Author Archives: Carol Edwards

The Abominable Snowman of Apple products — AirPower — is resurfacing. But we’ll believe that the technological monster myth is real when we see it.

The Hong Kong website ChargerLAB reported, via a “credible source,” that AirPower wireless charging mats are already in production. Separately, an app developer mentioned he had heard that Apple overcame its ongoing production problems with AirPower. Taken together, these developments suggest the long-gestating tech might finally become a reality.

More about Apple, Rumors, Airpower, Tech, and Consumer Tech

R. Kelly’s recently revived legal troubles, which stem from decades of sexual misconduct allegations, are now impacting his ability to work. Case in point: a planned “spring break” concert in Springfield, Ill. will not be allowed to happen.

A permit request for the Spring Break Jam concert, which was set to happen in April with Kelly as the “host,” has been denied, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune. The organizers already announced the event, but their application was still under review at the time.

The state’s Department of Agriculture, the body charged with approving the license, didn’t directly pin the permit denial on Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly documentary. But it’s all connected: Wednesday protests held outside of Kelly’s Chicago studio, a response to the documentary, sparked security concerns for state officials. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Music, R Kelly, Entertainment, and Music

It’s no secret that premium smartphones are selling for fatter and fatter stacks of cash these days. Now, the government is saying that’s a problem — but not for the reason you might think.

The Federal Trade Commission brought an antitrust suit against chip-maker Qualcomm in 2017, and it’s just now playing out in court. Per CNET, the suit alleges that Qualcomm took advantage of a non-competitive marketplace to overcharge Apple and other smartphone makers for use of its chips, technology, and intellectual property. 

So while yes, the latest iPhones carry a premium price because Apple keeps tricking them out with more premium features and ever crazier cameras, there are other reasons smartphones have hit hard-to-swallow new pricing plateaus. Across the entire market, smartphones might be more affordable if Qualcomm hadn’t demanded such a sizable cut of manufacturer revenue as a royalty for using its tech. Read more…

More about Apple, Intel, Ftc, Qualcomm, and Tech

After a banner year of successful rocket launches for Elon Musk’s private space flight company SpaceX, so far 2019 sees the company coming back down to Earth hard and fast.

The company announced on Friday that it would be laying off 10 percent of its workforce, according to Reuters. SpaceX currently has about 6,000 employees, so that 10 percent layoff number means that roughly 600 people will  lose their jobs.

The company cited the need to become “leaner” as the reason for the layoffs. It told Reuters that in order to achieve the dual vision of “interplanetary space craft and global space-based internet,” it needed to cut costs to avoid bankruptcy. Read more…

More about Tesla, Spacex, Layoffs, Science, and Space

For most employable humans on this planet, saying racist things in public would be grounds for immediate termination with no pay. Megyn Kelly isn’t most people.

Almost three months and $69 million later, the disgraced TV host who got suspended for her thoughtless on-air remarks about blackface in late 2018, is no longer an employee of NBC. The dollar amount represents the total Kelly stood to earn from her three-year contract, had she stuck around for all of it.

In other words: NBC bought Kelly out of her contractMegyn Kelly Today launched in Sept. 2017, so she didn’t even make it halfway through her three-year commitment before the network decided it was wiser to just fork over $69 million and show her the door immediately. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Tv, Nbc, Megyn Kelly, and Entertainment

We’re fast approaching the moment when expensive hardware will no longer be the deciding factor in which video games you can and can’t play. And it looks like Verizon wants to be one of the first contenders aiming to disrupt an entrenched market.

Leaked emails and images indicate that the company has reached the alpha testing stage for a new service called Verizon Gaming. The Netflix-style interface would allow users to select the tile for the game they want and start playing, based on what we’ve seen.

The report comes from The Verge, which confirms via leaked materials that the service is already up and running (for participating testers) on the Nvidia Shield set-top box. Additional documentation suggests that one goal is to bring Verizon Gaming to Android smartphones. Read more…

More about Tech, Entertainment, Gaming, Verizon, and Verizon Gaming

In a year many deemed lackluster, the most interesting new tech of CES 2019 could not be found in a single one of the more than 4,000 exhibitor booths that populate the convention’s 2.7 million square feet of show floor. 

To find it, I actually had to go to a small, unofficial off-site meeting room where the women of Lora DiCarlo, a sex tech company, were huddled together. 

The device they’d created, Osé, solves a major problem. For a long time, women have been forced to be content with one-size-fits-all vibrators. But the Osé customizes to fit the vastly different interior anatomies of every woman’s body. Without using any vibration (since that often leads to desensitization), it instead stimulates the clitoris and G-spot in a multitude of ways mimicking a partner’s touch to achieve the “holy grail” of the blended female orgasm. Read more…

More about Tech, Ces, Sex And Relationships, Sexism, and Ces 2019

Vine left a gaping wound in the fabric of our society when it was finally killed two years ago. But on the plus side, TikTok is filling the void that Vine left behind. Sort of. 

TikTok, formerly known as Musical.ly, was once full of cringey lip syncing clips and painfully awkward dance routines. But in the past few months, TikTok users have been leaning to more creative short sketches, similar to the Vine skits that captured our hearts. 

The videos are 15 seconds long — more than double the length of a Vine. The sardonic humor and quick editing still has that beloved DIY Vine quality, though. Obviously there’s nothing that can truly replace Vine, but as TikTok grows, you can’t help but compare it to its predecessor.  Read more…

More about Vine, Tiktok, Culture, and Web Culture

Welcome to Small Humans, an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2018 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

Internet marketed direct-to-consumer subscription services are the new black – and bonus points if they’re aimed at a person with children. Offering expecting and new parents anything and everything from smart bassinets to leather playmats, the new products extend a gleaming promise of being better, more hands-on, attentive, and nurturing parents than the previous generation (also known as “your parents”). Upwardly mobile millennials are an eager audience, welcoming the new disruptors to a growing industry, but it can be hard to tell whether they’re truly getting something better, or simply something that makes them Read more…

More about Startups, Food Delivery Services, Family Parenting, Small Humans, and Small Humans

ClassPass first burst onto the fitness scene back in 2013, offering a flexible, fun alternative to the played out gym circuit for just $99 per month. Since then, as the site’s popularity has grown — so has it’s monthly fee.

If you’ve been dying to try it out for yourself and have been searching for promo codes to no avail, then this is your chance. Through the end of January, you can try ClassPass for a month for free — a savings of up to $119. 

SEE ALSO: MindBody crashes, yogis lose their cool

Studio fitness classes are a long-time fan favorite as they’re a great way to combine fitness, fun, and even being social. Unfortunately, popularity means spiked prices, and that twice weekly SoulCycle habit can begin to feel like a luxury.  Read more…

More about Fitness, Classpass, Workout, Subscription Services, and Mashable Shopping