Category Archives: Blog

Instagram is taking steps to block users from posting horrific photos of a teen’s body after her brutal murder, but the platform’s filters seem to have blind spots: profile pictures and videos.

Days after heavy backlash for not taking down gruesome photos of Bianca Devins’ body quickly enough, Instagram still struggles to get a handle on content moderation. The upsetting situation is another example of social media companies being ill-prepared to keep up with widespread platform abuse.

Known on Instagram as @escty, Devins was a 17-year-old e-girl who was popular on 4chan and ran a server on Discord with people she had met through the anonymous site. She was murdered on Sunday morning. Photos of her dead body have been heartlessly posted and reposted on social media after her alleged murderer Brandon Andrew Clark, who she’d met online, shared them on his Instagram story and Discord moments after slitting her throat.  Read more…

More about Instagram, Bianca Devins, Culture, and Web Culture

There’s never been a better time to develop apps that can transform your lame selfies into senior citizen glamour shots. 

The popularity of the viral FaceApp, and perhaps the ensuing backlash against it, has boosted a number of other, lesser-known apps into the top ranks of the App Store and Google Play.

Three of Apple’s top ten free apps are face-changing apps, as well as its number one paid app. In Google’s Play Store, where FaceApp also holds the top spot, face-aging apps have also broken into the top ranks.

The sudden popularity of these apps shows how one app’s success can boost similar versions, even if they’re outdated or of questionable quality.  Read more…

More about Tech, Apps And Software, Faceapp, Tech, and Consumer Tech

Congressman Warren Davidson really wants to talk about shitcoins.

The representative from Ohio took pains Wednesday to make that clear during a congressional hearing examining the potential ramifications of Facebook’s proposed Libra digital currency. Over the course of the hearing, Davidson highlighted all the perceived benefits of bitcoin and laid out how “shitcoin” — like, he implied, Libra — fundamentally differ.

In questioning Meltem Demirors, CoinShares’ chief strategy officer, Davidson first introduced his likely befuddled colleagues to the crypto term of art. 

“A lot of people in this space will use a phrase that you may be familiar with: ‘there’s bitcoin, and then there’s shitcoin,'” noted the congressman around the 2:49:40 mark in the below video. “Are you familiar with that phrase, and what people might mean by that?” Read more…

More about Facebook, Bitcoin, Libra, Cryptocurrency, and Tech

For the second day in a row, Republican and Democratic lawmakers slammed Facebook over its digital currency, Libra. 

Members of the House Committee on Financial Services backed the message of their Senate colleagues from yesterday: they don’t trust Facebook.

Rep. Maxine Waters opened the hearing by blasting Facebook’s “pattern of failing to keep consumer data private on a scale similar to Equifax” and said that if Libra launches, “the company and its partners will yield immense economic power that could destabilize currencies.”

Libra is a blockchain-based digital currency, or cryptocurrency, which Facebook formally announced last month. It’s overseen by a non-profit headquartered in Switzerland, the Libra Association, of which Facebook is a member. The social media giant also created a subsidiary group, Calibra, for its own Libra-related products. Read more…

More about Facebook, Library, Cryptocurrency, Congressional Hearing, and Calibra

There’s a whole lot of talk about aliens on the internet right now, and it’s even driving people to go hunting for extraterrestrials on the web’s biggest adult video website, Pornhub.

In wake of the viral Facebook event about storming Area 51 began making the rounds earlier in July, searches for both Area 51 and aliens have spiked on Pornhub, according to the site’s internal analytics team.

Since July 12, searches for Area 51 have taken off like a rocket to Mars. Between July 12 and July 16, there have been more than 160,000 total searches with nearly 59,000 searches logged on Tuesday, July 16. Read more…

More about Aliens, Pornhub, Area 51, Culture, and Web Culture

Designed by Emiel Noorlander, the “Automatic Opening Umbrella” was designed so you wouldn’t have to hold an umbrella. Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Future Blink, Tech, and Climate Environment

The New Lab is an 85,000 sq ft building covering four different floors and over 600 entrepreneurs. It is located in the iconic Brooklyn Navy Yard. Read more…

More about Startups, History, Mashable Video, Buildings Architecture, and Brooklyn

More about Drones, Apollo 11, Moon Landing, Intel Shooting Star, and Tech

TL;DR: This high-end hardside suitcase makes a great carry-on, and you can get it from Amazon today for just $469 — 31% off its suggested retail price.

With Prime Day officially over, Amazon wants to send you off in style.

The retail giant is currently featuring a post-“parade of deals” discount on a carry-on suitcase made by the the luxury travel brand Tumi, marking it down by more than 30% to save you a casual $206. (If you’re planning on putting your Prime Day savings towards a last-minute summer getaway, this is a deal that you maybe, probably shouldn’t miss.)

SEE ALSO: Best carry-on luggage Read more…

More about Travel, Suitcase, Luggage, Carry On Luggage, and Mashable Shopping

The Google Maps app is packed with information about restaurants, bus schedules, and now bike-shares.

Starting Wednesday, the app will show information about bicycle availability at stations in real-time in 24 cities. It will also show how many empty slots there are to drop off a bicycle. New York City CitiBike users have had this feature for the past year. 

Last year, Google Maps started listing Lime availability, and later expanded to include more of the company’s scooter listings. 

More about Google Maps, Bike Sharing, Tech, and Transportation