Author Archives: Carol Edwards

HQ Trivia, the live trivia gameshow app created by two of Vine’s cofounders, is shutting down less than three years after launching. 

The abrupt shutdown, which was first reported by CNN, was announced Friday after a planned acquisition fell through, HQ Trivia CEO Rus Yusupov told employees. 

“With HQ we showed the world the future of TV,” Yusupov said in a tweet. “We didn’t get to where we hoped but we did stretch the world’s imagination for what’s possible on our smartphones. Thanks to everyone who helped build this and thanks for playing.”

More about Tech, Consumer Tech, Hq Trivia, Tech, and Consumer Tech

Saying “I love you” can be hard. But sending a heart emoji? No problemo!

On Valentine’s Day, heart emoji have their work cut out for them as our emotionally burdened fingers send pictographs of love ’round the globe. 

Not all of these emoji staples are created equal, though. According to Emojipedia’s Jeremy Burge, the red heart was Emojipedia’s most searched emoji on Valentine’s Day. At any given time on V-Day, the red heart emoji was looked up twice as much as all the other hearts. People are suckers for a classic! 

More about Emoji, Valentine S Day, Love, Emojis, and Tech

I love dumb stuff: corgis with long legs, cheese that looks like people, my idiot boyfriend (hi, honey!) In Table Manners, dumb stuff abounds. For a gamer like me, that is a match made in heaven.

The “physics-based dating simulator,” available on PC this Valentine’s Day, tasks players with helping a disembodied hand impress a dinner date. How did this hand come to be severed? I don’t know. Can the hand even eat dinner? No clue. Why is this charmer still single? You tell me! 

The game opens on a desk that doubles as your mission control center and tutorial level in what looks like a college dorm room. Taking a break from his studies and other undisclosed hand business, Mr. Hand swipes away on an app called Blundr. Read more…

More about Steam, Simulator, Dating Sim, Table Manners Game, and Entertainment

The price of .com domains could be about to go up and you can thank President Donald Trump.

Thanks to a new contract, Verisign can now jack up prices on .com domains — and companies could pass those higher costs onto consumers. 

First, here are the organizations you need to know about. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a not-for-profit corporation that has authority over the internet’s domain name system. The registry, Verisign, manages all .com domains on the web, and sells them wholesale to registrars like Namecheap and GoDaddy, which sell them to individuals and organizations. Read more…

More about Donald Trump, Domains, Icann, Domain Names, and Tech

On Thursday, researchers at MIT published an injurious study about vulnerabilities in a “blockchain-based” voting app called Voatz. They found that malicious attackers could penetrate the app and then view, disrupt transmission, or even alter voters’ choices. 

Despite the niche nature of the app (it’s geared towards overseas and disabled voters) and the technicality of the study, the New York Times picked up the news; the integrity of electronic voting is on everyone’s mind in the wake of the disastrously botched use of a voting app in the Iowa caucus. 

Broadcasting the troubling findings in the Times has prompted public criticism of the app across the internet, and worry by public officials of its use in elections: One county that was planning to use the app has already decided against doing so in the wake of the report. Read more…

More about Elections, Voting, Tech, Politics, and Cybersecurity

He might be a super spy, but James Bond is no more immune to the musical stylings of Billie Eilish than the rest of us. 

Eilish was announced in January as the singer of the latest Bond theme for No Time to Die, and now she has shared the song, also titled “No Time to Die,” with the world.

Her signature moodiness seems an appropriate accompaniment for the dark and tortured Bond of the Daniel Craig era — and the fact that she’s basically the biggest thing in pop music right now gives the decades-old franchise the dash of modernity it needs.

The rest of No Time to Die arrives April 10. Read more…

More about Movies, James Bond, Billie Eilish, No Time To Die, and Entertainment

Watch out, Gotham City — there’s a new Batman in town.

Director Matt Reeves has shared a first look at Robert Pattinson in costume for The Batman, and so far he’s looking pretty good.

The clip offers a close look at Batman’s costume from the chest up. Turns out Pattinson’s cheekbones look great in that mask. And that, red light notwithstanding, Batman still only works in black and sometimes very very dark gray.

As Reeves confirmed in a followup tweet, the test above was shot by cinematographer Grieg Fraser with music by composer MIchael Giacchino. Read more…

More about Movies, Matt Reeves, Robert Pattinson, The Batman, and Entertainment

NASA astronaut Christina Koch got a truly out-of-this-world welcome after returning home from space. The one who was there to greet her? None other than her dog.

Koch had been in space for 328 days before coming back to Earth, and the reunion between her and her dog is the most wholesome thing we’ve seen today.

There’s a lotta tail wagging, overjoyed jumping, hugs, and — OK we would like some tissues now, please and thank you.

Koch’s 11 months in space was “the longest single space voyage by a female astronaut or cosmonaut,” according to CBS, and she was also a part of the first all-female space walk. Read more…

More about Nasa, Dog, Astronaut, Reunite, and Culture

Mike Bloomberg’s got boatloads of cash and he’s parting with it like the ships are sinking. 

The latest folks to cash-in from the presidential candidate’s efforts to take the White House? Meme accounts on Instagram.

Reporter Taylor Lorenz broke down Bloomberg’s novel Instagram efforts at the New York Times, revealing the campaign was working with a group called Meme 2020. Mick Purzycki, chief executive of Jerry Media — of Fuck Jerry and Fyre Fest fame — is the lead strategist for the group, according to the Times, which has crafted Instagram posts designed to make Bloomberg look self-aware and funny.  Read more…

More about Instagram, Influencers, 2020 Presidential Election, Mike Bloomberg, and Culture

This year Mashable is celebrating the season of love with Horny on Main, an exploration of the many ways that thirsting for sex affects our lives.

Five days into 2020 I received an unexpected email from Fairfield University, the Connecticut college I graduated from in 2015. It informed me that my five-year reunion is coming up in June.

After a few minutes spent panicking over the fact that I’ve been out of school for nearly half a decade, I had a thought that turned all my worry to excitement: I can’t wait to see my crushes.

I couldn’t go to my five-year high school reunion, so I don’t have any firsthand attendee experience, but from what friends had told me, reunions sound horny as hell. Read more…

More about Lifestyle, High School, Sex And Relationships, Horny On Main, and Reunions