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ReviewsDesktopsThis Raspberry Pi-Powered Keyboard Is a Delight
Fans of DIY computing love the Raspberry Pi. This single-board computer has gone through multiple iterations and is now almost as powerful as some cheaper desktop machines. But one thing always stood in the way when it came to getting a RaspPi up and running: you had to bring your own monitor, keyboard, and mouse … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityRansomware Hackers Helpfully Take Out Facebook Ads to Remind Victims to Pay
The Campari Group recently experienced a ransomware attack that allegedly shut down the company’s servers. The malware, created by the RagnarLocker gang, essentially locked corporate servers and allowed the hackers to exfiltrate “2 terabytes” of data, according to the hackers. On Nov. 6, the company wrote, “at this stage, we cannot completely exclude that some … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsWest Virginia Man Arrested for Making a ‘Wall Hook’ That Could Turn an AR-15 Into an Illegal Machine Gun
A West Virginia man named Timothy Watson was arrested last week for allegedly selling a 3D-printed wall hook that, when disassembled, was actually a “drop-in auto sear,” a small piece of plastic that could turn the popular AR-15 rifle into an illegal machine gun. The product, still available at the excitingly-named portablewallhanger.com, consists of two … Continued
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Tech NewsA Contentious App Ban Could Open Up Apple’s Walled Garden
A new iOS app called iSH could pave the way for more powerful programming features on iPad and iPhones—provided Apple lets it stay on the App Store. On Oct. 22, three programmers named Theodore Dubois, Saagar Jha, and Martin Persson uploaded an open-source app that essentially ran a copy of Alpine Linux inside of an … Continued
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Tech NewsCrimeThe DOJ Seized Over a Billion Dollars From Silk Road’s Bitcoin Coffers
A $1 billion transaction that flowed out of a dormant bitcoin wallet allegedly belonging to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht made waves in the crypto world this week, causing some to suspect the founder himself was making moves from prison. No such luck, however: It was the Department of Justice seizing the dark market’s gains … Continued
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Tech NewsToy Maker Mattel Admits to Suffering a Ransomware Attack
Mattel, the maker of Barbie, Fisher-Price, and Hot Wheels toys, admitted that it suffered a ransomware attack on June 28, 2020. According to a 10-Qform filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said the attack “caused data on a number of systems to be encrypted.” “Promptly upon detection of the attack, Mattel … Continued
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ReviewsThis iPhone-Powered Stompbox Will Add Up to Five Effects to Your Attempts at Guitar Playing
Digital music pedals are nothing new – there have been a number of attempts at making something as good or better than the analog pedals musicians have been using for most of the last century. The Chaos Audio Stratus is trying to pick up the rock baton, as it were, with its all-digital effects pedal … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsYou Owe It To Yourself to 3D Print the Tongue Brush
Acid rain. International terrorism. Freeway killers. Now, more than ever, it is important to remember the true impacts of technology. It is important to realize that you, dear reader, have the power to 3D print your own tongue brush. Originally inspired by the work of Simone Giertz, Queen of Shitty Robots, this project uses a … Continued
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Tech NewsThe SEC Just Made Crowdfunding Way More Interesting for Small Startups
Tech funding usually happens in one of two ways. In one scenario, a software or service product— think Twitter — usually sells equity to venture capitalists who expect some kind of return on their investment. Hardware products usually go the crowdfunding route, building up a list of pre-orders that they can then use to pay … Continued
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Tech NewsA Broken 3D Printer Inspired This Futuristic Fabric
3D printers usually work by extruding long strings of molten plastic onto a surface. When MIT Media Lab researchers spotted a broken printer squirting out plastic erratically, they had an idea: By programming a normal home 3D printer, they could simulate that erratic extrusion and create a sort of light, flexible lace out of hot … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityScammers Are Pretending They Saw You Naked on Zoom
In an era of Jeffrey Toobin and always-on webcams, scammers have launched a new grift that involves claiming that they have access to your naked Zoom videos. Trust me: They don’t. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to convince you otherwise. Documented by antispam researchers at Bitdefender, the scam email begins innocuously enough: “Hello. … Continued
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Tech NewsPoliticsHackers Deface Trump’s Campaign Website
Cryptocurrency-loving hackers partially defaced the Trump campaign website for about 30 minutes today. The hackers complained of the president’s tendency to spread fake news and asked visitors to send cryptocurrency to one of two anonymous addresses. The site appeared to mock the way the FBI seizes illegal sites online, replacing the donaldjtrump.com/about with a blank … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsThis App Turns Designs Into Working Code
Creating apps from prototypes is a huge problem. Dragging boxes around a screen and picking fonts is hard enough. Then, once the designer is done, a coder has to plug all of that in to a back end. A new app called Anima aims to solve that problem by turning designs imported from popular apps … Continued
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ReviewsOther GadgetsThe Freewrite Traveler Is Beautiful Distraction-Free Writing That Won’t Finish Your Novel For You
If you’re a certain type of writer, you’ll probably think you’ll use the Freewrite Traveler every day. The entire package is alluring: it’s a portable, e-ink-powered typewriter that sends your documents to an email box instantly and is completely distraction-free. Imagine how much writing you’ll get done! No Twitter, no Facebook, no endless doom-scrolling. Just … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryPhysicists 3D Print a Boat That Could Sail Down a Human Hair
Researchers at Leiden University have 3D printed the smallest boat in the world: a 30-micrometer copy of Benchy the tug boat, a well-known 3D printer test object. This boat is so small, it could float down the interior of a human hair. The 3D-printed boat is part of an exploration of microswimmers, microscopic organisms or … Continued
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Tech NewsArtificial IntelligenceClipDrop Is Copy and Paste for the Real World
When the idea behind ClipDrop first appeared a few months ago, it seemed like magic: You could point the app at any object and then clip it out its background, creating a standalone image of anything from a plant to a coffee mug. It’s basically like copy and paste, but for anything. The app is … Continued
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Tech NewsInternetDon’t Cry for Quibi
A former boss of mine, someone who worked at a legacy cable TV channel that starts with F and ends with “-ox News,” first told me about Quibi last February. “It’s bite-sized video. It’s run by Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg! It raised a few billion!” If she was so excited about it, why hadn’t … Continued
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Tech NewsWhat Your Favorite iPod Says About You
In honor of the launch of the original scroll wheel iPod on Oct. 23, 2001, let’s look back on some notable iPod models and what they say about you as an early tech consumer. Every iPod tells a story, and some of the stories they told were pretty darn rough. Rip. Mix. Burn.
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Tech NewsPayPal’s Big Crypto Move Is All Hype
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are a fun way to skirt money-laundering lawsand pay for drugs, but, according to reporting by Reuters, it appears you’ll now be able to use it to pay for Beanie Babies and fake Rolexes. That’s right: PayPal is getting into the crypto game. The breathless reporting by Reuters and other sites claims … Continued
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Tech NewsBitcoin Mixer Designed to Bypass Money Laundering Laws Fined $60 Million for Bypassing Money Laundering Laws
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has assessed a civil penalty of $60 million from Larry Dean Harmon, the founder of “bitcoin mixers” Helix and Coin Ninja. The penalty is the first of its kind in the United States. FinCEN claimed that Harmon “willfully violated the BSA’s registration, program, and reporting requirements by failing to … Continued
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