Category Archives: Blog

The product can be worn or used to help you out if you need a quick charge. Read more…

More about Tech, Fashion, Mashable Video, Bracelet, and Charger

It’s OK if you missed this in the flood of Apple TV+ original series announcements: Oprah’s Book Club is being reborn on the platform, no doubt bringing with it a new list of culture things you need to catch up on because everybody else is talking about them.

The benevolent multimedia mogul’s lit picks are famously powerful, but the Club itself has been a bit intermittent, with only 10 books selected overall since its 2012 relaunch on her own channel, OWN. The last was Michelle Obama’s blockbuster memoir Becoming in November 2018.

Her latest fave likely wouldn’t have needed her stamp of approval to be a big damn deal, but it sure can’t hurt.  Read more…

More about Oprah Winfrey, Ta Nehisi Coates, Apple Tv, Entertainment, and Science Fiction

Facebook wants to know what you’re going to do before you do it, and the company is well on its way toward making that (admittedly creepy) dream a reality. 

Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s vice president of VR and AR, announced Monday the acquisition of “neural interface platform” CTRL-labs. The stated goal of the acquisition is to build a wristband that “captures your intention” by reading electrical signals sent through your body. 

It’s all in the ostensible name of “empowering you with control over your digital life,” and, coming from a company that has repeatedly misled users regarding matters of privacy and personal data, sounds a tad bit sketchy.  Read more…

More about Facebook, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

After a year of extreme melt, Arctic sea ice ended up dropping to its second-lowest level on record — a mark only surpassed by melting in 2012.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced Monday that the Arctic’s minimum sea ice extent for 2019 — meaning the smallest area of Arctic ocean covered in sea ice before cooler fall temperatures begin to rebuild the ice — was the second-lowest in the 40-year satellite era. This sea ice extent, a clear indication of a rapidly warming planet, was over 2 million square kilometers (811,000 square miles) below the average minimum extent measured in previous decades. Read more…

More about Science, Arctic, Global Warming, Arctic Sea Ice, and Climate Change

Just in time for the U.N. Climate Summit, Sony has some PlayStation news for the planet Earth: The PS5’s energy efficiency will see some exponential improvements.

In a Monday post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan starts by running through improvements made over time with the PS4’s power consumption. He then reveals how those efforts will be taken further with the technically announced PS5.

An improved standby feature (which lets players step away from the console mid-game and come back later) on the console will draw just 0.5 W of juice. That’s a big drop down from the PS4’s standby feature. According to a 2014 report from the National Resources Defense Council, a PS4 in standby mode has a power draw of around 8 W. That number rises a bit if you’re charging controllers as well. Read more…

More about Sony, Un Climate Summit, Playstation 5, Entertainment, and Gaming

Using math, technology, and real-time choreography, Alan Turing and company created a dance routine that showcases the line blending of the real and imaginary worlds. Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Artificial Intelligence, Dance, and Math

Well-curated lists can be incredibly useful, but they’ve always been buried in Twitter’s app.

Now the company is putting lists front and center, with an update that lets you pin specific lists you follow to your main timeline. With the change, which Twitter has been testing since July, you can simply swipe left from your main timeline to see tweets from lists you follow. The update is rolling out now to Twitter’s iOS app and will be “coming soon” to Android.

More about Tech, Twitter, Social Media Companies, Tech, and Social Media Companies

ActivePuzzle takes STEM knowledge, robotics, and a desire for learning and molds them to give its audience a fun way to learn more about robots. Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Stem, Robotics, and Activepuzzle

Looks like AirPods could have some competition from Amazon.  

CNBC reported on Monday that the Jeff Bezos empire is working on wireless earbuds that also act as fitness monitors. Codenamed “Puget,” the earbuds would be Alexa-enabled and most likely priced below $100, according to CNBC. 

Aside from being a cheaper alternative to AirPods, Puget would carve out a niche for itself with fitness-tracking features. The earbuds will reportedly be able to measure calories burned and running distance. 

In addition, CNBC’s report said Amazon is working on a larger Echo speaker with improved audio quality. It’s reasonable to assume these products will be announced at Amazon’s annual hardware event, which is on Wednesday. Amazon used last year’s event to announce a bevy of products like an Alexa-powered microwave, so wireless earbuds wouldn’t be out of place there. Read more…

More about Amazon, Fitness Trackers, Alexa, Wireless Earbuds, and Airpods

This hammy was looking for a snack and ended up eating danger for breakfast.

Twitter user @LeenaSalinas has blessed the digital landscape with the cutest, most determined hamster to possibly ever exist.

The hamster, Cheryl, spots a bowl full of popcorn and wants in on the action. She grabs on to the edge and hangs on for dear life, snagging a single, solitary kernel with her teeth while she dangles over the edge. But the weight of the moment is too much, and poor Cheryl drops a soul-shattering two inches as the clip abruptly ends. Read more…

More about Hamster, Popcorn, Cheryl, Culture, and Web Culture