Something I never thought would be reality in 2021: graphics cards being so desirable that people are stealing them. That is exactly what happened last week though. Thieves made off with a whole truckload of EVGA RTX 30-Series graphics cards. The graphic cards were in transit from San Francisco to EVGA’s southern California distribution center at the time of the theft, and it remains unclear how many cards were affected. The Verge There is the chip shortage affecting everything lately. Another constraint are the groups mining crypto with these cards. However, it is crazy to think that people are resorting…
Amazon, a company worth $1.75 TRILLION, uses normal people to deliver goods from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. Amazon calls their program Amazon Flex. It’s a near-identical setup to DoorDash and Uber Eats jobs. Normal people use an app for “gig work” and deliver stuff using their own vehicles. Earlier this month Amazon settled a lawsuit with the FTC about pocketing the tips of Flex drivers. Earlier this year, the FTC sued Amazon for withholding tips in its Flex program between the years 2016 and 2019. Amazon continued to collect portions of the drivers’ tips up until the government filed…
An funny thing happened on the way to getting Pixel 6 phones out the door: Google has no inventory. The phone, which was announced only a couple weeks ago, seems difficult to obtain depending on the color, capacity, and carrier. When visiting Google’s store for the Pixel 6, you need to choose the normal or Pro model. Afterward you can go down the decision tree of carrier, capacity, and color of the Pixel 6 you want. Depending on what phone you choose, Google will tell you if there’s a waitlist you can join. As of this writing, it’s the Pro…
A sort-of curveball announcement from Netflix (if you didn’t hear about their upcoming plans) is the launch of their new gaming service. Yes, Netflix who is known for streaming movies and TV shows, will now stream video games. Now don’t be confused with this launch. It is not a competitor to anything Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft are doing. This is a direct assault targeted at the likes of Apple’s Arcade and Amazon’s Prime Gaming. The games shown are more mobile-style than something you would see on a console. This is not stuff you’d want on your Xbox. Netflix’s gaming service…
Nintendo’s big Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct in October announced that two big updates would happen. The first being general updates to the game would bring it to version 2.0. This is to be the final update to the game. Version 2.0 brings a LOT of things like the fan-demanded Brewster’s Roost cafe, island ordnances, a shopping plaza on Harv’s Island, and more. The full list is here on IGN. This update to bring the game to an official 2.0 version and Nintendo has added a bunch things. Nintendo stated this would be the final update to Animal Crossing: New…
It’s hard to believe, but The Verge is celebrating 10 years this week. They’re posting a bunch of retrospectives that are great reads. One of them takes the cake. In “The Worst Gadgets We’ve Ever Touched” they lambast tech that should’ve been great but fell short in the worst ways. Notable entries include the awful Red Hydrogen phone, Ouya, and Apple’s butterfly keyboard debacle. Apple inflicted the butterfly keyboard on millions of customers for years, giving it the dubious distinction of causing the most tangible badness of anything we’ve ever reviewed. Some products on the Verge’s list are obvious while…
Two things I never expected to find entertaining when put together are Microsoft Excel and TikTok. Those are two diametrically opposed things. One is fun and has whimsy, while the other is a Chinese-owned social network that’s basically overtaken Facebook Meta. I kid, I kid. In actuality, Excel can be a wondrous tool in the hands of someone who knows even 25% of its power. I’ve seen colleagues work their magic on a spreadsheet in seconds simply because they knew a certain formula or function. Enter Kat Norton, an Excel guru that Quartz has profiled. Norton found herself in similar…
On Wednesday Apple released version 15.1 of Safari. This is momentous because it finally puts the tab disaster officially in the past. Since WWDC back in June, people have been adamant that Apple does not need to mess with Safari’s tabs. But Apple did, stuck with the design, and even shipped it out as full release-worthy software. The revolt didn’t stop. With this update, the Tabs section in Safari’s Preferences now offers a “Separate” option. This is the classic style we all know and is the most usable. I’m happy, everyone else using Safari should be happy, and Apple will…
“Win an iPad!” the flyer said. Quite the prize and one that immediately enticed my kids to read on. In only a few paragraphs it was evident what was being proposed to school-aged children: they draw and design something that can go onto a t-shirt and in exchange the winner is given an iPad. I immediately said ‘no’. “But, why?” the confused voices asked me. The answer, or devil as they say, is in the details Because this ‘contest’ was like many. One where the ability to easily take ownership of others’ ideas is common and the idea of paying…
Origin stories are a roll of the dice. They’re usually movies we never ask for. Some are innovative. Some are completely unnecessary. Today Disney released the trailer for Lightyear, an origin story for Buzz Lightyear. I was instantly skeptical, especially after reading that Buzz would not be voiced by Tim Allen. Then I watched the trailer. Chris Evans, from the tiny dialogue we get, sounds good as Buzz. Even further, I like the darker look of the film. It seems like it may be more gritty, which would add some nice color to the character. Lastly I think this can…
