Category Archives: Blog

Betty White, the legendary Golden Girls actor and comedian, passed away on New Year’s Eve at the age of 99. Today, Jan. 17, would have marked her 100th birthday.

Marking the date, fans took to social media to pay tribute to White, sharing messages and images and taking part in the #BettyWhiteChallenge to raise money for animals in honour of her advocacy work. Cincinnati Zoo named a penguin in honour of her Golden Girls character, and Monterey Bay Aquarium named a giving program after her.

Google, meanwhile, had its own tribute — an Easter egg for anyone typing the actor’s name into the search bar.

Credit: Google

Typing “Betty White” into Google prompts animated rose petals to fall from the top of the screen, before the message “Thank you for being a friend” appears at the bottom.

“Thank You For Being A Friend,” recorded by Andrew Gold, is the theme song for The Golden Girls.

White played Rose Nylund, one of four characters sharing a house in Miami, for seven years from 1985 to 1992. The role won her an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series.

Fans and friends have been remembering White in an outpouring of online grief and stories.

The prospect of a four-day working week sounds like the stuff of fantasy. But, a new pilot of a four-day working week is launching in the UK for six months with no loss of pay for participating employees.

Taking place from June to December 2022, the trial is being run by researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College, and Oxford University, not-for-profit organisation 4 Day Week Global, UK think tank Autonomy, and the 4 Day Week UK Campaign. 30 UK-based businesses are expected to participate and companies can apply to take part in the pilot should they wish to.

Joe O’Connor, pilot programme manager for 4 Day Week Global, said more and more businesses are moving to “productivity focused strategies” in an aim to reduce employees’ hours without cutting their pay. “The four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are “at work,” to a sharper focus on the output being produced. 2022 will be the year that heralds in this bold new future of work,” he continued.

You’ll have likely heard a lot of chatter about four-day work weeks. In 2021, Iceland published results from its years-long trial of a shorter work week. From 2015 to 2019, the country ran the world’s largest trial of a shorter working week and — yep, you guessed it — the results showed that participants ended up happier, healthier, and more productive. In 2019, Microsoft Japan trialled a four-day week and found it boosted productivity by nearly 40 percent. The dream of the four-day week is now becoming a reality for many companies around the world. Panasonic recently introduced an optional four-day work week for employees.

Canon’s UK arm is one of six businesses already signed up in the scheme. Ken Sutherland, the president of Canon Medical Research Europe, said, “We recognise that working patterns and the focus we all give to our work-life balance has changed substantially during the pandemic. As a responsive employer we are always looking at how we can adapt our working practices to ensure that employees find their time with us is meaningful, fulfilling and productive. For this reason, we’re keen to pilot a four-day week to see if it can work for us.”

In September, it was reported that Scotland would be trialling a four-day work week, drawing on similar trials in Iceland and New Zealand.

Figures show a strong level of support for the shorter working week. Researchers for financial firm Jefferies asked young Americans aged 22 to 35 if they would support a four-day week, with 80 percent of respondents saying yes.

The prospect of three-day weekends all year round sounds pretty enticing. Fingers crossed the UK-wide trial goes well.

Love or hate it, Valentine’s Day is the ideal time to put right the gift-giving wrongs of Christmas. Hey, we’ve all faltered over the festive season.

Were you sure your husband would love that faux-vintage, Bluetooth-compatible turntable, only to find out later that what he really wanted was a Lego set? Did you misinterpret his months of hint-dropping about a football shirt, only to find he was actually after a copy of FIFA 22?

Besides being an opportunity to fulfil leftover festive wishes, Valentine’s Day is also a great time to make your partner feel both loved and understood. After all, nailing the perfect gift means not only showing that you’ve been listening, but that you’re really reading between the lines. The best gifts are often items the recipient wouldn’t necessarily buy for themselves, or even better — things they didn’t know they wanted in the first place.

Obviously, it’s harder to shop for someone who’s always buying exactly what they want, the moment the urge strikes. Is there anything worse than eagerly rushing to buy him the latest trainers, then seeing your husband happily walk in with the same pair on the very next day?

Luckily, we’ve come up with a list of gift ideas that even the most compulsive shoppers might not have considered. Some are luxe versions of everyday items, while others are pure recreation. We’ve also included stuff at a range of price points, because you don’t need to break the bank to get your husband the perfect Valentine’s Day gift. And hey, if some of these things benefit you too, what’s the harm in that? Relationships are all about sharing, after all.

