Category Archives: Blog

This year has been a pretty wild one already, but it just got stranger. 

Kim Kardashian West — like, beauty mogul and reigning queen of reality TV Kim Kardashian West — visited the White House on Wednesday to talk about prison reform with President Donald Trump. 

Trump tweeted this painful photo after the meeting: 

Naturally, the photo quickly became a meme on Twitter, because how were there two reality TV stars in the Oval Office? Read more…

More about Politics, Kim Kardashian, Twitter Reactions, Trump, and Culture

If at first you don’t succeed, maybe try launching a $300 million initial coin offering. 

That appears to be the thinking of headphone manufacturer Monster Products, Inc., which last week filed a statement with the SEC laying out its plans to sell “Monster Money Tokens” in what could charitably be described as a last grasp at relevance. 

Coindesk spotted the SEC filing in question and noted that the company perhaps most famous for losing control of Beats just so happens to have also been “losing money for years.” Monster Products is the same manufacturer that, according to an in-depth Gizmodo report, developed Beats headphones but then signed away the technology rights to Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Read more…

More about Headphones, Cryptocurrency, Initial Coin Offering, Tech, and Other

Curious dogs will get themselves into situations you never could even imagine. 

Take this 5-month-old puppy named Teagan, who managed to get her cute little doofy head stuck in a dryer vent while her owner was out. And by stuck, we mean really stuck.

How you ask? Well, Teagan’s owner explains in the YouTube video description that the little rascal chewed out a portion of the wall and insulation behind the dryer before getting her head stuck. 

After her owner moved the dryer and the outside vent, Teagan’s head was still stuck. So, she ended up rubbing vegetable oil on her, which eventually did the trick, but not before giving her owner one last scare. Read more…

More about Funny, Dogs, Culture, and Animals

Over the weekend, #WhereAreTheChildren became a viral hashtag of horror. 

Initial reports that the federal government “lost” nearly 1,500 immigrant children gave way to outraged tweets, calls to action, and reflections on what it’d be like to have a child torn from your arms.  

While the preliminary coverage reportedly mischaracterized the children’s whereabouts, it quickly drew attention to a new Trump administration policy that separates children from their immigrant parents once they attempt to enter the United States, particularly at the Mexican border. Read more…

More about Kids, Social Good, Immigration, Trump Administration, and Social Good

Another week, another Tesla crashing into a stationary vehicle that just came out of nowhere.

But that’s the thing. The electric car’s semi-autonomous driving assistance feature, known as Autopilot, has this very situation — parked cars seemingly coming out of nowhere — written into the manual. It’s a known limitation of the driver assistance tool.

This week it was a Tesla driver in Laguna Beach, Calif., that hit a parked police car. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt (and no one was in the police vehicle), but it was another ding for Tesla’s Autopilot reputation. It keeps crashing.  Read more…

More about Tesla, Autopilot, Self Driving Cars, Semi Autonomous, and Tech

Weather is one of our big obsessions here at Mashable (just take a look at our Science page if you don’t believe us). We’ve covered everything from incoming tornadoes in the midwest that contribute to climate change to our favorite cloud types (seriously). We even coined the phrase “bomb cyclone” to describe the storm that brought some epic snowfall back in January. Yup, we love the weather as much as we do Marvel movies and iPhones. 

If you’re as obsessed with forecasts and weather warnings as we are, then a weather station should be high up on your shopping list. (Or if you know someone who loves all things weather and science, then a weather station could make a great gift for them.) Read more…

More about Weather, Weather Station, Mashable Shopping, Shopping List, and Shopping Amazon

Roseanne may be canceled, but Netflix wants you to fill the void (is it even a void?) with better content immediately. The streaming platform hosts plenty of non-problematic family comedies, starting with One Day at a Time, which it recommended in a tweet indirectly throwing shade at Roseanne.

More about Entertainment, Television, Netflix, Abc, and One Day At A Time

Sure, they’re small, but that doesn’t mean earbuds are a purchase to be taken lightly.

You’ve probably been listening to music on the go since you were about 12. So you know that finding a good pair of earbuds is actually pretty tricky. (I’ve gone through more in my lifetime than I can count.) 

And while picking up a $5 pair in the checkout line is easy enough, you know you’ll just be back again next month (or sooner) for a new pair because they stopped working.

Does that mean all earbuds are crap? No way. It’s simply not true that bass, noise cancellation, and crisp sound can only be found in fancy over-ear headphones. Some of us prefer our headphones to be a little more inconspicuous and portable. Read more…

More about Earbuds, Wireless Earbuds, Noise Cancelling, Mashable Shopping, and Shopping List

Internet security is an important issue for all of us. It’s easy to be complacent and assume that it’ll never happen to you — you’re too sensible and secure with your data after all, right? But keeping your computer secure from various threats online is no longer just about avoiding clicking on the “wrong” link, and utilizing common sense. Nor is it just about protecting yourself from viruses.

It’s worth it to invest in software like Norton or McAfee — two of our top picks — that can help keep your computer secure.

What threats are out there?

Zero-day vulnerabilities are one key way of suffering a breach of your information before anyone even knows an issue is there. Effectively, they’re software flaws or bugs often found by cyber criminals, before many companies realize what’s happened. Due to their popularity, commonly used software like Java, Adobe’s PDF reader and Flash Player are ripe for exploitation with many zero-day attacks stemming from the popular plug-ins. Read more…

More about Mashable Shopping, Shopping List, Shopping Ziffdavis, Tech, and Cybersecurity

Surprise, surprise, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is NOT a fan of Facebook and its incessant copying of Snapchat. 

But what is a little surprising is the usually reserved CEO just threw some serious shade at Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg over its handling of users’ data privacy.

Speaking at Recode’s Code conference Tuesday, Spiegel was asked how he felt about Facebook’s continued copying of Snapchat, he said, “We’d really appreciate it if they copied our data protection policies as well.” 

Ouch.

The remark, was of course, a reference to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and others that have rocked Facebook as users have become aware that the behemoth social network hasn’t always done a very good job at protecting its users data.   Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, and Snap Inc