Author Archives: Carol Edwards

People are losing their shit over Hereditary — and we mean that almost literally.

We knew we were in for a ride after the jaded film critics of Sundance called the A24 film the “most traumatically terrifying horror movie in ages.” Now, people are even asking “can a movie be too scary?” 

As horror lovers, we say never to that question. But A24 is known for bringing some of the most riveting and unique horror in recent memory to the screen, like 2016’s much-adored The Witch.

So they tested this hypothesis on Hereditary by tracking the heart rates of 20 participants during promotional screenings of the movie at eleven different Alamo Drafthouse Theaters. No one fainted or died, so The Exorcist has it beat there. But the results (graphed above) suggest that you may want to call your doctor as well as a therapist after watching Hereditary, which release this Friday June 8. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Horror, Hereditary, Toni Collette, and Entertainment

Apple’s “walled garden” approach to the App Store may not be perfect, but it does make life harder for racists, homophobes, and other purveyors of hate to peddle their goods.

The same can’t be said for Steam, however. The PC gaming marketplace owned and operated by Valve Corporation was at the center of controversy just last week over a product listing for a game called Active Shooter, which allowed players to step into the role of a marauding school shooter.

Valve removed the listing after widespread outcry led to mainstream media coverage, and the company’s public address of the matter concluded with a promise: “The broader conversation about Steam’s content policies is one that we’ll be addressing soon.” Read more…

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Steam, Valve Corporation, and Entertainment

Hot Wheels and GoPro have teamed up to create a special ‘Zoom In’ car. Watch it zoom down the track with a GoPro Session or Hero5 Session along for the ride, recording everything on the way to bring you a totally unique perspective. Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Gopro, Go Pro Hot Wheels, Go Pro Car, and Go Pro Hot Wheels Car

Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn, the sequel to the legendarily bad and weird game Shaq Fu, is not good.

After a couple of hours of playing the Shaq Fu: The Legend Reborn, it’s abundantly clear that almost no thought went into this game in terms of gameplay. Not only that, the Shaq Fu sequel is a bit racist, sexist, and homophobic.

The game starts off in China, where little baby orphan Shaquille is discovered in a bag floating down a river. It’s a bit of a jab at the classic “chosen one” origin story, but it’s quickly revealed the this game doesn’t know how to do anything but make fun of tropes, which itself is an awfully tiring trope. Read more…

More about Shaquille O Neal, Shaq Fu, Shaq Fu A Legend Reborn, Entertainment, and Gaming

Ready, set, Super Cruise.

That’s the hands-free driver assistance feature on the Cadillac CT6 SUV. Starting in 2020, all Cadillacs will have Super Cruise, the Tesla Autopilot competitor, available to deploy for Level 3 autonomous driving on highways. 

Eventually, after the 2020 rollout across the Cadillac lineup, Super Cruise will also be an option for other General Motors vehicles. On 130,000 miles of freeways in the U.S. and Canada, the LIDAR-enabled tech allows drivers to let go of the wheel while the car drives.  Read more…

More about Autopilot, Autonomous Vehicles, Cadillac, Super Cruise, and Tech

Apple’s finally beginning to take our battery anxiety seriously.

The upcoming iOS 12 update will include a new battery-monitoring feature that details which apps are sucking up the most battery life, according to screenshots from the current developer beta of iOS 12. 

Images published by 9to5Mac show a new feature battery-tracking feature, which provides detailed stats on which apps are using the most battery throughout the day. The feature, which wasn’t mentioned during Apple’s WWDC keynote, comes with an interactive graph that breaks down battery use hour-by-hour. Read more…

More about Tech, Gadgets, Apple, Iphone, and Ios 12

Despite it being drilled into us as children, many of us aren’t still eating our vegetables — but we’re drinking a lot of coffee.

It’s why scientists have developed a powder made from whole broccoli, which you’d ideally throw into the food and drink you consume to improve nutrition — and that includes your latte.

Developed by Australia’s chief research organisation, the CSIRO, and Hort Innovation, the powder is produced by using a “combination of selected pre-treatment and drying processes” that help to keep the flavour, colour, and the nutrients from the vegetable. Read more…

More about Australia, Food, Health, Coffee, and Culture

Facebook “borrowed” a lot of features from Snapchat. Now it’s doing the same thing with another app that’s popular with the kids.

The social network is launching a new feature called Lip Sync Live, which will essentially be a direct competitor to existing lip-syncing platforms like Musical.ly.

Testing in select markets, the feature is part of Facebook’s strategy to make music a bigger part of its platforms. The company says “hundreds” of songs will be immediately available, including those by Camilla Cabero, Guns N’ Roses, Drake, and Ed Sheeran, but the library will grow. Read more…

More about Facebook, Social Media, Lip Sync Battle, Lip Sync, and Musical.Ly

For its next act, Instagram could take on another major rival: YouTube. 

The photo-sharing app is readying a feature that would let users post videos that last up to an hour long, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. Currently the time limit is 60 seconds in Instagram feeds and 15 seconds in Stories. 

The report doesn’t say exactly how such a feature would work, but it sounds like it could be an extension of Instagram Stories. The longer form video would be vertical, according to the Journal, and the company has reportedly had discussions with publishers and other “content creators.” Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Apps And Software

Well that escalated quickly.

At about 11:55 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, Apple Senior Vice President Craig Federighi took the ongoing war of words between his company and Facebook to a new level. 

Federighi declared that, in the upcoming version of mac OS, Apple would shut down the practice of ad networks tracking users via Like buttons and comment fields.

Facebook is probably not quivering in its boots. These protections, called Intelligent Tracking Prevention, only exist in Safari, Apple’s homegrown browser — which has only a 13.8% market share on desktop computers worldwide. Google Chrome is the leader in this space, installed on 58.1% of desktops. Read more…

More about Facebook, Apple, Privacy, Wwdc, and Tech