These are the best Valentine’s Day gifts for your husband in 2022.

Speedrunning is one hell of an artform, but one gamer just took their skills to a new level.

On Sunday, during this year’s Awesome Games Done Quick, the gaming speedrunning event that raises money for charity, speedrunner Mr. Game completed the notoriously difficult Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in just two hours while blindfolded.

The event itself raised over $3.4 million for Prevent Cancer, a U.S. nonprofit dedicated to cancer prevention and early detection, with Mr. Game’s run alone raising £133,463 ($182,600), per NME.

Before the run, Mr. Game demonstrates the legitimacy of the blindfold on camera. Then, over the next two hours and 35 seconds, he uses audio cues and his long hours of meticulous training to complete the game.

The run starts at 1:41 in the video above, and here’s one highlight, a mini boss fight with the Blazing Bull:

Tweet may have been deleted

There’s a whole bunch of impressive speedruns from the event on Games Done Quick’s YouTube channel, if you want more where that came from.

Want more?

• How ‘Sonic 2’ speedrunners turned ‘gotta go fast’ into an art form

• A ‘Super Mario Bros.’ speedrunning history captures the fight for human perfection

• After 15 years, this ‘GoldenEye 007’ speedrunning record has been broken

TL;DR: As of Jan. 17, you can take 36% off the O’Yeet NEX Pro Massage Gun and get it for $229.99 instead of $359.

If your resolution for 2022 is to rev up your workout routine, you’re probably going to have some sore days ahead of you. Instead of working out through the pain or taking a break right after you’ve begun, get targeted muscle relief with a massage gun.

With this O’Yeet Nex Pro Massage Gun, you can get powerful percussive massages at any time from the comfort of your own home, car, or even the gym. That means you can whip it out before a workout to help relieve any lingering muscle pain, or after you finish a workout to help prevent stiffness and soreness.

The NEX Pro Massage Gun allows for deep tissue muscle recovery by delivering the force of 60 pounds. The pulsation speeds reach up to 3,400RPM to deliver a powerful massage. It even reaches 30 percent deeper into muscles than your typical massage gun — which is pretty impressive considering it fits in the palm of your hand. It weighs just 1.2 pounds and is just 6.5 inches long. It’s no wonder why it successfully received funding on Indiegogo.

With four different speeds and eight detachable massage heads, you can use this massage gun all over your body for targeted relief. The massage strength ranges from 1,600 all the way up to 3,500 RPMs, so you can curate a personalized massage suited to your needs. Even better, a full charge will deliver up to 240 minutes of sustained run time. So, you can toss it in your gym bag and enjoy custom massages on the go for quite a whilef without needing an outlet.

Normally the O’Yeet Nex Pro massage gun retails for $359, but for a limited time, you can get it on sale for just $229.99. That’s 36% in savings.

Prices subject to change.

TL;DR: As of Jan. 17, this 2-Pack of WiFi Booster Repeater Signal Amplifiers is on sale for $55.24 with the code JAN15. That’s 30% off its regular price of $79.

You’re working from home. Your spouse is splitting time at home and the office. Your kids are doing their school work from home out of an abundance of caution. And the result is a slow, spotty WiFi connection.

When your entire household relies on your internet connection, you need to make sure it’s up to the task. You don’t want the WiFi to cut out during an important meeting or lecture, or to continuously find yourself in a dead zone as you work in different rooms in your house for a change of scenery.

With the WiFi Booster Repeater Signal Amplifier from UGR, you can blanket your entire home in WiFi, so the signal will be strong wherever you decide to work. Compatible with any 802.11/b/g/n/a wireless internet router, this booster uses cutting-edge software to enhance your internet’s signal by up to 300mbps. You’ll get two amplifiers to place and position wherever the signal tends to drop.

Just press the repeater’s WPS button, press the router’s WPS button, and place it in your desired location. It connects to your existing network via ethernet then broadcasts a wireless signal, ensuring you, your spouse, and your kiddos can get your work done without issue. You’ll be able to test different areas to find what location works best. Not only will your signal be boosted, but you’ll get an extra-long range of 2,640 square feet. You’ll never have to deal with dropped Zoom calls, slow upload speeds, or randomly missing a Slack message again.

