Nerdly News Curated from Interesting Sites
What happens to gadgets when you’re done with them? Too often, they explode.
As we enter new gadget-buying season, spare a moment to meet the people who end up handling your old stuff. Isauro Flores-Hernandez, who takes apart used smartphones and tablets for a living, keeps thick gloves, metal…
Harry Pokrandt spent the last year scouring the Earth for real estate with two main characteristics. He needed cold weather, to keep his computer servers cool, and cheap electricity, to keep them running 24 hours a day. Pokrandts company, Hive Blockchain Technologies, filled up a Cold War-era…
Your iPhone will soon be able to share your location data automatically if you ever have to call 911, Apple Inc. announced Monday.
The feature is designed to give first responders faster and more accurate information, helping to reduce the time it takes for emergency services to arrive. According…
When the electric scooters descended on Santa Monica in September, the city wasnt prepared.
Overnight, it was inundated with motorized two-wheelers. People began riding them in the middle of the street and on sidewalks at speeds of up to 15 mph, often without helmets. Theyre parked against storefronts…
Apple Inc. introduced features to help iPhone users put down their phones at least temporarily after facing criticism that people were addicted to the companys flagship device and following competitors similar moves to fight smartphone addiction.
The slew of tools includes updates to do…
If you’ve ever wondered exactly what sorts of things Facebook would like you not to do on its service, you’re in luck. For the first time, the social network is publishing detailed guidelines to what does and doesn’t belong on its service 27 pages worth of them, in fact.
So please don’t make…
Anyone who has spent time on the internet has come across something that confounds them a blog post that doesnt seem to make any sense, a rant that goes off the rails, a YouTube video so strange its hard to tell if the person behind it is sincere or creating performance art.
Often, this content…
Three years ago when Facebook Messengers users opened the app on an Android device, they were greeted by an adorable cartoon yeti. It was shown texting a big pink heart. Below it, a prompt read: Text anyone in your phone.
The design seemed innocuous friendly, even. Customers were given two…
Apple Inc. is adding the ability to use a digital pencil to draw and write on its cheapest iPad model in an attempt to make the tablet more compelling for creating, teaching and learning.
The tech giants pencil previously worked only on its more expensive iPad Pro line.
The company unveiled its…
If youre a die-hard fan of a Facebook video creator, the social network may soon give you a way to pay for exclusive content and award you with a digital badge to declare your fandom.
Those are some of the new ideas Facebook is introducing in the coming months to test ways to build up its creator…
With each comment, like and share, users provide Facebook with a deeply personal window into their lives.
The result of that voluntary behavior? Advertisers looking to finely target their pitches can glean someones hobbies, what they like to eat and even what makes them happy or sad propelling…
Redheads and curly-haired people, the Unicode Consortium has heard your pleas.
Those are just a couple of the 77 new characters approved to be added to Unicode’s next emoji update 157 new characters if you count the variations in skin tones.
Bald people and people with white hair are the other…
You browse a store online for an item but dont make a purchase. Then advertisements begin appearing on websites and apps you visit, reminding you of that item.
These are called reminder ads, and Google says it will now allow anyone to mute them on any apps or sites that partner with it.
Reminder…
Apple Inc. is finally ready to launch its attempt to compete with the internet-connected speakers made by Amazon and Google with the release of its long-awaited HomePod.
Pre-orders for the HomePod will begin Friday in the U.S, Britain and Australia, two weeks before the speaker goes on sale in…
New television sets are coming with an alphabet soup of features designed to get you to spend more.
There’s OLED and 4K, with a dash of HDR. How about QLED and QDEF? Samsung, LG and other TV manufacturers are showcasing new models at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas this week all with acronyms…
Roku Inc., which makes devices for streaming internet video on television sets, announced Wednesday that it plans to develop a voice assistant and let manufacturers create Roku-connected speakers, stepping up its competition with tech giants Apple, Google and Amazon.
Owners of Roku TVs and players…
Every year one or two breakout technologies capture the imagination of consumers. Eighteen months ago, it was Pokémon Go, the first augmented reality mobile app to really catch fire. A few years before that, it was 3-D printers.
Last year, it clearly was digital assistants Amazon Echo, Google…
When Liesl Bettencourt of Pleasanton, Calif., turned 50 recently, she decided it was time to get into shape. She signed up with Habit, an Oakland start-up that offers personalized nutrition recommendations, coaching and meals. And as soon as Habit sent her an initiation kit, she got nervous.
The…
Every week, dozens of people walk into Petal and Wax, a Marina del Rey gift store, to return items they bought from online retailers.
They bring in blouses from Eloquii, shorts from Chubbies and bags from Everlane.
Instead of telling them to buzz off, Evelyn Taplin, who runs Petal and Wax, gladly…
Facebook will let you know when someone posts a photo of you even if you aren’t tagged in it becoming the latest tech giant to add more facial recognition technology to users’ everyday lives.
The new feature, which Facebook frames as a control measure for a user’s image, is one of three new…