Science, Tech and Gadgets

Australia's 7-Hour 'Flight to Nowhere' Sells Out Instantly As People Lose Their Damn Minds Hoping to Feel Normal Again in the Midst of a Pandemic That's Infected 30 Million and Killed Almost 1 Million Globally But Will We Ever Feel Normal Again and What Even Qualifies As Normal Anymore Australia’s Qantas Airlines will fly a seven-hour “flight to nowhere” that takes off and lands in Sydney, a bizarre idea hinging on the idea that people who have been cooped up during the pandemic would want to just experience air travel, even if their destination is the same airport where they departed. And,…Read more... Go to Source

Federal Judge Blocks USPS Sabotage, Blasts DeJoy's ‘Politically Motivated Attack’ to Rig Election A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction regarding controversial changes at the U.S. Postal Service that have been pushed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump, ahead of the November presidential election.Read more... Go to Source

Why Isn't Close Encounters Considered Steven Spielberg's Ultimate Masterpiece? Because It Kind of Is Many people would agree that Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a straight-up masterpiece. That’s not some wild stretch. And yet, ask those same people what the best Steven Spielberg movies are and there’s a very good chance it barely makes the top five. (Seriously. I ran a poll to check this. It’s true.) To make a…Read more... Go to Source

iOS 14 Bug Will Bork Your Default Mail and Browser Settings With iOS 14 now officially here, it was only a matter of time before we started hearing about the bugs. There are always bugs—some are more inconsequential than others.Read more... Go to Source

RIP Nintendo 3DS One of Nintendo’s most beloved handheld consoles, the 3DS, has been discontinued. Nintendo confirmed in a statement today to Polygon that “manufacturing of the Nintendo 3DS family of systems has ended.” The announcement comes a little over a year after Nintendo said the Switch Lite wasn’t going to replace the 3DS. Read more... Go to Source

So You Bought an Apple Watch. Now, for the Accessories Top Product: AirPods Pro | $199 | AmazonRead more... Go to Source

Tonal, the Latest Company Competing to Upgrade Your Home Gym, Raises Another $110 Million The virtual home fitness start-up Tonal, which folks have already started calling the Peloton of strength training, announced on Thursday that it raised an additional $110 million in its latest round of funding, making it clear that investors are eager to get in on the increasingly crowded digital fitness market. A…Read more... Go to Source

Free Speech Champion Mark Zuckerberg Announces Plan to Censor His Employees Facebook employees have recently been wondering if perhaps Facebook—which lets politicians lie in ads, festers with extremist movements like QAnon, and by design amplifies authoritarian propaganda, misinformation, and hate speech—is actually the bad guy.Read more... Go to Source

Why Scientists Should Use Magic to Study Animal Intelligence Scientists should use magic tricks to better understand animal intelligence and perception, argue a team of researchers in a new paper. The idea makes sense, particularly when humans and animals can be fooled by the same illusion.Read more... Go to Source

Boeing's 'Culture Of Concealment' Led To 737 Max Crashes, Congressional Report Says The deadly crashes of two Boeing 737 Max airliners can be chalked up to a company keeping everyone in the dark and giving Boeing employees the authority of federal regulators who could then be pressured by their company. That’s according to a new report released Wednesday that could lead to big changes in how the…Read more... Go to Source

The Verdict Is In: These Are the Best Non-Stick Pans You Can Buy Online, According to the Experts There’s a bunch of debate on which frying pans are going to give you the best bang for your buck. As a seasoned home cook, I personally can make a meal or two in any pot or pan you give me, but recently, after cooking a couple of duck breasts in my old, off-brand pan I bought maybe seven years ago, I thought I should…Read more... Go to Source

The Sony Xperia 5 II Is a Sleek and Sneakily Sophisticated Little Phone Following a couple years of lackluster releases, Sony’s Xperia phones have sort of flown under the radar—especially in the U.S. where Sony phones are typically only available unlocked and not sold through carriers. But Sony just announced the Xperia 5 II, which looks like a sleek little phone with some surprisingly…Read more... Go to Source

CD Players Are Back From the Dead and Now Work With Airpods According to the Recording Industry Association of America, sales of vinyl records surpassed compact discs for the first time since the ‘80s. What’s more surprising is that people are still actually buying CDs, and if you’re one of the loyal few who refuses to let the medium die, there’s now a portable CD player that…Read more... Go to Source

Aggretsuko Takes on a New Significance in These Extraordinary Times Back in February, Oni Press’ Aggretsuko comic very presciently delved into a plot in which the world was ravaged by the “C-Virus.” It turned those exposed to it into zombie-like creatures, making it impossible for Retsuko and her colleagues to venture into their office safely. While the comic was a sendup of the …Read more... Go to Source