With millions shifting to a life of working at home at least part-time, it’s essential to have WiFi that can keep up. Add this two-pack of WiFi Boosters from UGR to your home to ensure the whole household is covered. It’s usually $79, but when you enter the code JAN15 at checkout during our January Sale, you can get it for just $55.24.

Prices subject to change.

Another day, another online platform turning on sex workers.

Linktree, a popular social media link service, is removing sex workers and other adult content creators from its site, according to a new report from Motherboard. According to Linktree, the company is only blocking users who post links to IRL sexual encounters and other services.

“Per our company’s policies, the Linktree accounts banned stemmed from sharing a URL which violated Community Standards by sharing advertisements for the sale of real-life sexual services,” said a Linktree spokesperson in response to Motherboard.

If you’re a heavy user of social media platforms like Instagram, you’re likely quite familiar with Linktree. The service is one of the most popular “link in bio” or “bio link” services around. Linktree and similar services provide users with the tools to create a simple landing page that lists all of their social media accounts as well as other links. 

By curating all these destinations onto one page, services like Linktree often became the default choice for many social media users who are only allowed one URL in their social media bios.

“Link in bio” services became especially popular on Instagram, specifically, due to the limitation on adding links to a users’ posts. Influencers will often tell their followers to check out products or services they’re promoting by checking out their “link in bio,” which often is a users’ Linktree link.

These bio link services are also popular with sex workers. Instagram does not allow links to sexually explicit material. Services like Linktree provide a workaround.

According to affected parties who spoke to Motherboard, users received no warning from Linktree before logging into their accounts and finding they were banned. Sex workers paying for Linktree’s premium service found that they were, in fact, still being charged regardless of the ban.

The report points out that Linktree already prohibited “sexually explicit material” in its terms of service. However, these terms aren’t clear on whether linking out to such “material” hosted on a third-party platform is prohibited as well. (Judging by these latest events, this is prohibited as well.)

FOSTA/SESTA laws have made it much more difficult for sex workers to make a living. In addition, it’s become routine for new and upstart online services to turn a blind eye to sex workers when they need these users’ help in growing their platforms … only for these same services to give sex workers the boot when they’re big enough that they don’t need them anymore, as we saw with OnlyFans in 2021.

Podcaster Joe Rogan is once again causing problems for the company that pays him $100 million: Spotify.

Last week, 270 doctors, scientists, and professors published an open letter to the audio streaming giant demanding that the company create an official policy around misinformation. The letter, which was first reported by Rolling Stone, focused on Rogan’s popular show, the Joe Rogan Experience, which has been a source of misinformation surrounding COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.

“We are a coalition of scientists, medical professionals, professors, and science communicators spanning a wide range of fields such as microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, and neuroscience and we are calling on Spotify to take action against the mass-misinformation events which continue to occur on its platform,” reads the letter.

“With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,” it continues. ” Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform.”

An epidemiologist at University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, Katrine Wallace, even went further in her own comments to Rolling Stone, saying she considers Rogan to be “a menace to public health.”

The letter focuses on Rogan’s Dec. 31 episode with Dr. Robert Malone, who claims to be the “inventor” of mRNA vaccine technology. The episode went viral on social media after Dr. Malone claimed “mass formation psychosis,” what he claims means when society goes “barking mad,” was to blame for the response to the pandemic.

Experts have debunked this “mass formation psychosis” claim.

“In episode #1757, Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, who was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19,” reads the letter. “Dr. Malone used the JRE platform to further promote numerous baseless claims, including several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and an unfounded theory that societal leaders have “hypnotized” the public. Many of these statements have already been discredited.”

The open letter continues to mention other examples of Rogan’s COVID misinformation. During an April 2021 episode of the podcast, for example, Rogan claimed that young, healthy people shouldn’t prioritize getting the COVID-19 vaccine and called vaccinating children “crazy to me.”

In response to the letter, Rogan’s fans attempted to signal boost their own praise for the podcaster in an attempt to drown out the criticism.

Tweet may have been deleted

“We would be in very serious trouble right now without Joe Rogan and Spotify’s courage,” read a tweet from podcaster and frequent Joe Rogan Experience guest, Bret Weinstein. “Let’s make #ThanksJoeRogan and #ThankYouSpotify trend. Don’t cut and paste. And consider doing them in separate tweets. Let’s let’em know we appreciate them.”