Lost in the bonanza of home buying was this fact: Zillow itself was buying homes. The speculation was the company did this to resell homes at a higher value, thus manipulating house values. This would benefit the listings it shows on its website. As the market has cooled in the past months, Zillow decided to pump the brakes on their hair-brained scheme. But due to a shortage of labor and supplies, Zillow can’t meet current demands to close, renovate, and resell the homes fast enough. CEO Jeremy Wacksman said the temporary pause on purchasing of new homes will allow Zillow to focus…
One of the silliest accessories Apple ever released were the iPod Socks. For $29 you could get a set of six socks for your iPod. It was weird but a fun accessory. I bought and still own my set (minus my green one which went missing) that came out in 2004. In today’s modern time, NativeUnion has gone ahead and released “beanies” for your AirPods. Our latest product is a tribute to one of the creations that’ve inspired our teams and the 10th anniversary of the visionary Steve Jobs’ passing. But more so, it’s just a fun way for us…
Interesting that a constant flow of crisis’ leads to “solutions” such as this: Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of…
Well, I stand corrected. Days after lamenting the fact that MagSafe accessories for the iPhone are a mess, Anker went ahead and dropped no less than SIX MagSafe products in a family called MagGo. Anker gives each item an arbitrary number (Anker 613 or Anker 610) instead of a name. This makes it difficult to refer to them individually. The gist of the rollout are three desktop chargers, one MagSafe battery pack with a built in kickstand, a Magsafe ring (ala PopSocket) and a car mount. The 623 and 637 desktop chargers seem nice, but nothing to write home about.…
Last year with the iPhone 12, Apple announced MagSafe. The idea was simple: the back of an iPhone is now magnetic and you could attach accessories easily. Need to change accessories? Swapping one would take only a few seconds. Apple rolled out a charging puck and a wallet. As someone who purchased an iPhone 12, I was excited to see what other companies would release in the coming months. Disappointment was abound when the reviews for Belkin’s Car Vent Mount Pro started rolling in. At a $40 price point I was not about to drop down the cash for something…
The year is 2021. We don’t have flying cars. We barely have cars that drive themselves. No hoverboards either. And one thing we definitely don’t have are printers that don’t suck. It is beyond absurd how much of a racket printer companies are these days. It’s so bad that Joanna Stern’s review of printers is more of the best of the worst. Because all printers are the worst. Now we get even more news of the absurdity of printers, courtesy of BleepingComputer.com: While using his Pixma MG6320 printer from Canon, the plaintiff was surprised to discover that the “all-in-one” machine…
If there was a perfect example of news that hit the TimeMachiner trifecta (Tech, Culture, and Nostalgia) it’s this. Last week Nokia announced they’re bringing back one of their most iconic cell phones: the 6310. This candy bar style phone was one you saw everywhere in the early aughts. It was durable as hell, had great battery life, polyphonic ringtones!!, and was a great size to fit in a pocket. More from the DailyMail: There will be ‘subtle changes’ to mark the passing of 20 years of technological evolution, including bigger buttons and a zoomed in menu for ease of…
After September’s annual Apple event for the iPhone and iPad, the focus turned to October and what usually is a Mac update event. Apple was true to form with the announcement for their “Unleashed” event. The rumors up to this point were bumped up a MacBook Pro that would finally see the 16″ model get its M1 conversion. Sure enough, Apple delivered some massive updates to their hardware lineup. Apple unveiled the M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs. With this update Apple has taken one of the best reviewed chips and kicked it up a hundred notches. We knew a…
The concept of shopping for groceries online to have them delivered to your house is a great one. In theory. You shop like you’re buying anything else and hours later someone shows up at your door with the delivery. The problem: the people doing the work are getting paid table scraps. Lured by the idea of “setting your own schedule” and “being your own boss”, people who do this gig work are learning they are at the mercy of the algorithms put in place to determine pay. Shoppers for Instacart have had enough. 13,000 workers went on strike for Saturday…
It’s the top of the 5th inning and the NY Mets have a runner on first. I’m sitting with three of my closest friends at Yankee Stadium, enjoying a crisp summer evening when suddenly it hits me: I didn’t check the price of a single stock I owned. Did it close higher today? Did it sink a few points and I should consider buying more? There’s only one thing to do. I pull out my Nokia 3310 and dial the number for TellMe. A computerized system picks up, I ask for the stock quote and get the answer seconds later.…
