Places and Things

Keep your eyes peeled for this comet in 2023 Here’s something to look forward to in the new year: 2023 could give us a once-in-a-generation chance to see a new comet grace our skies. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/30/23532397/new-comet-visible-naked-eye-january-february-2023

PSA: the Dark Sky’s iOS app will stop working imminently The time has come: Dark Sky, the (mostly) beloved weather app for iOS is going to stop working on January 1st, according to in-app warnings. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/30/23532275/dark-sky-app-stop-working-january-1st-alternatives

What we bought: The standing desk I chose after researching the hell out of the competition When I started working from home five years ago, my chair was the floor and my desk was a stool. I was allowed to type with two hands when the baby on the floor next to me was napping or otherwise occupied. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/uplift-standing-desk-irl-163028001.html

TikTok 'takes 70%' of donations sent to Syrian refugees via app Video-sharing app TikTok is taking up to 70 per cent of the donations given for displaced Syrian families in refugee camps begging for money on the social media platform, a BBC investigation has found. Continue Reading . . . https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221013-tiktok-takes-70-of-donations-sent-to-syrian-refugees-via-app/

Apple is adding end-to-end encryption to iCloud backups Apple will finally be adding end-to-end encryption to iCloud backups, the company said as part of a major set of security announcements on Wednesday. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/7/23498580/apple-end-to-end-encryption-icloud-backups-advanced-data-protection

Tim Cook and President Biden came to Arizona to announce plans for American-made chips Apple plans to start using processors made in America following the opening of an advanced new chip factory in Phoenix, Arizona. For the plant’s customers, which also includes AMD and NVIDIA, the new facility means a more secure supply of chips and quicker production timelines. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/6/23497417/apple-tsmc-phoenix-fab-plans-biden-amd-nvidia

The first trailer for The Boys spinoff Gen V looks as gory as the original show The first trailer for The Boys spinoff show Gen V shows us that superpowered college students are just as flippantly violent as the grown-up supes from the original series. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/23494022/gen-v-the-boys-amazon-prime-trailer

The Lastpass hack was worse than the company first reported After being hacked for the second time in as many years this August, password manager app Lastpass announced on Thursday the most recent intrusion was much more damaging than initially reported with the attackers having made off with users' password vaults in some cases. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/the-lastpass-hack-was-worse-than-the-company-first-reported-000501559.html

YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket deal is a brilliant move for its subscription future The “pick me! pick me!” bidding war for NFL Sunday Ticket has finally come to an end, and YouTube won big. The company announced a “multi-year” deal that will see it carry Sunday Ticket both standalone (as a YouTube Primetime Channel) and through YouTube TV. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/22/23522535/youtube-nfl-sunday-ticket-bundle-subscriptions

Google is making its internal video-blurring privacy tool open source Google has announced that two of its latest privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), including one that blurs objects in a video, will be provided to anyone for free via open source. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/google-is-making-its-internal-video-blurring-privacy-tool-open-source-150052840.html

Hate speech is soaring on Twitter under Elon Musk, report finds Elon Musk claimed last week that “hate speech impressions” on Twitter were down by one-third since he took over the company. But the total amount of hate speech on the platform has risen during that same time period, according to research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/23489808/elon-musk-twitter-hate-speech-increase-content-moderation