The Roomba i3+ Is a Self-Emptying Robovac That's Practically Affordable Finally! The good robovac stuff in a robot some people can afford. iRobot, maker of roving house helpers Roomba and Braava, today announced the launch of its Roomba i3+, a mid-range vacuum that’ll get features standard of models with a far steeper price tag.Read more... Go to Source

Finally, You Can Use VR to Hide From Jurassic Park's Dinosaurs High on the list of things you’d rather not actually be doing has got to be running around Jurassic Park with a bunch of ferocious, free-roaming dinosaurs. You may, however, may want to emulate the experience from the comfort of your own home. Read more... Go to Source

There's Something Scary for Everyone in These Four New 'Welcome to the Blumhouse' Trailers Blumhouse has four new thrillers coming to Amazon Prime next month and while you’ve already seen a quick tease, now you can dive a bit deeper. If you dare.Read more... Go to Source

Oracle's Bid for TikTok Is Down to the Wire and Also a Huge Mess The Trump administration’s efforts to strong-arm Beijing-based ByteDance into selling its U.S. subsidiary TikTok to an American company are closing in, with enterprise software giant Oracle attempting to get regulators to clear a deal. Unsurprisingly, everyone involved is really making a garbage fire out of it.Read more... Go to Source

Everything Store Becomes Everywhere Store Ready for Amazon to get even more ubiquitous in your day to day life? The e-commerce giant is planning on opening 1,000 to 1,500 small distribution hubs in suburban areas across the country, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, in part spurred by major delays in shipping during the novel coronavirus pandemic.Read more... Go to Source

iPad Who? For Under $200, You Should Buy an Android Tablet Top Product: Amazon Fire HD 10 | $150 | AmazonRead more... Go to Source

Is Mercedes' MBUX a Good In-Car Computer? Spoiler alert: Yeah, sure!Read more... Go to Source

The Oculus Quest 2 Has Finally Realized VR's Promise, and It's Only $300 I tried the Virtual Boy more than 20 years ago and was almost instantly disappointed, but I’ve still dreamed of having a simple, standalone VR headset that could transport me to other worlds at a moment’s notice. And while the original Oculus Quest was a valiant attempt to make that dream come true, I never really…Read more... Go to Source

AirPods, MacBooks, and iPads (Oh My!): Today’s Best Apple Deals Featured Deal: Apple AirPods Pro | $199 | AmazonRead more... Go to Source

Lab-Made Antibodies Show Early Promise for Treating Covid-19 A lab-made antibody treatment has shown encouraging results in preventing hospitalizations from covid-19, at least in some preliminary data. On Tuesday, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced that its experimental antibody treatment was found to reduce the rate of hospitalizations among people with covid-19…Read more... Go to Source

The Violent Fantasy of Kyle Rittenhouse Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teen charged with shooting three protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, gets the fanmail congratulating him on his heroic exploits in juvenile detention, because he is 17 years old. Most stories coming from the Right, which render the kid as a righteous arbiter of justice, bury this fact.…Read more... Go to Source

Uber Safety Driver in Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash Charged With Negligent Homicide The human driver meant to act as a fail-safe for an autonomous Uber car that struck and killed a Tempe, Arizona woman has been charged with neglicgent homicide by local authorities, the Associated Press reports. The 2018 crash was the first recorded case of a pedestrian being killed by a self-driving car. Read more... Go to Source

Garmin's New Smartwatch Is Made for Triathletes, Because We Should All Dream Big Right Now Garmin is the MVP when it comes to GPS-tracking watches made for athletes. Every serious runner in my life swears by their Garmin, despite the fact that you can easily find a cheaper, a more stylish, lifestyle-focused smartwatch with GPS built right in (which was not the case when Garmin first hit the scene). Nope.…Read more... Go to Source

Epson Debuts New Ultra Short-Throw, Android-Powered 4K Projector For film enthusiasts, the pandemic has presented an ongoing question: Should we invest in better at-home entertainment, or does it make sense to hold out for the (presumed) reopening of cinemas? Gadget makers would very much prefer the former, with companies like Samsung and Epson framing the pandemic as good a time…Read more... Go to Source

Data Leak Shows Chinese Firm Compiled Data, Social Media Posts of Millions A Chinese intelligence firm’s database on 2.4 million people—including some 50,000 Americans—was recently leaked, exposing it to researchers.Read more... Go to Source

Moonbase 8 Sees Fred Armisen, Tim Heidecker, and John C. Reilly Hilariously Try to Get to the Moon Getting to the moon is no joke. That is, unless you’re a trio of washed-up has-beens living in the desert trying to prove to NASA that you’re worthy of making the trip.Read more... Go to Source