Category Archives: Blog

As Destiny 2 fans continue to settle in with the game’s newly launched Season of the Drifter, one great new feature provides a path to get lapsed players caught up with their friends: Surge Bounties.

I’m sure most fans can recall the many times they’ve had to repeat this awkward refrain to their underleveled buddies: “I’m sorry, you can’t play with us. Your Light is too low.”

Light is a numerical value that serves as an expression of power in Destiny. Your own Light level is determined by averaging out the individual rating of every weapon and armor piece you have equipped. That number helps you then figure out which activities you’re ready to tackle. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Bungie, Destiny 2, and Entertainment

Elon Musk and Tesla have proven once again why they are the ultimate trolls. 

Tesla fans hoping to get a sneak preview of the upcoming Model Y electric SUV, which will be revealed on March 14, were treated to a spectacular Easter egg when they tried to run a teaser image of the vehicle through an image editor.

At first glance, the teaser image sent to event attendees like YouTuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) doesn’t reveal much about the Model Y. 

So Brownlee ran the cloaked image through iOS’s built-in image editor to see if he could uncover any details by brightening up the picture. Read more…

More about Tesla, Easter Egg, Electric Cars, Electric Vehicles, and Model Y

The explosive expansion of dockless e-scooters from startups like Lime and Bird in cities all around the world has made it super easy to get around. But you know what’s not so great about the two-wheelers? When you inevitably face plant into the ground.

E-scooter injuries are on the rise and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants to better understand how riders are hurting themselves as well as the severity of their injuries while scooting around town. And surprise: the reasons are super obvious.

More about Cdc, Scooters, Austin, Injuries, and E Scooters

This post contains spoilers for Captain Marvel

In the pinnacle moment of Captain Marvel’s final fight sequence, Gwen Stefani’s “I’m Just a Girl” starts playing as Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers kicks everyone’s ass.

The subtext, in case you missed it, is that Carol Danvers might just be a girl. But being just a girl is pretty kick ass.

This moment — and every other one when Marvel seems to suddenly remember that Captain Marvel is its first movie with a solo female lead ever  — summons the same feelings of a modern Dove commercial. It’s a cloying sensation, the off-putting suspicion that your own crushing sense of disempowerment is being exploited to sell you soap.  Read more…

More about Entertainment, Feminism, Brie Larson, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.

There are grand tales all across the internet of underdog stories, triumphs of the human spirit, heroes who saved the day. But there are also the little victories that remind that success can be found even in the smallest of places. 

Two-year-old Clarissa has graced the internet with her personal win in a viral video her mother, Natalia, posted to Twitter. In the video, Clarissa can be seen  trying to stack some colorful plastic nesting cups together in the correct order. 

More about Twitter, Kids, Culture, Viral Video, and One Good Thing

Just like when Germany wasn’t too pleased with Tesla’s naming choice for its semi-autonomous feature (confusingly called Autopilot), the country’s automotive industry group is calling out the American electric vehicle company for misleading pricing online for the Model 3 sedan.

This week Reuters reported that the Wettbewerbszentrale nonprofit association that oversees fairness in the auto industry asked Tesla to include the full price of the car and remove the price based on gas savings and tax incentives and rebates. 

Tesla appears to have already reversed course ahead of the March 20 deadline for the change. Accessing the Model 3 website through a VPN set to a location in Germany Friday afternoon, the full price before savings is listed, with no mention of estimated savings on the bottom bar or elsewhere. Read more…

More about Tesla, Model 3, Electric Vehicles, Autopilot, and Tech

Just days before Flickr mass deletes photos across its platform, the company has decided to hit its users with some good news.

In a blog post on Friday, Flickr announced that it will allow free accounts to host and upload more than the 1,000 photo limit if the photos are licensed freely under Creative Commons. Users can change their current photos to Creative Commons licensing, as well as upload future similarly licensed photos, to their free Flickr accounts.

After Flickr, one of the largest photo-sharing website, was acquired by Smugmug last year, the company announced sweeping changes to its account policies. Free accounts would be limited to no more than 1,000 image uploads. Photos exceeding that limit would be deleted from users’ free accounts. If a Flickr user wanted to keep those photos or upload more than 1000, they would need to upgrade to a paid “pro” level account. Read more…

More about Photos, Flickr, In Memoriam, Photo Sharing, and Public Domain

When Barbie told 19-year-old Yara Shahidi that the company wanted to gift her a one-of-a-kind “shero” doll made in her likeness, the Grown-ish actress was stunned. 

“It’s really surreal just because this was never within my realm of possibility. I never thought, ‘Oh yeah, one day I’ll have my own doll’ or anything like that,” says Shahidi, who went from starring on the hit series Black-ish to its spin-off Grown-ish. 

Shahidi is one of 20 role models from 18 countries being honored by Barbie as it marks both its 60th anniversary and International Women’s Day. The sheroes, as Barbie calls them, include German track cyclist Kristina Vogel, French director Lisa Azuelos, and Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka. Read more…

More about International Women S Day, Barbie, Womens Rights, Yara Shahidi, and Social Good

Wouldn’t it be nice if Amazon did the right thing?

On Friday, senator and presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren unveiled her plans to break up Big Tech, including Amazon. Much of her to-do list includes disallowing tech giants that own a marketplace from also participating in that marketplace. That means Amazon wouldn’t be able to sell its own products on Amazon. 

There are a few ways Warren’s policies could affect the e-commerce behemoth, especially concerning Amazon’s Alexa hardware, its grocery businesses, and Amazon Web Services.  Read more…

More about Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Elizabeth Warren, Monopoly, and Amazonbasics

Cash hasn’t been dethroned, yet. 

In the age of Square, Apple Pay, and Amazon Go, buying a sandwich or beer with paper money may feel like a throwback to simpler, neolithic times. But on Feb. 27, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney signed into law a bill requiring that stores accept cash. So those times are guaranteed at least a temporary reprieve from an otherwise looming extinction. 

That is a very good thing.

The bill, which takes effect July 1, represents the first time a major U.S. city has codified into law the requirement for most businesses to accept cash. It seeks to counter a move to cashless stores, which critics have called out as both an invasion of privacy and a form of discrimination against the poor and unbanked.  Read more…

More about Privacy, Cashless, Tech, and Other