Author Archives: Carol Edwards

New Zealand is continually omitted from maps of the world. Seriously, there’s an entire Reddit thread highlighting examples of the country being completely wiped from global existence. 

Also known as Aotearoa or “the land of the long white cloud,” New Zealand is missing from maps in Getty stock images, German museums, Ikea wall stickers, tattoos, iPhone cases — even the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s globe left it out.

And New Zealand’s just about done with it.

The country’s tourism board has launched a fun new ad campaign dubbed #getNZonthemap, with a commercial starring Kiwi Flight of the Conchords star Rhys Darby and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. They’re keen to get to the bottom of this blatant map omission, and they’re looking squarely at … Australia. Read more…

More about Advertising, Tourism, New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and Rhys Darby

While he joked about his Congressional testimony and the never-ending privacy scandals of the last few months on the F8 stage, Mark Zuckerberg’s most important message was one he doubled down on throughout his keynote: Facebook is actually very good and not at all evil.

That may not seem particularly surprising, as the Facebook founder has spent the last several weeks on a whirlwind apology tour, where he’s repeated the same talking points over and over and over again.

“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility,” and “Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company.” Read more…

More about Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, F8, Social Media Companies, and Tech

Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear that fake profiles and soviet robots have no place on Facebook.

But worry not, robots. ‘Messenger’ is still a hospitable home for bots like you.

At F8, Facebook’s Vice President of Messaging Products, David Marcus, jovially reported that Messenger’s integration with business is going swimmingly. According to Marcus, over 8 billion messages have been sent between people and businesses. And there are 300,000 monthly active bots engaging with customers on messenger.

More about Facebook, Messenger, F8, Bots, and F8 Conference

On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center to deliver his keynote speech at the company’s annual F8 developer conference.

There was a lot to talk about. As Zuck mentioned in his opening statements: “This has been an intense year.”

Last year’s conference promised that Facebook would plug our brains into the internet, and suck our social lives into virtual reality. This year was slightly less ambitious, but still filled with plenty of goodies.

The company announced what we expected, and dropped a few (but not many) surprises. Mostly, it promised to bring us more ways to use the apps, websites, and hardware we know and love.  Read more…

More about Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Oculus, F8, and Tech

If you’re ready to find your true love and/or are approaching retirement age, then have we got some news for you: Mark Zuckerberg has your back.

At Facebook’s annual developer conference, F8, the CEO announced plans to launch a dating service that will ostensibly compete with the likes of Tinder and Bumble. But, and let’s be real here, Zuckerberg omitted one key detail: it’s for the olds. 

Now, to his credit, Zuckerberg did at least hint at this undeniable truth. “This is going to be for building real long-term relationships,” explained the man who gave us FaceMash, “not hookups.” Read more…

More about Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Tinder, Dating Apps, and Tech

Read more…More about Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Mashable Reels, Entertainment, and Gaming

If you’ve been a close observer of T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s Twitter feed, you were likely as surprised as anyone when he confirmed that his company had finally signed onto a $26.5 billion deal to merge with Sprint.

Not because the two companies had tried and failed at a similar deal two times before, though, but because Legere actually had some nice things to say about his longtime competitor. 

While the outspoken CEO has been known for his extremely blunt tweets, he’s reserved his harshest words for other carriers (he was forced to apologize in 2014 after accusing AT&T and Verizon of “raping” customers). Read more…

More about Tech, Sprint, Tmobile, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

This kid has a future in acting. 

During a very intense name of little league baseball, the coach told @TabbyRodriguez’s younger cousin Lenn to “run home as fast as he can.” The little boy did not disappoint, running from third base to home in glorious slow motion.

How could you not hear the Chariots of Fire theme song while watching Lenn run? Read more…

More about Twitter, Funny Videos, Culture, and Web Culture

13 Reasons Why is back and, by the looks of the latest trailer, you better be prepared for even more teenage hardships.

The trailer juxtaposes all of the characters lives both before and after the suicide that connects them all. It’s an interesting stylistic choice, and perhaps indicative of the shifts we’ve heard about in terms of the popular but controversial Netflix show’s approach to mature topics in the new season.

You’ll be able to start binge-watching Season 2 on May 18. Read more…

More about Streaming Services, Netflix Original, 13 Reasons Why, 13 Reasons Why Season 2, and Entertainment

Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving mode, Autopilot, did what it’s supposed to do — move the car out of harm’s way.

In a video from last week, a driver in a Tesla Model X was traveling on I-95 in North Carolina when a swerving semi-truck suddenly came into the Tesla’s lane. The electric car automatically moves over onto the empty shoulder to avoid the oncoming traffic, and the driver then proceeds to move into the fast lane behind the truck.

YouTuber Jeremy Visnesky seems to document the live-saving moments in the semi-autonomous vehicle. Visnesky shared another Tesla safety feature coming in handy over the weekend when the car slowed down and beeped to warn about a truck merging into a freeway lane.  Read more…

More about Tesla, Safety, Autopilot, Tech, and Transportation