U.K. starts enforcing online age check rules
A U.K. law requiring that pornography websites verify the age of their users took effect Friday.
Tech News
Astronomer winks at viral notoriety with ‘temporary spokesperson’ Gwyneth Paltrow
After spending the past week-plus in the headlines due to a seemingly inescapable social media scandal, data operations startup Astronomer is trying to shift the narrative with a tongue-in-cheek video starring actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow.
Dating safety app Tea breached, exposing 72,000 user images
Tea, an app that allows women to post anonymous comments about men they’ve supposedly dated, announced Friday that it has suffered a data breach, with hackers gaining access to 72,000 images.
Here are the laptops I’d tell any parent to consider for their back-to-school student
We’re in the heart of summer fun, but it’s already time for back-to-school planning, especially if that involves buying a new laptop. The dizzying number of different laptops and configurations can feel overwhelming, especially if you want something that doesn’t cost too much but will still last a long time. My general guidelines are to […]
Tesla vet says that ‘reviewing real products’ — not mockups — is the key to staying innovative
“No slides was our first rule,” McNeil told the audience earlier this month at TC All Stage in Boston. “You have to be reviewing real product.”
Allianz Life says ‘majority’ of customers’ personal data stolen in cyberattack
Exclusive: Allianz Life said the “majority” of its customers and employees had data stolen in the July cyberattack. The company said it has notified the FBI.
Online MAGA cope is now Congressional strategy
When it comes to defending Donald Trump from the worst accusations, the MAGA influencer-industrial complex, whether out of loyalty or self-preservation, often defaults to whataboutism, arguing that the Democrats are just as guilty as Trump, or (ideally) worse. This principle has held true with the current Jeffrey Epstein saga, and as their audience’s anger against […]
The Drifter is a good old-fashioned thriller
Point-and-click adventure games often tell silly, lighthearted stories. For me, the mishaps of the pirate Guybrush Threepwood in the Monkey Island series come to mind. The nature of the genre – wandering around, talking to people, and trying to solve puzzles – lends itself well to humor, as every interaction with a person or object […]
OnePlus Nord 5 review: selfie-centric midranger
The OnePlus Nord 5 does exactly what the company’s Nord phones have always done: deliver strong specs at a relatively low price. It’s one of the more powerful phones at this price point and should easily outstrip Samsung and Google’s more expensive alternatives. This is a function-over-form phone, one where the key selling points are […]
Inside the struggle to create a cozy Lord of the Rings game
When new employees start at Weta Workshop, they’re herded into a meeting room with a long, unassuming conference table. On the walls, behind panes of glass and in between statues, swords, and masks, are five Oscars. Four of them were awarded to the studio for its efforts on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings […]