Category Archives: Blog

Researchers created a new kind of ice that’s flexible enough to curl and uncurl without breaking.

U.C. San Diego engineers created a wearable device that generates electricity when your finger either sweats or presses on it.

You probably have an emergency or first aid kit in your home, and your job (we hope) provides emergency essentials at your workplace, so why wouldn’t you carry some form of aid in your car? It only makes sense considering it’s probably one of the places you spend most of your time (especially if you have to endure traffic).

SEE ALSO: The best thing you can buy for your car this year is one of these devices

No matter how often you use your car, you need an emergency kit. This is not the product you want to keep on your shopping list for weeks. Checking it off as soon as possible can save you some serious trouble.

What exactly should be in a survival kit for your car?

It’s completely up to you to decide just how much you want to keep in your trunk. You can carry the bare minimum or go above and beyond with kits that have certain items you hopefully won’t ever need to touch.

However, these are a few items that you should have no matter what:

• Jumper Cables

• Flares

• Flashlight

• Car escape tool (seatbelt cutter or window breaker)

• Bottled water

• Blanket

• First aid kit

• Spare tire and jack

While those can certainly be lifesavers, you may be wondering if there is anything you can do to actually prevent needing them.

Be sure you bring your car in for regular checkups

You probably know to do this, but don’t skip it. Your mechanic can check things like antifreeze levels, brakes, battery, oil, air filters, and other parts of your vehicle that need to be in top shape in order to try to avoid emergencies in the first place.

And, of course, remember to always do everything in your power to drive safely. No texting, please.

Here are the best survival kits to keep in your car:

Brace yourselves — Samsung’s about to drop a slew of next-generation Galaxy goodies.

The company officially confirmed its next Galaxy Unpacked event is set for August 11 and will be held via livestream at 10 a.m. ET.

As per usual, Samsung has attempted to be cryptic with its invite, but it’s fairly obvious those shapes below represent what’s likely the Galaxy Z Fold 3 (on the left) and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (on the right).

This invite doesn’t leave much to the imagination.
Credit: samsung

There’s plenty more we can glean from rumors, too. According to well-known leaker, Ice Universe, both of Samsung’s upcoming foldable phones will have much stronger glass this time around.

Tweet may have been deleted

While the original Z Flip wasn’t plagued by an influx of reported issues with its display like the first-generation Z Fold was — including peeling screens — it did prove to be easily prone to scratches (as demonstrated on JerryRigEverything’s YouTube video).

Though Samsung certainly redeemed itself last year with a more durable Z Fold 2, stronger glass on a foldable phone is always welcome. But whether it’s the strongest remains to be seen.

As for camera specs, it looks like the Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 will each sport the same triple-camera setup as the Z Fold 2, which includes a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens.

According to XDA Developers, Samsung may also announce an array of pastel-colored Galaxy Buds 2 with active noise cancelation. The first-generation Galaxy Buds launched in 2019 — with the Galaxy Buds Live and Galaxy Buds Pro following since then — so it’s about time for a follow-up to the original version.

One thing we do know for certain: Samsung will unveil a new Galaxy Watch at Unpacked. The company confirmed the news last month, alongside the announcement of its new One Watch UI smartwatch interface.

While Samsung’s only alluded to one smartwatch, it’s possible we could see two debut at the event.

Another well-known leaker, Evan Blass, took to Twitter last week to post two different styles of the unreleased Galaxy Watch. Based on the images below, it looks like Samsung might be announcing the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch Active 4.

Tweet may have been deleted

Of course, we’ll have to wait until August 11 to find out exactly what Samsung has up its sleeve. But based on rumors and leaks, it looks like the company has a lot to unpack next month.

In an attempt to make user’s experience more pleasant, Instagram rolled out the ability to hide like and view counts on all posts in their feed. This way users can focus on the content, rather than the popularity of the content.

This update also gave users the option to hide the like and view counts on their own posts from other users. You can hide the like and view count on a post before you post it or you can do so retroactively.

We will walk you through how to hide Instagram likes on your feed and on your own posts.

How to hide likes on other accounts:

1. Open your Instagram profile

2. Select the three black lines in the upper right corner

Select the three black lines to begin the process of hiding likes on your feed.
Credit: screenshot: instagram

3. Select “Settings”

Tap “Settings” to hide likes on your feed.
Credit: screenshot: instagram

4. Search for posts and select “Posts”

Select “Posts” to hide the likes on your feed.
Credit:

5. Turn on “Hide Like and View Counts”

Turn on “Hide Like and View Counts”
Credit: screenshot: instagram

How to hide likes on your Instagram post before you share it:

1. On the final page before you post your Instagram photo (where you write your caption and tag accounts), scroll down and select “Advanced Settings” in grey.

Select “Advanced Settings” to hide likes on your Instagram post.
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram

2. Turn on “Hide Like and View Counts on This Post”

Tap the white circle to hide like and view counts on your post.
Credit: screenshot: Instagram

How to hide likes on your Instagram post retroactively:

1. Go to the post you want to hide likes on

2. Tap the three gray dots in the right hand corner of the post

3. Select “Hide Like Count”

Select “Hide Like Count” to hide the number of likes on your Instagram post.
Credit: screenshot: Instagram

After hiding like counts beneath a post it will say “liked by one user and others.”

This is your sign to hide likes on your Instagram.

I understand the detrimental effect Instagram has on users globally. The platform is owned by Facebook, a company that famously exploits user data for ad targeting and is doing the same to the roughly 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram.

But if you’re going to steal my data and put democracies across the world at risk, can you at least let me search who has seen my Stories?

I truly believe that you can tell when someone has a new crush because they start posting on their Stories about 10 percent more often. I feel so confident in this because most of my friends tell me they do it. And, usually, they say they want to know if that one new crush is seeing what they are posting. So, they search through their Stories looking for specific people — exes, crushes, enemies. The vast majority of my Instagram followers do this, too, according to a very unscientific poll I took on my Story.

(Every one of my current personal crushes saw the Story, but just three of them responded to the poll. One said they search through who has viewed their Story, and two said they did not. I am still deciding how I feel about this feedback.)

Me, asking my instagram followers (but mostly 1 to 8 hot people) if they manually search through who has seen their Stories.
Credit: Screenshot/Instagram

Personally, when I post an Instagram Story, it is usually for one to eight very specific hot people. One of my Instagram followers told me she searches for people she hates. Another said she searches to ensure that her exes see how hot and successful she is now. A third said he had to stop posing on his Stories altogether, because he could not stop focusing on if a specific hot person had viewed it and it was driving him wild. Many others said they were “healthy and married” and didn’t check who viewed their Story at all.

Personally, when I post an Instagram Story, it is usually for one to eight very specific hot people.

Because you can’t search who viewed your Story, you have to flip through all the normies and family members who saw your thirst trap before you land on the person you were trying to reach to begin with. Sure, sometimes the algorithm shows the people you’re looking for in the three “Seen by” bubbles at the bottom lefthand corner of your Story screen or at the top of your Viewers list, but it’s unreliable.

When you post a Story, you swipe up to see who has viewed it. Names start gathering, and sometimes hot people will be at the top of your list. But, the next time you check, they might be packed in the middle or sidelined to the end. Currently, someone I interned with four years ago and have never spoken to since is at the top of my viewed list, and someone I went to high school with and have never spoken to since is at the bottom. The hot people are all mixed up in the middle.

When you swipe up on your own Story, you can see who has viewed it, but I’ve blurred out my followers here.
Credit: screenshot/instagram

And sliding through the people who have seen it, searching for someone whose number you might not even have saved in your phone yet, is a deeply humiliating experience. If hundreds, or even thousands of people view your Story, it can be daunting to swipe through them all looking for someone specific. Plus, if you have multiple Stories, you have to repeat the process for each.

The main reason I want to know if anyone hot viewed my Story is because, if it’s a thirst trap, I’m posting it for them. I want to know if they saw it and didn’t react to it: a cardinal sin. If you think I look good and don’t tell me, do I really look good? I also want to know if they didn’t see it at all, which is, somehow, also a sin. If someone is trying to date me and they aren’t liking my Instagram posts and Tweets or interacting with my Instagram Stories, I assume they just are not simping over me, which I cannot have. This is flirting in 2021, and Instagram is making it more difficult than it already is.

