Category: Tech news

Cute and compact, this crafting machine is a great entry point for new and aspiring artists.

Google has finally decided to clamp down on those intrusive autoplay video ads.

Two psychiatrists offer key changes that social media platforms can make to stop doing harm and start doing good for those who may struggle with their mental health.

We toasted towels and repeatedly touched hot surfaces to find which warmers, if any, are worth your money.

Own Nintendo’s two-in-one console? These are our picks for the best screen protectors, chargers, controllers, and more.

A scientist spent years building a tool to identify coronaviruses that can jump species. Then this winter’s virus emerged—and put his system to the test.

The trials of a self-driving-car salesman.

Navigation screens with augmented reality are the latest in an arms race among upscale auto makers like Mercedes and Cadillac.

In the early days of Facebook, Zuck kept his plans for world domination in handwritten journals. He destroyed them. But a few revealing pages survived.

Antechinus has so much sex over three weeks that males go blind and die, yet it’s climate change that threatens the Australian mammal.

The company debuted a premium folding smartphone with a flexible glass screen. Here’s what it’s like to hold it.

US officials allege that Huawei has backdoors in its technology. The US knows firsthand how powerful those can be.

The virus that causes it is SARS-CoV-2. (We didn’t say they were *good* names.)

Although Netflix received 24 nominations (the most of any studio) at this year’s Oscars, its films only ended up winning two awards.

Laura Dern was named Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Nora, a flashy divorce attorney in “Marriage Story” — the only award that “Marriage Story” won from its six nominations.

And “The Irishman” came up empty-handed despite being nominated in 10 categories. Both films were nominated for Best Director and Best Picture, awards that ultimately went to the night’s big winner “Parasite.”

Netflix’s only other Oscar for the evening was for “American Factory,” which won the award for Best Documentary Feature. The film was the first to emerge from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production deal with Netflix. (Despite rumors to the contrary, the Obamas were not on-hand to accept the award.)

Last year, Netflix’s “Roma” won the awards for cinematography, foreign language film and director. There was some speculation that it might have beaten “Green Book” for Best Picture if it had been released by a traditional studio, but it had other disadvantages. For one thing, a foreign language film had never won the big award — until tonight, when “Parasite” emerged victorious.

And perhaps this would have been the year of “Parasite” regardless; it certainly deserved all the awards. Still, “The Irishman” seemed like Netflix’s biggest swing yet. It was made for a reported budget of $160 million, directed by the legendary Martin Scorsese and brought Al Pacino and Robert De Niro back together on-screen. Maybe next year.

Facebook receives plenty of pointed criticism from numerous corners, for refusing to police political speech on Facebook, its seemingly endless string of privacy breaches, and its apparent coziness of late with the Trump administration.

One of the platform’s most prominent critics, somewhat unexpectedly, has become comic, writer, and actor Sacha Baron Cohen. Indeed, his powerful speech to the Anti-Defamation League in November, characterizing Facebook as the “greatest propaganda machine in history,”  quickly went viral. (We republished it here.)

Baron Cohen isn’t done railing against Zuckerberg, however. Yesterday, he tweeted in frustration, “We don’t let 1 person control the water for 2.5 billion people. We don’t let 1 person control electricity for 2.5 billion people. Why do we let 1 man control the information seen by 2.5 billion people? Facebook needs to be regulated by governments, not ruled by an emperor!

We don’t let 1 person control the water for 2.5 billion people.

We don’t let 1 person control electricity for 2.5 billion people.

Why do we let 1 man control the information seen by 2.5 billion people?

Facebook needs to be regulated by governments, not ruled by an emperor! pic.twitter.com/o4hNRFNpgt

— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) February 5, 2020

Soon after, Tesla founder Elon Musk responded to the morning diatribe, himself tweeting “#DeleteFacebook it’s lame.”

#DeleteFacebook It’s lame

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2020

It was short, sweet, and to the point (and presumably gave Cohen a lift).

One might imagine that Musk, who has always spoken his mind, has been emboldened of late thanks to the skyrocketing value of Tesla. But Musk has long been a critic of Facebook, tweeting in 2018 after deleting his companies’ Facebook pages that he doesn’t “like Facebook. Gives me the willies. Sorry.”

Musk and Zuckerberg have butted heads in the past over the future of artificial intelligence, too, with Musk calling Zuckerberg’s understanding of the future of AI “limited” in 2017.