Category Archives: Blog

This past summer, Samsung thought it would be a good idea to break folks’ TVs in the United Kingdom. It wasn’t real, of course – it was an attempt to show off a core feature of its 2018 lineup: Ambient Mode.

It spiked some interest in the feature, leading people to wonder – what does it actually do, exactly?

I was wondering the same thing, so I paid a visit to Samsung’s loft in NYC – a full showroom meant to resemble a real apartment, right in the Meatpacking District. The cozy loft came complete with appliances and other niceties, including QLED TVs. 

I was shown a demo of a 65-inch QLED TV with Ambient Mode. This feature is Samsung’s answer to transforming a television into an organic part of your living space instead of just sitting there taking up space.  Read more…

More about Tv, Samsung, Qled, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

This is the kind of deal that you don’t have to think twice about — especially if you’re a gamer. (Not a gamer? This is your chance to get a great stocking stuffer for the gamer in your life at nearly $23 off.)

SEE ALSO: All the best Black Friday 2018 sales, right in one place

Walmart just slashed the price of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ahead of Black Friday, bringing the already discounted price down to just $37. This exclusive deal is only at Walmart and it’ll only be live for 24 hours (or until it sells out, we suppose) so get on it while you can.

Here’s what Adam Rosenberg had to say about the game in his October review: Read more…

More about Gaming, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Black Friday, and Mashable Shopping

My partner’s arms are longer than mine, so, on election day this year, I made him take the #IVoted selfie. 

Now, I’m not one for selfies, usually. But I decided to share my act of civic participation on social media earlier this month for two reasons. First, because I was genuinely jazzed to vote. It was my first time doing so in person! It was exciting! And second, I’d just learned that posting photos with sticker proof of your buy-in to the democratic system is actually an impactful way to encourage others to vote. 

Apparently, I wasn’t alone in my enthusiasm.  Read more…

More about Snapchat, Elections, Midterm Elections 2018, Tech, and Social Media Companies

Amazon thinks it’s already said more than enough, thank you very much. 

Starting on Nov. 20, the Seattle-based behemoth began notifying an unknown number of customers via email that, well, something had happened to their data. Specifically, that those customers’ names and email addresses had been “disclosed.” But anything beyond that? Haha wouldn’t you like to know.

The company declined to comment when asked by Mashable how many customers were affected, what caused the leak, when the leak was discovered, when it was fixed, and to whom or to what the customer data was disclosed.

More about Amazon, Data Leaks, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

This Thanksgiving how-to might give you a headache.

Redditor u/Dently stumbled across the mindblowing video uploaded in 2015 and posted it to r/videos. 

“Found this freaky optical illusion while watching a cooking video,” they wrote. “Stare at the center of the brine until the scene changes.”

If you look into the swirling brine before the next shot, you’ll see the turkey’s skin start to spin too. It’s wild. 

Other Redditors found it just as trippy. 

More about Reddit, Optical Illusion, Illusion, Culture, and Web Culture

The super popular robot vacuum by iRobot — the Roomba 960 — is on sale for just $415.99, or $283.01 off its list price on Amazon, with a coupon that will be calculated at checkout. This is the best price we’ve *ever* seen on this item, so you should probably get on that.

Tidying up around the home is tedious enough, but taking on this terrible task on a daily basis will drive anyone bonkers. Thankfully, the iRobot Roomba 960 robot vacuum will take the chore out of doing your chores with its easy-to-schedule cleaning modes that are accessible from your smartphone via Wi-Fi.  

SEE ALSO: All the best Black Friday 2018 sales, right in one place Read more…

More about Home, Roomba, Black Friday, Mashable Shopping, and Shopping Skimlinks

A 16-year-old South Sudanese girl was sold for marriage via Facebook in a disturbing case that’s been described as “reminiscent of latter-day slave markets.”

The winning bid in the auction was for 500 cows, three cars and $10,000, and the girl was married off at a ceremony on Nov. 3 in the country’s Eastern Lakes State, according to Plan International, a humanitarian organisation focused on children’s rights.

“This barbaric use of technology is reminiscent of latter-day slave markets. That a girl could be sold for marriage on the world’s biggest social networking site in this day and age is beyond belief,”  country director of Plan International South Sudan, George Otim, said in a statement.  Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Slavery, Social Media Companies, and Tech

UPDATE: Nov. 21, 2018, 1:05 p.m. AEDT Apple has updated its system status to mark both the App Store and Apple Music as a “resolved issue.” Both platforms seem to be back up and running, after having been experiencing an “issue” from 12:20 p.m. to 12.52 p.m.

Seems like the whole damn internet is down today.

Following outages on Facebook and Instagram earlier on Tuesday, Apple’s App Store is down.

When trying to connect to the App Store, some users were met with a blank screen.

More about Apple, App Store, Tech, Web Culture, and Consumer Tech

Reporting from the steps of 10 Downing Street, one expects to be upstaged by the sudden appearance of the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May.

But one news reporter found his broadcast instead overshadowed by a very patient cat waiting to be let inside the London premises by a police officer.

The moment, which the BBC called “the most British thing you’ll see today,” was caught on Tuesday during a news report from Sky News’ political correspondent Tom Rayner, discussing Brexit and May’s future outside her famous residence. Read more…

More about Uk, Cats, Cat, Culture, and Animals

As many as 13 games available to download in the Google Play Store were actually Android malware and downloaded more than 560,000 times, a security researcher said this week.

The apps, listed as car and truck simulators and racing games, are no longer on the storeTechCrunch reports that an Android security researcher found that the games were just a cover to download malware in the background.

More about Malware, Apps And Software, Google Play Store, Tech, and Big Tech Companies