Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Raise that single gloved-hand to your mouth in shock: The hackers have gone after golf.

America’s last bastion of proud visor-wearers is scrambling this week, after unknown criminals took over the PGA of America’s servers on Tuesday — locking the golf association out of its files just days before the official Aug. 9 start of the PGA Championship in Missouri. And you better believe those hackers want bitcoin. 

That’s right, the PGA was hit with ransomware. 

So reports Golfweek, which notes that the now-encrypted files include “extensive promotional banners and logos used in digital and print communications,” in addition to “development work on logos for future PGA Championships.” Read more…

More about Hackers, Bitcoin, Ransomware, Golf, and Tech

Uber, Lyft, Via, Juno, and other ride-hailing app drivers have some new protections and minimum pay guarantees in New York City after a city council vote this afternoon.

One of the votes put a cap on the number of vehicles licensed to drive for apps like Lyft and Uber. The “pause” will last 12 months; at that point the city will review how the break affected congestion, public transit, drivers, and passengers. It’s not a permanent ban on new ride-hailing vehicles, and there is some flexibility, like for new accessible vehicles. 

New York is the first major American city to take a stand on the number of vehicles Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing apps can have out on the street.  Read more…

More about Uber, Nyc, Lyft, Drivers, and Tech

If you’re looking to amp up your tablet game for an unheard of price, you’re in luck: from now until Aug. 10 at 11 am PST, you can get the Amazon Fire HD8 for a mere $54, which is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen (and half of its original listing price.) 

The Fire HD8 tablet is an upgrade of the HD7, giving you twice the amount of internal storage, with a 16GB capacity to hold all of your favorite movies, shows, games, photos and more (in a vidid 1280 x 800 HD display.)

The Fire HD8 will connect with your Kindle subscription, so you can access over one million different eBooks and magazines. You can also stream shows and movies through virtually any streaming service including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, Netflix, HBO NOW, and Sling TV.  Read more…

More about Amazon, Tablet, Fire Hd, Mashable Shopping, and Shopping Amazon

It should come as no surprise that California is burning. 

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that July was California’s hottest month since record keeping began in 1895.

Those scorching temperatures withered the land, creating profoundly parched forests primed to catch fire with just a spark. 

Major wildfires are propelled by weather, notably strong winds, but they’re also enhanced by overall rising global temperatures due to human-caused climate change, say scientists. This is a particularly stark reality in California, where even in early July, fire scientists noted that the state’s vegetation reached near-record dryness.  Read more…

More about Science, California, Global Warming, Extreme Weather, and Climate Change

With the school year just around the corner (or, in some places, fully here,) kids and parents across the U.S. are mentally preparing themselves for another year of homework, projects, and exams. But this little girl finishing up her first day of kindergarten is already over it.

Twitter user @PonyGinuwinemp3 recorded her daughter standing in line behind her classmates, waiting to get picked up from school. While the other kids seem cheery, her daughter doesn’t seem to be feeling the school spirit.

When it’s finally her turn in line to go to her mother, she takes off her paper crown, stomps towards her mom, and throws the crown right at the camera. Extremely relatable. Read more…

More about Parenting, Kids, Culture, Viral Videos, and School

All signs point towards a Google Pixel 3 XL with a notch, but the latest leak shows us the box.

Thanks to a blogger from the Ukraine on Telegram, we now have photos of a pre-release Pixel 3 XL in packaging — and wired USB-C Pixel BudsAndroid Police was the first to spot the posting. While these aren’t the first leaked photos of the device, they’re the first to feature the device running Android and in its packaging.

Pixel customers might finally get headphones in the box. The packaging shows a pair of wired Pixel Buds with a USB-C connector. These would be the first wired version of Google’s wireless Pixel Buds that launched alongside the Pixel 2. From the photos, it appears that the wired variants will wrap inside the ear canal to keep them in place. Read more…

More about Google, Pixel 3, Pixel Bud, Tech, and Consumer Tech

Twitter will let you harass whomever you want as long as you don’t tag or @-mention them.

That’s essentially how Twitter explained its decision not to ban Alex Jones from its platform Tuesday after Facebook, Apple, Google, Spotify and others banned Jones for violating policies against hate speech and harassment.

But Twitter has resisted the pressure to follow suit, telling several publications Monday that it didn’t believe Jones had broken its rules. 

On Tuesday, the company doubled down on that stance. “As we indicated yesterday, tweets from Alex Jones and InfoWars are not currently in violation of our Rules,” the company tweeted from the Twitter Safety account. Read more…

More about Twitter, Twitter Abuse, Infowars, Alex Jones, and Social Media Companies

It certainly felt like a whim or marijuana-infused trolling, but Elon Musk’s tweet Tuesday morning about taking his now-publicly traded electric car company private is just how the Tesla CEO operates.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has a social media policy in place to make sure companies don’t mess with stocks or use social platforms to post information that can only be seen by a select few, like a private Facebook group or DM. But Elon Musk will always be Elon Musk — meaning he does what he wants. And even though Musk’s tweet was unprecedented, it didn’t technically break the rules. Read more…

More about Twitter, Tesla, Elon Musk, Stock Market, and Tech

Tessa Thompson is a national treasure worth her weight in gold. 

And that’s basically what her Thor: Ragnorok wig cost, according to a new Huffington Post interview with her Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley. 

The shoot for the surreal indie comedy co-starring Thompson apparently conflicted with Marvel’s reshoots for Ragnorok. But the two characters couldn’t have had more different hair styles, with Valkyrie rocking a pragmatic yet elegant flowing ponytail, and Detroit slaying with short, colorful ringlets. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Marvel, Thor Ragnarok, Tessa Thompson, and Boots Riley

InfoWars‘ terms of service totally contradicts its core belief of freedom of speech. 

The website, which conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed performance artist Alex Jones claims is a legitimate news outlet, has been kicked off of Facebook, YouTube, iTunes, and even Pinterest this week for spreading hateful lies. In response, Jones and his supporters took to one of the last platforms InfoWars hasn’t been banned from to lambast the changes: Twitter. 

“Understand this: The censorship of Infowars just vindicates everything we’ve been saying,” Jones tweeted on Monday. “Now, who will stand against Tyranny and who will stand for free speech? We’re all Alex Jones now.” Read more…

More about Infowars, Alex Jones, Culture, and Web Culture