Recently there was a fantastic segment by David Pogue for CBS Sunday Morning wherein he goes over the current supply chain problems. It’s been a royal pain in the ass to find certain products and yet we hear reports of container ships waiting outside ports for days to unload all their cargo. It all comes down to one thing: trucks. With all the technology and efficiency implemented over the years there’s a single fact that holds true: we are overly-dependent on trucks and truckers to move all these goods to and fro. The oxygen the supply chain requires is a…
It seems Rockstar is busy remastering some of their best work. They’re focusing on a pinnacle of early-aughts gaming: Grand Theft Auto III and the immediate follow-ups Vice City and San Andreas. Rockstar took a weird game most didn’t know about (GTA I & II) and mixed it up into one of the biggest games of 2001. Now, these three games are heading to Nintendo Switch among other platforms. Rockstar Games has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas are each getting HD remasters. They’ll be released in a package called Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy…
Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, has worked wonders with resurrecting the browser out of obscurity. They left it to whither on the vine for years while Chrome took over the space. They got their act together in 2016 with Firefox Quantum, making it a kickass browser and once again a viable alternative to Chrome. Mozilla has always been a non-profit. They make money by taking cash from Google by making Google the default search. Apple does the same thing with Safari. This isn’t a big deal. However, reporting from HowtoGeek shows Mozilla has now gone a step further by placing…
Variety reports Scarlett Johansson and Disney have settled their lawsuit wherein Johansson claimed she was not being paid properly. The suit began with Black Widow’s simultaneous release on Disney+ and theaters. Johansson had accused Disney of reneging on its promise to do a traditional theatrical release for “Black Widow,” in favor of a simultaneous release on Disney Plus. The suit alleged that Johansson lost out on tens of millions of dollars in box office bonuses. Variety This lawsuit was an omission to September 2nd’s Longform article wherein I talked about theatrical releases and Day One streaming of the same movie.…
I don’t even know where to start. First I was skeptical. Then I was hopeful. I was warned. I let my MacBook Pro update anyway. And now I have to live with it: Safari 15. For those unaware, Apple unveiled an entire overhaul to Safari back in June during their developers conference. I talked about how drastic this was on the iPhone because with each beta update, Apple seemed to walk back the changes. When iOS 15 launched a few weeks ago, the only real changes to Safari were these three: the address bar was at the bottom, you could…
You’ve heard about it. Maybe you’ve watched it. But one fact is clear: you cannot escape seeing some acknowledgement about Ted Lasso. The show that has finally given Apple a bonafide hit for its Apple TV+ service is everywhere. It received 20 Emmy nominations and took home seven of those. What is it about a goofy guy coaching soccer, knowing nothing about the sport, we find so appealing? I think part of why this show sticks the landing is the state of the world. We’re still dealing with COVID and all the ripples affecting our lives. Just how Tiger King…
“What do we do now?” Those were the final words uttered by a character in the final scene of the final episode, The Seer, of the final season of the 90’s sci-fi adventure show Sliders. The fate of humanity was in another character’s hands. He’d leaped through an interdimensional vortex and left his friends behind. The Seer’s cliffhanger would never be resolved. Those people, called “sliders”, would remain on their version of Earth forever. This ending was the result of a risky gambit by the producers to force a sixth season. They had failed, leaving fans disappointed. However, all was…
Amazon dropped a deluge of new tech and among them is the cool-looking Echo Show 15. It’s a framed display that mounts to the wall and shows you information you may find relevant. You can see to-do lists, a calendar, or even smart home controls. It’ll also recognize people via its camera and play music with its Alexa integration. But, you can’t fully customize it. Because Amazon loves selling you crap. Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to utilize the whole display with your own preferred items if you wanted to create a smart home dashboard, for example. Half the screen…
Huge news coming from the Hollywood Reporter regarding the Doctor Who universe. The BBC has announced that Russell T. Davies, Who’s show runner for the first few seasons, is returning to the role after 12 years. Russell T. Davies — who was instrumental in helping revive Doctor Who in 2005, ending a 16-year hiatus on TV screens — is set to make a sensational return to the BBC’s cult sci-fi series. The acclaimed and multi-award-winning TV creator behind shows such as Queer as Folk and, more recently, Years and Years, A Very English Scandal and It’s a Sin was unveiled…
Rolled into all of Monday’s iOS updates was this unannounced Apple Card security feature: rolling CVN (3-digit) codes for Apple Card. When enabled, Advanced Fraud Protection will cause the three digit security code used for making purchases online to change every so often, which protects you if your card details are compromised by an online merchant. Apple says that the feature will not impact recurring purchases and subscriptions. MacRumors CVN codes are those 3-digit numbers on the back of your card. It’s a fraud-deterrent in place to avoid charges without access to the physical card. That has not stopped fraudulent…