I have a friend who solves this dilemma by very strategically organizing her Close Friends list, which allows users to post a private Story that only a select few people can view. My friend’s list includes all of her exes, anyone she thinks is hot, people she’s currently dating, and her actual, very close friends. She says if she keeps the list to fewer than 50, it’s easy to search and find them. But I simply cannot commit to this kind of organization: It requires too much work on my part, and I cannot imagine gathering all of my crushes into one category to post for them alone. Something about that feels embarrassing. Plus, my Stories are fun and should be seen by all, not just my crushes.

Social media has changed the way we date. You aren’t running into someone on purpose at their job at the diner circa 1950 — you’re posting a beach pic on your Stories, to let them know you are having fun and looking hot and far too busy to be thinking of them. But when you have to flip through a few hundred people to see if your effort worked, it can feel even more draining than the post itself.

Instagram, we can search through who likes our feed posts. It’s time we stop being forced to manually flip through who has seen our Stories. We’ve earned it.

The Stadia and Luna teams can’t like this news.

Netflix is in the “early stages of further expanding into games,” the company said in a shareholder letter released ahead of its earnings call on Tuesday. There’s no list of titles revealed yet, but the lineup will be “primarily focused on games for mobile devices,” the letter said.

It sounds like Netflix is treating the addition of games to its streaming service as a new product offering for existing subscribers, meaning it’s not going to carry any additional fees — at least at the start. Though, of course, anything that adds value to the overall service can also be used to justify future price hikes.

The letter goes on to note, per The Hollywood Reporter: “We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV. We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games.”

Expect more news to be shared in due time, and likely as soon as the Tuesday investor call. But the announcement comes only days after reports surfaced that Netflix hired Mike Verdu, a former executive at Electronic Arts (and Facebook as well), in a “VP of Game Development” role.

Before former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made it to space, he had to make it to the launch pad.

Bezos and his brother Mark, as well as 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutch passenger Oliver Daeme, piled into a Rivian R1S SUV on Tuesday morning ahead of their flight to space. Later, they would ride a New Shepard rocket from Bezos’ private spaceflight company, Blue Origin.

Pile into the Rivian.
Credit: Screengrab: blue ORIGIN 

Rivian’s first electric truck and SUV aren’t available yet, but Amazon is a big investor in the American EV startup. Like leading a $700 million round of funding big. Rivian is even making electric Amazon delivery vans.

You can spot the Rivian that took the crew to the rocket launch site in Van Horn, Texas, around 48 minutes into the video below.

The electric SUV is a rare sight thanks partly to the pandemic. The Rivian R1T truck was supposed to arrive by the end of this month, followed by the R1S SUV. Now the electric truck isn’t expected until September, and the SUV that Bezos rode in isn’t expected until later in the fall. The truck starts at $73,000, while the SUV is slightly more at $75,500. Both will have more than 300 miles of range.

Amazon’s electric delivery trucks are still on schedule, according to CNBC.

The navigation system can help people check the safety of their surroundings without distracting them, thanks to motion sensors.

Devastating news for all you creeps out there.

PayPal-owned Venmo announced some major changes to its app in a blog post on Monday.

The big news: It is doing away with its global social feed. That’s the tab that lets users scroll through the Venmo transactions of strangers (and click on their profiles, and look at their friends list, and enter a rabbit hole of stalking).

Don’t worry, the friends feed isn’t going anywhere. Venmo is still the best place to self-inflict FOMO and figure out who is hanging out without you. The friends feed also provides plenty of opportunities to peek into strangers’ lives. If your friends’ transactions are public, the feed still shows their exchanges with their friends, who might be total randos to you.

However, there are new privacy controls in place that let users choose whether their friends list can be public, friends only, or private. Users can also choose whether they will appear on other people’s friends list. Venmo made those changes after BuzzFeed News exposed how easy it was to find President Joe Biden’s Venmo account and all of his contacts, including family members.

The changes are a good thing. But Venmo still makes transactions and friends lists public by default, which is something privacy experts find very problematic.

The update began rolling out Monday on iOS and Android. Other changes include a new app design and more prominent integrations with Venmo credit and debit cards and its cryptocurrency marketplace.

Venmo is also rolling out a feature it announced in June that lets users mark if they’re paying for a “good or service” (for example, a haircut from a friend). If they do, and the vendor doesn’t have a business profile, the vendor will have to pay a fee. The idea is to provide insurance for both parties — but not all small businesses and people with side gigs are happy about it.

Related Video: How to not get your social media hacked