their way into Facebook autogenerated content.   Read more…

More about Facebook, Artificial Intelligence, Ai, Tech, and Social Media Companies

Justin Timberlake will be honored at the Songwriters Hall of Fame 50th annual induction ceremony and will receive the Contemporary Icon Award.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Music, Mashable Video, Awards Ceremony, and Singer

I’m here to alert the presses that yes, people who peel their chicken nuggets before eating them actually exist. Let the “cursed food opinion” comments roll. 

A photo of nude nuggets, freshly peeled, has been making the rounds on Twitter since late April, but it has recently incurred a fresh wave of delicious backlash. 

Like the infamous St. Louis-style bagel fiasco, people were left scratching their heads asking, “Do people even eat it like this?” The answer is yes. But the internet responded with please, god, no.  Read more…

More about Twitter, Opinion, Culture, Chicken Nuggets, and Culture

Mr. Fox was apparently not fantastic enough.

Google Maps began rolling out Augmented Reality directions on Pixel Phones this week. This was a feature it promised at last year’s I/O developer conference, and one that Mashable got to try out this February. 

The feature is pretty nifty: When you’re unsure about your next move, you can hold your camera up to the street and your surroundings, and Google Maps will be able to provide you with a range of helpful specifics, like how many feet there are to your next destination, or whether to walk forward or back, or turn left or right.

More about Google Maps, Fox, Augmented Reality, Tech, and Transportation