Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Nothing says love like a fresh pair of socks and underwear from mom. 

But, as with any gift, sometimes the gifter might not get it exactly right. Maybe you’ll get a really ugly pair of socks that would put Justin Trudeau to shame, or maybe you’ll get boxers when you prefer briefs. 

Listen here — you’re an adult — and that means you should be relatively OK with telling your mother that underwear from Wet Seal is not ideal. A gentle nudge in the right direction could do the trick, but if your mother still isn’t getting it, perhaps a little more guidance is needed. Read more…

More about Underwear, Socks, Gift Guide, Gift Guide 2018, and Culture

YouTube is taking some extra steps to give parents more control over what their children watch.

In a blog post today, YouTube announced two updates to their YouTube Kids app to improve user experience for the millions of children and parents who use the app. 

The biggest update, which YouTube first introduced in April, is the rollout of parent-approved content. Android users around the world can handpick every video or channel their child is allowed to view through the YouTube Kids app (this ability is forthcoming soon to users on iOS devices).

Now, with a single settings change — simply click “approved content only” on each child’s profile — parents can make sure their children only watch the content that they’ve manually selected.  Read more…

More about Youtube, Parenting, Children, Youtube Kids, and Parental Controls

Animal Crossing and the Switch go together like peanut butter and jelly.

The life simulator is all about short but daily interaction with your town by maintaining friendships and keeping those damn weeds at bay. Bringing that kind of experience to a portable console like the Switch feels like a no-brainer.

So you can understand why people were in uproar when Nintendo failed to announce any plans to port the beloved franchise to their equally popular portable console during June’s E3.

But cry no more, animal friends. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Nintendo, Video Games, Animal Crossing, and Nintendo Switch

Missy Elliott met her long lost sister on Ellen — her funky white sister, that is.

Mary Halsey’s karaoke cover of “Work It” went viral last month. Declaring herself “Missy’s funky white sister,” Halsey rapped a flawless rendition of the song during a karaoke barbecue. Inexplicably holding an antler, she nailed the “ti esrever dna ti pilf, nwod gniht ym tup” while another woman danced behind her with a plate of food. 

Missy Elliott herself praised the cover, tweeting, “She straight killed ‘Work It’ sound effects and all. I love it.”  Read more…

More about Viral Videos, Missy Elliott, The Ellen Show, Culture, and Web Culture

The cruise ship wasn’t big enough for the both of them. 

On September 10, somewhere in the Mediterranean, two well-known rivals in the cryptocurrency space stood awkwardly poolside. A crowd, sporting a mix of cryptocurrency-themed t-shirts and bikinis, lounged nearby on the ship’s upper deck. One man, sweatpants sloshing in the water, steadied a tripod. The Bitcoin versus Bitcoin Cash debate was about to begin. 

It only took 37 seconds to spiral out of control. 

The CoinsBank Blockchain Cruise, chartered to take cryptocurrency die-hards from Barcelona, to Monaco, to Ibiza, and then back, was in its fourth day, and a highly billed event had managed to drag a few likely hung over attendees out from their below-deck cabins. Jimmy Song, a venture partner at Blockchain Capital LLC, was to argue the relative merits of Bitcoin (BTC). Early Bitcoin adoptee and Bitcoin Cash evangelist, Rover Ver, was to speak on behalf of Bitcoin Cash (BCH).  Read more…

More about Bitcoin, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash, and Tech

After Wednesday’s Apple event, you’d be forgiven for thinking the iPhone, as a product category, is now horribly fragmented.

We don’t have just one, but three different iPhone models: the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. While the pattern of three choices mirrors what Apple did last year, this year’s event confirmed it wasn’t just a one-off. We should expect releases in triplicate for the foreseeable future.

It’s getting increasingly hard to remember, but there used to be a time when Apple treated the iPhone as a one-size-fits-all product. That hasn’t been the case since 2014, the first year Apple released the iPhone 6 Plus alongside the iPhone 6. Here were two phones, both with state-of-the-art internals, with different form factors. Which was “the iPhone” proper? That was up to personal preference. Read more…

More about Apple, Iphone, Iphone Xr, Tech, and Iphone

For all of Snapchat’s current woes, one of its greatest strengths continues to be its content. 

Whether it’s music festivals, sporting events, catastrophic storms, or other breaking news events, Snapchat has set itself apart from its peers due to its unique ability to provide a first-person view into what’s happening around the world. 

The challenge for Snap, though, has been that all that content isn’t always easily discoverable outside of the confines of its app. But that’s beginning to change.

Now, Snapchat has enlisted an array of publisher partners to help make sure its user-generated content reaches the largest possible audience. The company announced a new program that will allow publishers to curate their own “Our Stories” using publicly submitted Snapchat content. Over the next few weeks, these Stories will appear in the app’s Discover section and are also viewable on the web.  Read more…

More about Tech, Snapchat, Snapchat Stories, Snap Inc, and Social Media Companies

Uber hailed itself a new logo, and it’s, well, very Uber.

The company unveiled its new branding Wednesday and the ride-hailing company’s return to the “U.” The Uber app and everywhere the Uber icon appears (like on its Twitter page and website) will sport the new logo with a capitalized “U.”

Uber Eats will also get a new look.

“We’re excited to unveil a new, simplified logo for the Uber app that brings back the U, is easily recognizable, and is scalable across the 660 plus cities we serve,” an Uber spokesperson said in an email statement. Read more…

More about Uber, Brand, Logo, Ride Hailing Apps, and Tech

More about Tech, Gadgets, Apple, Apple Watch, and Apple Event 2018

I bought the original Apple Watch “Series 0” back in 2015, and it served me well for a year until I felt overwhelmed with receiving notifications on my wrist. (Phantom vibrations are a real thingLook it up!)

Series 1, 2, and 3 of the smartwatch introduced welcome updates like a built-in GPS, water-resistance, and then cellular connectivity, but I’ve never felt that any of them were compelling enough to spend more cash on. 

But Apple’s just-announced Apple Watch Series 4 might change my mind.

Apple kicked off its annual fall iPhone event with the new Apple Watch Series 4. Since the original Apple Watch, the smartwatch has rocketed its way to become the No. 1 watch in the world (according to Tim Cook). Read more…

More about Apple, Apple Watch, Hands On, Smartwatches, and Tech