Spotify has had to deal with controversy thanks to Rogan before. Employees of the company concerned with Rogan’s content have pushed for more editorial control over the podcaster, whose program airs exclusively on Spotify thanks to a $100 million deal. The company has previously removed dozens of episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience from its platform due to content issues.

“Spotify prohibits content on the platform which promotes dangerous false, deceptive, or misleading content about COVID-19 that may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health,” Spotify said in a prior comment given to The Verge in April 2021. “When content that violates this standard is identified it is removed from the platform.”

Since the episode went live, Rogan’s interview with Dr. Malone has been removed from YouTube in accordance with the platform’s policies on COVID misinformation. Dr. Malone has also personally been suspended from Twitter due to its own COVID misinformation rules.

The episode, however, remains live on Spotify. The company did not respond to an email from Mashable seeking comment

Wordle is the daily, browser-only word game we can’t get enough of, so it’s not surprising that Wordle copycats have been sprouting up in the App Store. Those copycats aren’t the first to use that name, however. Developer Steven Cravotta actually used “wordle” first — five years ago. Now, he’s using his app’s surprise popularity to help others.

Cravotta built his Wordle when he was 18, as he wrote in a Twitter thread explaining the coincidence. He stopped promoting and updating it months later, after topping 100,000 downloads, because it hadn’t taken off. In the four years since, the app averaged merely one or two downloads per week — until last week.

“I logged into my dashboard and was SHOOK at what I saw,” he said.

Tweet may have been deleted

Cravotta first assumed bots were behind the spike, but then googled to find out about the current Wordle craze. Now, Cravotta’s Wordle has gotten 200,000 downloads in the last week and it’s “not even slowing down yet,” he said.

The developer, whose current app Puff Count helps users quit vaping, reached out to Wordle founder Josh Wardle the two agreed to donate proceeds to Boost! West Oakland, a children’s tutoring and mentoring program in the San Francisco-adjacent city.

Tweet may have been deleted

“Very excited to support such an amazing program that focuses on literacy for youth,” Cravotta said on Twitter. “We feel the money will make a real impact here!”

By now, most internet users know the usual scams to look out for:

Phishing emails trying to steal your account logins, misspelled URLs attempting to access your bank accounts, fake online storefronts charging you for products they never intend to send. Well, it’s time to be on the lookout for yet another growing scam: fake QR codes.

What’s a QR code? You’ve likely seen them as their use has skyrocketed during the pandemic. Many restaurants have started using QR codes to replace physical, germ-spreading menus. QR codes are those little square barcodes that take you directly to a website or app when you scan them with your smartphone camera.

QR codes seem like they were made to deter phishing. There’s no need to type in a link and accidentally misspell it, which could result in the user being sent to a scam website meant to mimic the actual legitimate site they meant to visit. Just scan the QR code and you’ll go right to the real website you intended to go to.

However, as with most new and growing technologies, scammers have found a way to weaponize QR codes too.

In December, QR codes started popping up on public parking meters in San Antonio, Texas. Simply pull out your phone, scan the familiar barcode, and pay for your parking spot. Quick and simple, right? Not so. When the San Antonio Police Department was notified, they alerted the public: It was a scam. 

Fraudsters had actually placed their own QR codes on public parking meters across the city. Drivers who used them to pay the meters were actually sending their money or sensitive financial account information to the scammers. As Ars Technica points out, other major cities in Texas, such as Austin and Houston, have reported similar parking meter grifts.

QR codes still make up just a small fraction of the scams proliferating across the web. However, the Better Business Bureau has experienced a noticeable enough uptick on its scam tracker to put out its own “scam alert” on QR codes last year. The technology has become accessible enough where anyone can make their own QR codes now.

So, what should you do to avoid or mitigate risk?

Treat QR codes you come across you just as you would any other email you receive or link that gets text messaged to you. All the QR code is doing is directing you to a link, whether that be a login screen or a payment form, for example. Double check the source of the QR code and the URL the QR code forwards you to just as you would when you receive an email with a link inside.

If something feels off about a page that the QR code directs you to, type out the URL yourself if you know it. These links are accessible without the barcode. Be on the lookout for advertisements and public notices that are tampered with too. A fraudster can easily stick their own QR code over a legitimate one on a poster or flyer you come across offline.

Even the most publicized online scams are still tricking people. Lets nip this in the bud and try to minimize the harm caused by QR code scams before they blow up.