Back in March, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security banned electronics on planes coming to the U.S. from eight Middle Eastern and African countries. Now, the ban is expected to be expanded to some European countries, based on reports from Reuters and The Daily Beast.

That would mean electronics bigger than smartphones, like laptops, e-readers, and tablets, wouldn’t be allowed on board and would have to be checked. Airlines like Emirates, Royal Jordanian, Qatar Airways, and others that fly between the U.S. and the eight countries initially included in the ban have been dealing with the new rules for almost two months. Read more…

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She loves fashion and coding. So when prom season came around, she had the perfect idea for a DIY dress.  

Last year, the world was awed by Zac Posen’s light-up Met Gala dress for Claire Danes. Among its fans was 17-year-old Claire Smith, a homeschooled high school senior and budding engineer from Maryland. Smith was inspired by Posen’s dress and decided to try to make her own version.

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The idea that Google, the web’s biggest advertising company, is reportedly preparing to launch an ad blocker sounds absurd on its face. It’s a bit like a jewelry store hiring a ring of diamond thieves or the postal service unleashing a pack of roving neighborhood dogs.

But it’s more understandable when you consider one fundamental truth about ad blocking companies: They don’t exist to block ads — they exist to serve as middlemen between ads and consumers. The biggest ad blockers charge the biggest advertising vendors to let their ads pass through their software. They’re better described as ad filters than ad blockers. Read more…

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It was supposed to be everything a player at one of the nation’s top college rugby programs dreams of — a shot at the national championship. 

But the dream ended in tragedy for University of California sophomore Robert Paylor. He was paralyzed after a hit in the first minutes of a game that Cal went on to win. 

Now an online crowdfunding campaign seeks to raise money for Paylor’s medical treatment, while his teammates and coaches say they won’t leave his side. 

Details about Paylor’s injury and the hit that caused it have not yet been revealed. But his family released a statement offering some information on Tuesday, three days after Saturday’s national title game.  Read more…

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Apple is once again the king of the global smartphone market, even after a dip in iPhone sales.

When Apple released its Q2 2017 earnings report, one of the few points of concern — other than what exactly the company might do with its massive wealth — was the noticeable drop in sales for its signature product.  

Tim Cook & Co. are clearly focused on competing with their own records, because Apple appears to face little challenge from anyone else in the popularity department. A Strategy Analytics research report on global smartphone sales crowned the iPhone the undisputed leader in the market, as Apple absolutely dominated all comers.   Read more…

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Snapchat found more friends and made some money — but far far fewer and far less than analysts had hoped. It’s not good.

How bad? Really bad. Snapchat shares dropped 25 percent after the earnings were first released.

The biggest concern is with user growth. Snapchat needs to get bigger in hopes of one day becoming a platform big enough to command major ad buys. It’s now at 166 million daily active users, but that’s only 5 million more than it had when it filed to go public. Expectations were for more. 

What’s the explanation? Well, Snapchat gave none in writing. Earnings releases usually come with some text explaining what happened and where the company is going. Snap decided to skip that part, as analyst Jan Dawson noted.  Read more…

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Celebrated lifestyle blogger Martha Stewart knows a thing or two about being consistently delightful, and she was kind enough to offer a few tips to someone who does not — the president.

 “[Twitter]’s used by the president so strangely,” she told Buzzfeed. “I don’t think it’s a tool for that kind of information. It was so good for news breaking and for, again, taking the temperature of a conundrum or a challenge or something. I still use it for that.”

Trump’s version of “taking the temperature” is recapping Fox News and broadcasting his own temper tantrums, which Stewart finds incredibly unbecoming. She previously made her feelings towards Trump known on her Instagram account, which has gotten a lot better since her days of posting poorly lit food photos.  Read more…

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Watch out Kanye West—you might be facing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in 2010. 

The former wrestler opened up about being the world’s highest paid actor in the latest issue of GQ, and when asked about any political ambitions, he managed to offer up a glimmer of hope for his fans across the country. 

Everyone from Michael Moore to Washington Post has brought up The Rock running for president of the United States, and in conversation with Caity Weaver for the magazine, he discussed how those conversations have impacted his thoughts about a future campaign.  Read more…

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The Slow Mo Guys threw themselves into potential bodily harm with their newest video, where they explored what 1,000 mousetraps going off would look like in slow motion.

To do this, Gavin and Daniel first had to set up the mousetraps, a task much harder than it sounds (it took four hours). Once that was done, Daniel then dove right into the middle of the mousetrap-covered trampoline.

The slow mo results look epic and very painful. Read more…

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